Is Creatine Just a Placebo? Vice Gets It Wrong — Here's What the Science Really Says

Every once in a while, Vice decides to comment on fitness and nutrition, and their conclusion is usually misguided.

In Early 2025, they published an article where they suggested that creatine is a placebo because a single study suggested it might not be as effective for building muscle as once thought.

We decided to check out the study, look at Vice's conclusion, and talk to the guys over at the International Society of Sports Nutrition for their opinion.

What Is Creatine?

We have a ton of more in-depth articles on creatine that you can check out here.

But here's a rundown.

Creatine is a compound that is primarily stored within our muscles and is responsible for the regeneration of ATP. ATP is a high-energy phosphate compound and is our body's "energy currency" and powers an array of processes, including muscle contractions.

Naturally, our bodies' creatine stores are replenished by consuming creatine through our diet (found in meat products) or by synthesizing it internally from various amino acids.

Depending on your lifestyle, genetics, and diet, most people's creatine stores are only 60-80% full (Antonio et. al, 2021). Therefore, by taking a creatine supplement, a person can fill their creatine stores to 100%. In turn, this allows more ATP production during high-intensity actions.

In terms of building muscle, more ATP during high-intensity activity gives a trainee more energy to perform a few more reps, increase force production, and increase their total work volume. Over time, this results in;

• Increase in muscle growth
• Greater strength gains
• Improved recovery (Kreider et. al, 2017)

It's important to realize that there's no debate about whether supplementation increases internal stores, as numerous studies show this occurs (Antonio et. al, 2021).

Vice Claims Creatine Is Just A Placebo

In a new article from Desai et. al (2025), it's suggested that creatine supplementation may not actually increase muscle gains from resistance training – we'll discuss that below.

Vice takes this and essentially calls creatine nothing more than a placebo. They briefly and poorly describe the study while adding some questionable language. 

The author suggests that creatine is always advertised with a "ripped muscle monster sprinkling it into a thick post-workout shake." 

Besides the fact that you scoop creatine, its benefits have been found to reach far beyond just building muscle. Even non-ripped muscle monsters can benefit from creatine. In fact, taking new research into consideration, it's safe to say literally everyone can benefit from creatine supplementation (Kreider et. al, 2017)

Regardless, that sentence illustrates their view attitude towards the fitness community. It's in stark contrast to other topics, such as when their host, Jenna Suffern, meets with performance artist, booty manipulator, and fat activist, Demon Derriere." 

Creatine = bad. Booty manipulation = good.

Interestingly, they don't even link to the study; instead, they link to Fortune Well, another authority on sports supplements (sarcasm), but at least they link to the actual study. 

Quick note, they also spread several common myths about creatine, primarily that creatine causes swelling and even muscle cramps. This has been explained and debunked thoroughly. (Antonio et. ak, 2021). 

The Effect of Creatine Supplementation on Lean Body Mass with and Without Resistance Training (2025)

So this study was conducted at the beginning of 2025 and had an interesting premise. They believed that most creatine studies were faulty as they started the supplementation on the same day as resistance training.

As a result, they suggest this makes it hard to prove if the creatine with resistance training is responsible for the benefits or simply taking the creatine. Basically, they believed you would get benefits from creatine before the training began.

To test this, they took two groups of individuals, a creatine group and a placebo group.

The creatine group took 5g of creatine for a week. During this week, neither group was involved in resistance training.

After a week, both groups followed the same resistance training program for 12 weeks, with muscle growth being measured.

The study concluded that while both groups gained muscle, there was no significant difference between the two.

Problems With Concluding Creatine Is A Placebo

It's an interesting study, but using it to conclude that creatine is a placebo has some problems.

To understand this, recognize that the study took 3 measurements of lean muscle mass.

1. Baseline to Wash-In.  This was the initial 7 days with no training.
2. Wash-In to Post Training. This was through the 12-week training program, and at the end of the study.
3. Baseline to Post Training. This was 13 weeks from baseline to the end of the study.

What Vice decided to focus on was measurement 2, from after the wash-in period to the end of the study.  In this time period;

• The creatine group gained 2.24 ± 1.79 kg 
• The control group gained 2.11 ± 1.71kg

So, taking just this measurement, you might conclude that creatine had no effect. However, if we dig further, we realize it's not that clear.

