Good Information on BCAA Supplements:
A few Quotes from Alan Aragon on another board:
Plenty of people have bought into the marketing of BCAA. Not many people realize that if you're consuming enough total dietary protein, it already contains an abundance of BCAA. High-quality protein sources in your diet are comprised of 18-26% BCAA. Adding supplemental BCAA to that is quite literally a waste. As for the claim that supplemental BCAA is necessary to prevent muscle loss from fasted training, that's not supported by the scientific literature.
Given a scenario with equated macronutrition (including protein/aminos, collectively), fasted vs fed cardio is highly unlikely to make any difference in the sparing of muscle protein by the end of the day (or the end of the diet). My colleagues and I recently did a fasted vs fed training study & observed at null results: Body composition changes associated with fasted versus non-fasted a... - PubMed - NCBI
Also, take note that fatty acid oxidation is greater during training in the fasted state, but greater pot-training in the fed state, so it comes out even by the end of the day. To quote a recent review by my team:
“Many bodybuilders perform cardio in the fasted state in an attempt to increase fat oxidation and lose additional body fat; however, the scientific literature does not support additional benefits of fasted cardio. In fact, increased nitrogen loss, equivalent to nearly 14 gm of amino acids per hour has been observed during 60 minutes of fasted cardio [123]. However, it should be noted that the authors could not identify the source of nitrogen nor is it known if the increase in amino acid oxidation has an effect on muscle tissue if amino acods are replenished after exercise. [...] However, acute changes in fat oxidation during exercise are not as important as the total fat oxidation over the course of the day and, as previously discussed, if more carbohydrates are oxidized during exercise, more fat is oxidized throughout the course of the day [121, 129]. [...] In support of this contention, a recent study by Paoli et al. [130] demonstrated that respiratory exchange ratio was significantly lower at 12 and 24 hours after fed versus fasted cardio, indicating that consuming a meal prior to exercise results in a prolonged shift toward lipid use following the training bout.” Recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: resis... - PubMed - NCBI
Also consider the following research where fasted resistance training during Ramadan (complete with suboptimal hydration, lol) failed to cause The Catabolizmz: "Hypertrophic training in a fasted or in a fed state during Ramadan does not affect body mass and body composition of bodybuilders." Effect of fed- versus fasted state resistance training during Ramad... - PubMed - NCBI
One more - no difference in body comp changes between fed vs fasted HIIT cardio: "Short-term low-volume HIT is a time-efficient strategy to improve body composition and muscle oxidative capacity in overweight/obese women, but fed- versus fasted-state training does not alter this response." Interval training in the fed or fasted state improves body composit... - PubMed - NCBI
Not necessarily - especially if we're talking about equated daily macros. The body is smarter than we give it credit for. If you deprive it of nutrients during training, it can ramp up an 'anabolic rebound' effect in the post-training period when nutrients are provided. To quote Deldicque et al: "Our results indicate that prior fasting may stimulate the intramyocellular anabolic response to ingestion of a carbohydrate/protein/leucine mixture following a heavy resistance training session." Increased p70s6k phosphorylation during intake of a protein-carbohy... - PubMed - NCBI
A few Quotes from Alan Aragon on another board:
Plenty of people have bought into the marketing of BCAA. Not many people realize that if you're consuming enough total dietary protein, it already contains an abundance of BCAA. High-quality protein sources in your diet are comprised of 18-26% BCAA. Adding supplemental BCAA to that is quite literally a waste. As for the claim that supplemental BCAA is necessary to prevent muscle loss from fasted training, that's not supported by the scientific literature.
Given a scenario with equated macronutrition (including protein/aminos, collectively), fasted vs fed cardio is highly unlikely to make any difference in the sparing of muscle protein by the end of the day (or the end of the diet). My colleagues and I recently did a fasted vs fed training study & observed at null results: Body composition changes associated with fasted versus non-fasted a... - PubMed - NCBI
Also, take note that fatty acid oxidation is greater during training in the fasted state, but greater pot-training in the fed state, so it comes out even by the end of the day. To quote a recent review by my team:
“Many bodybuilders perform cardio in the fasted state in an attempt to increase fat oxidation and lose additional body fat; however, the scientific literature does not support additional benefits of fasted cardio. In fact, increased nitrogen loss, equivalent to nearly 14 gm of amino acids per hour has been observed during 60 minutes of fasted cardio [123]. However, it should be noted that the authors could not identify the source of nitrogen nor is it known if the increase in amino acid oxidation has an effect on muscle tissue if amino acods are replenished after exercise. [...] However, acute changes in fat oxidation during exercise are not as important as the total fat oxidation over the course of the day and, as previously discussed, if more carbohydrates are oxidized during exercise, more fat is oxidized throughout the course of the day [121, 129]. [...] In support of this contention, a recent study by Paoli et al. [130] demonstrated that respiratory exchange ratio was significantly lower at 12 and 24 hours after fed versus fasted cardio, indicating that consuming a meal prior to exercise results in a prolonged shift toward lipid use following the training bout.” Recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: resis... - PubMed - NCBI
Also consider the following research where fasted resistance training during Ramadan (complete with suboptimal hydration, lol) failed to cause The Catabolizmz: "Hypertrophic training in a fasted or in a fed state during Ramadan does not affect body mass and body composition of bodybuilders." Effect of fed- versus fasted state resistance training during Ramad... - PubMed - NCBI
One more - no difference in body comp changes between fed vs fasted HIIT cardio: "Short-term low-volume HIT is a time-efficient strategy to improve body composition and muscle oxidative capacity in overweight/obese women, but fed- versus fasted-state training does not alter this response." Interval training in the fed or fasted state improves body composit... - PubMed - NCBI
Not necessarily - especially if we're talking about equated daily macros. The body is smarter than we give it credit for. If you deprive it of nutrients during training, it can ramp up an 'anabolic rebound' effect in the post-training period when nutrients are provided. To quote Deldicque et al: "Our results indicate that prior fasting may stimulate the intramyocellular anabolic response to ingestion of a carbohydrate/protein/leucine mixture following a heavy resistance training session." Increased p70s6k phosphorylation during intake of a protein-carbohy... - PubMed - NCBI