BCAAs are the essential amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine, which comprise around 35% of your body’s muscle protein. They’re “essential” because your body doesn’t make them on its own—you have to get them from food and workout supplements. Like other amino acids, they’re the building blocks of protein. But these particular aminos may also help preserve muscle glycogen stores, which fuel your muscles and minimize protein breakdown during exercise.

Leucine plays an important role in muscle protein synthesis, while isoleucine induces glucose uptake into cells. Further research is needed to determine valine’s role in a BCAA supplement.

BCAAs are important to ingest on a daily basis, but many protein sources, such as meat and eggs, already provide BCAAs. Supplementation is unnecessary for people with a sufficiently high protein intake (1-1.5g per kg of bodyweight a day or more).

Why Take BCAAs?

Three of the nine essential amino acids are called branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). These are leucine, isoleucine and valine. They account for approximately 35% of essential amino acids in muscle proteins.

BCAAs can be oxidised in skeletal muscle, whereas other essential amino acids are catabolised (broken down) mainly in the liver.

Exercise greatly increases energy expenditure and promotes oxidation of BCAAs in the muscles, therefore supplementation can be helpful for those who wish to maintain or increase muscle mass.

The branched-chain amino acid, leucine, is particularly special as it has been shown that when taken orally, it promotes muscle protein-synthesis (creation of muscle protein).

HOW BCAAS HELP YOU KEEP YOUR MUSCLES

Here are the ways branched-chain amino acids can help you stay swole when you’re dieting.

INCREASE PROTEIN SYNTHESIS

Branched-chain amino acids (which are the essential amino acids valine, isoleucine, and leucine) stimulate muscle protein synthesis, potentially more than a normal protein on its own. Protein synthesis is the metabolic process when your body makes new muscle protein, also known as gains.

REDUCE PROTEIN BREAKDOWN

Increased BCAA levels also work in your favor by reducing the rate of protein breakdown. They do this by decreasing the activity of the protein breakdown pathway, and also by decreasing the expression of several complexes involved in protein breakdown. (They decrease the amount of mRNA produced from the gene that codes for these components.)

BCAA Supplementation Reduces Fatigue and Increase Endurance

BCAA Supplementation Increases Lean Mass

BCAA Supplementation May Reduce Soreness

BCAA Supplementation May Reduce Muscle Damage

HAVE BETTER WORKOUTS

Amino acid supplementation could also help you get a more intense workout. Branched-chain amino acids compete with the amino acid tryptophan for entry into the brain, where tryptophan can be converted to the neurotransmitter serotonin.

During exercise, serotonin levels rise and can make you feel more fatigued, meaning you won’t be able to push as hard.

BCAA supplementation reduces the amount of tryptophan that gets through the blood-brain barrier, and therefore reduces the amount of serotonin produced. This might allow you to work harder, longer, and get more gains.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ESSENTIAL AND NON-ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS

Essential amino acids include all the amino acids that cannot be made by the body, including BCAAs. You must get them from protein foods. There are nine essential amino acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, and valine. Your body can make non-essential amino acids by itself from vitamins and other amino acids.

BCAA content of foods (grams of amino acids/100 g of protein)

Whey protein isolate 26%
Milk protein 21%
Muscle protein 18%
Soy protein isolate 18%
Wheat protein 15%

BCAA Dosage

BCAA powder can be taken in 5g dosages, 2-4 times daily, whenever needed. Consume pre-workout, during training (the powdered form is available as flavoured or unflavoured), post-workout, or during the day to help with delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Capsules have different dosage recommendations.

The trend for fitness and healthy living is growing at an escalating rate in Sri Lanka at the moment. Historically, Sri Lankans are known to be fit and strong because of the food we traditionally consume and because of the lifestyle we follow. But over the years, things have gradually changed and the advent of international food chains (fast food) have conquered us and we have started to change our lifestyles according to it. In addition to this, we have adopted a more physically relaxing routine where we have become stagnated in our own office chair and have become rather lethargic.

Time to change it Sri Lanka!

