Better BCAA Supplement: Chain’d Out or Xtend?

Scivation Xtend vs ALRI Chain’d Out

Question:

Based on the ingredients, which is better product — ALRI Chain’d Out or Scivation Xtend?  Thanks.  Nick E. from San Ramon, CA

Answer:

That’s a good question, Nick, as these products are rather similar. So let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Scivation Xtend Ingredients

The exact ingredients and their amounts are straightforward with Scivation Xtend.

Serving size: 11.5 g

Total BCAA’s per serving: 7.1

• L-leucine: 3.5 g
• L-isoleucine: 1.8 g
• L-valine: 1.8 g

Other Ingredients:

• L-glutamine: 2.5 g
• Citrulline Malate: 1 g
• Vitamin B6: 10 mg

ALRI Chain’d Out Ingredients

ALR industries is a bit more evasive about the precise amount of ingredients in their product Chain’d Out.  They only list the total amount of ‘proprietary’ ingredients in the product.

At first glance it would look like there are 7 g (or 7,000 mg as they call it) of BCAA (branched chain amino acids) in the product. However, this is not the case.  the BCAA’s (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) in Chain’d Out are bound to malate. Thus, you have to take into account the molecular weight of the malate to which the amino acids are attached to figure out exactly how much BCAA are in the product.  Don’t worry, Nick, I’ve done the chemistry and math for you.

Serving size: 8.91 g

Total of malate-bound BCAA’s per serving (BCAA Malfactor 211 Matrix as they call it): 7 g

Total BCAA’s per serving: 3.38 g*

• leucine: 1.7 g
• isoleucine: 0.86 g
• valine: 0.82 g

Other ingredients: total 1,800mg

• Alanine
• L-theanine
• CordyActiv (Dong Chong Xia Cao)
• RhoActiv (Rhodiola Rosea Extract)
• AppleActiv (Apple Peel Extract)

It’s impossible to tell how many milligrams of the other ingredients there are because they list them together as a proprietary blend.

ALRI claims that they use a superior your form of BCAA that are 200-300% more bioavailable, but they do not give any studies or evidence to support those claims. They do, however, quote studies which support the effectiveness of supplementing with BCAA’s.  But, to my knowledge, all of these studies use regular free form BCAA’s.  Hmmm…

So which is better?

In terms of ingredients, I far prefer Xtend, because it has citrulline malate and L-glutamine, both of which are good, no-nonsense supplements.

As for the additional ingredients in Chain’d Out: if I’m going to take herbal supplements like rhodiola rosea, I prefer… make that demand… to know how much I’m taking.

Ingredients winner — Xtend

I calculated the cost per gram of BCAA in each product and Xtend is less than HALF the price of Chain’d Out.  Plus, you can get Xtend at bodybuilding.com would for just a bit over HALF of it’s retail price. For some reason they stopped carrying Chain’d Out.

Note: I realize that both of these products contain more than just BCAA’s, but since both are primarily considered BCAA products, that’s how I chose to compare the prices of the two.

Price winner — Xtend

As far as taste, I have not tried Chain’d Out, but I hear the Appletini flavor tastes very good.  And the same goes for Xtend, which I have tried. But to be honest, I could not care less about how good my BCAA supplement tastes.  If it’s priced right and will help me achieve my goals, I’ll drink it… even if it tastes like chalk dust!  Come to think of it, the custom-made BCAA concoction that I and many of my clients use DOES taste a lot like chalk dust!

Taste winner — Tie ( in case you care)

Summary

I admit that I tend to pick apart brand-name supplements and/or their marketing practices (somebody has to, right?).  But I have to hand it to Scivation – Xtend is a great, no-nonsense supplement that is fairly priced. And although I damn sure wouldn’t trust bodybuilding.com customers to choose my supplements, it’s still quite a complement to Scivation that Xtend was voted Recovery Supplement of the Year in 2009.

Nick, in case you were daydreaming (or wanted a short answer) and are still wondering which product I think is better, Xtend or Chain’d Out, the answer is Xtend.

~ Dr Clay

* These calculations were made based on the ratio of leucine to isoleucine to valine being 2:1:1 and that the molecular weights of the ingredients are: malate – 134.09 g/mol; leucine — 131.17 g/mol; isoleucine – 131.17 g/mol; valine — 117.15 g/mol.