Body building with Huel and - any additional supplements? Training recommendations?

FWIW: About how big a calorie deficit to aim for: Each kilogram of bodyfat can not release more than 69 kcal/day. If you’re at 20% BF at 112 kg that’s about 22,5 kg. 22,5x69=1552 kcal. That’s in theory. You will most probably lose a significant amount of fat free mass on such big a deficit. But if you aim for half of that, 800 kcal, you’ll probably be fine.

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That’s an ok squat. Bigger than mine. :angry:

Anyway, everyone should of course try whatever they think will work for them. If you feel better on BCAA, by all means use them.

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BCAA’s have no evidence of increased recovery time other than when used during intermittent fasting, right?

As for Creatine, various studies have shown that “loading” is not necessary and that having 5g per day off the bat is more than enough. Your muscles saturate fast enough for loading to be unnecessary.

Try Vivolife for supplements fantastic company and products all vegan and organic.

I have personally trained with and without them and I notice a big difference, there’s some evidence :slight_smile:

Interesting. I notice a big difference if I put some intraworkout BCAA supplement in my water bottle for runs over 5k, but have never noticed a recovery boost when eating properly after workouts. I’ll have another try at it and see if I notice a difference!

Actually, that’s an anecdote, not evidence.

In scientific studies, they’ve been found to be worthless.

I’ll take the placebo affect then. I train with 3 guys, we all lift around the same weight, or we did anyway. 2 of us on BCAA’s and cycling creatine can lift more than the other two who just cycled creatine. Those two then cycled BCAA’s and creatine second time round and we did only creatine and they can now lift similar to us again.

This is all based on overtraining workout, so I’m sure if you go to the gym and perform 3 rounds of 10 you’re never going to experience the muscle soreness that comes with overtraining. But that’s why it gets results.

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Placebo is actually much more powerful than most ”real” effects, so that makes sense. What’s amazing is that part of the placebo effect remains even though you know you’re taking a placebo.

Probably because I still believe it’s the supplement. But maybe that will change for my next cycle

If you want muscle protein synthesis (you want to build muscle) You need around 2.5/3g of leucine in your protein intake to kick this process off. Unless you’re having 30g of some good whey protein powder, you might not hit this mark so take some BCAA which a good leucine ratio. There is not enough protein in huel to get the amino acid hit. Then again, i’m going to bow to @JamesCollier for any advice on this matter !

Meh, sounds like marketing fluff. I’ve built a considerable amount of muscle using huel with no BCAAs

@GTIPuG Check out the studies linked in the link.

Yeah, I took a look, I just think it’s Meh. My own experience directly counters what is mentioned there. Obviously people are different, maybe some need to buy BCAAs separately to experience muscle growth, but I think not.

Well I’m still watching - doesn’t seem to be any consensus? :slight_smile: thanks for all your feedback everyone!

‘meh’ vs with my own experience and scientific studies gives BCAA the win for me. I understand everyone has their own opinion and reason for it so in the end op, try it and find out! There’s a lot of BS marketed sugar-fueled BCAA’s but if you are to give them a go, see my post above for amounts.

I’ve investigated BCAAs and found that as an intra-workout supplement used during long runs, they did wonders. I’ve never felt the need to use them to induce protein synthesis, though. I’ve never really struggled with getting muscle growth, hence haven’t investigated it.

Have you tried using just Huel and whey without any added BCAAs? I’d be interested to see if you noticed a difference. Perhaps I’ll have a gander myself.

I have tried Huel with and without BCAAs and I notice a difference enough for me to throw a scoop in my morning shake. I think your mileage varies depending on how lean you are. For someone low in bodyfat, I think BCAA’s help.

Sadly I’m not low in body fat :confused:

Ah okay, I’m probably at 15% at present. Looking to finish my cut around May time so will give what you say a go :slight_smile: