Protein Vs. BCAA Supplements — Which to Take and When?

When supplementing your training routine, it’s common knowledge that protein can help you get the gains you’re working hard for in the gym. If you’re already dipping into your protein powder and are looking to take it to the next level, you may have heard of BCAA supplements — branched-chain amino acids.

If you check the label of your favorite supplement, you may find that there is BCAA in protein powder already. Although BCAA is part of a complete protein, when the two are broken down into supplements, there is a difference between BCAAs and protein. BCAAs are available immediately after ingestion, while protein needs time to be digested.

Both types of supplements can help with muscle growth, athletic performance, and recovery. Choosing between them in the battle of protein versus BCAA supplements depends on your timing, your overall diet, and your fitness goal. Should you take BCAA and protein? Let’s dive into the science behind these amino acids and how they play into muscle protein synthesis, so you can figure out what’s right for you.

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

• What Is Protein?
• What is BCAA?
• Differences Between Protein and BCAA
• Protein Vs. BCAA for Muscle Growth
• Protein Vs. BCAA for Athletic Performance
• Protein Vs. BCAA for Recovery
• When to Take Both Protein and BCAA
• Your Takeaways

What Is Protein?

Protein vs. BCAA — let the debate begin. Protein is one of the three macronutrients, along with carbohydrates and fats. Macronutrients are sources of energy that influence your overall health and make up your daily caloric intake. (1) Protein intake, when combined with resistance training, is widely known to help skeletal muscle growth, repairing and regenerating muscles during recovery. (2)

Muscle protein contains 20 amino acids, 11 of which are non-essential — meaning they’re produced naturally in your body. The remaining nine amino acids are considered essential. The nine essential amino acids cannot be made in the body and must be taken in through your diet. They are: leucine, valine, isoleucine, histidine, lysine, methionine, threonine, tryptophan, and phenylalanine. (3) 

BCAAs, branched-chain amino acids, are only the first three: leucine, valine, and isoleucine. (3)

Your body needs all nine essential amino acids, and they can be consumed at once through a complete protein. (4) Amino acids are the building blocks of protein — they help your body build and maintain skeletal muscle and tissue. They help prevent metabolic diseases and can boost your immune system. They’re also needed to produce neurotransmitters and hormones. (4) 

Protein and BCAAs are both key to building muscle, but complete protein sources made of all nine essential amino acids have benefits to your overall health, outside of training gains.

Sources of Protein

Protein is a key nutrient to overall health, and consuming it as part of a healthy diet helps to preserve lean body mass by providing a thermogenic effect. (5)

You can get protein from food — both animal and plant sources — and get more by taking a variety of protein supplements. You can reach the daily recommended intake (0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight) through food alone. (6) Athletes looking to hit higher macros (1.6 to two grams per kilogram of body weight) may benefit from supplements. (6)

Below are some food and supplement sources of protein:

• Red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese
• Tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, seeds
• Whey protein, whey concentrate, whey isolate, casein protein
• Pea protein powder, soy protein powder, hemp protein powder

What Is BCAA?

BCAA — branched-chain amino acids — are three of the nine essential amino acids. They include leucine, valine, and isoleucine. These three amino acids play a key role in stimulating new muscle growth through muscle protein synthesis. (7) 

Muscle protein synthesis occurs when amino acids are bound to skeletal muscle. Research shows that new muscle synthesis requires all nine essential amino acids and eleven non-essential amino acids to be adequately present in your body. (7)

The three BCAAs — particularly leucine — are precursors for muscle protein synthesis. (7) So while all 20 muscle-building amino acids must be present for muscles to grow, taking BCAAs can help to stimulate and enhance muscle protein synthesis. As such, BCAA supplements may be helpful for promoting hypertrophy. (8)

Sources of BCAA

Since BCAAs are three of the amino acids found in protein, BCAAs are readily available through protein-rich food sources. When it comes to food, you don’t need to choose between BCAA or protein — you’ll automatically get both.

BCAAs are also available in supplement form. In this case, they may be separate from a complete protein powder. Protein powder usually contains BCAAs, but BCAAs alone don’t contain all the amino acids that protein powder will. Can BCAA replace protein? Not if you are looking for a complete protein source.

Here is a list of some sources of BCAA, including animal and plant-based food sources, as well as supplements:

• Beef, fish, chicken, turkey, eggs, cheeses
• Chickpeas, quinoa, beans, lentils, tofu, nuts
• BCAA powder supplements
• Whey protein powder, soy protein powder

Differences Between Protein and BCAA

If you’re choosing between protein or BCAAs, remember that complete protein already contains BCAAs. The first difference is that BCAAs are only three of the essential amino acids. Complete protein contains the three BCAAs, the other six essential amino acids, and the 11 non-essential amino acids as well. 

