Perfect Amino Review

Even if you’re not an athlete or familiar with the dietary supplement market, you’ve likely heard of amino acids. Similar to how many of us learned in science class that mitochondria are the “powerhouses of cells,” you were also probably taught that amino acids are “the building blocks of proteins.”1 2 But besides building proteins, amino acids assist with a host of important functions throughout the entire body, from hormone production and immune function to regulating energy, forming blood clots, absorbing nutrients, and more.3

In most cases, people who eat a healthy, balanced diet get all the amino acids they need. But some people — such as athletes — may need an extra boost on top of their dietary intake, and this is where supplements come into play. One such supplement that’s been in the spotlight recently is Perfect Amino. The manufacturer claims it can help you “build lean muscle, boost performance, and speed recovery without the caloric impact,” but does research support these statements?

In our review of Perfect Amino, we break down the science behind this supplement and evaluate its efficacy, safety, cost, and more to help you decide if it’s right for you.

Perfect Amino can be potentially beneficial for certain populations (e.g., some athletes, older adults, people eating low-protein diets, etc.), but it’s important to approach the supplement with tempered expectations. Besides the supplement, Perfect Amino bars can be a convenient snack (when they don’t melt) with a decent assortment of healthy ingredients, as long as you aren’t allergic to tree nuts, and the Power Meal shake mix stands out as an impressive product with nutrient and ingredient amounts that rival some of our favorite greens powders. Some of BodyHealth’s Perfect Amino products don’t justify the high prices. Though the company goes to commendable lengths for safety, such as by offering a handful of products that are NSF Certified for Sport, several of its efficacy claims for Perfect Amino aren’t firmly rooted in scientific fact (like the supplement having zero calories or the idea that its users won’t need to consume protein).

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

For our review of Perfect Amino, our team spent over 70 hours researching amino acids, from the foundational basics and their health benefits to their safety as a supplement and much more. On top of research, our testers also interacted with the BodyHealth website, spoke with customer service representatives, and purchased an assortment of Perfect Amino products to try out. By combining extensive research and firsthand testing experience, we’re able to provide you with everything you need to know about Perfect Amino.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

We approached our evaluation of Perfect Amino similarly to how we do with other supplemental products (e.g., other amino acid supplements, greens powders, vitamins, etc.). This means that we assessed the overall safety, efficacy, cost, convenience, and taste of BodyHealth’s Perfect Amino lineup.

Here’s how it fared in each criterion:

Safety

Safety is perhaps where BodyHealth excels the most with Perfect Amino. Though we do have some concerns, particularly with the Perfect Amino bars (more on that in a bit), the company does an overall good job of offering generally safe products to a wide range of customers with different needs. All of the products are manufactured in cGMP-certified locations, and a few Perfect Amino products are NSF Certified for Sport (this means they’re third-party tested and don’t include any ingredients banned by major athletic organizations).

No Perfect Amino products contain gluten, soy, or dairy ingredients. And both the Perfect Amino supplements (powder and tablets) and electrolytes are appropriate for various diets, including vegetarian, vegan, paleo, and keto.

But while these safety measures are greatly appreciated, one product stands out as a potential issue: the Perfect Amino bars. The product page for the bars, frustratingly, avoids mentioning that they all contain tree nut allergens. Though this information is marked on the actual product packaging, an allergen warning is nowhere to be found on the product page. Instead, the page reads, “A bar that has real health benefits, low sugar, meets all dietary requirements, and avoids many common allergens.” That last part about avoiding many common allergens is even more debatable since the bars are apparently manufactured on equipment that also processes milk, peanut, soy, sesame, tree nut, wheat, and egg ingredients.

According to the USDA, the “big nine” allergens are milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame.4 This means that the only common allergens that the Perfect Amino bars avoid entirely are fish and shellfish. Ultimately, if you have an allergy to any of the aforementioned ingredients — especially tree nuts (in this case, almonds) — it’s best to avoid the Perfect Amino bars.

