HMB
Sold to build muscle and strength. In young adults who lift weights it adds nothing to the training, and it costs more than the things that do work.
At a glance
| Our verdict | No effect on lean mass or strength in trained young adults. |
| Sold for | Muscle and strength (claimed) |
| How sure the evidence is | Moderate that it does not work in trained young adults; Low for older adults |
| Cost a month | About $35 to $50 |
Written for adults in Canada. It explains the evidence; it is not advice for you personally. Last reviewed 20 October 2026.
Supplement Check
Is it right for you?
Spending on HMB? The money is better spent on training, protein from food or creatine. Your check tells you what is worth taking for your goals, and whether your products are safe if you are drug-tested. Our Supplement Check looks at:
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding
- Drug-tested athletes (national or provincial level, college athletes, junior and minor professional leagues)
Coming soon. The Supplement Check and the Online Health Assessment open once our safety testing is complete.
$59 when it opens, paid once. Adults 18 and over, anywhere in Canada. While the service is new, Dr. French reads every report himself, and your report arrives within 3 working days. More about the Supplement Check
What it is
HMB (beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate) is made in the body from leucine, one of the amino acids in protein. It is sold as a calcium salt or as the free acid, and licensed in Canada as a natural health product (NPN).
How it acts
Proposed, not proven: it may reduce the breakdown of muscle protein and switch on a muscle-building signal (mTOR). This is mechanism; in trials it did not translate into more muscle or strength.
What it is used for, and what the evidence says
It is sold for muscle gain, for muscle loss with age (sarcopenia) and during bed rest.
| Use | What the trials found | How sure we are |
|---|---|---|
| Young adults doing resistance training | A pooled review of the trials found no effect on fat-free mass, on fat or on strength, over and above the training itself. [1] | Moderate |
| Older adults, including during bed rest | Only small studies. Our review found no reliable estimate of benefit. | Low |
How sure we are: High means further research is very unlikely to change the answer; Moderate, it might; Low, it may well change; Very low, we are very unsure. These follow the GRADE method that guideline panels use.
Benefits
- None shown in healthy adults who train. [1]
Risks and side effects
- Few side effects reported.
- Sport products. If you are a drug-tested athlete, any sport product can be contaminated with a banned substance; only batch-tested products are safe for you.
- Cost for no measured gain.
Interactions with medicines
No interactions with medicines are known, and our review found nothing on the liver enzymes that clear medicines.
Who should not take it
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding: no data.
- Drug-tested athletes (national or provincial level, college athletes, junior and minor professional leagues): batch-tested products only.
- Under 18: outside the Supplement Check.
Dose and timing
We do not recommend a dose. For reference, trials used 3 g a day.
If you take it now: the only way to tell whether it adds muscle is a body-composition scan (DXA) for lean mass before and after 12 weeks. The trials in young adults found no difference, so we would expect none.
What we know about Canadians
No Canadian data on HMB use in our review. What we know: Canadian adults eat on average about 80 g of protein a day, two-thirds of it from animal foods; few fall short of the official requirement, and the group most often below it is women over 70, at about 1 in 10. [2] About 27% of Canadians aged 15 and older played a sport regularly in 2016, and 14% of those competed. [3] The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport ran 3,423 tests in 2024–25; most of the 14 rule violations were for substances found in contaminated sport products. [4]
Most at risk of a positive test from a supplement: university and national-team athletes, powerlifters and weightlifters, and anyone buying untested pre-workout, recovery or muscle products. [4]
How sure are we: moderate. Protein intake from a national diet survey (moderate for the official requirement); sport participation and testing are official counts. No Canadian data on HMB itself.