The next difference between the two is what happens to them in your body. Ingesting BCAAs through a supplement makes them readily available to build and repair muscle, as they are metabolized in your skeletal muscles. The remaining amino acids are processed in your liver. (9)

Ingesting protein requires your body to metabolize it and then break it down into amino acids. (6) The process of digesting a complete protein takes a bit longer than taking BCAAs directly. Since complete protein provides other benefits to your body, timing may not be an issue. But if you’re looking for direct muscle benefits, BCAA may be quicker.

So protein includes BCAAs, but does BCAA count as protein? Only as part of it — you will also need the rest of your amino acids, present in complete proteins, to build muscle. (10) 

If you’re wondering whether to make your next protein shake with BCAA, it all comes down to what you’re trying to get out of your training and supplements. Let’s make like protein in the body, and break it down.

Protein Vs. BCAA for Muscle Growth

When you’re training for muscle growth, you’ve probably found that adding supplements helps you hit your protein intake goals. All 20 amino acids — found in complete protein sources — must be present in your body for hypertrophy to occur. (10) 

Studies repeatedly suggest that protein supplementation helps build muscle mass in conjunction with training and meeting your overall recommended dietary intake. (11) Protein supplements alone aren’t enough, but they can be a helpful boost to daily protein intake. Check out BarBend’s protein calculator to get your individual needs for your goals. 

BCAA supplements provide essential muscle-building amino acids instantly to your body, and studies also suggest that BCAAs help with hypertrophy. (9) 

While complete protein contains all amino acids when they get broken down in your body, some of them may go to other bodily functions. Taking BCAAs is, theoretically, a way to ensure that they’ll go towards building muscle. But, it’s not an exact science.

If you can tolerate dairy, whey protein powder may be a good option if you’re looking to get all your amino acids in, including BCAAs. You may not need to take BCAA and whey protein together, because you can get it all at once. Certain brands of whey also advertise their leucine content, the most important BCAA for muscle growth. (7)

However, some research has shown that supplementing with whey protein powder had a greater increased muscle thickness than supplementing with leucine collagen alone. (12)

The Winner

BCAA or protein powder? When it comes to price and convenience, if you can only choose one supplement for muscle growth, protein powder wins, because it often contains both. You can get a lot more of it for less money, and you can reap the benefits of BCAA and protein powder at the same time.

You can get BCAA and whey protein in one affordable, muscle-building scoop. If you’re not into whey, opt for protein powder that contains BCAAs, to get the most bang for your buck.

If you are vegan, you may be less likely to get complete protein sources with each meal unless you intentionally combine proteins to ensure a full spread. In that case, then it may be worth checking out a BCAA supplement. But ultimately, you will still need to be getting the rest of your amino acids in order to build muscle.

Protein and BCAA Timing for Muscle Growth

Research suggests that it may be best to take both protein and BCAA after exercise to stimulate muscle growth. (8) Protein is not a direct source of energy for workouts, and it needs time to be digested.

You can take amino acids at any time, so if you want to add BCAAs alone to your pre-workout, you likely won’t feel any negative effects. It’s not often advised to take protein powder before a workout, as it takes a long time to digest. If you’re opting to get all your essential amino acids from your protein powder, save your BCAA protein shake for after your session.

Protein Vs. BCAA for Athletic Performance

If you’re looking for supplements to boost your athletic performance, if it’s protein powder vs. BCAA, the latter may have a more direct effect. BCAAs are oxidized in your skeletal muscles, and research shows they may help to stimulate anabolic signaling, which can then help improve performance. (13)

[Read More: The Best Bodyweight Exercises, + Workouts and Tips From a CPT]

In the study of whey protein supplementation versus leucine collagen supplementation of a resistance training program in young adults, although whey protein won out for muscle growth, the two were tied for muscle performance, strength, and power increase. (12) In this case, the two were equal.

The Winner

If it’s protein or BCAA for athletic performance, BCAA wins because it has the most direct link to your muscles’ performance, while protein is more closely linked to growth and recovery after and between workouts. (14)

It comes down to what you have access to, and what’s important to you. If you’re only able to get one supplement, opt for getting your BCAA in whey protein or other protein powder. But if you’re able to split things up, BCAA wins for athletic performance alone, as long as you hit your protein goals through the rest of your daily intake.