Effectiveness

Ultimately, it’s difficult to determine the effectiveness of Perfect Amino due to the key ingredients being hidden within a proprietary blend. Normally, we can try to figure out ways to estimate individual quantities in blends, but this proprietary formula contains not only amino acids but also other ingredients that round out the 5g. This means that it’s even more difficult to determine just how much of the blend consists of essential amino acids (EAAs), and it’s also harder to compare the products against positive research.

Since EAAs need to be obtained from external sources, the Perfect Amino supplements can still potentially be an effective way to get at least some amount of them daily. Nonetheless, we do wish that BodyHealth were more transparent, like how Naked Nutrition and Transparent Labs handle information about their amino acid supplements.

Perfect Amino’s other products also tend to fall a bit short of expectations (except for the Power Meal shake mix): the electrolyte powder doesn’t contain enough essential elements, and the bars suffer from proprietary blends and a lack of ingredient doses. Power Meal, on the other hand, is what kept this criterion at a rating approaching an 8. With a hearty amount of vitamins and minerals and over 11g of superfoods, the Power Meal mix outdoes some of our favorite greens powders, including AG1.

For more details on the effectiveness of Perfect Amino, see the “Does Perfect Amino work?” section later in this review.

Cost

Compared to other amino acid supplements, Perfect Amino is expensive. And a lot of those higher prices appear to be because of claims that aren’t necessarily true, or are at least a bit embellished.

The company does offer bulk savings on some products and a subscription option that takes 15% off your purchase, both of which can help reduce your overall costs. However, it’s important to be mindful of how much Perfect Amino you’ll be taking.

The supplement (tablets or powder) can be taken up to three times daily, but the servings listed on the products are based on once-daily doses. So, it’s worth determining how much you’ll need to purchase in order to keep up with a consistent regimen. We’ll cover more details, such as bulk pricing and the price per serving differences between one, two, and three daily doses, under the “Perfect Amino pricing, subscriptions, and refunds” section later in this review. But for now, the chart below breaks down the basic costs of Perfect Amino products.

Now, it wouldn’t be fair to simply say that Perfect Amino is on the expensive side without offering a comparison. In the following chart, we compare the prices of Perfect Amino powder to Naked Nutrition EAAs — our best overall pick in our guide to the best amino acid supplements.

Note: The chart uses the pricing of the 60-serving Perfect Amino powder instead of the 30-serving one, since it’s closer to Naked Nutrition’s 50 servings.

As evident by the information in the chart, Perfect Amino is a fair bit more expensive than Naked Nutrition. In fact, it’s actually more expensive than any of our picks in the aforementioned amino acid supplement guide. And the Perfect Amino products that are NSF Certified for Sport are even more pricey, with a 66-serving tub of powder being $98.95 (or $84.11 with a subscription).

Convenience

In general, the products in the Perfect Amino lineup shouldn’t be inconvenient for most people to take or use; the biggest issue with typical use is that a single serving of the supplement is five tablets. However, this convenience can be drastically altered depending on your individual use.

As mentioned in the cost criterion, BodyHealth notes that the Perfect Amino supplement can be taken “1-3 times daily,” and a single dose is what the Supplement Facts label is based on. Depending on the quantity you purchase, the label says a bottle has either 30, 60, or 120 servings. But if you take Perfect Amino twice a day, that means you’re getting only 15, 30, or 60 servings. And if you took the maximum recommended dose of 15 tablets each day (five tablets, three times), your servings per bottle would drop to 10, 20, or 40.

If you subscribe, the shortest delivery interval is every four weeks, which wouldn’t be short enough for some Perfect Amino supplement users taking it two or three times per day. In fact, the only way we could see a three-times-daily dosing regimen being convenient is by purchasing the 120-serving bottle on a monthly subscription.

