HMB: What It Is And How To Use It To Limit Muscle Loss
The supplement industry is booming. Product offerings range from cleanses to protein powders to synthetic growth hormone and it’s hard to say what’s useful and what’s useless. If you took stock of what the marketers slap on any particular label you’d gleefully think you’re merely a few capsules of - insert supplement - away from being Flex Wheeler, but it’s not that simple.
Some products are money grabs.
So let’s kill the suspense on this one: HMB is useful. Not as popular as it should be, you might be hearing of it for the first time, but maybe you being here means you can get the benefit many skip out on.
In this article you’ll find: what HMB is, its benefits, and how it is to be used for maximum effectiveness.
SECTIONS:
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What Is HMB
The 100 grand question: what is HMB?
HMB stands for beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate and is a metabolite of the oh so anabolic amino acid, leucine.
Note: metabolite means the resultant product from a substance that is broken down.
Following consumption, roughly 5% of leucine synthesizes HMB.
Which explains their strong connection, in fact HMB helps dictate the impact leucine imposes upon you. As a metabolite it may be quite similar, yet its results differ when compared to leucine. I’ll explain.
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It’s a good feeling when fat loss is your goal and the number on the scale gets smaller. It’s a not good feeling when you find out all you’ve been doing is eating away at muscle tissue...
Benefits Of HMB
If you want to know why people supplement with HMB or why you should, it's not because one would consider it a muscle builder, it’s not too good in that department.
So what does HMB do if it’s not a muscle builder?
It’s not strongly hypertrophic, per se, yet indirectly HMB assists your muscle building aims by limiting muscle breakdown.
HMB decelerates muscle breakdown by slowing the rate in which you use proteins [2].
This improves protein balance.
Protein balance is the result after considering how much of your muscle protein is broken down versus how much muscle protein is synthesized over a period in time.
The better your protein balance the more anabolic you are.
Being in an anabolic state is how you pack on muscle.
Before we fully step out of this comparison.. although leucine has an anti-catabolic nature, as well, HMB is more potent in this area of expertise.
So potent that HMB is 20 times more effective at limiting muscle protein breakdown than leucine [4].
Inversely, though HMB has a marginal hypertrophic component, leucine is much more authoritative when it comes to synthesizing protein.
Thus, it’s wise to frame your outlook to see HMB as a muscle preserving agent with recovery benefits [1]. And it may give a little boost to muscle protein synthesis, but nothing to pontificate about.
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How To Use HMB
It doesn’t take much HMB to reap benefits. You don’t have to expend a bunch of energy or do some ceremonial chant. Just hit your daily dosage, off days included.
HMB dosage as little as 1 gram daily will elevate muscle retention and the maximum effective dose is 3 grams in a 24 hour period [4].
Anything above 3 grams each new moon won’t add to your cause, so save your dollars and go with 1-3 grams of HMB.
Note: many HMB supplements are a combination of HMB and vitamin D, for they have a synergistic effect [6].
HMB Side Effects
HMB has little to no side effects with studied concentrations [3], but there aren’t any added benefits with going above 3 grams daily [6].
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When To Take HMB
Doses of HMB throughout the day are fine, but the most beneficial times in order of efficacy are:
For fasted workouts. Though I’m against these, since they put your muscle protein in jeopardy, using HMB will limit the pitfall that accompanies working out without recent nutrition. HMB can be consumed without breaking a fast, for it fails to cause an insulin response.
When intermittent fasting. If you practice intermittent fasting or have a longer than 3 hour gap between protein fillings, get some HMB down. Meal hiatuses put muscle tissue at risk, particularly when in a calorie deficit.
During a long workout. If you’re natural and lift longer than 75 minutes at a time regularly, you risk some muscle, testosterone levels, and increase the likelihood of overtraining syndrome. But if your head is hard and you opt to go longer than you should, throw down some HMB to limit muscle loss.
Pre workout. 30-45 minutes before a lift, an intake of HMB will help boost your overall protein balance by mitigating some of the damage to come. This is around to time you take your chosen pre workout supplement.
Upon wakeup. In the morning you just got off your nightly fast and, especially if you skip breakfast, HMB is there to protect your muscle as your body starts revving its daily engine.
Before bed. If your sleep is as it should be you’ll go hours without nutrition. HMB will help stump the chances of muscle catabolism during the upcoming fast.
Note: there is a free acid and calcium version of HMB. The free acid edition isn’t superior, but hits you quicker, so if possible it’s a better source to use pre workout than the calcium salt variant.
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My Thoughts
This article includes scientifically proven benefits of HMB, but I’d be remiss to not throw in my anecdotal two cents.
I’ve been an HMB user for years. 3 grams daily, every cut I’ve gone on I’ve managed to improve strength and add fat free mass. Part of why I’m able to stay lean year round.
Of course this isn’t all HMB, I carb/calorie cycle like nobody’s business, yet it can’t go without its appropriate amount of credit.
Your total protein intake is still paramount. No amount of HMB will save you if you’re protein deficient, according to your goals.
To add on to total protein intake, your total calories must be sufficient. Not enough calories forces you to use the protein you consume for fuel rather than building muscle.
HMB is an assistant, nothing more, nothing less. It can’t star in the show, it’s part of the supporting cast.
HMB’s superpowers are most important when on a cut. To lose fat you need a calorie deficit, so not enough calories puts your muscles at risk for atrophy. HMB helps keep them intact.
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So, It’s About That Time
No one aspect of fitness or fitness nutrition will make or break you. HMB can be an assistant block to help uphold muscle tissue, as life does all it does to try and take it away from you.
Stress, physical stimuli, sleep deprivation, and so on put your muscles in jeopardy, so use this one aspect of fitness nutrition to help out the other aspects. If you have any questions, comment or shoot me a message. As always put those muscles to use and Be Great.
Sources:
[1] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20072045
[2] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23286834
[3] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16006030
[4] examine.com/supplements/hmb/
[5] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5537867/
[6] academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/75/11/2089/5898559