The Creatine Group Did Increase Muscle Mass

The study itself concludes that creatine did increase muscle mass, but it was done without a resistance training stimulus.

"...5 g/day of CrM for seven days led to a significant difference in LBM between groups in the absence of a RT stimulus"

From baseline to the end of the study, the creatine group did in fact gain 40% more muscle mass than the control group.

• Creatine group gained: 2.78 ± 1.89 kg
• Control group gained: 2.04 ± 2.70 kg

How could you conclude that creatine is a placebo when it, in fact, did increase muscle mass? Whether with or without resistance training is irrelevant.

Women Saw Greater Increases In Muscle Mass

In addition to only mentioning the 2nd measurement, Vice decided to only mention readings that included all the participants. This is a very common issue in studies with multiple variables.

When we look at women specifically, they gained significantly more muscle mass in their legs.

• Creatine group gained: 1.08 ± 0.74 kg
• Control group gained: 0.66 ± 0.72 kg

Plus, when we look at their muscle increase from baseline to the end of the training program, they gained significantly more muscle.

• Creatine group gained: 2.60 ± 1.64 kg
• Control group gained:  1.40 ± 1.59 kg

That's almost twice as much.

Interestingly, this is in contradiction to the majority of other studies that show men generally see greater results (Pashayee-Khamene et. al, 2024).

The Participants Were Untrained And Inactive

This isn't an issue with the study, but it is something to consider when assessing the findings.

In this study, participants were untrained and had not participated in any resistance training in the past 12 months.

Further, they were inactive as they did not meet the current physical activity guidelines of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise.

It also seems the average BMI was around 25 kg/m2, right on the cusp of normal weight and overweight.

While BMI has issues, given that they were inactive and untrained, we can't assume any of them had significant muscle mass.

All this comes into play as we know that untrained individuals see benefits more easily than trained individuals.

Again, this isn't a problem with the study; it's just an important variable to consider when interpreting results.

The Creatine Only Took 5g A Day.

While the study acknowledges that the creatine loading phase generally involves taking 20-25g a day for 7 days, they choose to only use 5g.

Not a huge issue, but it's interesting that they acknowledge the typical suggestion but then don't use it.

They justify this decision by saying that research shows taking 5g/day can increase creatine stores over a longer duration. This is true.

That in itself admits that creatine supplementation isn't a "placebo" as it has measurable results.

Again, not a problem with the study, but important to consider.

The Participants Ate Around Just 1,600 Calories And 70g Of Protein

We had to go to the supplementary material for this.

While the workout program looked solid, the average participant was only eating around 1,600 calories and 70g of protein at an average weight of 70kg.

This is hardly a normal muscle-building diet.  We would expect a 70kg individual training 3x a week to be consuming around 2,500 calories if they were trying to build muscle.

Plus, the average muscle-building diet will consist of at least 1.6g/kg or 112g for a 70kg person.

This Study Ignores The Hundreds Of Other Studies 

While the study has an interesting premise, Vice ignores all the other studies on creatine and draws some epic conclusions, even when creatine did, in fact, show beneficial results.

Here are just a couple of meta-analyses to consider;

1. In 2022, a meta-analysis from Wu and associates looked at 16 different randomized controlled studies. They concluded that while there is some variance, 

"Creatine is an efficient supplementation for increasing muscle strength, muscle mass, and athletic performance in the healthy young population with adequate training in a variety of dosage strategies and athletic activities."

This review also identified creatine combined with resistance training as a possible therapy for the elderly with sarcopenia, as well as patients with cancer, end-stage renal failure, and heart disease.

2. In 2017, a meta-analysis consisted of 22 studies looking at creatine effectiveness in building mass in older adults.. It also found that creatine increases lean mass. 

"In summary, our meta-analyses show that creatine supplementation during resistance training is effective for increasing lean tissue mass and upper and lower body strength in older adults."

Further, it notes that creatine supplementation increases intramuscular creatine levels. This definitely happens, so Vice would have to say that increasing these has no physiological effect.

