BCAAs

Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are 3 of the 9 essential amino acids that cannot be produced by your body and must come from diet or supplementation.

Studies are now showing that BCAAs provide: increased muscle growth, decreased post work-out soreness, reduced exercise fatigue, prevent muscle wasting, and in some cases stabilizes the health of certain liver conditions. When used with a whey protein they work in concert to enhance muscle development, improve work-out time with less energy, increase fat consumption. Because of these, BCAAs are an essential part of body building, weight training and body recovery.

During intense exercise, fat stores can become depleted. The body then will search for other source of fuel such as muscle. During training the goal is to ensure higher stores of amino acids in the body than those that are getting broken down. If this does not occur you start losing muscle mass and all the energy put toward your workouts goes to waste.

When dieting you are taking in less calories, protein and fats which causes the body to search for another source of fuel – muscle. As you breakdown muscle you can become more tired. As a result of less muscle your overall metabolic rate slows down and overall weight loss slows to a halt. People often say they are doing everything but weight is no longer “coming off”. This is why BCAAs are an important staple in your supplement program.

Bottom line …. is that BCAAs sacrifice themselves as fuel in order to preserve muscle in the body. Whether you are training or not, high levels of Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine in the body help maintain your overall body composition.

While there are not many patients that have experienced side effects even while using BCAAs over longer periods of time, may result in nausea and especially muscular pain. As with most things in life consuming too much may not provide any further improvements as well, so using higher than prescribed physician dosing can and will result in more side effects.