Question
I was wondering what your thoughts are on beef protein, BCAAs and “free” HMB? I have two of the three and just waiting on the HMB.
Should I be using these and if so, how?
Answer
Let me put it this way: You can do a lot better. Having said that, I’ll work with what you have and then address HMB.
Beef Protein
Beef protein needs to be approached with caution, given you could be ingesting the ground up hooves of various critters, usually appearing on the label as hydrolyzed collogen. Hydrolyzed collagen protein consists of the hooves, bones and cartilage of various animals. It is not a protein your body can use to build muscle, and its ability to improve collagen in skin is itself a dubious claim. You likely have something called Carnivor beef protein, which at least really is a protein.
Beef has a Biological Value of 80, so straight away understand you need to account for that in your price to benefit ratio. That is, if you desire to ingest 30 grams of protein from beef you really need almost 40 grams of it. One meal or shake doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up when you multiply by the jugs 30 servings. Compare that to a BV of whey at 104. Some doubt this, but even so it’s a lot closer to 100 than 80. Protein isn’t inexpensive anymore so you need to take these things into consideration.
A better beef protein isolate would be AST’s Raptor. They’ve supposedly brought the molecular weight down on a portion of the formula to a very small Dalton level. It can’t be too low though, as I’ve tried it and while it isn’t bad, there’s none of the bitterness that accompanies a truly low molecular weight protein below the 500 dalton range. Also, be advised beef does have meat like taste to it and very thick/frothy when you mix it up.
BCAAs
The BCAAs you can take intra workout but I much prefer EAA’s here given they can complete the protein synthesis cycle, whereas BCAA’s only stimulate it. Big difference.
“Free” HMB
Finally, “Free” HMB has once again come and gone after a messiah like introduction. The study that accompanied its steroid like re-introduction showing steroid like results predictably did it a dis-service. If you’re going to go this route, I’d much rather see you get at least 3g of leucine in every serving of EAA’s or 20-30g serving of whey. That way, you’ll be assured mTOR is maximally stimulated and resulting protein synthesis is optimal.
