Amino Acids for Weight Loss?

As most of you, I used to naively believe that supplementing amino acids for weight loss was a must if I really wanted to maximize my results.

After all, my favorite bodybuilder Frank Zane, nicknamed the chemist, used to take up to 100 aminos a day, and his outstanding definition/symmetry convinced me to accept this practice as a truism.

I've spent thousands dollars on supplements until I've realized that I was just wasting my money. Not that I wasn't in a good shape. I was (and I am) in a great shape, but after a while it became obvious that with or without the $99 bottle, it was pretty much the same shit.

So do you really need extra amino acids for weight loss? And if yes, in which circumstances?

It's not a secret that protein consumption should be increased whenever calories are reduced because otherwise your body would use lean tissue to cover its energy requirements.

This becomes vital when you approach single digit body fat, and for this reason the higher end I work with is 3.0-3.3g/kg (1.4-1.5g/lb) of target bodyweight.

However, this statement doesn't say much about the quality of protein. Which amino acid profile would give you better results when calories are restricted? Or does it really make a difference?

I was mentioning that during a calorie deficit or prolonged steady state exercise, lean muscle may be depleted.

In fact, your body starts breaking down BCAA (branched chain amino acids), especially leucine, from its muscle tissue to produce alanine, which in turn is needed for glucose production. (This process is called gluconeogenesis, and takes place mainly in the liver.)

Skeletal muscle may also break down its BCAA to produce glutamine, which can be used by different tissues in the body or simply excreted.

However, glutamine is not an effective anti-catabolic or anabolic compound, and contrary to popular belief it's well documented that supplementation doesn't make any difference if sufficient protein is provided.

Glutamine is a conditionally essential amino acid, so it can be very well synthesized in the body.

On the other hand, research shows that leucine supplementation may be useful to keep blood glucose stable when carbohydrate intake is low.

This eliminates the need to use skeletal muscle leucine for glucose production, and therefore spares the lean mass while dieting.

However, it's important to note that in all studies where BCAA/leucine provided a benefit in terms of weight loss or muscle gain, protein intake was far from the above recommendation.

A good example is a classic study on wrestlers cited (but not read or understood) by everyone, in which protein intake was clearly inadequate (not far from the RDI).

I should probably mention that BCAA are useful if, for some reason, you decide to train on an empty stomach, which I don't recommend because your training capacity may be compromised.

Eating more protein means that BCAA/leucine intake increases proportionally, which makes supplementation unnecessary (unless you want to spend your money, and pee more amino acids).

The above table (which is taken from this study) suggests that whey is a good choice because of its higher concentration of BCAA, especially leucine.

Personally, I wouldn't use any liquid protein while dieting because it doesn't have much effect on satiety. You can mix it instead with cottage cheese to balance the casein content, or use it for desserts.

Now, if you don't believe me, feel free to buy some amino acid supplements from Frank Zane's website. 400 capsules, which would last about 2 weeks, cost $105. Do you think this is a good deal? Okay, so then forget about amino acids for weight loss.

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