BCAA Megadose

Just bought 1 kilo of bcaa powder. Do you guys think it’s of any use especially being megadosed at around 60 grams spaced out everyday. Heard good things for recovery and lean muscle gain. Any thoughts, experiences or suggestions?

okay, you asked… from personal experience- dunno about lean gains but you can defou expect bouts of depression and anxiety

Taking 10g in between meals is a viable strategy. You would bolus the dose.

Assuming 3-4 large meals…You would take the bcaa 2 hrs after each meal with some carbs(20g or so)…just shift the carbs from your other meals…

sipping 60g throughout the day is a huge waste…I would not do that…

[quote]juverulez wrote:
okay, you asked… from personal experience- dunno about lean gains but you can defou expect bouts of depression and anxiety[/quote]

Care to share a bit more about your experience?

[quote]indyhaan wrote:

[quote]juverulez wrote:
okay, you asked… from personal experience- dunno about lean gains but you can defou expect bouts of depression and anxiety[/quote]

Care to share a bit more about your experience?[/quote]

Sure. I used BCAA and Leucine in quite high doses (30 gms BCAA, then tried 15 grams of Leucine) ONLY in my periworkout shakes and after a couple of days my mood was significantly down, I was quick to anger and negative all the time. Bad times. Switched to EAAs (20 grams) and don’t have any issues any more… If you want to read more about it there are several posts about BCAA megadosing and how it can affect your brain chemistry:

Obviously, everyone is different and you might not get the same sort of response from the aminos but that is my experience…
If you really want to go so high on BCAA’s make sure to be getting loads of vit b6

[quote]juverulez wrote:

[quote]indyhaan wrote:

[quote]juverulez wrote:
okay, you asked… from personal experience- dunno about lean gains but you can defou expect bouts of depression and anxiety[/quote]

Care to share a bit more about your experience?[/quote]

Sure. I used BCAA and Leucine in quite high doses (30 gms BCAA, then tried 15 grams of Leucine) ONLY in my periworkout shakes and after a couple of days my mood was significantly down, I was quick to anger and negative all the time. Bad times. Switched to EAAs (20 grams) and don’t have any issues any more… If you want to read more about it there are several posts about BCAA megadosing and how it can affect your brain chemistry:

Obviously, everyone is different and you might not get the same sort of response from the aminos but that is my experience…
If you really want to go so high on BCAA’s make sure to be getting loads of vit b6

[/quote]

Interesting for sure. The reason I asked is that my mood has been off recently and general feelings of malaise and mild depression. I’m trying to pinpoint the cause of it, and I’m left with the increase in training volume or the high doses of BCAAs. I’m fairly certain I’m just not quite recovering from my workouts, but I’ll have a think about splitting my doses up if things don’t get better during my recovery week.

btw OP…

I admire your dedication to try extreme protocals…

has ate 1 kg of pork scratchings, smoked nettle root, attempted to eat 4kg? of broccoli lol, megadosed cla, among other things i don’t remember

COuld the mood/depression/etc have anything to do with the product containing Soy? I know some BCAAs are made with it and some arent (I buy with no soy, do megadose and no problems) Im wondering if you guys are getting a megadose of soy as well (possibly from other products) and contracting problems from that?

[quote]big balls wrote:
Just bought 1 kilo of bcaa powder. Do you guys think it’s of any use especially being megadosed at around 60 grams spaced out everyday. Heard good things for recovery and lean muscle gain. Any thoughts, experiences or suggestions?[/quote]

quote from derek charlebois from another site.

"I have been using BCAA for the past three years. I have used large amounts of BCAA in the past, but never really contributed my results to the BCAA, though now I realize they played a big part in my results.

Recently I began using large quantities of BCAA as part of a self-experiment and my results have been very impressive. I began “mega-dosing” BCAA in March. ***** also contains citrulline malate and glutamine, which as stated above, should work hand-to-hand with BCAA and increasing protein synthesis by elevating ATP levels.

