
Creatine Debunked: No Extra Muscle Gained - Were we Duped?
Physionic
Apr 11, 2025
Mindsip insights from this episode:
Understand creatine's role in rapid water retention and lean mass gain
Creatine supplementation alone, without resistance training, can cause about a pound of lean mass gain in the first week, which is likely due to water retention in the muscles.
Reevaluate creatine gains beyond initial water weight
A new study suggests that lean mass gains from creatine might just be initial water weight, as the muscle-building advantage disappears when the first week of supplementation is excluded from the analysis.
Trust creatine for effective muscle growth
Even with new research highlighting flaws in older studies, multiple lines of better evidence indicate creatine still effectively promotes muscle growth.
Boost functional muscle protein with creatine
Research indicates that creatine not only increases muscle cell size but also boosts the functional, contractile proteins within those cells, such as myosin.
Confirm creatine's impact on muscle cell size through biopsies
Despite what lean body mass measurements suggest, studies using direct muscle biopsies show that creatine supplementation leads to significant increases in the actual size of individual muscle cells.
Distinguish lean body mass from actual muscle gain
Measures of lean body mass from tools like DEXA scans are an imprecise proxy for actual muscle gain because they also include non-fat tissues like water, cartilage, and bone.
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