BCAA/EAA'S VS Impact Whey Protein

**saorsa** · 11-01-2012 09:29 PM

Im thinking of buying BCAA's or EAA's, to use while I train. To mix up in my water bottle.

Ideally I'd buy both but already spend quite a bit on other supplements so was probably looking at the 1KG bag of BCAA's on it's own.

My question is, would it not be cheaper and pretty much as effective to mix up some Impact Whey Protein and take that instead?

Impact Whey has a high amino acid content, and is much cheaper to buy than either a kilo of BCAA or EAA.

Any thoughts?

**dope540** · 11-01-2012 09:37 PM

unless you train in a fasted state, there isn't any point to bcaa's. standard whey already contains bcaa's.

**saorsa** · 11-01-2012 09:46 PM

Guess it's much cheaper and just as effective sticking to whey then. Cheers.

**James** · 12-01-2012 12:20 PM

Just make sure your diet has nice varied intake of varying protein sources, mostly animal

**saorsa** · 12-01-2012 06:00 PM

Yep I already eat a variety of foods for protein intake. Cheers

**Dadonda** · 13-01-2012 01:32 PM

Although I agree that fasted training is a good reason to use BCAAs.
Anecotally, I find training with BCAAs in any condition markedly increases recovery :-)
I don't know who on here reads ergolog but there are several promising references on BCAAs.
Told you so: BCAAs are anticatabolic
To get 10g of BCAAs how much Whey protein is needed?
I don't like training with a "thick" shake, some BCAAs etc. with flavour seems to work well.

**James** · 13-01-2012 01:55 PM

Well, for maximised protein synthesis, 20g of protein is required in the body, so from 90% whey then you would need around 22-23g of whey powder.

**Dadonda** · 13-01-2012 02:16 PM

OK a few points here :-)
I said anecdotally lol. BCAAs seem to work for well for me, they aren't too expensive, so I may as well carry on using.
I'm not sure that 20g thing is gospell and I've seen it challenged/ridiculed.
BCAAs are primarily metabolised in the muscles other amino acids aren't which was why I asked how much Whey is needed to get 10g BCAA (not 10g protein in total).

**James** · 13-01-2012 02:59 PM

It won't matter at the end of the day, you are looking for optimised protein synthesis and nothing else

20g total protein is optimal, taking into account MTOR upregulation etc

**Dadonda** · 13-01-2012 03:54 PM

OK, if you only eat the optimal 20g protein per meal (I'm not implying you suggest this).
If you then go with 6 meals per day that is 120g protein ie. 480kcal from protein.
If you want 3,000kcal per day (not high for an amatuer athlete or bodybuilder), what else will you eat? Surely the rest isn't all carbs and fat - lol

Muscle synthesis isn’t the only reason to eat protein. There are satiety, thermogenic, and immume system effects to consider.