On the topic of subscriptions, BodyHealth’s subscription policy also presents some issues. Typically, we’ve found that most companies won’t charge you for a subscription as long as you cancel 24-48 hours before the renewal date. In BodyHealth’s case, the policy notes that it may take up to seven days for a subscription to be canceled. During this weeklong period, any renewals that go through will not be refunded. Incidentally, the subscription details on the product pages state that you will “receive notifications five days before any order processes and ships, so you know ahead of time” — but this isn’t ahead of time; it’s two days too late based on the company’s policy, and you risk being charged anyway.

Taste (and texture)

The Perfect Amino products with potentially impactful tastes or textures are the electrolyte powders, flavored supplement powders, bars, and the Power Meal shake mix. Out of these products, our testers tried the chocolate Power Meal and the brownie bars.

First were the Perfect Amino bars, which our testers found to be quite unique. The brownie flavor itself isn’t bad, but it’s not comparable to the taste of an actual, freshly baked brownie; it has a slight artificial quality similar to many chocolate protein bars. However, the taste wasn’t the real issue with the bars; it was the texture.

Though we’re unsure if it’s because they melted during shipment, the bars were almost gelatin-like or gummy in texture; they were squishy (except the almonds) and had a bit of a slickness to them (which could be due to the MCT oil). If you’re sensitive to textures — a “texture eater” — then these bars could be unpleasant.

Fortunately, the chocolate Power Meal shake mix was a much better experience for our testers. They found that the powder mixed well into either water or milk (you can also add it to your milk alternative of choice), and there was barely any residual powder floating around. Similar to the flavor of the bars, the chocolate Power Meal shake had a taste reminiscent of a chocolate protein or meal replacement shake. One of our testers likened it to a chocolate Glucerna shake, but a little more bitter.

Overall, while the flavors of these products aren’t spectacular, they’re also not outright bad. The Perfect Amino bars and Power Meal are tasty enough that it’s not a chore to consume either of them, but you might not think of these products as favorites.

Previously known as “Super 8 Aminos,” Perfect Amino (sometimes stylized as “PerfectAmino”) is an amino acid supplement and a line of products containing the Perfect Amino proprietary blend. The company behind Perfect Amino is BodyHealth, a Florida-based alternative wellness brand founded in 2000. BodyHealth claims that Perfect Amino works better than branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and is a calorie-free way for your body to build new protein, muscle, and collagen — all without breaking a fast. (More on those claims in a bit.)

Currently, the core lineup of Perfect Amino products is as follows:

• Perfect Amino tablets (coated or uncoated; also available as NSF Certified for Sport)
• Perfect Amino powder (also available as NSF Certified for Sport)
• Perfect Amino electrolytes (also available as NSF Certified for Sport)
• Perfect Amino Power Meal shake mix
• Perfect Amino bars

Additionally, BodyHealth offers several items that are “enhanced with Perfect Amino,” including:

• Reds superfood powder
• Greens superfood powder
• Sleep capsules
• Probiotic capsules
• Gut Restore powder
• Body Calm magnesium powder
• CardioVascular powder
• NuCell liquid supplement

In this review, we’ll be focusing on the core Perfect Amino lineup (the items in the first list), as BodyHealth appears to consider those to be the only Perfect Amino products. The others may have the proprietary Perfect Amino blend as an ingredient, but they’re not part of the Perfect Amino line.

Is Perfect Amino really zero calories?

Contrary to BodyHealth’s claims — and the claims of many other manufacturers — Perfect Amino and amino acid supplements, in general, are not calorie-free.

An older journal article from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, published back in 1990, details the results of researchers calculating the calories of amino acids. Based on their findings, amino acids seem to have a caloric value of around 4-5 calories per gram (give or take), which makes sense given that 1g of protein is four calories.5

Unfortunately, we don’t know the actual quantity of amino acids in the Perfect Amino proprietary blend. Even though the amount per serving is listed as 5g, this blend also includes ingredients that aren’t amino acids. But since the amino acids all come before the other non-amino-acid ingredients on the label, we at least know that they make up most of the blend. (The FDA requires ingredients to be “listed in descending order of predominance by weight, with the ingredients used in the greatest amount first, followed by those in smaller amounts.”)6

So, if we take a rough — but still educated — guess and say that the amino acids make up 3.75g of the Perfect Amino blend, then it’d be around 17 calories per serving. And if you were to follow the maximum suggested dose (taking it three times daily), that’d be an extra 51 calories per day.

