Essential amino acid supplements are often described with broad terms such as recovery, muscle support, protein efficiency, anabolic support, or BCAAs.
Those words do not tell you very much unless you know how much amino acid is actually in the serving, how much of the blend is made up of BCAAs, how much leucine is present, and whether those numbers refer to actual ingredient weight or to a functional protein comparison.
FUNDAMINOS™ is built around a concentrated, naturally fermented (non synthetic and only from plant-based material) free-form essential amino acid formula rather than intact dietary protein.
- 6.5 g total serving
- 5,000 mg free-form essential amino acid blend
- Approximately 2,200–2,900 mg BCAAs
- Approximately 830–1,130 mg leucine
- Approximately 1.5 g fruit, botanical, flavor, and recovery-support matrix
- 5 calories per serving
- 60 servings per bag
The FUNDAMINOS™ Serving Math
Each finished serving weighs approximately 6.5 grams.
Of that:
5.0 g = free-form essential amino acid blend
That leaves approximately:
6.5 g - 5.0 g = ~1.5 g
for the remaining fruit, botanical, flavor, acid, mineral, and sweetening components.
That distinction matters because FUNDAMINOS™ is not a 6.5 g amino-acid dose. It provides 5 g of amino acids within a 6.5 g finished serving.
About Half the Amino Blend Is BCAAs
The branched-chain amino acids—leucine, isoleucine, and valine—are themselves essential amino acids.
They are therefore included within the 5 g EAA total, not added on top of it.
Because the exact FUNDAMINOS™ amino-acid ratio is proprietary, we intentionally publish only broad nutritional ranges rather than exact manufacturing quantities.
Based on the formulation profile, a 5 g serving provides approximately:
~2.2–2.9 g total BCAAs
That means roughly 45–55% of the amino-acid portion is composed of the three BCAAs, while the remainder supplies the other essential amino acids in the proprietary formula.
The exact ratio is intentionally not disclosed.
Approximately 1 Gram of Leucine Per Serving
Leucine is the best-known BCAA because of its role in nutrient signaling related to muscle protein synthesis.
FUNDAMINOS™ uses a leucine-forward formulation.
To protect the exact proprietary ratio, the typical nutritional amount is expressed as a broad range:
Approximately 830–1,130 mg leucine per 5 g amino serving
In practical terms, that is approximately 1 gram of leucine per serving.
Human research has shown that the proportion of leucine within an essential-amino-acid mixture can influence the muscle-protein-synthesis response, particularly in older adults.
View research on leucine-enriched essential amino acids and muscle protein synthesis
More broadly, the International Society of Sports Nutrition notes that free-form essential amino acids rapidly increase circulating EAA availability and can stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
View the ISSN position stand on essential amino acid supplementation
Free Amino Acids Are Different From Intact Protein
FUNDAMINOS™ does not contain 20 grams of protein.
It contains 5 grams of free-form essential amino acids.
Those are different nutritional measurements.
Intact dietary protein must first be digested into peptides and individual amino acids before those amino acids enter circulation.
Free-form amino acids are already present in their individual form.
In a randomized human study comparing free amino acids with an equivalent amino-acid quantity supplied as intact protein, the free-amino-acid condition produced more rapid amino-acid absorption and greater post-meal plasma amino-acid availability.
View the free amino acid versus intact protein study
This is why grams of free amino acids and grams of intact dietary protein should not be interpreted as nutritionally identical measurements.
What Does “~20 g Protein Equivalent” Mean?
FUNDAMINOS™ has historically been described as providing approximately 20 g of protein-equivalent amino support per serving.
That does not mean that a scoop physically contains 20 grams of protein.
The actual amino-acid content is:
5,000 mg per serving.
The protein-equivalent description refers instead to the concept that a concentrated free-form essential amino acid mixture can produce a protein-synthetic response disproportionate to its physical weight because it supplies the indispensable amino acids directly rather than supplying a much larger quantity of intact protein containing both essential and nonessential amino acids.
Research on leucine-enriched EAA formulas supports the broader principle that relatively small quantities of appropriately formulated essential amino acids can produce substantial muscle-protein-synthesis responses.
The exact response depends on formulation, age, nutritional state, exercise, dose, and study design, so “protein equivalent” should be understood as a functional nutritional comparison rather than a statement that 5 g of FUNDAMINOS™ literally contains 20 g of dietary protein.
Typical Amino Acid Profile — Without Revealing the Proprietary Ratio
FUNDAMINOS™ contains eight free-form essential amino acids:
- Leucine
- Valine
- Isoleucine
- Lysine
- Phenylalanine
- Threonine
- Methionine
- Tryptophan
The exact manufacturing ratio is proprietary.
