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08.02.2016

BCAAs help dieting strength athletes retain muscle mass

If you are a bodybuilder, fitness fanatic or athlete who does resistance training and you're on a fat-loss diet, you can prevent muscle and strength loss by taking large amounts of BCAAs as a supplement. Sports scientists at the College of Charleston in the US write about it in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

Study
The researchers did an experiment with 17 men aged 21-28, all of whom had been doing weight training for several years and all of whom followed a moderately reduced calorie diet for the eight weeks that the experiment lasted. The diet meant that meant the men burned several hundred kilocalories more than they consumed each day.

The researchers divided the men into two groups. One group consumed 14 g fast carbohydrates just before the workout and at the end of it [CHO], so a total of 28 g carbohydrate daily.

The other group consumed 14 g BCAAs before and after the workout, so that they consumed a daily total of 28 g.

Results
The men in the BCAA group gained just under 500g lean body mass [in other words, muscle]. But the men in the CHO group lost almost 1 kg lean body mass.

The men in the BCAA group lost 0.5 percent body fat, while the men in the CHO group lost almost 1.5 percent.

Lastly, BCAA supplementation also had a positive effect on the men's strength. When it came to bench presses, the men in the CHO group lost strength while the men in the BCAA group gained strength.

Conclusion
"Our data suggest that under hypocaloric conditions, those who participate in heavy resistance training can maintain lean mass and muscular performance by utilizing a BCAA product pre and post workout", the researchers concluded.

Source:
Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2016, 13:1.

More:
Effect of BCAAs on muscles is dose dependent 21.01.2016
During strength training BCAAs protect the muscles better when combined with taurine 14.04.2013
Told you so: BCAAs are anticatabolic 02.01.2012

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