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Sports supplement creatine makes no difference to muscle gains, trial finds

People hoping to build muscle with the support of a creatine supplement might be disappointed by new research that shows it has little to no effect when taken at the recommended level.

A UNSW-led clinical trial that put 54 people through a 12-week resistance training program found no difference between those who took the supplement at the recommended dose and those who did not, the research published in Nutrients shows. Both groups in the randomised control trial put on an average of two kilograms of lean body mass during the program, which involved three supervised resistance training sessions per week. “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,” said senior author Dr Mandy Hagstrom, from UNSW’s School of Health Sciences.

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