To be fair, 51 calories isn’t exactly an egregious amount, but it’s still far from the zero claimed by BodyHealth and many other amino acid supplement companies.

Will Perfect Amino break a fast?

Perfect Amino (and other amino acid supplements) can, technically, break your fast. Specifically, a few amino acids in the Perfect Amino formula stand out as the main “culprits” of this fast-breaking potential: valine, methionine, histidine, leucine, and isoleucine.

The first three aforementioned amino acids — valine, methionine, and histidine — are classified as glucogenic amino acids.7 These amino acids can be converted to glucose in the liver. This increase in glucose (even if it’s very small) results in the body releasing insulin, which signals your body’s metabolism to start shifting back to prioritizing glucose instead of fat for energy production.8 9

Moreover, the authors of a 2011 review explain that leucine “acutely stimulates insulin secretion from pancreatic β cells.” When administered either alone or alongside isoleucine and valine (all three of which are in Perfect Amino), leucine “elevates circulating insulin” in humans, rodents, and other mammals.10

BodyHealth reputation

On the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, BodyHealth is accredited and has an “A” rating. At the time of this writing, there are 65 reviews, averaging 4.06 stars out of a possible 5. Most negative reviews are about slow shipping, poor customer service, or products not working as promised. There are also 11 total complaints on the BBB page, with six of those being within the last 12 months. Most of the negative feedback in the complaints mentions slow shipping, issues with canceling subscriptions, or orders never showing up despite being marked as delivered.

The Trustpilot profile for BodyHealth is unclaimed, but there are 110 reviews culminating in a score of 3.9 out of 5. The reviews are mainly 5-star and 1-star, with few to none in the 2- to 4-star range. Customers either seem to be overwhelmingly satisfied with their BodyHealth experience, or they’re calling it “horrible” or a “scam.” A common theme with the negative reviews is subscription difficulties, with some customers stating that BodyHealth told them they couldn’t cancel until three billing cycles had passed, and others complaining about the weeklong wait for the subscription to actually be canceled after calling.

It’s also worth pointing out that BodyHealth received a warning letter from the FDA in 2020 for making claims that suggested its supplements are equivalent to drugs.11

Perfect Amino could be for any healthy adult who’s not pregnant or breastfeeding and wants to try it. But the people who are most likely to find some benefit from it are:

• Athletes: Amino acid supplements may benefit muscle growth and support the replacement of degraded or damaged muscle proteins.12
• Older adults: Some research suggests that older adults with low physical functional capacity may benefit from dietary supplementation with EAAs.13
• People eating low-protein diets: If you consume low levels of protein, then you may not be getting all of the amino acids your body needs to properly function.3 Some nonclinical (animal) research suggests that EAA supplementation “partially mitigated the negative effects of nutritional deficiencies” in rats fed a low-protein diet, but not to the extent that a high-protein diet did. Therefore, more research is necessary, but an EAA supplementation may still provide some benefit.14
• Individuals in critical clinical condition: When in critical condition, patients may experience “significant” loss of muscle mass and reductions in strength. Research suggests that even a few days or weeks of EAA supplementation may help maintain muscle size and strength in this population.15
• Those who recently underwent surgery: As with individuals in critical clinical condition, patients recovering from surgical procedures may experience similar reductions in muscle mass and strength. The same research noted above implies that EAA supplementation may also provide muscle mass and strength maintenance benefits in this case.15

Who should look elsewhere?

Perhaps the largest group of people interested in Perfect Amino who should look elsewhere are those who are seeking zero-calorie options that won’t break a fast. Unfortunately, no amino acid supplement is calorie-free, and they all may break your fast. The only options you can truly turn to are water, black coffee, and tea without milk or sugar (or artificial sweeteners).

