3 replies to this topic

[LongLiveTheKing]

I recall people writing off BCAA supplementation because of a study that found it no more effective than whey. Is anyone familiar with this story? My question is what we're the amounts? If you got similar results from a serving of whey with 5.8g BCAA'S as 5.8g of bcaas and whatever amount of glutamine wouldn't that be preferred? Add to that the reduced calories if you are trying to cut weight/CR and the lack of methionine and it seems like the way to go. Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't order a huge bulk bag of BCAA'S and glutamine vice whey?

[surpriza]

whey protein 22 amino, bcaa 3 amino
So....really!?

[LongLiveTheKing]

Not a useful reply at all. BCAA'S are synthesized in the muscle. Unless you can describe how each of those 22 amino acids contributes to muscle protein synthesis....

[Adam Karlovsky]

I'd recommend pea protein over both BCAAs and Whey. I don't think the BCAA studies are very convincing, they use weird methodologies to really stretch the statistical power of their studies effect, and I think most of the time they'll conflate extrapolated rates of protein synthesis with actual muscle growth (which you simply cannot do). Meanwhile, whey protein is very high in methionine and low in glycine, yes, whereas pea protein is low in methionine and high in glycine. The downside of pea is that it is low in leucine, but if you just take more of it (match for leucine, which means 1.33x grams of pea protein) then you'll likely have the same muscle growth and yet still be consuming only 66% of the methoinine as you would if you had instead consumed whey.

Also, remember, muscle growth doesn't seem to benefit from more than 1.4g (whey) protein / kg bodyweight, so there's no reason to take more than 1.86g (pea) protein / kg bodyweight.