BCAAs

Unless you are training in the morning/early afternoon without eating anything since the night before you can skip the BCAAs. They are found naturally in the protein you are eating, so keep hitting your protein macros and save your money.

I take BCAAs before and after really hard workouts and my Spartan/OCR races. May be placebo, but I think it helps reduce soreness. And an extra kick of BCAA's and protein after 2-4 hours of running up mountains, crawling through mud, and climbing over walls never hurts.

But I agree with Ryan, they are probably unnecessary. They certainly won't help you lose weight. Just make sure you are taking in enough protein and you should be good!

I went through a bottle of them, taken pre-lifting, and didn't notice any difference.

It really depends. If you're low-carb then there's likely a lot of protein in your diet already so if you're hitting your protein targets then it's probably not necessary. If you train fasted in the morning then you might consider taking BCAA's to help prevent Amino Acids from being broken down during training. They won't hurt you, they might help but you'll have to judge for yourself through some trial and error.

CherryChan81 wrote: »

thanks all... i wanted a faster recovery after my training... my trainer just banned me from coming to the gym today and he de-load my sets by half yesterday... it's kinda depressing seeing that i am getting weaker instead of stronger...

I bet you are undereating. I have to poke face to get in all my fats and protein into my body. I can get the fat from coconut oil OK but just three weeks ago I picked up some whey protein. Muscle (had very little to start) is starting to show up. Because I seldom am hungry after killing the sugar a couple months ago for the first time in my 63 years I have to remember to eat.

EAT, EAT and EAT a good ratio of Fats/Proteins. Forget weight loss because it will come when you get strong enough to make it worth your time to train. I have tried to gain weight eating no carbs (<50 grams daily) and I can not do it after two months being total off sugar. I have not lost much but my strength is 20x of four months ago and real muscle is starting to form.

You have to get healthy before you can shed weight.

I take them. They're supposed to preserve muscle loss when cutting weight. They also give me more energy when I lift.

CherryChan81 wrote: »

thanks all... i wanted a faster recovery after my training... my trainer just banned me from coming to the gym today and he de-load my sets by half yesterday... it's kinda depressing seeing that i am getting weaker instead of stronger...

Do you understand what deloads are/what their purpose is? Or do you mean you are just "feeling" weaker because you aren't pushing it this week?

CherryChan81 wrote: »

PS: my trainer just banned me for another 2 days of going to the gym... so saturday and sunday rest... i am feeling that i am soooo damn weak and fat!!!

How long have you been eating low carb? How do you measure to know if you have converted over to running mainly on ketones vs glucose?

It can take 3-18 months to get over to and keto adapted based on different factors. By the way any protein powder be it whey or casein that I have purchased has BCAA's naturally in it.

I am not a trainer but common sense would seem to indicate you are going to have to eat enough of some kind of FOOD to start working out so you do not keep going backwards health wise. Gaining weight for most people is just a symptom of the real problem(s). We must learn and address the 'real' problem that lead to our weight gain with we are going to lose and keep it off long term. Any thyroid problem is a SERIOUS problem when it comes to weight gain or loss. Best of luck.

CherryChan81 wrote: »

philwrightfitness wrote: »

Bcaas have been shown to enhance performance in some studies... Primarily in they stall cns exhaustion although being present in skeletal muscle does help energy creation. I would suggest that relying on your dietary protein is not necessarily an effective strategy because this will depend on the bio availability in the source and the timing of the consumption. If you are on low carb the lack of performance could be low electrolytes keep an eye on your sodium potassium and magnesium levels especially sodium

Do you mean I need more sodium on low carb?

Yes sodium is a problem as keto increases urinary excretion, you want to aim for daily:
Sodium 3-5g
Potassium 2.0 -2.5 g
Magnesium 300 milligrams
Obviously if you have an existing health problem consult a doctor but these levels should help