Best tasting BCAA?

[AndroRage]

As title suggests...

I normally go for profile over flavour, however I’m at a point now where I abit sick of bad flavour Aminos and only usually use when training fasted. At the point where don’t look forward to drinking them and looking for something I do on fasted days.

If going for purely flavour based, purpose/functionality secondary which would people reccomend??

Thanks again

 

[boooosted]

I use EVL bcaa energy and think they taste awesome. Watermelon, grape, and peach lemonade are my favorites. I've had about every flavor and only one of them I didn't like.

 

[BloodManor]

Choas and Pain cannibal carna blueberry lemonade is amazing - imo one of the best tasting aminos on the market
https://www.chaosandpain.com/cannibal-carna-bcaa/

Xtend is another choice with many flavor options

 

[jdwaca]

As title suggests...

I normally go for profile over flavour, however I’m at a point now where I abit sick of bad flavour Aminos and only usually use when training fasted. At the point where don’t look forward to drinking them and looking for something I do on fasted days.

If going for purely flavour based, purpose/functionality secondary which would people reccomend??

Thanks again

Xtend tastes amazing, and blends well.
Amino Evolved by Species tastes awesome as well. Both have a good profile. Functionally, I prefer Amino Evolved because of the profile, but you can’t go wrong with either. They both taste great, are high quality, and blend completely (no floating leucine).

 

[The Solution]

Xtend Elite --> Island Punch Fusion & Sour Gummy
Xtend Perform --> Black Cherry
OG Xtend --> Blood Orange, Green Apple, Strawberry Mango, Mango
USP Labs --> Green Apple, Berry Burst
MAN Iso-Amino --> Sour Nukes, Cotton Candy, Rainbow Sherbet
Core ABC --> White Watermelon , Aus Gummy Snakes & Orange Sherbet
Cellucor BCAA - > tropical
Alpha Amino -- > Grape, Blue Raz
Alpha Amino Ultimate -- > Orange Sherbet
Animal Juiced Amino --> Grape & Orange
Amino Pro --> Orange & FP

Products with EAA's
EAA Max — orange sherbet , smash berry
Purple wrath —- cotton candy
HydroBCAA --> Sex on a beach, Texas Tea

 

[Young Gotti]

not sure I've ever had a bad amino product taste wise other than bulk....I'd probably stick with a mixture of cheap prices and good profiles, I've personally never met an amino product that was undrinkable....pre workouts on the other hand...well

 

[EMPIREMIND]

Choas and Pain cannibal carna blueberry lemonade is amazing - imo one of the best tasting aminos on the market
https://www.chaosandpain.com/cannibal-carna-bcaa/

Xtend is another choice with many flavor options

^this. Haven't had cannibal carna, but I've heard it's excellent.


My favorite flavoring has always been xtend. The godfather of bcaas, especially flavor wise!

 

[GQdaLEGEND]

i love hydroBcaa's - great amount of eaa as well

 

[GQdaLEGEND]

Controlled labs - purple wraath cotton candy is pretty good .. way better then the grape one they had back in the day

 

[AntM1564]

As title suggests...

I normally go for profile over flavour, however I’m at a point now where I abit sick of bad flavour Aminos and only usually use when training fasted. At the point where don’t look forward to drinking them and looking for something I do on fasted days.

If going for purely flavour based, purpose/functionality secondary which would people reccomend??

Thanks again

Are you interested in EAA as well? If so EAminoMax tastes great and provides you with essential aminos acids as well. In addition LCLT and HICA for recovery purposes.

 

[nbfootball65]

Scivation Xtend Strawberry Mango

 

[Wobmarvel]

Hydro bcaa by prosupps or eaa max by primeval

 

[GQdaLEGEND]

so many co's cheap out on eaa .. i think i only know 2 co that have decent bcaa with 3G of eaa

all others i see is 1G or under.

 

[AndroRage]

Thanks for all replies.

I have a really good deal on ANS Quench BCAA, has anyone tasted that??

 

[Wobmarvel]

Still would go with the an eaa blend. The bcaas need the other EAAs to work anyway so why waste time and money. Especially if your fasted then sipping on bcaas intraworkout. You are quite literally pissing your money down the drain. It's correct that you will get EAAs from your meals throughout the day but instantised aminos will always be better otherwise why bother with a bcaa supp in the first place. Just saying this because people seem to think I'm being a spaz for suggesting bcaa supplements that contain the other EAAs. Bcaas are also EAAs anyway.

