β-Hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB) supplementation and resistance exercise significantly reduce abdominal adiposity in healthy elderly men

The effects of 12-weeks of HMB ingestion and resistance training (RT) on abdominal adiposity were examined in 48 men (66-78. yrs). All participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: no-training placebo (NT-PL), HMB only (NT-HMB), RT with PL (RT-PL), or HMB with RT (RT-HMB). DXA was used to estimate abdominal fat mass (AFM) by placing the region of interest over the L1-L4 region of the spine. Outcomes were assessed by ANCOVA, with Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons. Baseline AFM values were used as the covariate. The ANCOVA indicated a significant difference (p. =. 0.013) between group means for the adjusted posttest AFM values (mean (kg). ±. SE: NT-PL. =. 2.59. ±. 0.06; NT-HMB. =. 2.59. ±. 0.61; RT-PL. =. 2.59. ±. 0.62; RT-HMB. =. 2.34. ±. 0.61). The pairwise comparisons indicated that AFM following the intervention period in the RT-HMB group was significantly less than NT-PL (p. =. 0.013), NT-HMB (p. =. 0.011), and RT-PL (p. =. 0.010). These data suggested that HMB in combination with 12. weeks of RT decreased AFM in elderly men.