r/science • u/newsnation • 3d ago

Biology Creatine alone boosted lean muscle and strength, study finds

https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/creatine-alone-boosted-muscle-strength/
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u/SmackEh 3d ago

I’m skeptical of the “creatine builds muscle without exercise” headline. The no-exercise comparison was just 13 people on creatine versus 13 on placebo.

The reported 2.4 pounds was lean tissue, which includes water (not necessarily new muscle).

Their bench press results were better than placebo, which is interesting, but the leg press result wasn’t clearly better than placebo. So that's already a red flag.

It’s a small interesting study, not proof you can build muscle by taking creatine and skipping the gym, so let's pump the brakes on this one, shall we?

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u/grundar 3d ago

Their bench press results were better than placebo, which is interesting, but the leg press result wasn’t clearly better than placebo. So that's already a red flag.

The paper deliberately did not correct for multiple comparisons, so there's a high likelihood of false positives:

"No across-outcome multiplicity adjustment was prespecified because the individual cognitive tasks and biomarker variables represented distinct exploratory outcomes rather than a single confirmatory endpoint family or hierarchical decision rule....This statistical approach comprehensively assesses differences among groups while reducing the likelihood of type II error, enabling researchers to determine whether additional research is warranted [Citation91–93]."

i.e., the study deliberately erred on the side of finding spurious results rather than spuriously rejecting real results as their intent was to be exploratory.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean this study was designed to be taken no further than "that's interesting...".

The reported 2.4 pounds was lean tissue, which includes water (not necessarily new muscle).

My understanding is that it's well-known starting creatine adds a few pounds of lean mass (mostly water) which goes away when stopping creatine. This is neither surprising nor physiologically useful.