Burning Fat with BCAA Supplements

Burning Fat with BCAA Supplements

Branch chain amino acid supplements (BCAAs) are often recommended alongside fat burning programs. This happens for a wide range of reasons, such as:

• Increasing Endurance for more exercise time
• Reducing DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) so you can keep coming back

But, as research has shown there are also some greater and more directly applicable benefits to taking BCAAs while trying to lose weight. Like:

• Increase in fat metabolism
• Decrease in fat acquisition
• Reduction in exercise induced cortisol increase

Not to mention the massive benefits associated with BCAAs ability to promote muscle growth, which can offer a great muscle tone look as you progress. A muscle tone that low caloric diets cannot offer on their own (since protein intake is often also compromised)!

The Research Supporting BCAAs for Fat Loss

• Wrestlers taking BCAA supplements while on a calorie restricted diet lost more visceral adipose tissue than those not taking BCAA supplements. During this time, performance was maintained despite a caloric deficit (study, 1997).
• A 2007 animal study found that leucine added to a high fat diet significantly decreased fat mass gained. This was attributed to leucine’s ability to upregulate a specific protein that increases mitochondrial ability (study, 2007).
• As we cited above for BCAAs promoting muscle growth, branch chain amino acids given to participants strength training built and maintained lean muscle mass while burning fat mass at the same time (study, 2009).
• Dietary BCAA intake was compared among approximately 5,000 people. At the end of the study, participants with higher threshold dietary BCAA intakes were less likely to be obese (study, 2011).

As you can see, there is significant research suggesting BCAA supplements directly aid fat loss. Of these 4 studies, 3 are with humans. When we research supplements, we do our best to bring you the most applicable cases.