 

[The Express 42]

Pro supps has great flavors with their EAA supp and reasonably priced too. Don’t waste your time with bcaa.
Also haven’t tried the performance aminos but the profile is my favorite I’ve seen. Full EAA’s, full dose of HICA and electrolytes won me over. Sad I missed the into sale but will definitely be trying soon

 

[LeanEngineer]

Xtend Elite --> Island Punch Fusion & Sour Gummy
Xtend Perform --> Black Cherry
OG Xtend --> Blood Orange, Green Apple, Strawberry Mango, Mango
USP Labs --> Green Apple, Berry Burst
MAN Iso-Amino --> Sour Nukes, Cotton Candy, Rainbow Sherbet
Core ABC --> White Watermelon , Aus Gummy Snakes & Orange Sherbet
Cellucor BCAA - > tropical
Alpha Amino -- > Grape, Blue Raz
Alpha Amino Ultimate -- > Orange Sherbet
Animal Juiced Amino --> Grape & Orange
Amino Pro --> Orange & FP

Products with EAA's
EAA Max — orange sherbet , smash berry
Purple wrath —- cotton candy
HydroBCAA --> Sex on a beach, Texas Tea

I'd agree with this list right here. Hard to beat xtend.

 

[AndroRage]

Pro supps has great flavors with their EAA supp and reasonably priced too. Don’t waste your time with bcaa.
Also haven’t tried the performance aminos but the profile is my favorite I’ve seen. Full EAA’s, full dose of HICA and electrolytes won me over. Sad I missed the into sale but will definitely be trying soon

I’m not too bothered if bcaa or eaa or both.

Just for drinking fasted, more importantly with a nice taste I don’t dread drinking

Which branch has

 

[The Express 42]

I’m not too bothered if bcaa or eaa or both.

Just for drinking fasted, more importantly with a nice taste I don’t dread drinking

Which branch has

You should be though! BCAA alone have been shown to have 0 effect on muscle growth, recovery or do anything really other than flavor your water

 

[Theisen25]

1st Phorm - Apple Juice and Lemonade. Used to be an Xtend guy and then switched over. Tastes absolutely amazing.

 

[AndroRage]

You should be though! BCAA alone have been shown to have 0 effect on muscle growth, recovery or do anything really other than flavor your water

Can you site the related study please?

Thanks

 

[The Solution]

Can you site the related study please?

Thanks

https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-016-0128-9

A lot of folks are simply unaware of the actual data, so they needlessly waste their hard-earned cash on BCAA supps. This might not be music to the ears of folks locked in a routine of taking their favorite supp, but my hope is that it gives some of you food for thought, and ultimately helps you zap an unnecessary (and potentially detrimental) item from your supplement shopping list.

The high-quality proteins in our diets are comprised of appx 18-26% BCAA as it is. Supplementing with extra BCAA on top of that can range from adding extra unnecessary calories (and metabolic burden), to actually inhibiting optimal use of ingested amino acids [1].

Let me also add that whey protein has a stronger anabolic/anticatabolic effect than its equivalent in supplemental EAA or BCAA [2]. It's no surprise that supplemental BCAA has an equivocal track record in the research [3,4]. For those concerned about "going catabolic" doing fasted cardio without AA supplementation, my colleagues and I found no difference in body comp effects between fed vs fasted cardio when total protein is sufficient (both groups retained their LBM) [5]. As for the ability of BCAA to inhibit muscle soreness, note that this is always compared to a non-protein placebo.

It's LOL to supp with BCAA to begin with (instead of an intact, high-quality protein such as whey, which provides the rest of the EAAs as well as other co-factors for anabolism -- but it's all moot if you're getting enough total daily protein anyway). Here’s a salient quote from a recent review [6]:

"Thus, as we speculated, consumption of crystalline BCAA resulted in competitive antagonism for uptake from the gut and into the muscle and was actually not as effective as leucine alone in stimulating MPS. Despite the popularity of BCAA supplements we find shockingly little evidence for their efficacy in promoting MPS or lean mass gains and would advise the use of intact proteins as opposed to a purified combination of BCAA that appear to antagonize each other in terms of transport both into circulation and likely in to the muscle.”