For nutritional transparency, we can provide intentionally broad approximate ranges without publishing the formulation itself:
- Leucine: approximately 930–1,330 mg
- Valine: approximately 705–1055 mg
- Isoleucine: approximately 730–950 mg
- Lysine: approximately 510–920 mg
- Phenylalanine: approximately 450–840 mg
- Threonine: approximately 470–740 mg
- Methionine: approximately 200–500 mg
- Tryptophan: approximately 60–315 mg
Important: these are deliberately broad, independent nutritional ranges designed to communicate the general amino-acid profile that makes FUNDAMINOS different. They are not intended to be added together to reconstruct the recipe.
The fixed nutritional quantity is:
5,000 mg total free-form amino acids per serving.
The BCAA Math
The three branched-chain amino acids are:
- Leucine
- Isoleucine
- Valine
Together, they account for approximately:
2.2–2.9 g of the 5 g amino-acid serving
or broadly:
~45–55% of the amino blend.
Again, this is intentionally expressed as a range to preserve the proprietary ratio.
Why BCAAs Alone Are Not the Whole Story
BCAAs—particularly leucine—play an important signaling role, but muscle protein synthesis requires the availability of the other indispensable amino acids as building material.
This is why FUNDAMINOS™ is not simply a BCAA product.
Its BCAA component sits inside a broader essential-amino-acid matrix.
Research has repeatedly shown that essential amino acids, rather than nonessential amino acids alone, are central to stimulating net muscle protein synthesis.
View research on essential amino acids and net muscle protein synthesis
What Makes Up the Remaining ~1.5 Grams?
The total serving weighs approximately 6.5 g, while the amino-acid portion contributes 5.0 g.
That leaves approximately:
~1.5 g per serving
for the supporting botanical, fruit, flavor, acid, mineral, and sweetening matrix.
This includes ingredients such as:
- CherryPure® Montmorency tart cherry
- ActiGin® ginseng and rose-fruit extract
- apple
- blueberry
- raspberry
- maqui berry
- pomegranate
- strawberry
- cranberry
- natural fruit flavors
- malic acid
- citric acid
- sea salt
- stevia leaf extract
60 Servings Means 300 Grams of Free-Form Amino Acids Per Bag
The arithmetic for a full 60-serving bag is straightforward:
5 g amino acids × 60 servings = 300 g free-form amino acids per bag
This number is actual ingredient mass, not protein-equivalent language.
Each bag therefore supplies approximately:
- 300 g total free-form essential amino acids
- approximately 132–174 g BCAAs across the bag
- approximately 50–68 g leucine across the bag
The BCAA and leucine totals are intentionally broad estimates because the exact amino-acid ratio remains proprietary.
And even better, total grams protein equivalency per bag is 1,200 g for only $69.95!
FUNDAMINOS™ by the Numbers
| Total serving size | ~6.5 g |
| Free-form amino acid blend | 5,000 mg |
| Approximate BCAAs | ~2,200–2,900 mg |
| Approximate leucine | ~830–1,130 mg |
| Supporting fruit/botanical/flavor matrix | ~1.5 g |
| Calories | 5 |
| Servings per bag | 60 |
| Total free-form amino acids per bag | 300 g |
Why can 5 g of FUNDAMINOS™ be described as approximately 20 g protein-equivalent?
The ~20 g protein-equivalent claim refers to functional anabolic efficiency, not physical protein weight. One serving contains 5 g of free-form essential amino acids, not 20 g of protein.
The original MAP-based nitrogen-utilization research reported very high net nitrogen utilization for optimized free-form essential amino acid mixtures. Using the historical ~99% utilization figure, 5 g of amino acids provides about 4.95 g of net utilized amino-acid substrate. By comparison, using the older ~24–25% net-utilization framework for conventional intact protein, roughly 20 g of protein yields about 4.8–5.0 g of net utilized amino-acid equivalent. That is the mathematical basis for the approximate 4:1 protein-efficiency comparison.
Modern muscle-protein-synthesis research supports the same general principle. Human studies have shown that relatively small doses of leucine-enriched essential amino acids can stimulate muscle protein synthesis to a degree comparable with much larger servings of whey protein under specific conditions. For example, about 3 g of leucine-enriched EAAs has been shown to produce a muscle-protein-synthesis response comparable with 20 g of whey protein in older adults.
The reason is that free-form EAAs deliver the indispensable amino acids directly, without first requiring digestion of intact protein, and concentrate the amino acids most relevant to protein synthesis into a much smaller total mass.
So when we say one 5 g serving of FUNDAMINOS™ provides approximately 20 g protein-equivalent amino support, we mean functional anabolic support—not that the scoop physically contains 20 g of protein. The key difference is bioavailability: free-form essential amino acids are absorbed rapidly and utilized efficiently by your body without the digestive breakdown required for intact protein. This means your muscles gain access to the critical amino acids needed for protein synthesis more quickly and effectively than they would from a much larger serving of conventional protein powder. The ~20 g protein-equivalent figure reflects this functional efficiency—the actual anabolic response your body experiences—rather than physical weight or caloric content.
To your health!