SS 175 – Are BCAAs Worth Your Money?

SS 175 – Are BCAAs Worth Your Money?

Episode 175 Show Notes

Grant and Heavey discuss BCAAs – what they are, their effects, and whether BCAA supplementation is actually effective or not. Do you really need to take isolated BCAAs? Or would a simple whey protein supplementation be better (and cheaper)? Listen in to find out.

 

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[02:28] What are BCAAs?

 

One of the most popular supplements you see in the gym are BCAAs. People drink this in a multitude of flavors and are usually the bright, colorful liquid seen in gyms across the country.

 

BCAAs, stand for Branched-Chain Amino Acids. Proteins consist of amino acids and BCAAs are three specific, essential amino acids. Amino acids are classified into essential and nonessential.

 

Essential amino acids are the ones we can only get from our diet. The three essential ones that make up the BCAAs are leucine, isoleucine, and valine. These are the special group that gets put into the supplement, becoming of the most popular supplements out there.

 

[04:40] Isolated BCAA Product vs. Whey Protein

 

Heavey explains that one thing people don’t appreciate is when they take other protein supplements, many protein sources actually contain BCAAs. The whey protein, the most popular protein supplement people take contains BCAAs.

 

A standard whey product probably has roughly one-third of it containing BCAAs. You have to be aware that when you’re taking a BCAA product, it’s an isolated branched amino acids. But when you take your whey protein, it contains those BCAAs as well as other amino acids. This means, there is a much lower concentration compared to a BCAA product that contains 100% BCAAs whereas whey protein may only have one-third.

 

[06:00] A Not-So-Fair Comparison

 

Some argue that isolated BCAAs are more beneficial because they’re not protein-bound and can be more quickly absorbed. Protein is a combination of these amino acids that are bound,, and your body has to break them down before you can absorb them.

 

Most of the studies on BCAAs look at groups showing huge benefit to the group that consumes BCAAs. However if you take a closer look at the research, they’re comparing the BCAA group to a group that is consuming a much lower levels of proteins throughout the day.

 

There could be groups consuming less than the RDA which is a very low amount of protein. Then, they compare this to another group that will consume more protein and BCAAs on top of that and show these people have better outcomes. This is not really a fair comparison.

 

[07:18] Leucine and Muscle Protein Synthesis

 

BCAAs make up about a third of these essential amino acids in our muscle proteins that make up the gains we get in the gym. Leucine, in particular, has been shown to promote muscle protein synthesis, which is one of the branched-chain amino acids.

 

If you look at your label on most BCAAs, they’ll show the proportion that they have those three different amino acids. You might notice there is more leucine because of this beneficial effect that has been shown to have on muscle protein synthesis.

 

[08:00] A Change in Self-Belief

 

Heavey highly questions the effect of isolated BCAAs supplementation. Heavey has found no research to date, that has shown that isolated BCAA is anymore effective. In fact, it seems to be less effective than supplementing with complete proteins such as whey.

 

Heavey and Nicole used to actually recommend BCAA supplementation. As they continued to educate themselves, they began to form different opinions. Speaking for himself, Heavey has been reading these scientific studies to get to the closest thing he got to the truth. He found that his once-held self-beliefs to a certain degree actually have no facts behind them.

 

There’s this negative connotation to changing your mind and this is probably influenced by politics because people get labeled as a flip-flopper because they change their opinion or stance on something, but this is counter to the scientific approach. Anybody that has spent time in science will openly and happily change their mind on something when the evidence presents itself. With all this being said, Heavey hopes his opinions continue to change because it means he’s continuing to learn, grow, and improve.

 

Grant points out that this is exactly why they’re able to do as many episodes as they could for three or four years now and more, because there’s no end to learning.

 

[13:00] Save Yourself Money and the Complexity of Supplementation

 

Saving money is a good point here since the whey protein supplement is considerably cheaper than isolated BCAAs. Heavey found one study where they compared a group of people that consumed 25 grams of whey. They found that the outcomes were much more effective for that group that only took whey than another group that consumed 6.25 grams of whey, but then added the equivalent leucine to the group that was consuming 25 grams.

 

Heavey isn’t saying not to consume protein as a supplement because protein is one of the most researched and highly valuable supplements you can take. However, BCAAs are probably not worth it for you.

 

Grants adds that it’s not only even the money factor here, but also all those other complex stuff that go into managing supplements.

 

[14:37] BCAAs and DOMS

 

Heavey also found this study that looked at the effect of BCAAs on DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), which is the soreness you feel after your workout. The study found that the group that supplemented with BCAAs had a reduction in DOMS about 24-48 hours after the exercise.

 

There were some issues with the study though. They didn’t control for diet in either of the groups – the control group and the group that had the BCAAs. Plus, there are a lot of BCAA sources in foods. Therefore, this may have skewed the results to some degree.

Nevertheless, there’s some considerable research done on the effect of whey protein on DOMS. In the end, they found no connection whatsoever. There was no reduction in DOMS when you consume whey protein. Yet, this one study found that BCAAs helped in reducing DOMS. However, Heavey wouldn’t really recommend BCAA supplementation based on this one study alone. There needs to be more research on this area.

 

[16:15] Be Careful What You Read!

 

Grant adds that there are other things that go into having muscle soreness issues that you can’t really contribute it to just one thing. Heavey notes that this is something you should be aware of whenever you come across articles that says BCAAs cure muscle soreness because that’s how things get skewed. You have to understand that science is really complex and it’s not the about the results from any one study ever. It’s about having one study and another study building on it. Find people that can replicate those results and then expand upon that. That’s how we grow science and learn things.

 

[17:25] BCAAs and Tryptophan: An Interesting Data Point

 

Another thing Heavey had no idea about BCAAs which he learned is that Tryptophan, which is another amino acid, has a very similar chemical structure as the BCAAs. Now, tryptophan in the brain is converted to serotonin.

 

In rats, they’ve supplemented them with high doses of BCAAs and they found they induced these anxiety-like symptoms because the BCAAs are competing with tryptophan for uptake into the brain. If they heavily dose BCAAs, this reduces the amount of tryptophan that crosses into the brain in these rats. With the reduction of tryptophan, it reduces the serotonin that causes anxiety in rats.

 

This study has not been replicated in humans but the same mechanisms exist so this is an interesting data point.

 

When you consume whey protein which has BCAA and tryptophan, you don’t have that problem because you’re getting a full platter of the amino acids when you’re consuming them.

 

[19:35] Hail BCAAs for the Liver!

 

Lastly, Grant wants some ideas from listeners regarding bachelors parties that don’t involve Las Vegas. Please send him an email at [email protected].

 

And one last thing, Heavey says there’s one reason people might want to supplement with BCAAs is that they’re successfully using BCAAs to treat liver disease.

 

Links:

 

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