The only people who are not wasting time & money on supplemental BCAA are those who must maintain a low-protein diet, or a diet with restricted amounts of high-quality protein. With that all said, if your total daily protein is optimized, and you don't mind consuming the functional equivalent of really expensive flavored water

1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27175106
2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22451437
3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20110810
4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15930475
5) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25429252/
6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26388782/
7) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28444456
8) http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/5/2/36
https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-017-0184-9
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/bcaa-supplements-are-just-hype-heres-a-better-way-to-build-muscles-a7969961.html
http://www.mysportscience.com/single-post/2017/10/02/The-truth-about-BCAA

 

[Wobmarvel]

https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-016-0128-9

A lot of folks are simply unaware of the actual data, so they needlessly waste their hard-earned cash on BCAA supps. This might not be music to the ears of folks locked in a routine of taking their favorite supp, but my hope is that it gives some of you food for thought, and ultimately helps you zap an unnecessary (and potentially detrimental) item from your supplement shopping list.

The high-quality proteins in our diets are comprised of appx 18-26% BCAA as it is. Supplementing with extra BCAA on top of that can range from adding extra unnecessary calories (and metabolic burden), to actually inhibiting optimal use of ingested amino acids [1].

Let me also add that whey protein has a stronger anabolic/anticatabolic effect than its equivalent in supplemental EAA or BCAA [2]. It's no surprise that supplemental BCAA has an equivocal track record in the research [3,4]. For those concerned about "going catabolic" doing fasted cardio without AA supplementation, my colleagues and I found no difference in body comp effects between fed vs fasted cardio when total protein is sufficient (both groups retained their LBM) [5]. As for the ability of BCAA to inhibit muscle soreness, note that this is always compared to a non-protein placebo.

It's LOL to supp with BCAA to begin with (instead of an intact, high-quality protein such as whey, which provides the rest of the EAAs as well as other co-factors for anabolism -- but it's all moot if you're getting enough total daily protein anyway). Here’s a salient quote from a recent review [6]:

"Thus, as we speculated, consumption of crystalline BCAA resulted in competitive antagonism for uptake from the gut and into the muscle and was actually not as effective as leucine alone in stimulating MPS. Despite the popularity of BCAA supplements we find shockingly little evidence for their efficacy in promoting MPS or lean mass gains and would advise the use of intact proteins as opposed to a purified combination of BCAA that appear to antagonize each other in terms of transport both into circulation and likely in to the muscle.”

The only people who are not wasting time & money on supplemental BCAA are those who must maintain a low-protein diet, or a diet with restricted amounts of high-quality protein. With that all said, if your total daily protein is optimized, and you don't mind consuming the functional equivalent of really expensive flavored water

1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27175106
2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22451437
3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20110810
4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15930475
5) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25429252/
6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26388782/
7) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28444456
8) http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/5/2/36
https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-017-0184-9
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/bcaa-supplements-are-just-hype-heres-a-better-way-to-build-muscles-a7969961.html
http://www.mysportscience.com/single-post/2017/10/02/The-truth-about-BCAA

Well my favourite expensive flavoured water is prosupps and primeval.

If im cutting then sipping on these drinks throughout the day helps me stick to a calorie deficit. It curbs my hunger better than just a fat burner alone. I have tried cheaper electralite powders or simply sugar free dilute drinks but they just dont work for me at keeping hunger at bay. Neither does drinking litres of water. I don't count it as part of my macros but I like that they are more of a complete protein than bcaas alone.

Studies telling me I don't need them are useless. Could be a placebo thing though admittedly. They are also helping my wife lose weight too compared to when she would just sip on water throughout the day. She just craves less food.

 

[The Solution]

Well my favourite expensive flavoured water is prosupps and primeval.

If im cutting then sipping on these drinks throughout the day helps me stick to a calorie deficit. It curbs my hunger better than just a fat burner alone. I have tried cheaper electralite powders or simply sugar free dilute drinks but they just dont work for me at keeping hunger at bay. Neither does drinking litres of water. I don't count it as part of my macros but I like that they are more of a complete protein than bcaas alone.

You have to realize that BCAA's/EAA's are around 5.5 calories per gram. So if you don't count it towards your intake, your intake will be off. Just a FYI, if you are consistent with taking the same amount of aminos daily then that is a "Consistent factor". Just making you aware that these are not caloric free drinks, but there is some caloric value to them. They also can spike insulin levels since they are protein, and will spike MPS (Muscle Protein Synthesis) if you are going to SIP on them I would suggest using them as a BOLUS between meals spaced 4-6 hours apart. That would be the most ideal use for them.

https://www.slideshare.net/biolayne/optimal-protein-intake-and-meal-frequency-to-support-maximal-protein-synthesis-and-muscle-mass

Studies telling me I don't need them are useless. Could be a placebo thing though admittedly. They are also helping my wife lose weight too compared to when she would just sip on water throughout the day. She just craves less food.

Your wife is losing weight due to a caloric deficit, not because of a BCAA or an EAA drink. She is simply eating less food then her body needs (Calories in vs calories out). You cant defy the net caloric balance by adding in aminos which is a form of calories. So there is some sort of food portion or modification to her daily diet that is resulting in a net deficit of calories. The FDA does not label BCAA's or EAA's with calories because they are so minimal, but they do in fact add up. If you instantly added 20g of aminos daily you are adding 100+ Calories on a daily basis.

https://blog.priceplow.com/supplement-news/bcaa-calories

100g of product, as tested, yielded 535 Calories, meaning 1g of BCAAs would be 5.35 calories, or the standard 5g scoop would provide 26.75 calories!


I think there is more to your wife's fatloss then the amino drink. But by all means if it helps you, and you find merit you are free to invest in it. At the end of the day it may not be 100% necessary to reach your goal. If it makes her eat less food, and you dont mind paying for them. Rock it out.

 

[AntM1564]

Your wife is losing weight due to a caloric deficit, not because of a BCAA or an EAA drink. She is simply eating less food then her body needs (Calories in vs calories out). You cant defy the net caloric balance by adding in aminos which is a form of calories. So there is some sort of food portion or modification to her daily diet that is resulting in a net deficit of calories. The FDA does not label BCAA's or EAA's with calories because they are so minimal, but they do in fact add up. If you instantly added 20g of aminos daily you are adding 100+ Calories on a daily basis.

https://blog.priceplow.com/supplement-news/bcaa-calories

100g of product, as tested, yielded 535 Calories, meaning 1g of BCAAs would be 5.35 calories, or the standard 5g scoop would provide 26.75 calories!


I think there is more to your wife's fatloss then the amino drink. But by all means if it helps you, and you find merit you are free to invest in it. At the end of the day it may not be 100% necessary to reach your goal. If it makes her eat less food, and you dont mind paying for them. Rock it out.

I saw this posted last week. I don't want to de-rail the thread, but I thought different amino acids had different caloric values? Doesn't make a difference to me, but I could have sworn I saw that several years ago on another board.

 

[The Solution]

I saw this posted last week. I don't want to de-rail the thread, but I thought different amino acids had different caloric values? Doesn't make a difference to me, but I could have sworn I saw that several years ago on another board.

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-abstract/52/5/770/4651069

Leucine: 4.65 calories per gram

Isoleucine: 4.65 calories per gram

Valine: 4.64 calories per gram

The numbers above can be derived by taking the metabolizable energy values of the three amino acids using the three sets (1-3) and calculating their averages.

With the above caloric values in mind, this means that 10 grams of BCAAs at the typical 2:1:1 ratio of leucine, isoleucine and valine, respectively, contain around 46.5 calories.

The reason most supplement manufacturers don’t list the calories from BCAAs in their products is simply because they kind of have to, since:

the FDA regulations state that supplement manufacturers can’t declare the protein content of a product when this only contains individual amino acids.

the FDA regulations allow supplement manufacturers to calculate the caloric content of their products using a number of methods, including the Atawater method, which involves adding up the calories from protein (4 kcal/g), carbs (4 kcal/gram) and fats (9 kcal/gram).


Mr Cooper in 2011:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplements/70637-calories-bcaas.html#post3126319

"BCAAs most certainly have calories. Count them at 4 per gram although BCAAs in particular actually have an insignificantly higher caloric content due to their structure. Further, free form may [insignificantly] reduce TEF."

"No, that is because the listed calories are 12, which are rounded down to 10. Proper labeling will have BCAAs listed as zero calories, when in reality they are 4 cals per gram. A protein is by definition a "chain" of amino acids....such a chain does not exist in free-form amino acids."

