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Strong Support

Even if you have more branched-chain amino acids in your blood, insulin still works the same way to stop your muscles from breaking down — adding these amino acids doesn’t make insulin any better at protecting your muscles.

33
Pro
0
Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

33

Community contributions welcome

33

Insulin does not stimulate muscle protein synthesis during increased plasma branched-chain amino acids alone but still decreases whole body proteolysis in humans

Randomized Controlled Trial
Human
2016 Oct 1

The study found that even when people had more BCAAs in their blood, insulin still worked the same way to stop muscle breakdown — adding BCAAs didn’t make insulin any better at protecting muscle.

Contradicting (0)

0

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No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Insulin does not stimulate muscle protein synthesis during increased plasma branched-chain amino acids alone but still decreases whole body proteolysis in humans

Score: 33
DOI: 10.1152/ajpendo.00120.2016

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Insulin helps stop your body from breaking down muscle, even if you have a lot more of certain amino acids in your blood than usual — it works no matter what.

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People sell BCAA supplements saying they help you build muscle and get stronger, but scientists aren’t sure if they really work because some studies say yes and others say no.

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