Are amino acid supplements like EAAs or BCAAs necessary for weight or longevity benefits?
Amino acid supplements like EAAs and BCAAs usually aren’t necessary for weight loss or longevity benefits, if you’re eating a reasonably balanced diet with enough protein. Here at Alloy, our doctors’ take is pretty straightforward: there isn’t good evidence that adding extra EAAs, BCAAs, collagen, etc, changes someone’s weight trajectory or longevity trajectory, and they can be expensive.
What does seem to matter, especially in midlife and during weight loss, is consistently getting enough total protein (so you’re getting all nine essential amino acids from food), plus strength training and an overall healthy diet. In our Weight Care guidance we use a ballpark protein target of 1.2 to 1.5 g per kg of ideal body weight per day, and we encourage spreading it across meals since you generally need about 20 to 30 g in a meal to trigger muscle protein synthesis. (If you’re plant-based, it can take a little more planning to make sure you’re getting the full mix of essential amino acids.) If you want the longer explanation from an Alloy expert, this chapter gets right into it: Supplements: Essential Amino Acids and BCAAs
For the food-first protein strategy we recommend in Weight Care, these are useful reads:
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