Last Updated 3 years ago
The word for BCAA Supplement is getting viral in the fitness world, and rightfully so.
BCAAs can help you in building more muscles, tone them and protect them through an intense workout, while they can help you also with balancing your hormones, replenishing your energy and burning fat much easier.
Very impressive, you might think. But what exactly are BCAAs, and how can they help you in your struggle of burning fat without losing lean muscle?
What are BCAAs?
BCAAs stands for Branched Chain Amino Acids, a group of three essential amino acids: Isoleucine, Leukine, and Valine.
These three amino acids are called essential because they cannot be produced by our organism and their intake through food is essential for our existence. There are 6 more essential amino acids, comprising with BCAAs a total group of 9 essential amino acids.
BCAAs represent about 35% of all essential amino acids in our bodies and around 15% of those found in our muscles. BCAAs, like all amino acids, are often characterized as the building blocks of protein.
BCAAs can be found in food rich in protein, such as meat, poultry, fish, beans, soy, etc.
How do BCAAs Work Into Our Bodies?
Despite most amino acids are dissolved in the liver, BCAAs are broken down in muscle tissues. Scientists believe this might be the reason behind the BCAAs’ role in energy production during workout sessions.
However, there is definitely more than meets the eye with BCAAs, and this is the reason for multiple recent studies focusing on their effects on the human body.
For example, a study revealed that postsurgical patients showed improved immunity when given BCAAs and concluded that BCAAs are essential to lymphocyte responsiveness and other immune cell functions.
Other studies focused on the positive effects of Branched Chain Amino Acids on Brain Function and central fatigue, with very promising findings.
One thing is for sure, we are only scratching the surface of the BCAAs value for the human body.
But let’s cut to the chase, let science alone, and focus on what we already know about BCAAs and how they can help us reach our fitness goals.
Top Ways BCAAs Supplements Can Help you Get in Shape
Backing up your Muscles
If you are on a strict diet, trying to lose weight, it is almost inevitable not to lose muscle mass as well. Why is this happening?
When on diet, our body gets a shock alarm, understanding the fast as a dangerous period for our survival. That is why the metabolism usually gets locked, our weight loss reaches a plateau and our organism “shuts down” its fat stores, determined to use the fat as the last resort. And what’s the first to pay for this whole situation? Muscle tissues.
In fact, around 30% of the weight you lose when on diet comes from the muscles!
BCAAs come to the rescue of the muscles because in two ways:
Firstly, they stimulate muscle protein synthesis, and help your body repair and grow muscle tissue damaged from exercise.
Secondly, a BCAA supplement can reduce the catabolism rate, the process of dissolving muscle tissue for producing energy.
Helping you Building more Muscle Mass
If your fitness goal includes gaining muscle, BCAAs supplements can help you in this direction, too!
As mentioned above, BCAAs stimulate muscle tissue synthesis. Protein powder, another great helper to this cause, does an excellent job, but BCAAs can give an extra boost to reach your goals faster.
Research has shown that BCAAs activate enzymes which in turn favour muscle building, while BCAAs supplements with a higher proportion in leucine than valine and isoleucine are most effective for increasing muscle mass.
Remember though, to gain muscles you must eat in a slight caloric surplus and follow a strength fitness program with fewer cardio exercises. No supplement will do the entire work for you.
Helping you Burn Fat Easier
As already stated, BCAAs help you retain a balance through a caloric deficient diet, and not sacrifice lean muscle for the sake of weight loss.
This is very important for your well-being. Maintaining your lean muscle and energy levels high means you will be stronger and more willing to continue your fitness program and diet.
As a result, your metabolism will eventually unlock and you will start burning fat. And the stronger you get, the more fat you lose.
To put it simply, BCAAs don’t help you burn fat directly or -to be more precise- no study yet shows the direct effects of BCAAs in weight loss, but BCAAs have been proved to help in the burning fat process indirectly.