Alot of our fellow Sri Lankans sport a huge belly and muffin tops especially the people who does desk work. Our most common excuse is, “How can we catch time for a workout?” or “It’s easy to eat something from a fast food stop than making food at home”. Those are few of the common recurring excuses that come up from time to time. It’s the getaway answer and like it or not, at the same time we say “Hello” to all the health issues. This is why we must ensure that we allocate at least 1 hour from our daily schedule. This is why we must eat clean because at the end of the day, we are doing it for us.

Eat Clean, Always!

Before you start any fitness activity, eating healthy plays a huge role. They say it’s 30% Workouts and 70% Diet. This has a truth behind it.

In Sri Lanka, it’s difficult to go for a calorie counting practice as most of the food doesn’t come with the nutrition facts. But controlling the quantities of food is a must.

In Sri Lanka, we have a wide variety of foods which provides an array of health benefits. Especially from the organic food items which is found all over Sri Lanka. It’s a matter of thinking twice and replacing the food we typically consume with healthy food.

Simple things that won’t cost you a thing but in-return will help you to be energized.

For an example-

• Drink a lot of water. Water doesn’t have calories! Water does have many benefits!
• Red rice as a substance for white rice.
• Adding more food with proteins such as dhaal, soya beans, meat, fish to your daily intakes
• Adding greens to your food which gives many benefits.
• Avoid bread which is full of carbs.
• Avoid deep fried food.
• Avoid processed meat.
• Control your liquor intake. It’s preferable if you can stop altogether.
• Avoid saturated fats as much as you can.
• Fizzy drinks just adds calories to our body and are extremely high in sugar. Avoid it like the plague!

The list goes on and on, but for starters we all could adhere to these few tips.

This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a comfort food once in a while. Yes you can. But always remember, if you eat, you must burn. It’s always better to have an idea about the number of calories the standard food contains. So you automatically start thinking of ways to avoid unhealthy food.

One thing you can assure is when you start eating in a healthy way, you will feel a sense of immense lightness in your body. When you consume the right amount of proteins for your breakfast and your lunch, you will not feel hungry in between the meals and especially during the night.

Good food habits will drive you towards a healthy lifestyle. It’s the starting point of your Fitness Journey. When you think about achieving a chiseled mid-section, you are skipping one major point; the food. A lot of health problems such as Diabetes, Cholesterol and Obesity exist because we eat the wrong food and we don’t think when we eat.

Try it once and then your mindset will be changed, your lifestyle will be changed! In a positive way for a positive future.

Written By – Shehan Perera.

Nutrition provides body with energy, builds muscle, bone and organs, and a lack of attention to the aforementioned areas is what sets apart healthy  individuals from unhealthy individuals.

Of the 6 main nutrients, – i.e. carbohydrates, proteins, fat, water, vitamins and minerals the discussion in this article focusses on the 3 major nutrients of carbohydrates, protein, and fat, as follows:

1) Carbohydrates:

• Provide stored energy (Glycogen and Fat)
• Instant energy source and 1 gram provides 4 calories
• Protein sparing (prevents protein used as source of energy)
• Aid in fat burning
• Should ideally be 55% of your daily food intake

Examples of carbohydrates usage in common activity include the following activities:

• Walking = least amount less than 50%
• Medium Jog = around 50%
• Running = More than 50 %

Note: physically active population should take in an adequate amount of carbohydrates depending on sports and energy requirements per each individual and each respective physical activity.

Common Food Items:

(NOTE: There could be slight variances in calories for individual food items, depending on brand, so make sure to check all food labels before purchase)

2) Proteins:

• Build and maintain muscle, bones and organs
• Provide 4 calories per gram
• Transport nutrition to proper body tissues
• Are responsible Hormone production
• Maintain blood volume and sweat rate when you exercise
• Should be 15% of your daily total calorie intake

Note: It is advisable to have no more than 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body weight (this topic will be covered in an upcoming article).

Common Food Items:

3) Fat:

• Insulates your body in extreme temperature
• Provides 9 calories per gram
• Carries essential nutrient (Ex: Vitamin K, D, A, E)
• Cushions against concussive forces
• Should be 25% of daily total calories (mainly from healthy fat).