We asked Dr. Jose Antonio, founder of the International Society for Sports Nutrition, his thoughts on the article and the idea that creatine is a placebo. He simply said;

Creatine Has More Purpose Than Just Building Muscle

Another issue is that Vice seems to think the only reason you would take creatine is to increase muscle mass. It's not.

1. Creatine Increases Muscle Strength.  In fact, there's reason to believe that strength gains can be more pronounced than muscle growth. Plus, when looking at things such as increased muscle mass, we see that creatine is having real-world effects; it's not a placebo. 

2. Creatine Improves Recovery. Creatine supplementation has been shown to improve post-exercise power output and decrease markers of muscle damage. One systematic review of 9 studies from Jiaming & Rahimi (2021) stated; 

The current data indicate that creatine supplementation is superior to rest after diverse forms of damaging and exhaustive exercise or passive recovery. 

3. Creatine Improves Cognition. Recent research has examined the effects of creatine supplementation on Cognition. Current research shows promising results, so check out our article on it here if you're interested. 

There are actually many more, but you get the idea. Researchers now recognize that creatine is useful for more than just muscle monsters. 

Creatine, Muscle Growth and Performance: Final Say

Before we conclude, there's one more thing to consider during this entire issue. In the article, Vice says that creatine is probably just a giant waste of money.

The reality is that creatine monohydrate is ridiculously cheap. It's pretty much the cheapest supplement on the market, and no one is going broke buying it.

You can buy 100-200 servings of high-quality creatine monohydrate online for $30-$40. That's about $6-$10 a month or 20-30 cents a day. You can stay away from other variations, as many of those are a waste of money.

With that in mind, people will get various results, and it's not going to add 50lbs of mass on you, but creatine is the most effective supplement on the market. It's simple and works by directly increasing creatine stores, which has an array of benefits that go past just building muscle.

It's simply important to keep expectations in check.

When considering all of this, it really makes no sense why Vice would take one study and twist its findings to conclude that creatine is a placebo and worthless.

Now, you don't have to take it. Just know the truth when deciding if you want to give it a shot.

References

1. Antonio, J., Candow, D. G., Forbes, S. C., Gualano, B., Jagim, A. R., Kreider, R. B., Rawson, E. S., Smith-Ryan, A. E., VanDusseldorp, T. A., Willoughby, D. S., & Ziegenfuss, T. N. (2021). Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show?. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 18(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-021-00412-w 
2. Chilibeck, P. D., Kaviani, M., Candow, D. G., & Zello, G. A. (2017). Effect of creatine supplementation during resistance training on lean tissue mass and muscular strength in older adults: a meta-analysis. Open access journal of sports medicine, 8, 213–226. https://doi.org/10.2147/OAJSM.S123529 
3. Desai, I., Pandit, A., Smith-Ryan, A. E., Simar, D., Candow, D. G., Kaakoush, N. O., & Hagstrom, A. D. (2025). The Effect of Creatine Supplementation on Lean Body Mass with and Without Resistance Training. Nutrients, 17(6), 1081. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17061081 
4. Jiaming, Y., & Rahimi, M. H. (2021). Creatine supplementation effect on recovery following exercise-induced muscle damage: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of food biochemistry, 45(10), e13916. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfbc.13916 
5. Kreider, R. B., Kalman, D. S., Antonio, J., Ziegenfuss, T. N., Wildman, R., Collins, R., … Lopez, H. L. (2017). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z
6. Pashayee-Khamene, F., Heidari, Z., Asbaghi, O., Ashtary-Larky, D., Goudarzi, K., Forbes, S. C., Candow, D. G., Bagheri, R., Ghanavati, M., & Dutheil, F. (2024). Creatine supplementation protocols with or without training interventions on body composition: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 21(1), 2380058. https://doi.org/10.1080/15502783.2024.2380058 
7. Prada, L. (2025, March 25). The creatine you're taking to get big might be useless. VICE. https://www.vice.com/en/article/creatine-get-big-might-be-useless/
8. Wu, S. H., Chen, K. L., Hsu, C., Chen, H. C., Chen, J. Y., Yu, S. Y., & Shiu, Y. J. (2022). Creatine Supplementation for Muscle Growth: A Scoping Review of Randomized Clinical Trials from 2012 to 2021. Nutrients, 14(6), 1255. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14061255