In order to really put ***** to the test, I decreased my protein intake by 50 grams (200 calories) and replaced that with 50 grams of BCAA. I did this because if I would have just added 50 grams of BCAA, I would be adding 200 more calories to my diet, which should cause a change in lean mass on its own. Here are the results of my month long ***** “mega-dosing” experiment.

The large jump in lean mass during the first week was due to a large increase in intracellar hydration (at least that is how I explain such a large increase), which I would credit to the BCAA’s ability to increase glycogen synthase (the enzyme that catalyzes muscle glycogen storage) activity, which leads to an increase in muscle glycogen and therefore intracellular water.

I also noticed an increase in muscle “fullness” and vascularity during the first week, which would support my theory of increase muscle glycogen and intracellular water storage.

Along with my large increase in lean mass (7 pounds in 4 weeks), I also lost three pounds of fat while bulking. This is most likely due to the BCAA’s ability to increase glucose uptake into skeletal muscle, increased leptin expression, and decreased fatty acid synthase (the enzyme responsible for committed fat storage) in adipocytes (Taylor, 1975)

If One Is Using BCAA Alone, I Would Suggest:

Breakfast: 10 grams
Pre-Workout: 10 grams
During Workout: 10 grams
Post Workout: 10 grams
Bedtime: 10 grams
Total: 50 grams/day

I can’t imagine it should make any huge difference over normal protein, nor should it have any effect on mood.

As far is it being potentially from soy it shouldn’t make a difference if the product is pure.

Hell, it shouldn’t make a difference if it came from old leather as long as it was purified.

Read Thibs and Waterbury’s thoughts in the BCAA article in the store…I think they were both megadosing BCAA’s with themselves or clients for a while.

I find this very interesting. I was on anabolic diet for six months and it caused my seratonin etc to plummet and I ended up with crazy anxiety and was on the verge of panic attacks. I slowly got better when I started eating normally. Fast forward a year and I have been taking 40 grms bcaa 5days a week for 3 months doing leangains with no ill effects. I guess we are all different.

[quote]juverulez wrote:
okay, you asked… from personal experience- dunno about lean gains but you can defou expect bouts of depression and anxiety[/quote]

I actually noticed something similar. 10g pre, 20g mid-workout works wonders for performance and fatigue but has made a very definite impact on my mood during the workout. I find myself irate and very quick to anger. Just the other day I beat this kid to death with a 45 pound plate for looking at me cock-eyed.

Seriously though, BCAA definitely affects my mood, and not in a good way.

I’m actually gonna try a crazier idea than this… but i’m gonna keep it a secret unless it works as well as i anticipate. Guinnea pig i am :slight_smile:

[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:

[quote]juverulez wrote:
okay, you asked… from personal experience- dunno about lean gains but you can defou expect bouts of depression and anxiety[/quote]

I actually noticed something similar. 10g pre, 20g mid-workout works wonders for performance and fatigue but has made a very definite impact on my mood during the workout. I find myself irate and very quick to anger. Just the other day I beat this kid to death with a 45 pound plate for looking at me cock-eyed.

Seriously though, BCAA definitely affects my mood, and not in a good way. [/quote]
Yeah, I even noticed that with BCAA enhanced whey protein

To answer the original question:

For a 90kg athlete a dose of 40g is optimal, taken during training. It has been shown that doses of less than 20g are completely ineffective and a complete waste of money.

This is coming from Charles Poliquin, basically the guy that brought BCAAs to training in North America.

In the store CT says supplementing with bccas has “drug like” effects… thoughts on this ?

[quote]Bigdick1000 wrote:
In the store CT says supplementing with bccas has “drug like” effects… thoughts on this ?[/quote]

It seems some report psychoactive effects from BCAAs (A seeming primary topic on this thread). I, for one, can take in as many BCAA’s as I please with no noticeable affect on psyche, and only noticeable benefits on recovery and anabolism.

Who knows, maybe CT even experienced a positive “high” from BCAAs.

[quote]big balls wrote:
I’m actually gonna try a crazier idea than this… but i’m gonna keep it a secret unless it works as well as i anticipate. Guinnea pig i am :)[/quote]

Bump? IMO you are one of the most intersting posters to read…they should give you a front-page article