BCAA Supplement: Worth It or Not?

As of 2023, the global supplement industry is valued at more than 188 billion dollars with more than 50,000 supplements present in the US market. Every single week new studies are published to learn more about these supplements and these supplements are heavily marketed among the general population as quick fixes for fat loss, testosterone boosting, muscle building, improving health, etc.

Among all the supplements, BCAA OR BRANCHED CHAIN AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENT is one of the most popular and widely used supplement. In this article we will try to breakdown the science behind BCAA supplementation, what the research says and who should be using it.

Let us start with what is BCAA?

There are 20 amino acids in total, out of which 9 are considered as essential amino acids, meaning that we need to consume these from our diet because our body cannot produce these on its own. Among these 9 essential ones, 3 amino acids – Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine are called the branched chain amino acids. Of these 3 amino acids, particularly Leucine has created a buzz and believed to initiate muscle protein synthesis. Users consider it like the key for their car and that is why it is commonly used as a supplement.As per the available research body needs all the 9 essential amino acids to make proteins in our body and not just 1 or 3 amino acids. So when you consume only 3 amino acids, there isn’t much that your body can do with them. Think of it as words in the English dictionary, if you have only 3 alphabets out of 26 you will barely be able to make a lot of words, but if you have all the alphabets, you can make an enormous amount of words, similarly if you have all the 9 essential amino acids, then you can make a large number of proteins in your body and thus a complete protein source like whey protein, chicken, soya, tofu, eggs are much better at increasing the muscle protein synthesis.

Meta analysis on BCAA

A recent meta-analysis on BCAA also came to a similar conclusion, they stated that “Given the current evidence, the majority of the literature fails tosupport BCAA supplements as ergogenic aids in the context ofstrength and hypertrophy. Importantly, longitudinal studies largelyfail to support the efficacy of BCAA supplementation providedsufficient daily protein is ingested.

What does this mean?

This means that even though BCAA is marketed as a muscle building supplement, it is doing nothing more than a placebo. Studies show no benefit of consuming  BCAA supplementation if you are already consuming enough amount of total protein per day (>1.6grams per kg BW).

If you are training in a fasted state then having something that contains all the essential amino acids is a good idea so either whey protein before your workout or a EAA supplement before or during your workout might help you preserve muscle mass, but if you are getting in enough total protein and having a good pre workout meal then you need neither a BCAA nor a EAA supplement.

REFERENCES:

https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/31/3/article-p292.xml?content=pdf