Additionally, though some research suggests that patients with certain cancers may benefit from supplemental EAAs, amino acids “are involved in pathways that feed cancer cells and provide building blocks for cancer cell growth,” according to experts, so it may be safest to avoid Perfect Amino and other amino acid supplements if you have active or suspected cancer.16

Perfect Amino should be generally safe for most healthy adults who aren’t pregnant or breastfeeding. However, if you’re considering trying Perfect Amino products, you should still be mindful of some potential safety concerns.

Ultimately, it’s best to speak with your doctor before starting a new supplement, especially if you’re taking any prescription medication or have any medical conditions.

For those on the keto diet

Even though Perfect Amino is keto-friendly, it’s worth noting that a 2022 mouse study suggests that supplementing with valine while consuming a high-fat diet (e.g., keto) may lead to reductions in glucose tolerance or insulin sensitivity. On the other hand, leucine appeared to improve subjects’ insulin sensitivity and offered some protection against diet-induced adiposity (overweight or obesity due to excess calorie consumption). So, the leucine content may counteract the risk from the valine, but large-scale human research is needed.25

Nonetheless, this information is still worth considering if you want to try Perfect Amino (or any amino acid supplement containing valine) while adhering to a high-fat diet like keto.

Whether or not Perfect Amino “works” really depends on a few different factors, including each product’s individual ingredients, the doses of those ingredients, and your unique health and wellness goals. In some cases, that last condition may be the most vital, as your perception of effectiveness can be influenced by what you set out to achieve when trying a new supplement or product.

But before we discuss the specifics of how Perfect Amino works, we first need to cover some essential details, including information on amino acids in general.

What are amino acids?

There are three different categories of amino acids: Essential, nonessential, and conditionally essential. All living things use amino acids to make proteins, and humans need 20 different ones to function properly. Though your body can make 11 of those (nonessential), you need to get the other nine (essential) from outside sources, such as food or supplements. And when you’re ill or stressed, some nonessential amino acids become essential — hence “conditionally essential” — but your body normally makes enough of them under healthy, stable conditions.3

The following breakdown details which amino acids fall into each category.3 26

How does Perfect Amino work?

Since BodyHealth considers Perfect Amino to be an EAA supplement, it’s likely not surprising to learn that the 5g proprietary blend contains all nine essential amino acids: leucine, valine, isoleucine, lysine, phenylalanine, threonine, methionine, tryptophan, and histidine (in that order).

As we mentioned previously, amino acids — in this case, the essential ones — do a lot for your body. For example:3 26

• Histidine helps produce histamine (a neurotransmitter), regulate your immune system, and support your digestion, sleep, and sexual function.
• Isoleucine supports your body’s immune system, muscle metabolism, and the production of hemoglobin.
• Leucine helps your body make protein, produce growth hormones, repair muscle tissue, heal wounds, and regulate your blood sugar.
• Lysine supports your immune system and the production of hormones and energy.
• Methionine plays a role in your body’s tissue growth, metabolism, and absorption of essential nutrients (e.g., zinc and selenium).
• Phenylalanine supports the production of other amino acids and certain neurotransmitters, specifically dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine.
• Threonine is mainly involved in the health of your skin and connective tissue, particularly their collagen and elastin content. This amino acid also helps your body metabolize fat and form blood clots.
• Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin and melatonin, which means it can support mood, appetite, and sleep.27
• Valine plays a role in your body’s muscle growth, tissue regeneration, and energy production.

Since Perfect Amino is a proprietary blend, we can’t say for sure whether or not the actual doses of these EAAs match up to what’s shown promise in studies, but there’s at least a bit of potential for the supplement to support your wellness goals based on what the amino acids can do. We hope that in the future, BodyHealth will consider at least separating the EAAs from the other ingredients in the 5g blend, just to make it a little easier to determine the products’ potential efficacy.

On that note, apart from the amino acids, the same 5g blend also contains a selection of “nucleic acid building blocks.” These include uridine, adenosine triphosphate, thymidine, adenine, 2’-deoxyadenosine, 2’-deoxyguanosine, and 2’-deoxycytidine (also in that order).

