This is a tough one! I’m in the same boat I went with BCAAs and a glass of milk. PM me if you want to hear how my results ended up.
One thing I also take is chromium before bed. which IMO is the best thing you can take for dieting. In fact its a supplement staple for me. No side effects, very powerful, very cheap. $7usd for 90 pills.
Okay, I’ll PM you for the results but for everyone here, please tell us why you eventually went with the BCAA’s… do you think the BCAA’s are giving you a benefit for the full 8 hours? Do you take another dose during the night? Thanks!
Heres my thinking, Casin is found in milk, so I drink milk before I sleep. I also tend to eat a can or two of tuna, or half a pound of turkey before bed. All of them help me through the night. Natural sources of BCAAs are harder to find. I also havn’t drank a protein shake in about a year and have put on about 20 pounds of muscle (drug free). I think I have my diet good enough to where I don’t need them.
With the huge jump in protein shakes I don’t drink them because they have become a more expensive source of protein. They use to be the cheapest. Heres a breakdown of costs of protein also. Milk is also very cheap in my area at 2.50 at gallon which is $.02 a gram of protein, Metabolic Drive is $.045 per gram of protein (which is still very cheap), tuna is $.013 per gram, Theres also ground turkey for $1 a pound which translates to $.012 a gram, but that stuff has lots of bone chips in it and doesn’t taste to hot. if I was not worried about mercury I would be eating 8 cans a day. My metabolism is really high so I have to eat a lot every day to put on muscle about 4000 calories at 185lbs. The volume is so high I have to look at cost of food a lot.
Disclaimer: I am not saying protein shakes aren’t good though. They are infinitely convenient and they are the perfect thing for losing weight, because of caloric restrictions and such. I admit I am having a hard time getting cut at the moment.