To me, a day without amino acid supplements is exhausting. And it gets worse as I get older. I just get a modest level of exercise to keep fit daily - cardio as well as weights. I merely take half of the recommended dose of amino acid supplements and still, I find them really, really effective.
They make a huge difference in sustaining my energy level throughout the day. Whether I can lift up my barbell in the afternoon or not depends on whether I remember to take my amino acids in the morning.
Now, I don't go overboard with them. I actually take only half the recommended dose, but let me tell you, they pack a punch! It's surprising how something so small can make such a big difference. On days when I take my amino acids, I can feel the energy coursing through me. It's like I've had a great night's sleep and I'm ready to take on the world. On the flip side, if I skip them, it's a whole different story. I struggle with even the thought of lifting weights. Can you believe the difference?
What's fascinating is how these supplements work. They're basically the building blocks of protein, helping with muscle repair and growth. This is super helpful for anyone who exercises regularly. Plus, they play a crucial role in energy production. So, it's not just about muscles, it's about keeping your energy levels up too.
I've also done some reading on the topic, and it's clear that as we age, our bodies don't recover as quickly. That's where amino acids can really make a difference. They help reduce muscle fatigue, which is a godsend on those days when I'm feeling a bit sluggish. And it's not just physical energy we're talking about. I've noticed a boost in my mental energy too. You know how it is, right?
Now, I'm not saying amino acids are a miracle cure. They're just one part of a healthy lifestyle. Good nutrition, hydration, and sleep are equally important. But for me, these supplements have been a game changer. I've talked to friends who exercise, and many of them have similar experiences. It's amazing how something as simple as a supplement can have such a noticeable impact on our daily lives.
Essential/Non-Essential Amino Acids
Amino acids are often categorized in these three brackets. "Non-Essential" doesn't mean you don't need them. It means Non-Essential amino acids can be naturally produced by our body, but Essential amino acids can't. So it's 'essential' that we get them in our diet. To avoid confusion, essential amino acids are also called "indispensable amino acids".
It's actually not difficult to take these essential amino acids from the food we eat. In fact, most of us are doing it already, because almost all foods that contain protein have amino acids - meat, eggs, nuts, beans, whole grains, and other dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt. Amino acids are also found in fruits & vegetables, so if you're on a reasonably healthy diet, you're taking a sufficient level of essential and non-essential amino acids. Including vegetarians like myself.
Semi-Essential Amino Acids
Semi-essential amino acids, or "conditional amino acids" cannot be produced by the body when it's in a special condition - illness, when stressed, recovering from injury, infants, elderly, people with certain metabolic diseases, etc. Again if your body's in that kind of condition, you need to get them in your diet, or from a supplement.
So talking 'common sense', if you carry on a crazy extreme diet for a long time, not only will you not be getting essential amino acids but also your body organs will stop functioning properly, hence stop producing enough semi-essential amino acids too.
How Many Amino Acids Are There?
There are 21. Nine of which are classed as essential, 6 as semi-essential, and 6 as non-essential. Some experts categorize slightly differently due to the overlapping "essentiality", but let's stick to the information on Wiki for now.
Essential Amino Acids
- Histidine - helps blood flow, binds protein (histamine)
- Isoleucine - repairs/rebuilds muscles
- Leucine - repairs/rebuilds muscles
- Lysine - hormones, muscles, enzymes
- Methionine - growths, metabolism, healing wounds
- Phenylalanine - healthy skin, anti-depressant
- Threonine - stabilizes blood sugar levels, maintains liver health, reduces stress, rebuilds skin
- Tryptophan - controls mood, reduces stress (serotonin)
- Valine - metabolizes muscles, repairs tissues
Conditionally Essential Amino Acids
- Arginine - helps kidneys remove waste, and blood flow, maintains immune/hormone functions
- Cysteine - antioxidant, healthy skin, hair and nails
- Glutamine - muscle growth and repair, burns fat, brain health, energy
- Glycine - muscle growth and repair, reduces stress, anti-ageing, improves immune system
- Proline - forms collagen, repairs tendons, healthy skin, digestion, reduces stress
- Tyrosine - brain health, skin health, stress relief, metabolism
Non-Essential Amino Acids
- Alanine - helps the liver metabolise and remove toxins
- Aspartic Acid - improves metabolism, combat fatigue and depression
- Asparagine - improves nerve health and liver function
- Glutamic Acid - burns fat, maintains healthy skin/nails/hair
- Serine - forms muscles, burns fat, improves immune system
- Selenocysteine - antioxidant
When you look at each and every element, they all seem to do more or less the same job. And if you're on a reasonably healthy diet, you know you're taking an adequate level of amino acids too. The supplements will boost your energy and muscle-building upon workouts. For that purpose, a set of "branched-chain amino acids (BCAA's)" comes to the key element.
Muscle Building and Fat Loss: BCAA's
3 of the 9 Essential amino acids - Leucine, isoleucine, and Valine are called "branched chains" because they have a branched structure, whilst the other 6 are not. Whatever they look like at a molecule level, these BCAA's are seen as most effective in terms of muscle building, fat loss as well and maintaining the energy level. There are many publications about it but fitness coach Ben Greenfield explains this in detail.
It doesn't mean you can only take BCAA's and ignore all other amino acids. Recommended mixture of supplements is said to be 50% BCAA's, and 50% of other amino acids. So let's go back to the Wikipedia data and check the recommended daily intake:
Essential | mg per kg body weight | mg per 70kg |
|---|---|---|
Histidine | 10mg | 700mg |
Isoleucine | 20mg | 1,400mg |
Leucine | 39mg | 2,730mg |
Lysine | 30mg | 2,100mg |
Methionine + Cysteine | 10.4 + 4.1 = 15mg total | 1,050mg total |
Phenylalanine + Tyrosine | 25mg total | 1,750mg total |
Threonine | 15mg | 1,050mg |
Tryptophan | 4mg | 280mg |
Valine | 26mg | 1,820mg |
According to this chart, the recommended dose of BCAA's against other essential amino acids is 46%, and for a person who weighs 70kg, 5,950mg (= 5.95 grams) of BCAA's is shown as a recommended dosage.
