Amino acids are another one of those popular food supplements use by weight lifters to gain huge amounts of muscle growth and strength. Most weight lifters cannot tell what they are or how they work. All they know is that the guy at the Health Food Store swears by them.

Well the truth is that yes you have to have them in your nutrition and strength training program to make any gains in strength and size. Without amino acids in your program you will be trying to go up the river with out an oar. But, did you know that amino acids are found in great quantities in meats and other sources of protein and that you do not have to buy extra amino acids to gain strength and size?

The process works like this:

Food Source - Meat (beef, fish, chicken) = Protein = Amino Acids = Essential and Nonessential form + Strength training + rest = strength and size increases

Amino acids are building blocks of protein containing foods, such as milk, yogurt meat, eggs, beans, nuts, etc. All protein-containing foods are sources of amino acids and so supplements are not necessary. Most consumers are not familiar with the names of these amino acids and are impressed with the scientific sounding names. As a comparison, the chart below shows the amino acid content of a 3 oz. Portion of chicken (which is about the size of deck of cards) and a popular amino acid supplement that retails for $22.00 for 180 capsules.

CHICKEN BREAST VS. AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTS

3 oz Chicken Breast	Amino Acid	Supplement
390 mg	Tryptophan	.55 mg
1412 mg	Threonine	35 mg
1765 mg	Isoleucine	24 mg
2509 mg	Leucine	52 mg
2836 mg	Lysine	169 mg
925 mg	Methionine	9 mg
428 mg	Cystine	.55 mg
1328 mg	Phenyalanine	37 mg
1128 mg	Tyrosine	6 mg
1659 mg	Valine	41 mg
2015 mg	Arginine	129 mg
1037 mg	Histidine	11 mg
1823 mg	Alanine	160 mg

So which is best? The three-ounce chicken breast wins hands down! So instead of an amino acid supplement, try real food first! This will save you money and it tastes a whole lot better!

You can see that amino acids are important to have in your diet to gain muscle mass. But you do not have to buy them from a health food store; they are on sale at your local grocery store in the meat area and dairy section of Kroger's and Thriftway.

Need more protein in your diet? Then eat more of these foods, which have the highest levels of protein and amino acids in them:

Salmon- 42 g per fillet
Haddock and rockfish- 36 g per fillet
Chicken breast- 35 g per breast
Cottage cheese- 31 g per cup
Veal and lamb- 31 g per 3 oz.
Ricotta cheese- 28 g per cup
Crab meat- 28 g per cup
Pork chops- 27 g per 3 oz.
Beef- 27 g per 3 oz.
Turkey breast- 25 g per 3 oz.
Lentils, white beans- 18 g per cup

Are you getting enough protein in your diet? Depends on whether you are working out or not and what your fitness goal is. The average person needs 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. But strenuous exercise can nearly double those requirements. Peter Lemon, a professor of exercise nutrition at the University of Western Ontario, recommends getting between 0.5 and 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight. For a strength training athlete those numbers are even higher - generally 0.7 and 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

But you also do too much of a good thing also. If you are consuming anything over a gram of protein per pound of body weight - or - more you're overdoing it and hurting yourself. Your body won't be able to process those extra calories, and they'll ultimately end up as fat and not muscle.