Research

Hormonal

Combining calcium beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (CaHMB) supplementation with resistance training amplifies body fat reduction compared to resistance training alone, mediated by increased FNDC-5 gene expression and irisin concentration in white adipose tissue.

If you are doing resistance training, adding CaHMB (320 mg/kg/day) may help you lose more body fat than training alone by boosting irisin levels in fat tissue. This is based on rat studies, so human dosing may vary, but the synergy between the supplement and exercise is clear.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Compared to RTC alone, the combination of CaHMB with RT (RTS) further reduced abdominal circumference (5.3%), Lee index (2.4%), fat percentage (24.4%)... and increased the gene expression of FNDC-5 (78.9%) and IL-6 (47.4%) in skeletal muscle and irisin concentration (26.9%) in WAT.
Juliano Magalhães Guedes et al. · Biology of Sport · 2020

Why this rating

The study is conducted on rats, limiting direct human applicability, though the mechanistic pathway is clearly defined.

Source

β-hydroxy-β -methylbutyrate supplementation benefits the effects of resistance training on body fat reduction via increased irisin expression in white adipose tissue

Juliano Magalhães Guedes et al. · Biology of Sport · 2020

DOI 10.5114/biolsport.2020.97671

mechanism_only · n=48Cited 1×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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