Creatine Debunked: No Extra Muscle Gained - Were we Duped?

Physionic

Apr 11, 2025

Episode description

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0:00 - Introduction
0:32 - The Study that Debunks Creatine
3:29 - Is all previous research flawed?
6:47 - Important considerations...
8:14 - Main Points

References
[Study 435] Desai I, Pandit A, Smith-Ryan AE, et al. The effect of creatine supplementation on lean body mass with and without resistance training. Nutrients. 2025;17(6):1081. doi:10.3390/nu17061081

Funding/Conflicts: Internal Funding [University of New South Wales Scientia scholarship] // Potential direct Conflicts of Interest [The corresponding author received a creatine supplement sponsorship from True Protein]

[A] Volek JS, Duncan ND, Mazzetti SA, et al. Performance and muscle fiber adaptations to creatine supplementation and heavy resistance training. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1999;31(8):1147-1156. doi:10.1097/00005768-199908000-00011

[B] Willoughby DS, Rosene J. Effects of oral creatine and resistance training on myosin heavy chain expression. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2001;33(10):1674-1681. doi:10.1097/00005768-200110000-00010

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#creatinebenefits #creatine

Episode description

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.

#creatine

#supplement

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.

#creatine

#supplement

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.

#creatine

#muscle

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.

#creatine

#muscle

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.

#creatine

#muscle

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.