Muscle Protein Synthesis and Leucine

Hey Jordan, I’m now fully invested in stimulating muscle protein synthesis every 3-5 hours. I live overseas and economically getting barbell medicine’s protein is not ideal.

Myprotein’s normal whey has the Leucine content specified at 10.6g/100g, which comes out to around 2.65g Leucine per serving. Assuming they have good quality control, should their whey protein isolate exceed 3.0g per serving?

Would there be any issue with taking extra leucine? I can buy 12lbs of whey isolate and 250g of Leucine for around $100. Throwing in an extra few grams of Leucine would be pretty easy.

Thanks for your time.

MPS isn’t driven solely by leucine, as even with enough leucine on board, you still need the rest of the EAAs to drive MPS. That said, if a protein source has > 2g of leucine per 20g of protein and a good concentration of EAAs (most protein supplements do), it’s probably fine. We have a higher leucine content than the standard 2.4g/serving because we wanted folks who are more anabolically resistant, e.g. those with medical conditions, older individuals, those new to training, etc. to be able to use the same dose of protein.

To specifically address your question, I wouldn’t buy or use free form leucine for any reason.

Thank you for the detailed answer :slight_smile: