The Study
Creatine Supplementation Prior to Strength Exercise Training Is Not Superior in Preventing Muscle Mass Loss Compared with Standard Nutritional Recommendations in Females After Bariatric Surgery: A Pilot Study
This study gave some women creatine and others a fake pill, then saw if creatine helped them keep muscle after weight-loss surgery. It found no big difference, but because so few women were in the study, we can't be super sure creatine doesn't help at all — it just didn't help noticeably here.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Women who had weight-loss surgery did strength training and took either creatine or a sugar pill to see if creatine helped keep their muscles.
Where does this study sit?
Systematic Reviews & Meta-analyses
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control
Max 58Cross-Sectional
Max 44Case Reports & Series
Max 30Expert Opinion
Max 546 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1No, the muscle loss was small and similar in both groups — creatine didn't make a meaningful difference in this context.
- 2Both groups lost about 9.5 kg of weight and 0.6–0.7 kg of muscle.
- 3Creatine didn't help keep more muscle than the sugar pill.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Obesity Surgery
Year
2024
Authors
Marcelo Diaz-Pizarro, Johanna Pino-Zúñiga, Mariela Olivares Gálvez, Carolina Rendon Vesga, Rafael Luengas Tello, Juan Camilo Duque Seguro, Jorge Cancino-López
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.