No problem man, rant away. This is about progress, you're not bragging or anything of that nature. That Arnold clip was hilarious, he has to be one of the weirdest people on this planet. I'm looking to get myself a BBFU shirt as well in the near future. I'm glad you brought it up, the thread reminded me (yet again).
Now that I think about it Gill, I wouldn't stress the plateau much. I would even dare to say that your plateau could quite possibly come to an end if you started bulking, considering that you consume adequate amounts of protein thus, burning a higher percentage of fat rather than muscle. Not to say that you won't lose ANY muscle but it will definitely be significantly less as opposed to not supplying your body with enough amounts of protein to preserve your muscle tissue. With the correct utilization as a supplement and by the body, leucine will definitely help someone attempting to decrease body fat and overall weight by counteracting muscle breakdown that occurs when eating fewer calories therefore you keep your muscle and since muscle obviously burns more calories than fat, you keep your metabolism up and the "weight loss" comes inevitably from fat.
roehrigs posted this a while back (taken from bb.com)
Quote:
Stimulate Fat Loss - Supplementation of BCAAs has been shown to trigger significant and preferential losses of visceral body fat. Located in the deeper layers of the body under the subcutaneous fat, this visceral fat tends to be resistant to dieting and is hard to lose. In one study, 25 competitive wrestlers were divided into 1 of 3 diet groups: a diet high in BCAAs, a diet low in BCAAs, and a control diet. The wrestlers stayed on the diets for 19 days. The results showed that the high BCAA group lost the most body fat, 17.3% on average. Much of the fat lost was in the abdominal region. This may give credence to BCAAs effectiveness at "spot reducing" the abs. In another study 2 groups of climbers were divided into a BCAA supplemented group and a control group. Both groups lost weight but the BCAA group actually gained muscle mass while losing fat and the other group lost muscle mass.
One theory as to how BCAAs exert their substantial fat burning and muscle building effects is this: When present in high amounts during exercise, the body senses high levels of BCAA in the bloodstream which is typically a sign of excessive muscle breakdown. So the body stops muscle breakdown and uses more fat for fuel. At the same time the extra BCAAs in the blood stimulate insulin so the BCAAs are driven directly to the muscle. So the result is people lose body fat and gain muscle at the same time. If my hunch is correct, in order to benefit the most from the fat loss aspect of BCAAs you should make sure you limit carbohydrate consumption during the 2 hour window before your workout.
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Just a thought. I personally think you could start bulking right now and achieve your fat loss goals as you continue gaining muscle, considering that you'll be keeping your diet relative to your fat loss goals. You can definitely start gaining muscle and burning fat, after all, muscle plays a huge role in metabolism--but you already know that.