When you search for supplements that helps promote muscle growth, in healthy way, you may come across supplement called EAA and BCAA. EAA stands for Essential Amino Acids and BCAA stands for Branched Chain Amino Acids. It is somewhat advance form of supplementing, however, it is very useful for those who are looking to improve building strength and muscle mass.
What is EAA?
EAA as mentioned earlier is stand for Essential Amino Acids. There are 20 different amino acids that create our body with 9 essential amino acids and 13 non-essential amino acids. The difference between essential and non-essential is whether the body creates those amino acids or not. So essential amino acids or EAA are the 9 amino acids that can only be supplied by food or supplements.
9 essential amino acids are phenylalanine, leucine, valine, isoleucine, threonine, histidine, tryptophan, lysine and methionine.
Reason why EAA is important is because the body cannot make them so the body has to get it from either food or supplements. What is also important with EAA is its balance within the food source. There are amino acid soring charts called DIAAS score and PDCAAS score. Way the chart is scoring the food source is by availability of the essential amino acids. So, for example, egg is scored 100 which means it is most balance food source with 9 essential amino acids. Even when the amino acid score is low, you can combine the food source to improve the protein quality. Using supplement can also be beneficial for it is created to be balanced.
What is BCAA?
BCAA as mentioned earlier stands for Branched Chain Amino Acids. These are leucine, isoleucine, and valine. As you can see they are part of essential amino acid group but they are categorized differently because of its chemical structure.
BCAA is very important in triggering muscle protein synthesis, which means muscle is combining amino acids to create new muscle fibers.
Difference Between EAA and BCAA Supplements
Biggest difference between EAA and BCAA supplement is you can get all of essential amino acid benefits with EAA alone but with BCAA, it is not enough. When compare the two for muscle growth, the most important amino acid for muscle synthesis is called leucine which both EAA and BCAA has. When compared with same amount of EAA and BCAA, BCAA will have more leucine concentration.
So, will that make BCAA superior? Not really. Even when BCAA can promote muscle synthesis, our body does need other 6 essential amino acids to build muscles. It is like having motivated team of house builders but don't have any materials.
Because of that consuming too much BCAA may actually lower the blood amino acids concentration too early and put halt to muscle synthesis. In other words, BCAA alone cannot keep the muscle synthesis long enough. However, with EAA because it has all 9 essential amino acid this issue may not happen.
Does that mean BCAA is useless? Not exactly. BCAA is part of EAA which means it is important to our health and muscle growth. As mentioned earlier, leucine concentration is higher in BCAA. Therefore, if consuming with EAA is possible, then there may be a better outcome. Though you can promote similar or better outcome with 15g of EAA alone.
Benefit of Using EAA
So what is the benefit of supplementing EAA. During a physical activity, weight lifting, hiking, gardening and so on, our muscle go through breakdown. Because we recover from it our muscles get stronger including your heart and lungs. However, our body need supply. To consistently promote muscle growth EAA seems to promote muscle repair or muscle synthesis. During the weight training, we are already using amino acids to help recover muscles. Therefore, while training it is beneficial to be consuming EAA so muscles can be supplied with essential amino acids to promote muscle growth.
EAA can be used throughout the day to keep promoting muscle recover and growth. This can also be done by consuming protein powder, however, absorption rate is slightly higher with EAA and BCAA and majority of times you can find better flavor with EAA than protein powder, although EAA can be little expensive. Therefore, I use protein powder to help meet my protein requirement, and use EAA as refreshment.
Issue with EAA and BCAA
EAA and BCAA has its issue. Because absorption rate is greater that there may be a chance that you can cause diarrhea when drinking too much too quickly. This is happening because amino acids concentration in intestines increase rapidly when consuming EAA or BCAA quickly. If it is food source there is no issue for absorption rate is slower. However, when it comes to liquid form absorption rate drastically increase and body will respond by diluting it with water. This is how you can get diarrhea. So, drink slowly rather than chugging.
Who Should Use EAA and BCAA for Supplements
Anybody can benefit from EAA and BCAA supplements. Highly recommended for 3 types of people. Those who are physically active, those who are not getting enough protein from their meals, and those who are on weight loss and needing something to drink rather than alcohol or soft drinks.
For me, since I do my strength training early in the morning, I use EAA supplement, which I mix with my water and drink as soon as I get up. This helps with replenish essential amino acids that were used while I was sleeping. I may also use EAA after lunch while I'm training my afternoon clients.
Kota Shimada
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