According to Fit Body Supplements, you should not consume more than 40g of BCAA's per day, that's 6-7 times the daily recommended dose. So in other words, you can take quite a lot. You just need to check your total daily intake particularly if you're taking other supplements such as whey protein powder. Because it also contains amino acids, most likely.
The potential side effects of extreme BCAA consumption are nausea, headaches, fatigue, and loss of concentration as well as increased insulin resistance. My personal experience; I'm in my 50s and weigh 65kg, and if I take more than my daily recommended dose, i.e. 5.5g, I tend to lose focus on my work - half of my brain goes elsewhere. So the level of side effects varies from person to person, as you can see.
Best BCAA Ratio - 2:1:1
Furthermore, many nutritionists, fitness experts, and bodybuilders suggest that leucine holds the key to muscle growth, recommending products that use a 2:1:1 ratio of leucine: isoleucine : valine. Which matches with the recommended dose shown in the Wiki data above.
Best Seller: Xtend BCAA + Recovery
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The global market for amino acids is huge and growing. It was valued at around USD 20.8 billion in 2020, and it's expected to keep climbing. People are catching on to how useful these little molecules are.
And when it comes to BCAAs specifically, they've become a staple in the supplement shelves of athletes and fitness enthusiasts. It's estimated that around 17% of all supplement users have tried BCAAs. That’s a lot of people looking for that muscle and energy boost, isn't it?
Yep, bcaa 211 ratio definitely works , the one I use has 3.5g leucine, almost 311. I occasionally forget to take my shake to the gym I can’t do half my workouts without it . I’ll try Scivation next time.
Thanks Martin for sharing your experience, it makes me realise now how ineffective some “amino acid” products that sold off the shelf can be in terms of muscle building. I’ve closely looked at the ingredients of the tablets I had, and discovered the BCAA only contained less than 0.5g in total, ratio of which was 1:1:1. Though it was sold in the “bodybuilding” section in a health food shop. No wonder it was sold cheap! Yes Scivation to me is hugely reliable. Thank you for your visit and leaving a comment.
Amino acids help a lot for my gym exercise, they are essential. Like he says here it makes a big difference, when I don’t take the supplement and when I do take them there’s a lot of difference in the amount of training I can endure.
Thanks Hassan for your comment, I appreciate it!
Awesome information, Ray! The daily suggested dose helps a lot because I just checked my amino acid tabs and was horrified to learn I was only taking like 1/60th of the recommended dose. No wonder I’m not building muscles lol. Thanks bro!
Hi Angelo, thanks for your comment. I’ve seen some supplements that’s named such as “Animo Max 1500”, but as I looked at the ingredients, it contained all the essential & non essential amino acids and the total was 1,500mg which was far less… So yes I see what you mean absolutely. I’m glad the info in this page has helped a little. Thanks for your visit!
Hey, useful info. I didn’t know about BCAA until so recently. The supplement I was taking contained about 20 aminos but each one at small amount, no wonder my muscles weren’t getting any bigger. Found your site and everything made sense to me. I will try the Xtend powder as you recommend. Thank you.
Hi Johan, thanks for your comment. I too wish that I’d had a better knowledge in amino acids (essential, non-essential) earlier. When I was taking supplements with multi-ingredients (for a long time), I didn’t really see the difference. Taking a good, correct amount of BCAA helps build muscles and I’m glad I’m using the right supplements.
Hi, Ray. It’s very educational. Thank you for your post. I didn’t know amino acids help so much to build muscles. I use whey powder before and after each work out, use about 3 times a week. But at 38 it is getting harder. I wonder if amino acids help to increase. Please advise. Thank you Akaru.
Hi Akaru, thanks for your comment. If you are using whey powder, it’s most likely to contain amino acids, so I suggest you check the ingredients carefully. You could get animo acid tablets to top it up but try not to exceed the daily recommended dose. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to get back to me. I can have a look for you. Thanks for your visit!
I too was taking very small amount of amino acids daily and realized it was a tiny doze. I checked the chart on your site and increased the doze. Unfortunately I started to sweat so much and my body started to smell. Is there any way that I can get around it? Thanks for your help. Jin-A.
Hi Jin-A, amino acids keep the metabolism going while their repair muscle tissues, so it does make sense that the energy will make you sweat especially in the summer. I have experienced that in the past and have reduced the amount of powder and found my optimal dose. So it may be something you can consider doing it? Thanks for sharing your experience, try reducing the dose and let me know of the progress.
This is the exact information I was just looking for. In the past I tried all sorts of whey powders and always wondered why some weren’t as effective. In retrospect it must have been to do with the BCAA contents. Which I never checked or googled about in the past. I’ll get the supplements today, as I am 43 losing muscles quickly I need a good solution. Thanks for your help.
Hi Jules, thanks for sharing your experience. Some whey powders have very little amino acids or BCAA, so as you say, it’s vital that you check the ingredients. I always go for well-known brands but I’ve learned a good lesson myself too, I try to check the BCAA contents carefully and do a little calculation before I get the most suitable protein powder for myself. Thanks for your visit!
I have taken amino acid supplements excessively in the past and damaged my liver and kidney. So please please be careful not to overdose it, I tell you.
Hi, thanks for your comment, and sorry to hear that the supplements gave an adverse effect on you. By all means we all have to be careful not to overdose anything!