Are BCAA'S Or EAA'S Useful? 

It would be absolutely brilliant if you could upload more and more of these individual topic segments from your podcasts.

A little history about bcaas, eaas and leucine: back in the day bcaas were so popular because essentially it was all about anticatabolism, and a little about anabolism. thats what the studies said. then the studies shifted pointing to leucine as a very anabolic amino acid. so the bcaa formulas increased leucine more and more. To the point where people where getting leucine alone, because it seemed to be the best choice anyways. But then more and more studies showed while leucine starts the anabolic pathways for muscle protein synthesis (mps), it does jack shit on its own, and neither do bcaas, because all essential amino acids are needed to actually profit from activating mps in the first place. Besides, a diet high in leucine can theoretically lead to a deficiency in tryptophan because during digestion, the responsible transporter preferes leucine over tryptophan. You's have to take leucine some time before a meal so it can reach a high enough peak in the blood to maximize mps, but because it is taken alone, mps cannot be maximized because the other essential amino acids are not present to actually do some protein synthesis. Until the meal, which takes more or less time to absorb - depending on the meal, while the activated mps is just sitting there, activated, but not doing much. Studies, at least in young people have been disappointing. So now we are kind of at eaas, which still have the benefit of being fast absorbing, having a high enough amout of leucine to trigger mps, while also providing all essential amino acids at the same time therefore making leucine much more effective. However, there is now the question if eaa alone are enough to maximize mps, or if the muscle indeed also needs some non-essential amino acids in small quantities to maximize mps in the short term (its always about the short term when it comes to mps, because of the rapid absorption of free form amino acids) One key feature about eaas is that they are rapidly absorbing, and that is important for 3 reasons: firstly, leucines ability to maximize mps depends on how high its peak in the blood is. the more rapid the absorption, and a high enough dose tend to maximize mps. secondly, when leucine is given with other free form amino acids absorption is much more rapid when given with protein or a meal. And lastly, because the other amino acids are being absorbed rapidly as well, the mps that leucine started gets its much needed fuel right away. But there are at least 2 things that prevent it from being optimal: because the mps is rapidly activated, and the eaas rapidly absorbed, it may be that now those non-essential amino acids, that normally are created in the body fast enough to meet demand, are now missing, and therefore rate limiting in mps. So only going for eaas is probably not a good idea, but eaas could be beneficial when combined with proper nutrition, at specific points in time. So what do I think when eaas would be helpful? In stressful training conditions to prevent catabolism, after training, to maximize mps, in the morning to kickstart mps. And the older the athlete is, the more important it becomes because of the resistance the body develops to mps due to age, which studies showed again and again. So basically, the older you get, the more benefit you will get from taking in eaas with a high enough leucine dose to keep mps activated at youthful levels. Which I think is vastly overlooked by older athletes. Muscle loss starts at around age 30 in the general population, which means that at that age, mps starts to get weaker and weaker. Which also means that even when you train, building muscle gets a little bit harder every year, just because of age. Also, like they mentioned, eaas are very helpful if you are on a low protein diet, or a diet on low quality protein (and especially if you are on both at the same time!) Also, there is some evidence that eaa + some fast acting sugar is somewhat more anticatabolic, and less cortisol spiking during training then only spiking insulin alone. In summary: leucine alone does not work. bcaas are not better then leucine when it comes to mps. eaa are much better for mps and probably for anticatabolism, if: you cannot get enough (high quality) protein, probably a slight benefit during training combined with fast acting carbs, if you should eat protein but cannot for some reason, like after the training. And especially when you get older, it gets more and more important to keep youthful mps levels, to activate mps prior to every meal (of course paired with regular exercise). There however it depends on how old you are (how high the leucine spike has to be to restore normal mps). when you are younger you can probably get away with whey 30 minutes before a meal, but the older you get, the higher the leucine spike has to be, and eaas with enough leucine are the best choice to activate and sustain mps until protein from the meal is absorbed and ready to help. You should probably not rely on eaas alone, because then non-essential aas can become essential as well because the body cannot produce them fast enough to keep up with demand short term. Besides, some amino acids such as glutamine are conditionally essential, especially for hard training athletes or during illness so only relying on eaas would be a bad idea.

Awesome! Huge fan of the individual topic uploads! I listen to all of your podcasts and often come back to them to re-listen to specific portions, but it can be troublesome trying to relocate the topics, so having this to come back to is great! Keep it up!

I feel like a product which has BCAAs (isoleucine, valine, and leucine) plus lysine and methionine (plus maybe threonine?) could be beneficial. Such a product would better complement vegan sources of protein since lysine and methionine are usually the rate limiting amino acids in grains, nuts, legumes, and vegetables.

Branch Chain Amino Acids are not totally useless. They are effective for endurance athletes used as a secondary energy reserve, also to ward off central fatigue in later stages of an endurance workout. Also for people on lower calories for a period of time (like cutting phases) to lose body fat.

these shorter clips are great thanks.

I eat more than 1.0 g/lbs of protein, but being age 66 I want to keep leucine elevated so I don't experience DOMS (muscle soreness) again. Now I'm now sure which is appropriate: BCAAs pre and post-workout, EAAs pre and post-workout, or nothing pre-workout (dietary protein is sufficient). I think I need to figure out how long my pre-workout meal keeps aminos in my bloodstream.

Literally could not be more timely for me and my little journey. I've been using EAAs since Barbell Medicine told me to. TBH, taking them intra with some Cluster Dextrin (I know, I know) really seemed to help me with optimizing recovery between powerlifting-based workouts. Possibly placebo but hey, so is love. Plus I'm vegan, so I rule

Does anyone know if EEA's should be taken on non workout days also?

AAs are good during a workout because it's kind of messy eating steak during a workout!

I used to think EAAs made since until I realized how few grams were in the supplements and how much easier and efficient it is to just drink another protein shake

follow up; if it is more beneficial to have a muscle protein sysnthesis spike following a workout; and sipping on EAAs or BCAAs makes your “base” higher than if you fasted between meals; does this make the effect of the spike less beneficial?

This was a great segment! Glad to say I was never really on that BCAA bandwagon. Mainly becuase it was super expensive. Even today it's still very expensive. And it was totally overblown too

Should EEAs and BCAAs be counted towards “daily protein macros”?

To Cut A Long Story Short, insulin at the body part you will work out, sugars glutamine taurine creatine +eaa in it probably oral before steroid and preworkout, will it beneficial?

The metas comparing supplemental aminos for recovery show either no benefits or ONLY benefits compared to placebo. I disagree that we can even confidently say it is better given the equivocal data, but let's assume it is. When compared to even an equivalent calorie content in carbs there is zero superiority. We are still trying really hard to pigeon hole a use if we are saying recovery. The real situations EAAs seem viable (outside of the limited AA profiles from exclusionary diets) appear to be mid ultra endurance cardio (again, carb intake may be more worthwhile anyway) and in the middle of a single day, multi-bout competition scenario where actual protein isn't feasible for whatever reason.

This is nice

18min can be effectively truncated to a 4 min video. These two help diminish my faith in American universities

This is very boring...