Commonly used classification:

• Triglycerides = Common from dietary fats and oils
• Saturated Fat = Increase cholesterol found in meat and diary products
• Low density Lipoprotein (LDL) = Major carrier of cholesterol and lipids in blood
• High density Lipoprotein (HDL) = Carry lipids away from storage and to liver for metabolism (Removal of cholesterol)

Common Food Items:

Always remember also to EAT ACCORDING TO YOUR ACTIVITY LEVEL.  By eating more food and consuming more calories, than you burn, will result in you gaining fat and make you unhealthy.  Also, eating less food and consuming less calories than your body requires for your level of physical activity, will cause you to lose your lean muscle and make you unhealthy.

Low-to-no-carb diets have been all the rage for years. There was the Atkin’s Diet, the South Beach Diet, the Dukan diet, the Ketogenic diet, and the Paleo diet—to name just a few of the more popular plans. Many swear by the diets’ weight loss benefits, but several new studies suggest that limiting carbs may do more than slim your waistline—it may even save your life.

Some people are just plain eating too many carbs, and these are the signs you are one of them. If you overindulge on high carb foods, limiting those carbs can be a life-saver, literally.

In one study, people who ate a lot of carbs (more than 60 percent of their daily calories) had a nearly 30 percent greater risk of dying during a seven-plus year period than people eating a low-carb diet.Here’s how the researchers figured this out: In their Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, they followed people aged 35 to 70 from 18 countries for 7.4 years on average. Participants answered questions about the foods they ate using a standard questionnaire, and researchers categorized them into groups based on their intake of carbs, fats, and protein.During the study period, 5,796 participants died and 4,784 had heart attacks or strokes. Researchers took a look at their diets and found that those who consumed the greatest amount of carbs were more likely to die, when compared with their counterparts who consumed the least. Fat, however, seemed protective. People who ate high-fat diets (about 35 percent of daily energy intake) had a 23 percent lower risk of mortality, and an 18 percent lower risk of stroke compared to low intake group (11 percent energy).

Here are those killer carbs to avoid:

Sweetened Soda and Coffee drinks

Also high on the list of dangerous carbs are sweetened sodas,. A can of Coke has 39 grams of carbs, not to mention at least 150 empty calories. Flavored lattes are also on the hit list as they rank high in blood-sugar spiking carbs,  soda especially, have been linked to skyrocketing rates of obesity.

White rice, Bread, and Pasta

These foods are examples of simple carbohydrates that give carbs a bad name,. ‘All carbs are not created equal.’ White processed carbs are low in fiber and tend to spike blood sugar: ‘Read food labels and make sure the fiber content is greater than 3 grams per serving.’Brown rice, wild rice, and quinoa are healthier alternatives to white rice. Whole grain pastas and breads are also smart substitutions.

Breakfast Cereals

Speaking of breakfast, even some of the healthier-sounding cereals in the aisle may be high carb foods loaded with simple sugars and low in nutritional value,. Check the fiber content and make sure it is above 3 grams per serving, and choose single ingredient cereals for breakfast such as oatmeal when and where you can.

Cookies, Doughnuts, and Baked Goods

Simple carbs such as doughnuts, muffins, and cookies lack essential vitamins and minerals. They also spike blood sugar quickly and then cause an energy low, unlike complex carbs that are made up of starch and fiber and release gradually to provide a steady source of energy. ‘

Samaposha, a pre-cooked cereal based nutritious supplement food, is made from corn, soya, green gram and rice, and is a very good addition to a diet to anyone who is into fitness or looking to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Nutritional Facts of 100g of Samaposha

Samaposha can be consumed in many ways, The most common is by consuming it with milk.

It could also be made into the traditional “Aggala” (mixture rolled into small balls)

What you need

• 1 cup Samaposha
• 1/2 cup of Scrapped Coconut
• 1tsp Sugar
• Salt to taste
• Few drops of plain tea

How you are going to make
Add all the above mentioned ingredients together and mix it in a bowl. If necessary add ware to hold the mixture. Take enough mixture in to palm and make aggala.

Samaposha could be added to your diet anytime of the day, You could have it for Pre/Post workout, as its carbohydrates are complex, it will digest throughout the day, which could be utilized as energy for your daily routines and workouts.