When to Take BCAA for Weight Loss & Improve your Performance?

Timing of taking nutrients are as important as exercises and nutrients. You can’t miss any of these factors if you are on any of the fitness regimes. Nutrients are very effective if taken at a specific time. Like casein is quite effective while taking before going to bed and whey protein is quite effective when taken after training, though both of the supplements have almost the same nutritional value. BCAAs or branched chain amino acids also have the same property. Taking bcaa supplement is always beneficial but for weight loss and improving your performance it should be taken at different times. Let’s first know how the supplement functions in the body.

Branched Chain Amino Acids:

BCAAs are a group of three out of nine essential amino acids that includes leucine, isoleucine, and valine. These essential amino acids are commonly consumed boosting muscle growth and enhancing your athletic performance. BCAAs are known as essential amino acids because they can’t be made by the body itself.

How BCAAs Work ?

A large chunk of the body is made by amino acids. Almost 40% of nine essential acids are found in almost 18% of the muscles in our body. BCAAs are broken down in the muscles unlike the rest of the amino acids which break down in the liver. This breaking down process plays an important role in energy production while doing exercises. Along with that BCAAs also play other different roles in the body that include:

• Regulating the blood sugar levels in your body.
• Preserve your sugar stores in the muscles and liver. 
• Stimulates the cells so that they can take the sugar from the bloodstream. 
• Can reduce the fatigue that you feel while doing exercise. 
• Reduces serotonin production in the brain.
• Leucine plays the biggest role in producing muscle protein. 
• Isoleucine and valine play an important role in producing energy very effectively. 

These are some of the functions of BCAAs in our body that have tremendous benefits to us

Benefits of BCAAs:

BCAA energy drinks have several benefits in the body other than producing energy. 

• May reduce Fatigue While Doing Exercises: Some of the studies found that people who were using BCAAs regularly during the exercises found less fatigue in comparison to those who were given placebo. 
• Improves athletic performance: As the BCCAs are able to increase resistance, it helped people who were taking the supplements regularly to increase their exercises 17% longer compared to those who were using placebo. In another study on cycling participants showed that people who drank BCAA energy drinks cycled for 12% longer than people who drank placebo. 
• Reduces Muscle Soreness: To reduce the soreness of muscles, regularize the use of BCAA. One way of reducing muscle soreness is to lower the blood levels of lactate dehydrogenase and enzymes creatine kinase. These do muscle damages. As the muscle soreness reduces,  participants can feel an increase in their athletic performance.  It is found that people who are taking BCAAs can do 20% better than those who take placebo.
•  Increase Muscle Mass: BCAAs can activate the enzymes that help to build muscles. Higher proportions of isoleucine, valine, and leucine help in increasing muscle. Though there are many brands out there that claim to offer the best BCAA bodybuilding but you can take it through protein rich foods. 
• Weight management: When your athletic performance increases, you start losing your stored fat. This fat works as a fuel for your body that keeps the energy supply continuously. In this way, BCAAs help you to increase metabolism and improve weights. 

When To Take BCAA Supplements For Effective Results:

Some of the tests conducted on the timing of BCAAs supplementation and found some of the results.

• Before Arm Exercises: BCAAs are taken as a pre workout supplement. By taking 10 grams BCAAs before your intense training, you can feel less muscle soreness. One of the studies says that people who were taking BCAAs before doing arm exercises, young men experience lower blood markers and muscle soreness than people who were taking BCAAs after the exercises. 
• After Weight lifting: BCAAs with whey protein powder is quite effective if taken after your heavy weight lifting training. They found improvement in their strength and body composition. 
• Meantime Exercising: If you take the BCAA supplement meantime exercising, you can experience your endurance in cycling, running, and other training exercises. 
• Other Timing: BCAAs are on their peakest after 30 minutes of consuming. So, many experts suggest taking the BCAAs supplement after 45 minutes of the training for getting maximum benefits. 

There are many other factors that can enhance the effectiveness of BCAA that includes daily doses. If you have 75 kg you should at least take 15 grams of BCAAs in one day. You need BCAAs for building muscle protein, so first try to take it from natural sources.