Amino Acid Supplementation While Dieting
There’s no denying dieting is hard. Everyone has their challenges while dieting. While dieting you want to cut out the empty calories, the most popular empty calorie consumed product is without a doubt sugary drinks!
Sugary drinks like soda have no nutritional value in them whatsoever which shouldn’t come to a surprise to anybody. So let’s talk about how to defeat that. I know exactly what you’re thinking, “But Jesse I don’t want to drink plain boring tasting water”! Well That is exactly what I’m here to help with!
Let me introduce you to amino acid supplementation! Amino acids occur naturally in protein, and are vital in building and maintaining muscle. The more popular amino acids are “BCAAS” which contain three amino acids being the following: Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine!
BCAA stands for branched-chain amino acid. Your body uses 20-22 amino acids (exact number is up for debate) to construct protein. Within this group of amino acids, you have essential amino acids (EAAs) and non-essential amino acids.
Essential amino acids are a group of nine amino acids that the body cannot make on its own and must get them through the diet. The nonessential amino acids are ones the body can self-generate from a combination of the essential amino acids, carbohydrates, and fats.
The three BCAA’s are:
- Leucine
- Isoleucine
- Valine
The nine essential amino acids are:
- Leucine (BCAA)
- Isoleucine (BCAA)
- Valine (BCAA)
- Histidine
- Lysine
- Methionine
- Phenylalanine
- Threonine
- Tryptophan
So Why Take Amino Acids While Dieting?
While dieting your at a caloric deficit (should be at least) which means your body will not necessarily be “building” muscle, it’ll be working it’s ass off to maintain what you have, that is exactly where amino acids come into play! They help your body maintain muscle and recover by increasing protein synthesis [1].
A recent study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (2016) looked at determining the effectiveness of BCAA's in conjunction with heavy resistance training and a calorie restricted "cut" diet. An energy deficient diet is normally associated with losses in lean mass and decreased performance, so this study set out to prove just how effective BCAA consumption can be for someone in a cutting phase.
In this study, seventeen males who were experienced with resistance training were put on a low carbohydrate, calorically restricted diet and given either a BCAA product or a Powerade drink as the placebo. These subjects were instructed to not take any other supplements except those provided by the research team.
After 8 weeks of training, the group of individuals who were receiving the BCAA supplement showed that they maintained lean muscle mass, while making significant strength improvements in their one rep max squat and one rep max bench press.
Amino acid supplements come in MANY different flavors to help those of you that want to drink something flavored. Amino acid supplements typically have a hydration blend in them as well to make it that much easier to stay hydrated. If you would like to check out the options we have at The Nutrition Junction you can follow this link by clicking here.
About the author & Nutrition Junction:
Our goal is to provide the best supplements at the best price, and to educate you along the way! We are an e-commerce retailer of dietary supplements. We carry supplements to help people live their best lives and assist them with educational tools along their fitness journey. Anything we can help you with supplementation wise contact us and let us know, I will be more than happy to help you!
-Jesse Westover, Owner.
References:
1 ) Dudgeon, Wesley David, Elizabeth Page Kelley, and Timothy Paul Scheett. In a Single-Blind, Matched Group Design: Branched-Chain Amino Acid Supplementation and Resistance Training Maintains Lean Body Mass during a Caloric Restricted Diet.? Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 13 (2016): 1.