11–20 of 177 posts
I don’t understand the trend of individual studies making it to the top of HN, while metaanalyses are ignored, despite examining 10s or 100s of such individual studies in aggregate to reduce noise. There are we-are-human reasons, but are there any logical reasons?
Over the years through my own involvement in sports and physically demaning jobs with trying a lot of different supplementation, I've come to the conclusion that most (if not all) supplements provide little to no value beyond a good diet. If they do, they're either illigal as non-perscription and/or require regular physician monitoring use correctly.
This sort of study is important, given how highly taken creatine is. I will highlight a part that I think may be especially relevant: > “The people taking the creatine supplement saw changes before they even started exercising, which leads us to believe that it wasn’t actual real muscle growth, but potentially fluid retention,” Dr Hagstrom said. I think this is well-known, right? People take creatine specifically bec…
I don’t understand the trend of individual studies making it to the top of HN, while metaanalyses are ignored, despite examining 10s or 100s of such individual studies in aggregate to reduce noise. There are we-are-human reasons, but are there any logical reasons?
I've been lifting five to six days a week since 2012, with some de-loading periods between, and have had my nutrition and sleep locked in for the majority of that time. Anecdotal of course, but I will still sit here and say that creatine is the only supplement that has actually worked over all those years - in fact, it's the only one I currently take. I recover so much better when on roughly 5mg of Creatine for an ex…
I'm able to do a few more reps and recover a bit faster between sets and from one session to the next. That will definitely have a positive impact on muscle mass in the medium/long term.
The way I understood it creatine by itself doesn't promote muscle gain all that much. It's the fact that you can potentially do one to three more reps which does. But that still means you have to do the reps. https://leangains.com/supplements-you-might-actually-find-us...
So no, taking creatine without doing the work probably won't make a difference (except to your wallet), but use in conjunction with consistent and effective exercise, the effect is real.
One thing though: don't bother with the creatine loading phase, it's a marketing scheme to sell more product.
Muscle gains require an adequate protein intake, but creatine has no relationship with that.
Creatine, as phosphocreatine, provides energy storage for short-time anaerobic effort. After the available phosphocreatine is exhausted, only a lower power can be sustained, at the level that can be supported by the conversion of glucose into lactic acid. For even longer times, the power that can be sustained must drop to the level supported by aerobic metabolism.
It is known that the daily capacity of creatine synthesis in humans is usually limited to less than the optimal requirement for intense exercise, so some creatine must be provided by food, for the best results.
I take a little creatine, because I eat vegan food, which does not contain creatine. For someone who eats meat, it is very unlikely that a creatine supplement can be useful, because meat should contain enough additional creatine, besides the creatine that is synthesized internally.
However, I am grateful to the sport fans who may have taken creatine without any good reasons, because that has ensured the widespread availability at modest prices of creatine supplements, which are useful for vegans like myself.
I agree with another poster, who says that while creatine cannot have a direct effect on muscle gains, it can have an indirect effect on someone who trains regularly, by allowing more exercise repetitions, which may stimulate muscle gains.
Obviously, such an indirect effect is conditioned by actually training regularly and really doing more intense trainings than when not taking the supplement.
I'm curious what the same study would say about athletes of various disciplines. It makes sense to me that creatine does not make a difference for these folks.
I've been lifting five to six days a week since 2012, with some de-loading periods between, and have had my nutrition and sleep locked in for the majority of that time. Anecdotal of course, but I will still sit here and say that creatine is the only supplement that has actually worked over all those years - in fact, it's the only one I currently take. I recover so much better when on roughly 5mg of Creatine for an ex…
Participants were instructed to maintain their current
dietary habits and physical activity levels for the
duration of the study.