Welcome! I am glad you found me. Today’s great and interesting topic is on one of the best and most confused supplements on the market today; EAA’s and BCAA’s. What are they? Do you need them both? What do they do? And which ones do I take? These great questions will be answered below, just stay with me my friend. Let’s dive right in and see what these are!
What are EAA’s?
Essential Amino Acids or EAA’s are required for the body to build new muscle tissue and help with cell repair when muscles are recovering. They are called essential because your body cannot produce them. EAA’s must come from your diet or supplementation. Some foods that you can eat to get EAA’s are beef, dairy, soy, fish, and poultry just to name a few. EAAs have been shown in research studies to both improve Anabolic (Muscle Building) Exercise Response and increase Muscle Protein Synthesis. This has shown to create a positive protein balance and result in a muscle building state that allows you to recover better from exercise. There are nine essential amino acids and if you buy EAA supplements they will have any combination of the nine. These nine are:
Histidine
Isoleucine
Leucine
Lysine
Methionine
Phenylalanine
Tryptophan
Valine
Threonine
What are BCAA’s
Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are essential nutrients. They are proteins found in food. Your muscles “burn” these amino acids for energy. There are some BCAA’s that the body makes on its own, so you don’t have to supplement them, but they are also found in food and they make up 11 of the BCAA’s.
If you’re an athlete or bodybuilder, you may take branched-chain amino acids to try to help with recovery from workouts and enhance athletic performance. The names of the specific amino acids that make up the branched-chain amino acids are leucine, isoleucine, and valine.
Some studies suggest that BCAAs may prevent muscle breakdown during exercise. But they are not likely to help with athletic performance.
One research study on the BCAA Leucine, showed a 22% greater increase in muscle protein synthesis compared to those who didn’t consume any BCAA’s. Another study suggested taking BCAA’s could help with DOMS- delayed onset muscle soreness. According to healthline.com, “BCAAs have been shown to decrease muscle damage, which may help reduce the length and severity of DOMS. While several studies show that BCAAs decrease protein breakdown during exercise and decrease levels of creatine kinase, which is an indicator of muscle damage, in one 2010 study, people who supplemented with BCAAs before a squat exercise experienced reduced DOMS and muscle fatigue”
BCAA’s may also help reduce exercise-induced fatigue. If you lift heavy weights or exercise heavily on a regular basis than you have experienced fatigue and exhaustion at some point. Did you know how quickly you tire depends on several factors, including exercise intensity and duration, environmental conditions, and your nutrition and fitness level.
This is where it gets interesting. Your muscles use BCAAs during exercise, causing levels in your blood to decrease. When blood levels of these BCAAs decline, levels of the essential amino acid tryptophan in your brain increase. This tryptophan in your brain, is converted to a chemical in your brain called serotonin, that is thought to contribute to the development of fatigue during exercise.
Tip: Tryptophan is found in turkey meat, is this why you’re so tired after eating a big Thanksgiving meal?
Answer: No. The reason you are tired is because most people stuff themselves and it takes a lot of energy to digest all that food that was just consumed. You would have to eat A LOT of turkey to get the effect of tryptophan. Like pounds! Plus, after cooking the meat, chances are, there probably isn’t a lot of tryptophan left in the meat anyway.
So, in my opinion, choose a BCAA over the EAA providing that the BCAA’s have a combination of the two in the ingredients. They all have their specific qualities and functions. However, there is no reason to go out and buy both if you can get both in the same container. Check out my blog post on saving money and working out on a budget. You don’t need a lot of money to stay health and happy.
Until next time.
Take care,
Darren
Harmony Shift 