Name: BCAAs - For Fasting or Cutting?
Uploaded: 2018-10-10T13:55:56.000Z
Duration: 4 min 10 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

As a quick sidetrack, I want to talk about
BCAAs a bit more after naming it in my previous

video as one of the three supplements not
worth your money.

Proponents of BCAAs have claimed that it's
still important in two situations: 1, when

you're in a calorie deficit, and 2, when
you're fasting.

And frankly, the claims make sense on the
surface.

BCAAs do promote muscle protein synthesis
through the mTor pathway and they do have

preservative and recovery effects while containing
very few calories.

But it doesn't always translate into real
world results.

One study in 2016 did report some effect.

They found that going on a calorie restricted
diet while consuming BCAAs help maintain lean

mass and burn fat, while consuming a carby
sports drink resulted in loss of lean mass.

But if we take a closer look at the study,
we'll see that the BCAA group lost on average,

only .05 kg, or 0.11 pounds of fat mass in
a span of 8 weeks.

Not exactly amazing results by any stretch
and definitely cannot rule out chance.

The abstract also surprisingly omitted the
amount of fat loss observed in the carb group.

When we look into the study, we see that the
carbohydrate group loss significantly more

Even more surprising is that they denoted
the BCAA group was the one to lose any statistically

significant body fat, giving the reason that
it's based on relative loss.

Digging further, we'll see that some carb
subjects actually GAINED fat mass, which doesn't

make any sense if they were truly on a cut.

Resting metabolic rate also DROPPED by 400
calories in the BCAA group, which goes against

even the authors' understanding of greater
lean mass is supposed to mean a higher resting

But possibly the most glaring issue, as I
reported in my previous video, is conflict

This study was conveniently funded by Scivation
Incorporated, a company that rose to fame

Other than this study, there's not much
else that reports any benefit to taking BCAAs

Protein-matched benefits wfor muscle preservation
isn't there.

If anything, studies show that you should
supplement with whey instead since it's

much better at maintaining elevated muscle
protein synthesis than the most potent BCAA,

Additionally, research shows that there wouldn't
be a difference in body composition regardless

of you training fasted or fed as long as you
get enough protein for the day.

Not to mention that BCAAs insulinogenic and
contains claories, which will kcik you out

Also, some people say that BCAA is great for
a quick boost of energy when fasting.

My argument to that: carbs are even better.

But the fact is, the only studies showing
BCAA supplementation benefits always come

Universally, you WILL find positive effects
when comparing BCAAs to a placebo that has

However, BCAAs alone almost always loses out
to a complete protein supplement like whey.

It comes down to this: What's the point
of taking BCAAs when something like whey is

not only less expensive, but also contains
the BCAAs you need AND has all the other essential

amino acids that are important to actually
building muscle, not just stimulating it?

Right now, of any integrity, I possibly cannot
recommend taking BCAAs when it's less effective

wAnd it always seems to come back to that.

But if this video is still not convincing
enough, then by all means, do you.

So now, let's leave the question to you
guys: Are BCAAs still worth taking?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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new It Depends t-shirt.

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