BCAAs

BCAAs are also commonly consumed by gym-goers.

BCAA stands for “branched-chain amino acid.” The 3 branched-chain AAs are leucine, isoleucine, and valine.

When you eat a meal with protein/amino acids, those amino acids are sent to the liver, where your liver determines what to do with them based on need. What’s interesting is that branched-chain amino acids are the only AAs not regulated by the liver, so regardless of need, they pass right to muscle and adipose tissue for breakdown. Because of this, you typically have more than enough of them for protein synthesis.

Supplementation of BCAAs is common, but food sources include milk, soy, meat, fish, eggs, baked beans, chickpeas, lentils, brown rice, almonds, and more.

You may see it simply put that they are great for energy and are needed for muscle growth. While that may be true, there’s more to it than that. BCAAs are needed, but muscle growth doesn’t happen from BCAAs alone. They are just part of the puzzle.

What might actually be true in regards to benefits? Tryptophan is converted to serotonin when it enters the brain, which causes fatigue, and BCAAs compete with tryptophan for entry into the brain. So one theory is that by consuming BCAAs, you can temporarily prevent tryptophan intake and therefore preserve energy. Also, BCAAs are used by the muscle during prolonged exercise, possibly reducing the amount of muscle breakdown that occurs.

However, even if BCAAS alone can start the process of protein muscle synthesis, all 9 EAAs are still needed for actual muscle growth. And as mentioned above, BCAAs are usually sent to muscles in excess already, without supplementation. So consuming a proper amount of complete proteins (through your diet and/or complete protein supplementation) gives you BCAAs, AND promotes muscle protein synthesis in its entirety.