old you so: BCAAs are anticatabolic

Strength athletes have been using BCAAs during their workouts for decades.

BCAAs are believed to inhibit the breakdown of muscle tissue, and this is not just a
figment of the imagination of supplements makers. Sports scientists at the Astrand
Laboratory in Sweden published the results of a study that confirms this in the
American Journal of Physiology – Endocrinology and Metabolism.
BCAAs
As their name suggests, BCAAs, or branched-chain amino acids, are amino acids with a
branched side chain. The side chain makes the job of the enzymes in muscle cells,
converting amino acids into energy during intensive exertion, easier. That's why your
muscle cells are happy to convert BCAAs into energy during an intensive training session,
and that's why athletes are fond of BCAA supplements. The more BCAAs you have in your
muscles, the slower your muscle cells break down muscle fibre. The anabolic stimulus from
your training remains the same, but you experience less muscle breakdown, so you build
up more muscle mass.
Actually, this isn't the whole story, as BCAAs have other effects too. Leucine is
an anabolic stimulant for muscle cells, leucine and isoleucine stimulate fat burning in
muscle cells, and isoleucine boosts the muscle cells' glucose uptake. [J Nutr. 2005
Sep;135(9):2103-8.] But the emphasis in this new Swedish study is on the anticatabolic
effect of BCAAs.