4 ms·

Creatine improves muscle mass and cognitive function even without exercise

18 points by geox 27d ago

upheaval7276 27d ago
this article is garbage, likely just written by AI without any proofreading. so many things in the article are wrong after reading the study a bit. for example, study says 73 people, article says 64. Article says only part of the participants were in a caloric deficit. Study says "All participants followed a diet plan aligned with the American Heart Association's macronutrient recommendations (55% carbohydrate, 15% protein, 30% fat) to induce a modest energy deficit of approximately 300–500 kcal/day.". etc, etc skip the article, read the study at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2026.2716273#abstract https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2026.2...
- nonsensical_ 27d ago
  You will consume slop on HN and you will be happy.
- wnissen 27d ago
  You may be right about the article but 64 is the correct number: 64 completed week 12 and were included in the repeated-measures analysis.
  - disgruntledphd2 27d ago
    Presumably they used intent to treat though, so 73 pp data were analysed.
15155 27d ago
The question is: does it increase muscle nuclei or just water volume?
- upheaval7276 27d ago
  good question, and DXA won't tell you the answer there (they used DXA in the study) So not an especially convincing study in that case, since creatine leads to increased water retention.
- IncreasePosts 27d ago
  (A meta analysis) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5679696/?utm_source=gemini#sec3 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5679696/?utm_source... > For example, over 8 weeks of resistance training in young men, creatine supplementation resulted in a faster increase in satellite cell number, myonuclei per muscle fiber, and muscle fiber size.
  - upheaval7276 27d ago
    that's an entirely different study with different goals
    - IncreasePosts 27d ago
      The question was asked whether creatine increases muscle nuclei or just water volume, and I provided a study (well, a meta-study which is referring to a specific study) which showed that creatine supplementation increased the muscle nuclei compared to no supplementation. The specific study referred to is titled "Creatine supplementation augments the increase in satellite cell and myonuclei number in human skeletal muscle induced by strength training"
      - upheaval7276 27d ago
        the interesting claim about the study in the OP is that creatine increases muscle mass in non-trained/sedentary individuals. i haven't seen that claim previously (backed by a study) and took the question from user "15155" to be about that specifically. the claim that it increases muscle mass when combined with resistance training seems to be long-settled though
  - 27d ago
comrade1234 27d ago
Don't you normally have about a kilo (or 500g?) excess as backup energy stored in your muscles and liver(?)? Why would taking a few dozen grams help?
- stubish 26d ago
  Locked up and waiting for signals to release doesn't do much good.

18 points by geox 27d ago

this article is garbage, likely just written by AI without any proofreading. so many things in the article are wrong after reading the study a bit. for example, study says 73 people, article says 64. Article says only part of the participants were in a caloric deficit. Study says "All participants followed a diet plan aligned with the American Heart Association's macronutrient recommendations (55% carbohydrate, 15% protein, 30% fat) to induce a modest energy deficit of approximately 300–500 kcal/day.". etc, etc skip the article, read the study at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2026.2716273#abstract https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2026.2...

nonsensical_ 27d ago
You will consume slop on HN and you will be happy.
wnissen 27d ago
You may be right about the article but 64 is the correct number: 64 completed week 12 and were included in the repeated-measures analysis.
- disgruntledphd2 27d ago
  Presumably they used intent to treat though, so 73 pp data were analysed.

15155 27d ago

The question is: does it increase muscle nuclei or just water volume?

upheaval7276 27d ago
good question, and DXA won't tell you the answer there (they used DXA in the study) So not an especially convincing study in that case, since creatine leads to increased water retention.
IncreasePosts 27d ago
(A meta analysis) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5679696/?utm_source=gemini#sec3 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5679696/?utm_source... > For example, over 8 weeks of resistance training in young men, creatine supplementation resulted in a faster increase in satellite cell number, myonuclei per muscle fiber, and muscle fiber size.
- upheaval7276 27d ago
  that's an entirely different study with different goals
  - IncreasePosts 27d ago
    The question was asked whether creatine increases muscle nuclei or just water volume, and I provided a study (well, a meta-study which is referring to a specific study) which showed that creatine supplementation increased the muscle nuclei compared to no supplementation. The specific study referred to is titled "Creatine supplementation augments the increase in satellite cell and myonuclei number in human skeletal muscle induced by strength training"
    - upheaval7276 27d ago
      the interesting claim about the study in the OP is that creatine increases muscle mass in non-trained/sedentary individuals. i haven't seen that claim previously (backed by a study) and took the question from user "15155" to be about that specifically. the claim that it increases muscle mass when combined with resistance training seems to be long-settled though
- 27d ago

comrade1234 27d ago

Don't you normally have about a kilo (or 500g?) excess as backup energy stored in your muscles and liver(?)? Why would taking a few dozen grams help?

stubish 26d ago
Locked up and waiting for signals to release doesn't do much good.