Optimum Nutrition HMB 1,000 mg Capsules Review
#4 of 6 · Best Known Brand✓ Label verified · Supplement Facts read Oct 11, 2026Real retailer photo, cut out. Label unedited.
Consider it if you want the full dose in three capsules from a brand you know. One serving is the complete 3 g, which no other capsule here manages in three pills.
$39.99 · 90 capsules (Amazon US, Oct 11, 2026)$1.33 per day at 3 g (3 capsules)
Why It Scores 7.9 — And The Label Line Behind Each Number
Dose vs the Trials
30% of score3 g of calcium HMB monohydrate per three-capsule serving: the full daily amount. The label takes it in one go; the trials split it into three 1 g doses.
- Directions
- Take 3 capsules
- Daily dose as labelled
- 3 g
Form & Label Clarity
20% of scoreThe front label names calcium beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate monohydrate and the panel prints the calcium (360 mg). The panel's own ingredient line is garbled, and it prints the salt weight only.
- Form
- Calcium HMB monohydrate, gelatin capsule
- Per serving
- Calcium HMB monohydrate 3 g · calcium 360 mg · 15 calories
Testing & Manufacturing
20% of scoreNo third-party testing statement on the label or listing. Not in NSF's Certified for Sport database.
- Testing
- No third-party testing statement on the label or listing
Formula & Capsule
15% of scoreOther ingredients: gelatin, magnesium stearate.
- Other ingredients
- Gelatin, magnesium stearate
Value
15% of score$39.99 for 90 capsules on Oct 11, 2026: 30 days at 3 g, $1.33 a day.
- Price
- $39.99 for 90 capsules (Amazon US, Oct 11, 2026)
- Cost per day at 3 g
- $1.33 (bottle lasts 30 days)
- More Specs
- Serving
- 3 capsules (3 g)
- Count
- 90 capsules (30 servings)
Label verified. Every figure read from the Supplement Facts photo, Oct 11, 2026.
Marketing Claims Vs. Reality
3 g calcium HMB per serving.
The panel prints 3 g per three capsules, with 360 mg of calcium.
Decrease catabolic muscle damage.
HMB lowered markers of muscle damage in people starting resistance training (Nissen 1996). Results for creatine kinase across trials were unclear in the 2009 meta-analysis (Rowlands 2009).
Supports muscle strength.
Small strength gains in untrained lifters, trivial in trained lifters (Rowlands 2009; Sanchez-Martinez 2018).
What Our Test Actually Found
One serving, full dose
Three capsules and you are done for the day. If you want to follow the research more closely, take one capsule with each of three meals instead.
A typo on the panel
The ingredient line reads 'Calcium Beta-hydroxybutyrate beta-Methylbutyrate Monohydrate'. Beta-hydroxybutyrate is a different compound, a ketone body. The front of the bottle prints the correct name, so we read it as a printing error, and it cost a point for label clarity.
Full analysis: all pros & cons (8), buy if / skip if
- Full 3 g in one three-capsule serving
- Calcium amount printed
- Two other ingredients
- Sold by Amazon directly
- $1.33 a day
- No testing statement on the label
- Garbled ingredient name on the panel
- Gelatin capsule
- You want 3 g in three capsules
- You trust the brand and buy it elsewhere too
- You want a short ingredient list
- You want a testing statement or lab lookup: NutraBio prints one
- Cost per day matters
- You avoid gelatin
One serving is the complete 3 g, which no other capsule here manages in three pills. You pay for the name: $1.33 a day, more than twice the budget capsules, with no testing statement on the label.
Optimum Nutrition puts the whole studied dose into one serving: three capsules with 3 g of calcium HMB monohydrate and 360 mg of calcium. The panel also prints 15 calories, 0.5 g of fat and 2 g of carbohydrate. The directions say simply to take three capsules, so the label gives you 3 g at once where the research split it into three 1 g doses (Wilson 2013). Other ingredients are gelatin and magnesium stearate. The ingredient line on the panel is printed as 'Calcium Beta-hydroxybutyrate beta-Methylbutyrate Monohydrate', a garbled name; the front label has it right. Nothing on the label or listing speaks to testing. A 90-capsule bottle cost $39.99 on Amazon US on Oct 11, 2026, which is $1.33 a day.
The simple option, at a brand-name price
Optimum Nutrition makes HMB easy: three capsules, 3 g. It ranks fourth because nothing on the label addresses testing and you pay well over twice the cost per day of the budget capsules for the same compound.
If This Doesn’t Fit — Try These
01NutraBio HMB
If you want to try HMB as it was tested, this bottle saves you the arithmetic: two capsules with each of three meals.
02BulkSupplements HMB
If a scoop and a glass of water three times a day do not bother you, this bag gives you studied-dose HMB for less than thirty cents a day, with the most honest panel on the list.
03Bucked Up HMB
Bucked Up gives you inexpensive, plainly made HMB capsules with a testing statement.
Quick Answers
How much HMB is in Optimum Nutrition HMB?
3 g of calcium HMB monohydrate per three-capsule serving, with 360 mg of calcium. The calcium salt is roughly four fifths HMB by weight.
Should I take all three capsules at once?
The label says to take three capsules. The trials split the day's 3 g into three 1 g doses (Wilson 2013), so one capsule with each of three meals is closer to how it was studied.
Sources & Further Reading
2 peer-reviewed sources, each linked to PubMed
- [1] Wilson JM, et al. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2013;10(1):6. PMID 23374455 — International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB). The ISSN position stand concludes that about 38 mg of HMB per kg of body weight a day, taken close to training and for two weeks before a hard bout, can reduce muscle damage and aid recovery; that calcium HMB and HMB free acid have both been used, with too little research to call one superior; and that long-term use is safe.
- [2] Rowlands DS, Thomson JS. J Strength Cond Res. 2009;23(3):836-46. PMID 19387395 — Effects of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate supplementation during resistance training on strength, body composition, and muscle damage in trained and untrained young men: a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis of nine studies with 394 subjects found small strength benefits in untrained lifters (lower body 9.9%, average 6.6%), trivial strength effects in trained lifters, trivial effects on fat and fat-free mass, and unclear results for creatine kinase.
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