BCAAs: What They Are And If You Really Need To Supplement With Them
You see it all the time, people with gallon jugs of branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). Then do you notice that immediately after you’re told how crucial it is to make sure you get them in all day every day, you’re served with their discount code for it? I’m not saying that BCAAs don’t have their time and place, but a lot less so than you’re being made to believe.
Branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) are essential nutrients and proteins, primarily found within muscle tissues to aid in growth and repair. The branched chain amino acids are considered essential since they are not produced by the body. Therefore, they must be received through food and/or supplementation. There are a number of benefits from having adequate amounts of BCAAs in your system, but it’s not as necessary to supplement with if you have enough protein in your diet.
Throughout this article, we’ll cover what BCAAs are, what they do, and if you need to supplement with them as much as people promote you should. There’s a lot of information out there, especially the kind that sounds good in order to make an extra sale. Continue reading to see if amino acids are something you might need a little more of or not.
What They Are and How They Work
Overall, there are 20 different types of amino acids that are responsible for making up thousands of proteins throughout our bodies. Out of the 20, there are 9 that are essential, meaning that they are not produced by the body and must be obtained through diet and/or supplementation. And out of those 9, 3 are considered branched chain amino acids. The term “branched-chain” refers to the type of chemical makeup.
The 3 essential branched-chain amino acids are: valine, leucine, and isoleucine. In typical supplementation, you may find more leucine than the other two, resulting in a 2:1:1 ratio. This is due to the fact that leucine has shown to have a greater effect on enhancing protein synthesis and reducing the breakdown of muscle proteins.
Essentially, BCAAs help improve energy as well as increase protein synthesis while reducing muscle breakdown and fatigue. Increasing energy helps with gaining muscle and improving performance because you can push for longer periods of time. When your body has more to work with and is less depleted after a high intensity workout, then your overall recovery will be better. Working out is the “easy” part, everything outside of the gym is where the magic happens.
Benefits
With any athlete, high performer, or daily gym warrior trying to increase his or her gains, getting every extra benefit to expedite our goals becomes a top priority. When you are fueled with enough BCAAs, your body is able to perform at a better level:
- Increase muscle growth: It has been shown that (depending on size of the individual) taking a dose of ~2–3g of leucine helped stimulate muscle protein synthesis, resulting in better growth of lean muscle mass.
- Source of energy: BCAAs can help fuel the body when glycogen has been depleted. This is what can help push your body a little longer in a performance, because it still has some “backup” energy if you will even when it no longer has its go-to source.
- Reduce muscle damage and soreness: When supplementing before and after exercise, research has shown to reduce the severity and length of muscle soreness and damage.
Amount of BCAAs to Consume Daily
With the irrefutable evidence that consuming branched-chain amino acids can be beneficial, the next question becomes how much you should have per day.
It appears that someone may see benefits with supplementing with anywhere from 10g — 20g of BCAAs daily, split into multiple doses. If you are very active, then the higher end might be for you. As with any supplements, you should do some research and potentially even blood work to see if you need to supplement at all.
In terms of the total amount of BCAAs that the body needs daily, a good rule of thumb is to have about 90mg/lb of body weight, or 200mg/kg of body weight.
Now, depending on your diet, you may need less, if none extra at all, but we will get into consuming your amino acids via your diet in the next section.
Foods Containing BCAA’s
As mentioned above, there are a handful of benefits to ensuring you have adequate amounts of the proper amino acids in your body. However, maintaining a quality daily protein intake can also help make sure you’re consuming enough BCAAs to achieve your desired results.
Below is a list of common foods and their associated amount of BCAAs per serving:
Food
Serving Size
Amount of BCAAs
Chicken breast
3.5oz // 100g
5.9g
Ground beef
3.5oz // 100g
6.8g
Eggs
2 eggs
3.3g
Greek yogurt
½ cup // 50g
2g
Canned tuna
3.5oz // 100g
5.2g
Whey protein powder
1 scoop
5.5g
As you can see, there are good amounts of amino acids in some of the most common, everyday foods. If you have a good amount of protein in your diet, chances are you’re getting the essential amino acids that your body needs.
Potential Negative Side Effects
Although the chances of having a bad reaction to BCAA’s is minimal, too much of anything isn’t going to end up being a good thing.
There are a few signs that might tell you you’re overdoing it on the BCAA supplements:
It’s unclear what determines an “unsafe” amount of amino acids, but you should stop supplementing immediately if you experience any of the above side effects or if something just doesn’t feel right with your body.
Do You Really Need to Supplement With Them?
All in all, it’s probably not necessary to go out and buy BCAA powder or pills. If you have a good amount of protein daily, then chances are you’re probably covered in terms of having enough essential amino acids in your diet, particularly the branched-chain ones.
Even though the average person probably doesn’t need them, there are a few cases where they could be helpful:
- High performing athlete: If you are an athlete that is focused on performance and doing bouts of high intensity workouts, maybe even multiple times per day, then supplementing with BCAAs might give you a noticeable boost. However, this is assuming everything else like diet and sleep is on point as well.
- Low protein diet: Maybe you are trying out different diets, or just a little too low on protein, but this is another case where supplementation would be useful.
- Early morning workout: If you’re someone who likes to work out real early in the morning and like a little something in your stomach, then using BCAAs instead of trying to eat a whole meal might be more appealing.
Final Thoughts
To wrap things up, I personally don’t think most people need to supplement with BCAAs. Sure, there are a few cases where they could be helpful and a convenience, but seeing people drink a gallon or more of them daily is just excessive. Especially when their diets are chalk full of enough protein.
If you do bloodwork and see you are deficient, or need them on the rare occasion or strictly for performance, then it is understandable. Outside of those things, I would say you’re fine without more supplementation and should make sure the fundamental things are nailed down first.
