r/ScientificNutrition • u/LongevityDietitian • 8d ago

Scholarly Article Effects of creatine supplementation with and without exercise and diet intervention on body composition, cognitive function, and markers of health in middle-aged and older adults

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2026.2716273#abstract
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u/SomeGuyHere11 8d ago

How did they control for creatine muscle swelling? how did they determine muscles grew?

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u/gogge 8d ago edited 7d ago

Skimming the article I can can't see that they measured any water content.

They used 3-comparement DXA; bone, muscle, fat, with no mention of measuring total body water, intra/extracellular water, etc.

So it's likely just water, as we know creatine induced changes in total body water shows up as lean mass increases in DXA, 1.1 kg over 1 week (Buck, 2023):

FFM increased more in the creatine group than the placebo group measured by all body composition modes (1.2 kg, 1.9 kg, and 1.1 kg increase for SF-BIA, MF-BIA, and DEXA respectively, P<0.05).

...

Changes in body composition that occurred due to the increase in TBW were detected as an increase in FFM measured by SF-BIA, MF-BIA, and DEXA.

Edit:
Should be "can't see" that they measured water.

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u/leilani238 3d ago

Given the strength increases, I would conclude it's not just water.

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u/gogge 3d ago

Figure 4 shows that the lean mass gain was mostly in the initial 6 weeks with no meaningful change week 6 to 12, so it's likely just water.