Why Leucine
🔥 Have you met the most powerful amino acid to help you preserve muscle and burn fat? It’s called leucine.
What is leucine, exactly? Leucine is a branched-chain amino acid (BCAA), which means it is transported to various tissues, including muscles, after your body processes it. This essential amino acid, found in protein-rich foods, is crucial for muscle health and can’t be produced by your body.
What makes leucine so special?
Your muscles are in a continuous state of breakdown and repair called “protein turnover.” Leucine plays a unique role in stimulating muscle protein synthesis. Muscle repair is necessary for physical activity because exercise causes muscle protein breakdown. This makes leucine important for maintaining lean body mass.
How does it help you maintain a healthy weight?
If you’re trying to lose weight, you want to lose body fat but maintain lean body mass, as lean body mass supports your metabolism. This is where leucine comes in. It helps you not only keep but actually build muscle so that you preserve your metabolism. That way, when you stop cutting calories, you still have that metabolically active tissue to help you burn fat rather than muscle, even at rest!
It’s all about balance
Studies have shown that adequate protein enhanced with added leucine used as a meal replacement can be effective in promoting weight loss from fat while preserving muscle mass. This is why products like Life Shake™, Shaklee 180® Meal-in-a-Bar, and Performance® Advanced Physique® 100% Grass-Fed Whey Protein* contain leucine to help you preserve and build lean muscle. Keep in mind that leucine isn’t the only player in the game––it needs to team up with exercise and adequate protein to help you achieve a healthier weight.
Let us know if you have any questions about leucine or leucine products. We are happy to answer! Check out this research paper: Where to find leucine in food and how to feed elderly with sarcopenia in order to counteract loss of muscle mass: Practical advice. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2020.622391 (Frontiers in Nutrition, Jan 2021, vol 7, article 622391)