An honest comparison: lean mass and strength
Same outcome (lean body mass in kilograms), cost a month in Canadian dollars. Supplements only add to training.
| Option | Effect | How sure we are | Cost a month (CAD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creatine monohydrate 3 to 5 g a day | About 1.1 kg more lean mass with resistance training [8] | Moderate | $10 to $20 |
| HMB 3 g a day | No effect on lean mass or strength in young adults who train [1] | Moderate | $35 to $50 |
| Strength training 2 to 3 times a week, progressive | Older adults: about 1.1 kg more lean mass [5] and 24 to 33% more strength [6] | Moderate to High | Bands $3 to $5; budget gym about $21 |
| Enough protein from food (to about 1.6 g per kg a day), with training | About 0.3 kg more lean mass and 2.5 kg more on a one-repetition lift; no gain above 1.6 g per kg [7] | Moderate to High | $20 to $30 of extra food |
| No medicine is indicated to build muscle without a deficiency | — | Not applicable | — |
Read honestly: HMB is the most expensive line in this table and the only one with no effect. Training does the work; protein from food and creatine add a little to it.
Why we don't recommend it
We do not sell HMB and our check never recommends it. In young adults who train it adds nothing to lean mass or strength, and in older adults the evidence is too thin to say.
Already taking it? It is unlikely to harm you, but it is unlikely to help. Stop it and spend the money on training, enough protein from food, or creatine. If you are a drug-tested athlete, use batch-tested products only.
The review compared HMB with strength training, protein and creatine for the same outcome, and Dr. French accepted its conclusion: skip it. A pooled review of the trials found no gain in muscle or strength over training alone, with moderate certainty. Creatine adds about 1.1 kg of lean mass to training for $10 to $20 a month, a third to a half of the price of HMB, and training itself costs as little as $3 a month. Something that costs more and does nothing is not something we sell.
Supplement Check
Before you buy it, get it checked
Spending on HMB? The money is better spent on training, protein from food or creatine. Your check tells you what is worth taking for your goals, and whether your products are safe if you are drug-tested. Our Supplement Check looks at:
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding
- Drug-tested athletes (national or provincial level, college athletes, junior and minor professional leagues)
Coming soon. The Supplement Check and the Online Health Assessment open once our safety testing is complete.
$59 when it opens, paid once. Adults 18 and over, anywhere in Canada. While the service is new, Dr. French reads every report himself, and your report arrives within 3 working days. More about the Supplement Check
Disclosure of financial interest
White Pine Medical earns money from products bought through our Fullscript dispensary. Dr. French's Code of Ethics requires him to tell you this. You do not have to buy anything from us: every product is named by its ingredient and dose so you can buy it at any pharmacy, and the advice is the same wherever you buy it, or if you buy nothing.
References
- Jakubowski JS, Nunes EA, Teixeira FJ, Vescovi V, Morton RW, Banfield L, et al. Supplementation with the leucine metabolite β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB) does not improve resistance exercise-induced changes in body composition or strength in young subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients. 2020;12(5):1523.
- Auclair O, Burgos SA. Protein consumption in Canadian habitual diets: usual intake, inadequacy, and the contribution of animal- and plant-based foods to nutrient intakes. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2021;46(5):501-10.
- Statistics Canada. Sports for fun and fitness (General Social Survey 2016). 11-627-M2019039. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2019039-eng.htm
- Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. CCES Annual Statistics, 1 Apr 2024 – 31 Mar 2025. https://sportintegrity.ca/sites/default/files/content/docs/2025-10/CCES-2024-25Stats-E.pdf
- Peterson MD, Sen A, Gordon PM. Influence of resistance exercise on lean body mass in aging adults: a meta-analysis. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011;43(2):249-58.
- Peterson MD, Rhea MR, Sen A, Gordon PM. Resistance exercise for muscular strength in older adults: a meta-analysis. Ageing Res Rev. 2010;9(3):226-37.
- Morton RW, Murphy KT, McKellar SR, Schoenfeld BJ, Henselmans M, Helms E, et al. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. Br J Sports Med. 2018;52(6):376-84.
- Delpino FM, Figueiredo LM, Forbes SC, Candow DG, Santos HO. Influence of age, sex, and type of exercise on the efficacy of creatine supplementation on lean body mass: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Nutrition. 2022;103-104:111791.
Costs marked as estimates are typical Canadian retail or pharmacy prices, before any drug plan. Certainty grades are ours unless the review gave its own.