There’s some supportive research for a few of these non-amino ingredients:

• Uridine, among other things, may regulate protein modification, improve glucose tolerance, and promote neuroprotection.28 29
• Thymidine may protect DNA against oxidative damage.30
• Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) supplementation appears to have the potential to improve muscle strength in resistance-trained men.31

But there’s a lack of information on supplementing with the other additional ingredients. For example, most of the studies on adenine supplementation are on nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), not adenine alone. And much of the research on 2’-deoxyadenosine, 2’-deoxyguanosine, and 2’-deoxycytidine seems to be either older (from the 1990s or earlier) or not focused on those specific compounds alone.

When it comes to the other products in the Perfect Amino lineup, their efficacy also depends on other ingredients. Here’s a quick breakdown detailing the electrolyte powder, bars, and Power Meal:

Perfect Amino products are available as one-time purchases or on a subscription basis. The latter takes 15% off your purchase, but cancellation may take up to seven days (or more, as experienced by some individuals who left reviews on BodyHealth’s Trustpilot page). Thankfully, the company has added bulk purchasing discounts, and while this may not save you as much money as a subscription, it’s still a welcome cost-saving option for those who don’t want to take a chance with the subscriptions.

Here’s how the non-bulk pricing works out:

Now, let’s take a look at the bulk purchasing discounts. These savings are only available on the products that are not NSF Certified for Sport, and you can only bulk-purchase items in bundles of three or six. Here’s how that breaks down with single purchases of the least expensive options:

As you can see, there’s some money to be saved by opting for bulk purchases if you enjoy Perfect Amino but don’t want to wind up potentially stuck in a frustrating subscription. It’s worth pointing out that you can combine the subscription discount with the bulk purchase one to save the most money.

Finally, when it comes to the price per serving of the Perfect Amino supplement, it can vary depending on your dosing regimen. BodyHealth notes that the supplement can be taken up to three times daily, but that can greatly alter how much you’ll be paying per serving. Here’s how the pricing works out with a one-time purchase of a 30-serving (150-count) bottle of tablets:

• One dose daily (five tablets; 30 servings): $1.50 per serving
• Two doses daily (10 tablets; 15 servings): $3.00 per serving
• Three doses daily (15 tablets; 10 servings): $4.50 per serving

So, as we mentioned earlier in this guide, it’s ideal to figure out how often you’ll be taking Perfect Amino and which purchasing avenue (e.g., bulk, subscription, etc.) costs you the least money to maintain that regimen.

If you’re interested in learning about other options besides Perfect Amino, the following sections cover a few different alternative routes worth considering. Depending on your health goals, they may be better suited to your needs.

Other amino acid supplements

Perfect Amino is far from the only amino acid supplement on the market, and a different product could be more suitable for you. One of the major differences between Perfect Amino and most other amino acid supplements is the price. For instance, Naked Nutrition EAAs are $40 for a one-time purchase of 50 servings, RULE1 Essential Amino 9 is $34 for 30 servings, and Bulk Supplements Essential Amino Acids (EAA) Powder is $28 for 50 servings.

To learn more about the best amino acid supplements, including the best pre-workout option, check out our guide on the topic.

Greens powders

Greens powders mainly serve as an alternative to the Perfect Amino Power Meal shake mix. But as we mentioned earlier, the Power Meal mix rivals some of our favorite greens powders in terms of its nutrient content. However, you may prefer a greens powder that’s more affordable or offers different benefits. (Some of our top greens powder picks contain adaptogens, for example.) Additionally, the Power Meal mix is only available in chocolate or vanilla, which can limit what your mixing options are. Greens powders, on the other hand, are often sold in a variety of fruit flavors. Bloom Nutrition Greens & Superfoods, for example, comes in a wide range of different fruity options: mango, strawberry kiwi, berry, watermelon, peach, pineapple, orange passionfruit, coconut, and citrus.

For more information on greens powders, our guide to the best options gives you all the details.