The human body uses 20 different amino acids to make thousands of different kinds of proteins; nine of them are considered essential amino acids, which means that they can only be obtained through your diet, as your body cannot produce them.

What is BCAA?

Referring to the chemical structure of amino acids, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are essential nutrients that your body gets from proteins found in food, including legumes, dairy products, and meat.

There are three branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) out of the nine essential amino acids, namely isoleucine, leucine, and valine. People use them for medicine.

BCAAs are present in many protein-rich foods, including meat, eggs, and dairy products. A popular dietary supplement, they are made available in powder form.

Here we give you five tremendous benefits of branched chain amino acids.

1. Reduce muscle soreness

BCAAs have been suggested in some research to help reduce muscle soreness after a workout.

If your exercise routine is new, you are most likely to feel sore a day or two post workout. It is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS); it develops 12–24 hours post exercise up to 72 hours.

Although the exact cause is yet unclear, DOMS is believed to stem from tiny tears in the muscles post exercise.

BCAAs may help reduce the severity and length of DOMS by decreasing muscle damage. They have been found in several studies to reduce protein breakdown during exercise and lower levels of creatine kinase—an indicator of muscle damage.

People who supplemented with BCAAs pre squat exercise have been found in one study to experience reduced muscle fatigue and DOMS compared to the placebo group.

It can be concluded that supplementing with BCAAs post exercise may speed up recovery time.

2. Increase muscle mass

Taking BCAA supplements can help increase muscle mass.

BCAAs have been shown in research to activate enzymes that play an important role in muscle building.

In fact, BCAA supplements have also been found in some studies to be effective at increasing muscle mass, especially if they contain a higher proportion of leucine than valine and isoleucine.

However, taking supplements with whole protein has been found in some studies to, at least in some cases, be better for muscle growth than taking supplements with individual amino acids.

No evidence has shown that acquiring BCAAs from a supplement is better than acquiring them through less-expensive soy or whey protein supplement or your diet.

3. Prevent muscle wasting

BCAAs can help prevent muscle wasting or breakdown.

Proteins in muscle are constantly broken down and rebuilt to repair muscle damage caused by intense workout.

The amount of muscle protein is determined by the balance between muscle protein breakdown and synthesis. When protein breakdown exceeds muscle protein synthesis, that’s when muscle wasting or breakdown occurs.

Muscle wasting comes with periods of fasting, chronic infections, cancer and as a natural part of the aging process; it is also a sign of malnutrition.

BCAA supplements have been backed by several studies to inhibit muscle protein breakdown, thereby improving health outcomes and quality of life for certain people, including those with wasting diseases like cancer and the elderly.

4. Reduce exercise fatigue

Not only do BCAAs help lessen muscle soreness from exercise, they also help reduce exercise-induced fatigue.

Everyone gets exhausted and experiences fatigue after work at some point. How easily you get exhausted depends on many different factors, including your nutrition and fitness level, environmental conditions, and exercise intensity and duration.

During exercise, your muscles use BCAAs. This causes blood levels of BCAAs to decline, which can increase levels of the essential amino acid tryptophan in your brain.

In the brain, tryptophan is then converted into serotonin—a neurotransmitter that may cause fatigue during exercise.

Participants who supplemented with BCAAs were found in two studies to experience an improved mental focus during exercise. This is believed to stem from the BCAAs’ fatigue-reducing effect.

However, this reduced fatigue is unlikely to help improve exercise performance.

5. Good for people with liver disease

BCAAs are also good for people with liver disease, such as cirrhosis—a late stage liver disease.

About 50% of people suffering from cirrhosis will experience hepatic encephalopathy, which is a decline in brain function; it occurs when the liver can no longer eliminate toxins from the blood.

Although the mainstays of treatment for hepatic encephalopathy are antibiotics and sugars, BCAAs can also be beneficial for people with the disease.

Taking BCAA supplements has been found in one review of 16 studies with 827 participants suffering from hepatic encephalopathy to have a beneficial effect on the signs and symptoms of the disease—although no effect has been observed on mortality.

Liver cirrhosis may also lead to the development of the most common form of liver cancer—hepatocellular carcinoma—for which supplementing with BCAA may be beneficial.

In fact, supplementing with BCAA has been found in several studies to offer protection against liver cancer in people with liver cirrhosis.

As such, these supplements were recommended by scientific authorities as a nutritional intervention for liver disease to help prevent complications.

Foods rich in BCAAs

You can get BCAAs in whole protein supplements and foods. But since complete protein sources contain all the essential amino acids, getting BCAAs from them is more beneficial.

Fortunately, there are a lot of foods and whole protein supplements that contain BCAAs, making BCAA supplements unnecessary for many people, especially if you are following a protein-rich diet.

Consuming foods rich in protein will help you get other important nutrients that BCAA supplements cannot provide.

The following foods provide good amounts of BCAAs:

100-gram salmon: 4.9 grams of BCAAs

2 eggs: 3.28 grams of BCAAs

100-gram beef: 6.8 grams of BCAAs

100-gram chicken breast: 5.88 grams of BCAAs

100-gram turkey breast: 4.6 grams of BCAAs

100-gram canned tuna: 5.2 grams of BCAAs

1% milk: 2.2 grams of BCAAs

1/2 cup Greek yogurt: 2 grams of BCAAs

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese: 4.5 grams of BCAAs

1 scoop soy protein powder: 5.5 grams of BCAAs

1 scoop whey protein powder: 5.5 grams of BCAAs

When to take BCAAs

BCAAs can be taken anytime. You can have them before, during, and after exercise to quickly increase amino acid levels in the bloodstream, prevent muscle protein breakdown, and promote protein synthesis.

If your diet is not giving you enough BCAA levels in the form of complete protein from eggs, meat, fish, and dairy, you can also take them in between meals.

Amino acids side effects

When taken by mouth appropriately for up to 24 months, BCAAs can be safe. Some side effects, such as loss of coordination and fatigue, are known to occur.

BCAAs might also cause stomach problems, including stomach bloating, vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea. They may also cause headache, high blood pressure, or skin whitening in rare cases.

Conclusion

The human body makes thousands of different kinds of proteins using 20 different amino acids; nine of them are considered essential amino acids, meaning they must be obtained from food, as your body cannot produce them.

There are three branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs): isoleucine, valine, and leucine.

BCAA supplements have been shown to reduce muscle soreness, increase muscle mass, prevent muscle wasting, and reduce exercise fatigue. What’s more, they are also good for people with liver disease.

When taken appropriately by mouth, BCAAs can be safe. But some side effects may occur, including fatigue, stomach issues, and loss of coordination.

However, supplementing with BCAA may not provide additional benefits because most people get plenty of BCAAs through the foods they eat.