WHAT ARE BCAA's?
BCAA’s stand short for “Branched Chained Amino Acids”, and they are essential nutrients in the body as your body cannot synthesize them. There are three BCAA’s; L-leucine, L-isoleucine, and L-Valine and these must obtain these through your diet. Six others amino acids are generally also regarded as essential. They are: threonine, tryptophan, lysine, methionine, histidine, and phenylalanine. The nonessential amino acids are: alanine, serine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid and proline. These can be produced by your body.
THE ROLE OF BCAA’s
BCAA as supplements can be easily used during exercise to reduce fatigue, accelerate recovery, reduce muscle soreness, and improve the use of fat for energy, reduce fatigue and improve both mental and physical performance. BCAAs are well known for triggering protein synthesis.
L-Leucine contributes to the maintenance and growth of muscles by supporting the protein synthesis. During a workout, if you have insufficient amounts of L-leucine in your blood- your body will access it from your muscles instead, consequently leading to muscle breakdown. It is widely used by athletes as a supplement and in the treatment of decrementing protein illnesses. L-Leucine is the most important BCAA for older athletes as it prolongs and elevates the protein synthesis in older individuals which other ways drops off after the age of 35.
L-Isoleucine supply your muscles with energy.
L-Valine is an important building block of many enzymes in the body. It also plays a significant role in increasing strength, power and speed as well as muscle growth as it assists in supplying your muscles with energy
WHEN TO TAKE YOUR BCAA SUPPLEMENT
BCAAs are best to take around your workout. Enjoy BCAA’s pre, during or post-workout. I enjoy my BCAA’s during my workout as I have my pre-workout before and my protein supplement after I train. If your goal is to build mass, also consider taking a dose of BCAAs first thing upon waking to help stop the muscle breakdown that is turned on during your night of fasting while you sleep.
I also use BCAA in recipes like healthy icy poles or jelly, or sometimes as a snack drink during the day.
WHAT DOSAGE OF BCAA’sTO TAKE?
Effective Dosage of BCAA is 10 g/day. BCAAs are a 100% safe products with scientifically proven results and as it is water soluble which means your body gets rid of what it doesn’t use.
HOW CAN A BCAA SUPPLEMENT ASSIST WITH YOUR GOAL TO LOSE FAT
It's important to hold onto all the muscle you have when you want to lose weight. The more muscle to fat you have in ratio, the quicker your metabolism will be and the more calories you will use even at rest. So your aim should be to keep your body in a muscle building and fat burning state which BCAA’s can help with. A whey protein shake also helps to achieve this goal as it's high in branch chain amino acids.
BCAA Watermelon Jelly recipe
You need:
- Half a watermelon
- Zero sugar, zero fat jelly crystals
- BCAA’s- I use the @womensbest Ice Tea Peach Flavour
- water
Preparing the watermelon
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Take out the fruit from half a watermelon, be careful so that you don’t break its shell.
Preparing the jelly
The amount of jelly will depend on the size of your watermelon/ other buckets. I recommend preparing the jelly in batches, or double batches and making up more according to your needs
- Boil water in a kettle
- Add 1 cup of boiling water per 1 sachet off jelly powder - or as other ways instructed on your jelly/ gelatine mix
- Add a cup of water to a shaker and add one scoop of your BCAA’s. Shake well.
- Mix the hot jelly mixture with your cold BCAA mixture and stir
- Pour your jelly BCAA mixture into your empty watermelon. Once the watermelon half is full, place in the fridge overnight.
- Cut up and serve!