Ingredients8.3
Effectiveness8.6
Value8.1
Taste7.7
Mixability7.9
Pros
  • 3 g of leucine per serving
  • Boosts muscle growth and recovery
Cons
  • Only 24 servings
8.1Overall Score

GNC isn’t explicitly saying that your supplements are underdosed, however, their new Accelerator series obliquely gives that impression.

GNC Accelerator Leucine and the other supplements in the series were reputedly designed to amplify your results by providing extra doses of performance enhancing ingredients like leucine and betaine, ostensibly to ensure you’re hitting recommended dosages.

Here’s everything you need to know about GNC Accelerator Leucine:

Why You Need Leucine

Leucine plays a quintessential role in stimulating the vaunted mTOR pathway, a gene in the body which regulates muscle growth. This improves protein synthesis and drives more amino acids into muscle cells.

Better protein synthesis prevents muscle degradation, promotes faster recovery, and leads to accelerated muscle growth.[1]

Most supplement experts recommend getting around 5-10 grams of leucine before and after your workout. Each serving of GNC Accelerator Leucine gives you 3 grams of leucine per serving, helping you to get that upper echelon dose of leucine.

So What Else Does GNC Accelerator Leucine Have?

Another four compounds you’re going to find in here are betaine, optuntia ficus-indica, l-citrulline, and citrus sinensis. The optuntia ficus-indica and citrus sinensis will help with weight loss and reducing oxidative damage from exercise, but the real stars here are betaine and l-citrulline.
GNC Accelerator Leucine
Betaine is a compound that’s become a lot more popular recently. Research shows it effectively boosts strength and improves body composition, supporting muscle growth and fat loss.[2]
L-citrulline is an amino acid that increases nitric oxide production. This improves blood flow and flushes more oxygen and nutrients into muscles for better recovery, strength, and muscle growth.

Taste, Mixability and Value

GNC Accelerator Leucine is currently available in fruit punch and mild flavor. I opted for the fruit punch flavor, and my guess is that the mild flavor is an unflavored powder. Like the other fruit punch flavors I tried in the Accelerator series, this is pretty average tasting.

It’s about what you would expect from any fruit punch flavored supplement─ tastes a little bit artificial, but still very drinkable. As far as mixability goes, there’s a little bit of settling at the bottom, but nothing atypical.

For an add-on supplement, GNC Accelerator Leucine is pretty affordable. The price of a 24 serving container breaks down to about $1 per serving.

The Last Word

If you have the money and are looking for an easier way to boost the effectiveness of your supplements, GNC Accelerator Leucine isn’t a bad way to go.

For example, if you’re already getting 3-5 g of leucine from a product, this is going to get you to the upper dosage levels of leucine and further boost protein synthesis for better strength, muscle growth and recovery.

(Read other GNC Accelerator Reviews here and here.)

References:
[1]Mero A. Leucine supplementation and intensive training.
Sports Med. 1999 Jun;27(6):347-58.

[2]Jason M Cholewa, Monika Wyszczelska-Rokiel, Rafal Glowacki, et. al., Effects of betaine on body composition, performance, and homocysteine thiolactone Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2013, 10:39



About The Author

Brian E. is from southern California and has worked for names like GNC and Vitamin Shoppe as a supplement expert and consultant. He currently lives in Utah and is studying marketing.

One Response

  1. Testocore Advanced

    After 3 decades of lifting, I would have to say refined basics offers all size and strength that no one is capable of. Since there are only a handful of plays that dramatically alter how you look ever, energy waste in fluff things – something I’ve been guilty of on more than one occasion – just dilutes the effort ones, cutting in progress and recovery .

    Having said that, the “beast exercises”, as I like to coin them to promote growth throughout the body. Such concentrated effort needs to be made only in small doses. Iif more students focused more on getting your squats, decline or dips, rows, and bb presses up to three digits, through weekly additions of 1-2 # for weeks, months, years, then the size and strength will come to the proper rate to your individual genetic potential.

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