Background
Hydroxy Methyl Butyrate (HMB) is a naturally occurring compound that has gained significant attention as a dietary supplement in the fitness and bodybuilding communities. It’s derived from the amino acid leucine, one of the building blocks of protein. When your body breaks down leucine as part of the protein metabolism process, it forms HMB.
One of the key reasons HMB has generated interest is its potential to support muscle-related outcomes. When you engage in resistance training or intense exercise, your muscle fibers experience microscopic damage, which is a normal part of the muscle-building process. HMB is thought to play a role in minimizing this muscle damage and aiding in the repair and growth of muscle tissue. This leads to enhanced muscle protein synthesis, the biological process by which your body creates new muscle proteins.
Additionally, HMB appears to have a positive impact on muscle recovery. Intense exercise can lead to inflammation and soreness in muscles, which can impede your ability to perform subsequent workouts. HMB’s anti-inflammatory properties may help alleviate this soreness and contribute to faster recovery times, allowing you to train more consistently.
Moreover, HMB has been associated with improvements in muscle strength and power. It may enhance your capacity to generate force during exercise, which can be particularly advantageous for activities requiring bursts of strength, such as weightlifting or sprinting.
A unique aspect of HMB is its potential to reduce muscle breakdown, especially during periods of high-intensity training or when you’re following a calorie-restricted diet. This preservation of muscle mass is crucial for maintaining your metabolic rate and overall body composition.
While some studies suggest that HMB could aid in fat loss, its primary role seems to be centered around supporting muscle health. By preserving muscle mass, HMB indirectly contributes to a leaner body composition, which is essential for achieving long-term fat loss goals.
It’s important to note that while the research on HMB is promising, its effects can vary based on individual factors such as training status, diet, and genetics. Before incorporating HMB into your supplementation regimen, it’s recommended to consult with a qualified healthcare professional or a registered dietitian. They can help you determine whether HMB is appropriate for your specific goals and health circumstances, and ensure that it complements a well-rounded approach that includes a balanced diet and consistent exercise routine.
mechanism of action
Muscle mass is the sum of muscle protein breakdown and muscle protein synthesis. HMB simultaneously decreases muscle protein breakdown and increases muscle protein synthesis. The beauty of HMB is that it performs best when stressors are introduced to the body.
HMB decreases protein breakdown by disrupting proteolysis through the ubiquitin-proteasome proteolytic pathway (a major enzymatic pathway for protein breakdown in muscle). This results in less muscle damage.
HMB stimulates muscle protein synthesis through multiple mechanisms, including the mTOR/p70S6k pathway. While the initiation of myofibrillar protein synthesis is influenced by multiple factors, mTOR is a key regulatory factor that results in a direct increase in myofibrillar protein synthesis. Myofibrillar proteins cause muscles to contract and are responsible for the strength of the muscle contraction. HMB has been shown to increase the phosphorylation of mTOR, thus activating the mTOR signaling pathway in muscle. The mTOR then stimulates the initiation of protein synthesis in the muscle.
While many of these effects are shared with leucine, HMB is more potent than leucine in promoting strength gains. A study found that conversion of leucine to HMB is necessary for this increase in protein synthesis, making this performance supplement ideal for building and maintaining muscle mass and strength.
HMB vs. Protein or Leucine
In order to benefit from HMB, supplementation is needed. While it is true that HMB is produced naturally in our bodies during the metabolism of the essential amino acid leucine, only 5% of dietary leucine is converted to HMB in the body. This means that, in theory, a person would need to consume 60 grams of leucine — or approximately 600 grams of high quality protein — to get the effective amount of HMB. Directly consuming this amount of protein or leucine is a difficult if not impossible feat.
The simple solution:
Daily supplementation of the effective amount of HMB, a manageable 3 grams, to maintain and improve overall muscle health.
applications
MyHMB is one of the most studied nutritional ingredients available. In the last three decades, more than 50 human studies, 40 review articles and 12 meta-analyses have shown its effectiveness and safety
Performance Driven
Train harder. Recover faster. Get the Edge
Products focused on improving performance, consumed in the periods before, during and after exercise.
Set the highest possible functional reserve.
Establishing positive habits and behaviours in young adulthood.
Increase strength gains from resistance training.
- Increase strength gains from resistance training
- Increase lean body mass
- Decrease body fat
- Shorten muscle recovery time
- Improve endurance
- Maximize results from training
Healthy Aging
Keep moving. Be energized. Feel independent
The provision of products that are focused on enhancing vitality, quality of life and independence.
Promoting function and mobility.
Consumers 65+ looking to improve no matter what their previous activity.
- Improving Lean Muscle Retention
- Improving Post-Exercise, -Injury or -Illness Muscle Recovery
- Improving Mobility
- Improving Strength and Stability
- Retaining Physical Independence
Active Nutrition & Body Composition
Stay active. Feel great.
Active Lifestyles
- Maintain and gain lean body mass
- Increase fat loss during caloric restriction
- Improve endurance and minimize fatigue
- Reduce muscle soreness and accelerate muscle recovery
- Provide nutritional support for body shaping and improving body composition.
Body Composition
- Acting on both muscle and fat cells
- Increasing fat loss with diet and exercise interventions
- Maintaining muscle mass during calorie restriction
- Increasing lean muscle mass gains with exercise
- Enhancing metabolism – having more lean mass boosts your metabolism, making it easier to achieve and maintain a healthy weight
Clinical Nutrition & Recovery
Recover faster. Live stronger.
The provision of products focused on enhancing recovering from injury, illness or surgery.
Promoting strength and function.
Maintain muscle mass to enable faster recovery.
- Protect muscle during and improve muscle recovery after periods of inactivity
- Improve mobility, strength and stability (myHMB + Vitamin D)
- Maintain physical independence (myHMB alone or + Vitamin D)
myHMB Pet
Run. Thrive. Play
HMB has been studied extensively in people but has also show positive benefits in performance animals:
- HMB attenuates exercise-induced muscle damage from intense performance (greyhound racing and Iditarod sled dogs) similar to humans
- Increases indicators of aerobic metabolism (quarter horses and thoroughbreds) similar to humans
