Why EAAs are the New BCAAs: Essential Amino Acids Stage a Coup

Originally published at: https://blog.priceplow.com/eaa-vs-bcaa

“BCAAs vs. EAAs?” For quite a while, that was the big argument. Over the decades, branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplements have been some of the most popular (and profitable) products on the market. Catapulted into the spotlight by some early — and somewhat questionable — research, along with a lot… …(Read more on the PricePlow Blog)

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Great job here. The only issue I have is at the end…when I saw that I just ordered ProSupps HydroBCAA to switch off with my IntraCell and it wasn’t listed! Where’s the picture of Charlie Brown when you need him?

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And is the thinking that EAA’s would replace a Protein shake? Asking for a friend.

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This hasn’t changed my purpose for using BCAAs when I do. My protein and protein timing is enough.

I’ve had a couple of people come down hard on me in other social media locations over this topic. Just generalizing BCAAs as nothing but useless. These were otherwise intelligent folks too.

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10g EAA’s initiate the same mps response as 25g whey

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Thank you Shorts…

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And to confirm that’s 10g of EAA’s not 10g of AA’s correct?

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Correct. 10g essential

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HydroBCAA is awesome and actually in our Top 10… I just couldn’t list them all and I threw PES in instead because of the leucine. You’re good to go, we reviewed HydroBCAA very highly. Thanks BTW

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If you are a person who is tracking calories and/or macros, should each gram of EAA be counted the same as each gram of protein and four calories?

UPDATE: I have edited this post because it contained factual inaccuracies. Earlier, I was showing Table 1, which was the protein-bound value of BCAAs. We’re looking for the free form calorie total, which is table 2, now shown. See edit history to see differences. Thanks to Alan Aragon for the correction.

Actually this is one thing I was pondering adding to the post, but it really didn’t belong in the context.

But check this out:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/20915822_Energy_content_of_diets_of_variable_amino_acid_composition

BCAAs are more like 4.6 calories per this table… but if you count it as “protein” (4cals) you should be close enough.

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Great info and questions guys

Yup. Love that graph, used it a many times.

For essential aminos I would calculate 6-6.5 as well if you’re going to get to that level of detail with macro controls

Sounds like PricePlow needs to do a new list of the best EAA product guide instead of BCAA

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Does anyone know if any of these top brands listed here are vegetarian friendly?

Considering that’s a selling point, checking a product description will usually tell you if it is.

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Pretty much this, look for “fermented” or one of the brand name animos like “Ajipure”
http://www.ajipure.com/ajipuredifference/resource

Nutrabio’s intra is vegetarian friendly(found in the dietary restrictions tab)

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Other than buying in bulk is there any supplement that provides 10g?

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Now that’s a great question/ ProSuppps is 3G of EAA for example

Two scoops of Humapro, or one scoop of nutrabio intra.