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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

01.04.2024

HMB | Preserving muscle mass during a short but strict weight loss diet

Martial artists who need to quickly reduce their body weight because they are too heavy for their intended weight class, lose a little muscle mass. Except when they use HMB.

Study
In 2023, researchers from the National Taiwan University of Sport published a study in the Chinese Journal of Physiology in which 12 young amateur boxers participated as subjects. In the study, which lasted 9 days, the researchers simulated a 6-day period preceding the weigh-in - which determines the weight class in which the boxers had to compete - and 3 days during which the athletes fought matches.

During these 9 days, the subjects reduced their caloric intake to 1100 kilocalories per day. Their protein intake decreased to 1.2 grams of protein per kilo per day. For a healthy person with a sedentary lifestyle there is nothing wrong with this intake, but for passionate athletes it is not optimal.

Half of the students took a placebo daily. The other group took 3 grams of calcium-bound HMB daily. In this group, athletes consumed 1 gram of HMB with each meal.

Results
In both groups, the athletes lost 2-3 kilos of their body weight. In the HMB group, the weight loss consisted of just under a kilo of muscle mass, but this loss of muscle was not statistically significant. The placebo group lost more than a kilo of muscle. This effect was statistically significant.

Click on the tables below for a larger version.

The researchers also looked at the strength of the boxers. In the table above you can see that HMB had no influence on this aspect.

Source:
Chin J Physiol. 2023 Nov-Dec;66(6):485-93.

More:
HMB makes trained athletes even slimmer and fitter 03.05.2016
HMB makes athletes fitter and faster 12.11.2015
You'll get fitter if you use HMB Free Acid with your high-intensity interval training 28.05.2014
Give volleyball players HMB for seven weeks... 29.10.2012
HMB reduces muscle breakdown in endurance athletes 25.08.2012

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