I think I'd rather have a diverse amount of aminos as opposed to BCAA's with a sprinkle of other aminos.
I think I'd rather have a diverse amount of aminos as opposed to BCAA's with a sprinkle of other aminos.
IMPORTANT info about EAAs (if you buy EAA products, read this)
Since I saw you guys debating, this response is addressed to both you and Hyperemia:
The question at hand is
"Is it better for an EAA product to contain a high percentage of BCAAs (leucine is the most important of the three) relative to the other EAAs...or should the product contain a more balanced ratio of EAAs?" The answer is
"it depends". I explain below.
When consuming low doses of EAAs (10 grams or under) it is better for the product to contain a higher percentage of leucine relative to the other EAAs. In these low dose formulations, 5 grams is fine, but 6 grams would be a bit better due to competition for absorption. Still, 5 grams is pretty good. After that, the rest of the formula should be as balanced possible. Why is this important? Because leucine is the primary EAA responsible for stimulating protein synthesis. However, all 9 EAAs must be present in order to actually build muscle tissue. Leucine provides the signal to build muscle, but that growth will only occur if the remaining 8 EAAs (building bocks) are available for growth. So, a properly formulated low-dose EAA product should contain a large dose of leucine, followed by a balanced dose of the other 8 EAAs. When taking low dose products, it is not necessary...and even counterproductive, to take more isoleucine and valine than is needed to balance the ratio, as taking more than needed leaves the body with less available substrate (building blocks) to work with. Remember, an EAA product can only build as much muscle as the limiting amino acid allows for. The "limiting amino acid" is the amino acid that runs out first. As soon as the body runs out of even one of the 9 EAAs, muscle growth stops. So, if we add more isoleucine and valine than is needed to balance the ratio, the body is going to encounter a "limiting amino acid" situation more quickly, thereby rendering the remaining EAAs useless.
Once larger dose EAA products are being consumed (such as proSynthesis-17, which is massively more effective by every metric), it is still important to take an optimal dose of leucine (ProSynthesis-17 contains 6.5 grams), but once your EAA dose reaches a certain point, the large leucine dose actually becomes balanced with the remainder of the formula. That point is reached at 25 grams. Once you reach the 25 grams threshold, 5 grams of leucine is required in order to "balance" the ratio, but as stated previously, competition for absorption requires the dose to be pushed a bit higher (hence, the 6.5 gram found in ProSynthesis-17). The point here is that a properly balanced 25 gram dose of EAAs will already contain the maximum dose of leucine required in order to optimally stimulate protein synthesis, but will provide the body with MUCH more substrate. How much more?
Let's look at the typical 8 gram EAA product. If 5 grams of that product is comprised of leucine, that leaves a MAXIMUM of 3 grams of the other 8 EAAs for growth, but in reality it's usually lower than that because most companies add too much isoleucine and valine. So, that 3 grams usually becomes 1-2 grams of available building blocks. Think about that. Your only supplying the body with 1-2 grams of balanced substrate to work with.
Now...here is the real mindblower...and it it the MOST IMPORTANT piece of information you will probably ever learn about EAA products. BALANCE! Yes, I addressed balance above as it pertains to isoleucine and valine, but the situation is MUCH more dire than that. I'm telling you. If there is one piece of information you need to know about today's EAA products, it is the following....
As mentioned above, the body uses the 9 EAAs in a SET RATIO. If you want to incorporate your EAAs into muscle tissue, they MUST be present in that ratio. As soon as the body runs out of even one of those EAAs, growth stops...completely. This is why EAA efficiency is so important. EAA efficiency is defined as the percentage of amino acids, within a given dose, that can be incorporated into muscle tissue. Therefore, the more efficient a product is, the better it is. There is no disputing this. It is simplistic fact. The more efficient an EAA product is, the better it is. Does anyone want a product with only 50% efficiency? No way. No one wants that. Therefore, amino acid efficiency, which is directly determined by the amino acid ratio, is of
VITAL importance.