 

[Wobmarvel]

Your wife is losing weight due to a caloric deficit, not because of a BCAA or an EAA drink. She is simply eating less food then her body needs (Calories in vs calories out). You cant defy the net caloric balance by adding in aminos which is a form of calories. So there is some sort of food portion or modification to her daily diet that is resulting in a net deficit of calories. The FDA does not label BCAA's or EAA's with calories because they are so minimal, but they do in fact add up. If you instantly added 20g of aminos daily you are adding 100+ Calories on a daily basis.

https://blog.priceplow.com/supplement-news/bcaa-calories

100g of product, as tested, yielded 535 Calories, meaning 1g of BCAAs would be 5.35 calories, or the standard 5g scoop would provide 26.75 calories!


I think there is more to your wife's fatloss then the amino drink. But by all means if it helps you, and you find merit you are free to invest in it. At the end of the day it may not be 100% necessary to reach your goal. If it makes her eat less food, and you dont mind paying for them. Rock it out.

I didn't say they helped her to lose weight because they are some kind of scientific marvel. I didn't say that my wife is losing weight because she drinks bcaa supplements. I said they help curb appetite and help keep in a calorie deficit by reducing cravings. Some people can skip the bcaas and simply not give in to cravings. At the end of the day if what the science says doesn't work for you then science means sh1t. No disrespect.

 

[Erikeckert]

Def. Gotta say my best overpriced flavored water supplement would be Primeval labs EAA, or O.N. amiN.O. energy. Flavors are great and mix awesome

 

[Wobmarvel]

Def. Gotta say my best overpriced flavored water supplement would be Primeval labs EAA, or O.N. amiN.O. energy. Flavors are great and mix awesome

Need to try O.N. Brand. I always hear good things about amino energy. At the end of the day as depressing as it is when you think about it all supplements are unnecessary. Anyone who thinks you need them to get into shape, build muscle, lose fat etc. Are lying to themselves. Most of us are people who enjoy the lifestyle and supplements are simply a part of that.

We love getting a box in the post full of new shiny tubs of supps some of which we have never tried before and I guarantee that even if you open a new preworkout, love its effects and swear that's the brand you are gonna stick to from now on, 99% of us are back online 3 weeks later ordering a different one because we just want that "brand new supplement" feeling back.

We can all look up the studies that say that using certain supplement ingredients increased muscle growth by 1.25% over 6 months (usually in sedentary or old people) and use that to try and justify why we blow £30 a month on it but let's face it, it's actually because it comes in cotton candy flavour.

 

[Erikeckert]

Need to try O.N. Brand. I always hear good things about amino energy. At the end of the day as depressing as it is when you think about it all supplements are unnecessary. Anyone who thinks you need them to get into shape, build muscle, lose fat etc. Are lying to themselves. Most of us are people who enjoy the lifestyle and supplements are simply a part of that.

We love getting a box in the post full of new shiny tubs of supps some of which we have never tried before and I guarantee that even if you open a new preworkout, love its effects and swear that's the brand you are gonna stick to from now on, 99% of us are back online 3 weeks later ordering a different one because we just want that "brand new supplement" feeling back.

We can all look up the studies that say that using certain supplement ingredients increased muscle growth by 1.25% over 6 months (usually in sedentary or old people) and use that to try and justify why we blow £30 a month on it but let's face it, it's actually because it comes in cotton candy flavour.

So true bro

 

[AntM1564]

We can all look up the studies that say that using certain supplement ingredients increased muscle growth by 1.25% over 6 months (usually in sedentary or old people) and use that to try and justify why we blow £30 a month on it but let's face it, it's actually because it comes in cotton candy flavour.

This is why I am an advocate of trying things (supplements, training routines, rep ranges, diets, etc) before one passes an opinion. I can find studies that show BCAA are great and others that say they are not needed. Just like I can find studies that say keto is bad for an athlete and studies that say it is good. The list goes on and on. If someone wants to use aminos, keto, low reps, high reps, etc and it works for them, then ore power to them. We are all different and respond to things differently.

 

[Nycnano]

I was planning for buying a BCAA to drink during my BJJ class. I feel like I’m burning muscle from being in a catabolic state and I heard BCAA were good to prevent this. But now reading this I see it’s apparently pointless and a waste of money ?