Balancing your Hormones During and After Exercise
Balancing hormones is a BCAAs benefit often overlooked or underestimated, yet it has great value for someone on a diet and a strict fitness program.
Estrogen, testosterone, and cortisol are hormones produced by both sexes and they can affect energy, lean tissue development, and fat storage.
Cortisol in particular, or the stress hormone, helps in controlling blood sugar levels, regulating metabolism, better mental clarity and reducing inflammation. Still, at extremely high levels it can have devastating effects, such as rapid gain weight and depression.
During intense workouts, our levels of the aforementioned hormones change drastically, and a hormonal imbalance could result in junk food cravings, low energy and motivation, and water retention.
Do the symptoms sound familiar? Now you know why this is happening to you.
BCAAs have shown to have a balancing effect on the above hormones, another indirect way they help you with your fitness goals.
Fueling your Workouts with extra Energy
Leucine deals with building muscles and converting to ATP, which is more or less some sort of fuel for the muscles, while the other two of the group, Valine and Isoleucine are ready to convert into glucose for an extra energy boost.
BCAAs bypass digestion and enter directly into the bloodstream. Hence, they can be used immediately as a source of energy during intense workout sessions.
And, as we already mentioned, BCAAs supplementation reduces fatigue, a foe to our energy levels, while it improves our stamina and endurance.
In a nutshell, BCAAs give us fuel to stay energized and motivated for our fitness routine.
Reducing the Workout’s Damage – and Soreness – to your Muscles
Muscle soreness after the first few – or more – workout sessions, could be a serious obstacle to your consistency with your fitness routine.
Intake of BCAAs supplementation during or after the workout can help you deal with this problem, as BCAAs help you reduce muscle damage and accelerate the recovery process.
What is more, post-workout BCAA drinks provoke an insulin response, which in turn drives the amino acids directly to the cells where they can begin repairing the muscle tissues.
Less soreness means more exercises, and more exercises means less fat!
Why Use BCAAs Supplements and not Stick to a BCAAs Rich Diet Instead?
It is true that BCAA intake can be done through the consumption of foods rich in proteins.
In fact, some foods rich in BCAAs are the following:
- Red and White Meat: 3 – 4.5 grams per 84 grams
- Lentils and Beans: 2 grams per cup
- Tofu: about 2 grams max per 84 grams
- 1 Large egg: 1.3 grams
- Pumpkin Seeds: 1 gram per 28 grams
- 1 cup of Quinoa: 1 gram
Our everyday needs of these essential amino acids, which cannot be produced by our body, are easily reached with a balanced diet.
Yet, we cannot overlook the advantages of BCAAs supplementation.
Firstly, you need more time to schedule and follow a balanced diet, let alone the time you need to cook and prepare the food portions you will need.
Buying BCAAs supplement makes it a much easier, and you rest assure your body has the good stuff it needs.
Secondly, in supplement form, BCAAs are absorbed rapidly through the bloodstream, avoiding the digestive system. That can prove lifesaving when you need to help your muscles recover quickly after a workout.
Recommended Dosage Instructions
An average intake of 5 – 12 grams daily is sufficient for most people, while more active people and athletes can have up to 20 grams of BCAAs per day, through supplements and diet.
10 grams of BCAAs contain about 40 kcal only, so there is no risk of gaining weight.
BCAAs Cautions
If you have made up your mind on buying a BCAAs supplement, you must be alert in choosing the right supplement, in accordance with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and with ethical ingredients.
Have in mind that in today’s Money Making Society, some supplement companies are willing to cut costs by using unethical and dangerous for our health ingredients such as duck feathers, pig fur, artificial additives, colours, and sweeteners.
Opt for a plant-based BCAA free of herbicides, soy, gluten and, of course, pesticides and get ready to hit the gym!
Bottom Line
BCAAs supplements are a powerful tool for maintaining muscle tissue, building muscles, improving your health in various aspects, and, indirectly yet effectively, for losing weight!