BCAA

January 19, 2012 by Allen Elliott

Intermittent fasting has become a popular method for reducing bodyfat. Brad Pilon’s popular book Eat Stop Eat is the go to resource for all things intermittent fasting.

Fasting itself is quite simple, just stop eating for a predetermined length of time. But it seems that people cannot leave well enough alone and always want to add something to make their fasts better, or tweak it in hopes to improve the outcome.

You could say Oscar is in charge of Autophagy on Sesame Street...ok not exactly, but I like the picture of Oscar.

This has lead to a recommendation for taking BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) during a fast. There is a belief that by taking BCAA’s during a fast, you can promote a greater degree of muscle growth than if you fasted without taking them.

This assumption comes from the role BCAA’s play in affecting something called the mTOR pathway in your muscle cells and a mechanism known as ‘Autophagy’.

Autophagy is defined as “the consumption of ones own body”

In typical fitness/bodybuilding media bro-science, this process is mistaken for the loss of muscle mass. Words like ‘catabolism’, ‘muscle break down’, “protein loss’ etc are used to explain this cellular process. These phrases sound like it would be detrimental effect to the process of building/maintaining muscle, however that is not the case.

Autophagy may be more accurately described as ‘cellular cleansing’ (or even just taking out the garbage) which is a normal process that happens constantly in all of your cells. It may even be that if this process is impaired it can lead to accelerated cellular aging and other metabolic problems.

In other words, it’s not correct to view autophagy as a negative event that must be stopped by taking BCAA’s, but rather it is a necessary step in the proper functioning of a healthy cell.

In today’s podcast, we’ll explain what autophagy is and how it relates to muscle growth, aging and the overall health of a given cell.

You’ll get a different perspective on what anabolism and catabolism mean, and another way of viewing fast with or without BCAA’s.

John

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Branched Chain Amino Acids – Benefits, Side Effects, and Real World Results

September 12, 2011 by Allen Elliott

Branched Chain Amino acids (BCAA’s) are a popular supplement in the bodybuilding industry, specifically they’re marketed for building muscle, preserving lean muscle during dieting, and even increasing fat loss while dieting. But do any of these claims hold up to scientific scrutiny?

(women click here for your version of this post)

BCAA’s – Should you take these suckers or not?

When you take a closer look at the research you’ll find out that the experiments on branch chain amino acids are done with a very specific timing and protocol with specific end point measurements. Fitness marketers then tell you to recreate the experimental settings in your daily routine in an effort to mimic the results of the study.

But what are the results anyway? Most people just want to build muscle and drop bodyfat and look good…and I can tell you that neither muscle building nor fat loss are ever measured in these studies. In almost all cases the research looks at surrogate end points such as protein synthetic rate which is then extrapolated to mean ‘muscle building’.

In today’s uncensored podcast, we’ll discuss the research on BCAA’s what the methods and results mean and if you should even take them.We look at the effect popular fitness media has on our choices in supplements and how the success of one supplement can mold our opinion of other supplements.

Things to consider are your personal fitness goals, your current state of health (are you lean, overweight, obese, diabetic etc), the amount of time you have to spend working out and the amount of money you have to spend on supplements.

The intersection of your training experience, your goals, what you expect from BCAA’s and your budget will determine if you should take them or not.

John

For more information as well as how to get access to Adonis UNCENSORED, click the link below:

Adonis UNCENSORED Premium Podcast

BCAA’s, Fasting and Autophagy

Branched Chain Amino Acids – Benefits, Side Effects, and Real World Results

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