Protein and BCAA Timing for Athletic Performance

If you’re invested in the battle of BCAA versus protein for athletic performance, it’s possible that taking BCAA with your pre-workout could stimulate anabolic signaling during your session. There’s no harm in trying that.

But if you’re getting your BCAAs from your protein powder, it’s best to take it post-workout to avoid feeling heavy and sluggish while you’re digesting. You’ll still benefit from the protein, but you’ll just need to keep training to see it in future workouts.

Protein Vs. BCAA For Recovery

Research suggests that taking protein after your training can help improve recovery. BCAAs in particular have been shown to potentially reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). (15) Aside from soreness, research also suggests that BCAAs can improve muscle function and reduce post-exercise muscle damage. (16)

Since protein includes BCAA, you can also reap these benefits from protein powder on its own. Evidence consistently shows that ingesting protein — which naturally includes BCAA — can boost recovery, your immune system, and repair and maintain your lean muscle mass. (17)

The Winner

Do you need BCAA if you take protein? For recovery, probably not. Recovery includes muscle synthesis and repair, which BCAA helps stimulate, but require the rest of the amino acids only found in complete protein. 

Just be sure that your protein powder of choice includes BCAA, and you’ll be sipping those sweet recovery gains.

Protein and BCAA Timing for Recovery

If you’re taking BCAA on its own, taking it before your workout may decrease soreness. (18) If you’re taking them together, it’s also okay to take your BCAA or protein after workout time.

After working hard in the gym breaking down muscle tissue, you can feed it BCAA with protein shakes to build it back up. It will work hard in your body as you rest, hydrate, and later get a good night sleep, since regeneration is a key part of reaching any fitness goal. 

When to Take Both Protein and BCAA

Protein is not a direct source of energy for workouts, and it needs time to digest and break down in your body. Because of this, you may not want to take it directly before a training session. But it may be beneficial to have it after your workout to boost muscle growth and improve recovery. 

It is also important to get protein throughout your day. Including 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal can be an efficient way to hit your daily protein intake goals. 

Studies also show that having protein right before bed is easily digested and quickly absorbed. It can stimulate muscle protein synthesis while you sleep. (19) Train hard during the day, and sleep while your body is hard at work rebuilding and repairing your muscles.

BCAAs are amino acids that are safe to be taken any time. You can add BCAAs to a pre-workout that you take 20 to 30 minutes before your session, especially if you’re looking to improve your athletic performance or decrease soreness. (18) You can have them throughout the day to boost your amino acid intake. 

Remember that you are also getting BCAAs whenever you ingest protein, so you can likely get enough of them without an extra supplement.

Your Takeaways

Here’s the science of BCAAs and protein, broken down into bite-sized pieces of information:

• BCAAs are three essential amino acids, while complete protein contains nine essential and 11 non-essential amino acids (which includes BCAAs).
• BCAAs — pure amino acids — can work immediately to build muscle. Protein takes time to digest and then breaks down into amino acids.
• The main role of BCAAs is to stimulate muscle growth and repair, while protein provides other health benefits for your body.
• While BCAA can stimulate the process of muscle growth, all amino acids must be present in your body for hypertrophy to occur.

If you’re choosing between protein and BCAA, ask yourself:

• What is your intention for taking supplements — muscle growth, athletic performance, or recovery? BCAAs have a slight edge on athletic performance.
• How much money can you invest in supplements? If you can afford to get BCAA and protein powder separately, you might want to stack BCAAs closer to your workout for a small performance edge. Otherwise, protein powder comes with BCAAs, too.
• Are you taking supplements to boost recovery? BCAAs help with recovery, but you need a full spread of amino acids to build your muscles back up. If you want to choose only one, protein will likely help most.
• What does the rest of your diet look like? Are you hitting your protein intake goals, or coming pretty close, through the rest of your diet? If not, you might benefit from supplementing with a complete protein.
• Can you tolerate dairy? If you’re choosing between BCAA or whey protein, choosing whey with BCAA in it can get you the most bang for your buck. 

Protein Vs. BCAA — Who Wins?

BCAAs are three essential amino acids that directly aid in muscle protein synthesis. That’s why you’ll see lots of supplements aimed at strength athletes looking to build and maintain muscle. Protein contains all 20 amino acids — BCAA are only three of them. BCAA and protein together can aid with muscle growth and recovery.

If you’re stacking multiple supplements to hit your training goals, BCAA wins out over protein powder when it comes to athletic performance, since you can take them before your session to stimulate anabolic signaling.

When you only want to get one supplement, protein powder (which contains BCAAs) is the most efficient way to go. So get your BCAA in your protein shake, scoop up, and let the gains begin.

References

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