So, what if I told you that 99% of all the the EAA products on the market today have a muscle building efficiency of about 5%? Not 50%. 5%. What if I told you that in the best cases it is only about 10%...and in the worst cases, it is about 1-2%. Hard to believe? Well, it's the truth...and the proof is right on the label. Look at the methionine dose of whatever EAA product you have right now. Read it. In all likelihood, your product either contains barely any methionine...or it doesn't even tell you how much is in there. If your EAA product is a prop blend, that is a bad, BAD sign. Prop bends in an EAA product is like a cardinal sin because the amino acid ratio is the SOLE factor responsible for determining how effective the product is. By failing to disclose the dose of each EAA, the company is essentially refusing to tell you how effective their product is. For all you know, it could contain the worst EAA ratio on earth....and that probably isn't too far away from the truth...because even the companies that do disclose their doses are almost always horribly deficient in methionine.
Let's look at a typical product. If you wanted to balance a 10 gram serving if EAAs, it would need to include about 600-700 mg of methionine. 600-700 mg. What does your product say? 50 mg? 20 mg? 10 mg? 5 mg? I can nearly guarantee that it is no more than 50 mg....and it's probably closer to 10-20 mg, but let's use 50 mg as an example. If your product contains only 50 mg f methionine, it means your product contains only 1/12th to 1/14 of the proper dose. That means your product has an EAA efficiency of only 7.1% to 8.3%...and that is in the best case scenario. This means that only 7.1%-8.3% of your product can be use for muscle growth. Once your body uses up that small amount of methionine, you will run into the "limiting amino acid" issue and the rest of your EAAs will sit there doing NOTHING! They're useless.
At that point, the only way to be able to use the remaining EAAs for growth is to consume additional amino acids in the form of protein shakes or whole food...and by the time those amino acids hit the bloodstream, the EAAs from your EAA product will be long gone--metabolized. Why even buy an EAA product if you can only use a teeny-tiny percentage of it? Why buy a product that requires you to consume additional proteins first? Doesn't that defeat the entire point of an EAA product? EAA products were designed to supply a quick burst of amino acids into the bloodstream in order to stimulate and SUSTAIN growth? Well, your product probably isn't doing that. If your product contains even less methionine...like 20 mg or 10 mg, the situation is even worse, but does it really even matter at that point? Even at 50 mg, the situation is already laughable. At 10-20 mg, it is like the company is purposely trying to screw you. This is why I said earlier that most EAA products today have an average efficiency of 5%, at best. What a waste.
This begs the question "why do companies formulate EAA product like this". Simple. MONEY!!! You see, methionine tastes bad...and they think your dumb enough to buy a horrible, ineffective product simply because it tastes good. They think that if their product tastes better than the competition, people will just buy their stuff, despite the fact it sucks dick. And you know what? They're mostly right. That's exactly what most people do. They don't bother to do any research into the importance of amino acid ratios. Rather, they just trust the company to make a good product.
The take home message is three-fold. One, your current EAA product probably sucks. Two, most supplement companies don't give a rat's ass about making effective products. They just want your money. three, many formulators have no idea what they're doing. They just copy off other companies.
This one alone is more than enough reason to look into ProSynthesis-17. You will be able to use 100% of the 35 gram dose to build muscle. Its near 100% efficiency combined with a much larger serving size makes ProSynthesis infinitely more effective. In terms of cost-effectiveness, other products aren't even close. I have ZERO problem using this conversation as a platform to recommend my product because I know (and can definitively prove, with ease) that ProSynthesis-17 is way more effective than any other EAA product out there, but even if someone decides to never buy it for whatever reason...and they still continue using other EAA products, they most definitely need to supplement with additional methionine (encapsulated or powder) every time they use another EAA product. Tryptophan shortage is also usually an issue with most EAA products, but normally not as bad. Honestly, the entire ratio of most products is a mess (for many reasons, all of which I could elaborate on in detail), but additional methionine supplementation is mandatory.