T Nation

BCAA and Protein Shakes

Supplements and Nutrition
#1

Hi guys,

I’ve recently started taking BCAA’s along with a protein shake before and after training. I’d read that your body can only make use of 20grams or so of protein at any one time and was wondering if the BCAA’s count towards this or are they processed in a different manner. Hopefully it doesn’t sound too stupid but my thinking was that protein is chains of amino acids and BCAA’s are just plain old amino acids.

I have used the search function but i couldn’t really find anything that answered my question.

Thanks in advance.

#2

[quote]D3000 wrote:
I’ve recently started taking BCAA’s along with a protein shake before and after training. I’d read that your body can only make use of 20grams or so of protein at any one time …[/quote]

I’m pretty sure that I’m familiar with the research to which you’re referring, and that’s not what it said. Too many have misinterpreted the results.

The research showed showed that protein synthesis is maximized with 20 grams of protein (whey?).

However, there are many other reasons to eat more protein.

#3

OK, thanks for that. Didn’t want to be knocking back the pills as well if it was all just going to get flushed out. They’re too expensive for that.

Need to reread some of these articles that have been posted I think.