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Creatine has long been a staple for those aiming to build muscle. Evaluating the effectiveness of a supplement on your own can be tricky, especially when it’s often paired with a rigorous training regimen that can obscure its true effects. So, if you’ve ever wondered how creatine really works, it’s best to study it scientifically.
Not so effective. The latest study examining the substance has produced an unfavorable verdict. A 12-week training program combined with a daily dose of 5 grams of creatine showed no significant differences between those who took the supplement and those who didn’t.
“We’ve shown that taking five grams of creatine supplement per day does not make any difference to the amount of lean muscle mass people put on while resistance training,” study co-author Mandy Hagstrom said. “The benefits of creatine may have been overestimated in the past, due to methodological problems with previous studies,” she added.
What’s creatine? Creatine, or α-methyl-guanido-acetic acid, is a compound naturally found in the body, particularly in muscle and nervous system cells. It’s also present in red meat, fish, and seafood.
Creatine is formed from three amino acids and stored primarily as phosphocreatine in muscles, where it serves as an energy source. For this reason, creatine supplementation has long been thought to enhance exercise performance and promote muscle growth.
The study. The recommended daily maintenance dose of creatine is between 3 and 5 grams. In this study, 54 participants aged 18 to 50 were divided into two groups. One group took 5 grams of creatine monohydrate daily for one week before starting a 12-week endurance exercise program. The other group began the same exercise program without the supplement.
The researchers monitored both groups’ diets to ensure there were no significant differences.
Both groups gained muscle mass over the 12-week period, with both groups adding about 4 pounds of muscle. The study was published in Nutrients.
The role of water retention. One key finding of the study lies in the timing: By having the experimental group start creatine supplementation before training, the researchers were able to test the hypothesis that part of the muscle gain people associate with creatine is due to increased water retention.
During the first week, the creatine group (especially women in the group) did experience a 1-pound increase in muscle mass, but this difference disappeared once training began. Hagstrom cautioned that more studies are needed to understand the full effects of water retention associated with creatine.
A question of dosage? The researchers behind the study suggest that, in addition to water retention, the chosen dose may have impacted the results. Five grams per day is the upper limit of the recommended maintenance dose, but many creatine users follow a “loading phase” in which they take between 20 and 25 grams daily.
The study team rejected this approach, citing potential gastrointestinal issues and the belief that higher doses are unnecessary to reach saturation. However, they emphasize the need for further research using intermediate doses to better understand the effects of creatine supplementation.
Image | Aleksander Saks (Unsplash)
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