What is the best supplement to take with creatine for muscle gain?

The kilogram budget: where a block's muscle actually comes from, with each line attributed from the meta-analyses, and why the question is answered by the buyer's own unspent line

What is the best supplement to take with creatine for muscle gain is a question that the shelf answers with a product and the meta-analyses answer with a budget, which is more useful because a budget has lines and the lines can be attributed. A training block produces some number of kilograms of lean mass, and the research lets a lifter say where each kilogram came from. Creatine's line is one to two kilograms over a block on top of training alone, after the first kilogram of water that arrives in the saturating days, the figure the meta-analyses return across most people who train, larger in those with low starting stores. Protein's line is a similar amount for the lifter who was below the target, because the meta-analysis of protein intake and lean mass finds the gain in moving from a low intake to around 1.6g per kilogram a day and nothing above it; for a lifter already at the target the line is zero, and for a lifter at a gram per kilogram it is the largest line on the page. The training's line, progressive overload with enough volume and enough sets near failure, is the majority, because it is the signal the other lines serve and without it they produce nothing; and the surplus's line, a modest energy surplus of a few hundred calories a day above maintenance, is the rest, because muscle is built from energy as well as from protein and a lifter in a deficit builds little however the other lines are filled. The remaining lines on the muscle-gain shelf, read in the next section, are zero.

The budget answers the question in a way a product cannot, because it is the buyer's budget rather than the shelf's. The best supplement to take with creatine for muscle gain is whichever line in the buyer's own budget is unspent, and three cases cover almost everyone. The lifter who is below about 1.6g per kilogram of protein, which the surveys find most lifters are, has the protein line unspent, and protein is the best pair, from food first and a powder for the feeding that falls short, worth a similar number of kilograms to the creatine itself. The lifter who is at the protein target and in no surplus, eating at maintenance or below while trying to grow, has the surplus line unspent, and the best pair is food, a few hundred calories a day more, which is not sold as a supplement and is worth more than any product that is. The lifter who has both, protein at the target and a modest surplus, with a programme that asks for more over the block, has spent every line the research can attribute a kilogram to, and the best supplement to take with creatine is nothing, because the budget is full and the shelf's remaining lines are zero.

The budget also sets expectations, which the shelf is built to inflate. A natural lifter's total for a block, with every line spent, is bounded by the rate ceiling that training age, sex, frame and genetics set, fastest in the first year and slower each year after; creatine's one to two kilograms is a large share of a later block and a small share of a first one, and the pair that matters most is the pair that fills the largest hole in the buyer's own numbers rather than the pair the shelf prices highest.

A budget with four real lines and the answer read off the buyer's unspent one, and the muscle-gain shelf placed by the kilograms each product adds, the surplus and the mass gainer, the worked example on its own line, and the verdict, which is the next section.

The muscle-gain shelf placed by the kilograms it adds: the zero lines, the mass gainer and the surplus it mistakes, caffeine's indirect line, the one pair every lifter runs; the worked example; and the verdict

The muscle-gain shelf is placed by the kilograms the trials can attribute to each product on top of creatine and training, and the placing is short because the lines are mostly zero. Branched-chain amino acids add nothing to adequate protein, since their three amino acids are already in any protein a lifter eats and the building signal needs the full set; their line is zero for a lifter at the target and a poor substitute for the protein line in a lifter below it. HMB has small effects in untrained and older people and little in trained lifters, with the one creatine-and-HMB combination trial additive and not replicated; its line is zero in the population asking this question. The testosterone boosters were audited across dozens of products with almost no data and no effect on the hormone; zero. Glutamine, the nitric oxide and pump products, the greens and the muscle-gain stacks that bundle the above with creatine at a premium have no trial attributing a kilogram to them; zero, at a price. The other creatine forms, the hydrochloride, the buffered and the blends, add nothing to a saturated monohydrate store; zero, at a higher price than the monohydrate they contain.

The mass gainer deserves its own paragraph because it is the product most often sold as creatine's pair for muscle gain and because it mistakes a real line for a product. The surplus line is real: a lifter in no surplus builds little, and a few hundred calories a day above maintenance fills the line. A mass gainer fills it with a thousand or more calories of sugar and fat in a shake, which overshoots the usable surplus by a wide margin and stores the excess as fat, so that the scale moves fast and the lean mass does not; the line is filled by food, a larger portion at each meal with protein kept at the target, which supplies the surplus at the rate the muscle-building rate can use and costs less. A hard gainer eating too little to gain at all has the surplus line unspent and still fills it with food rather than with a gainer, because the gainer's calories arrive without the satiety that keeps the next meal normal.

Caffeine has an indirect line: it adds no kilograms on its own, and a tablet before the sessions that matter raises the work a session contains, which is the training line's input; it is a pair for the lifter whose sessions are the limit rather than whose protein or surplus is, kept for the sessions that matter because of tolerance and sleep. The one pair every lifter runs without calling it a pair is creatine with a protein-containing meal every day, which fills the uptake effect the early trials showed and the protein line at once, inside a programme that asks for more over the block and a surplus that lets it.

The worked example is placed on a line of its own, with no kilograms in the budget and none claimed: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, with authorised claims for normal muscle function, normal protein synthesis and electrolyte balance, which describe the mineral's role in a working muscle and are not a muscle-gain claim, taken by a lifter whose plate is short of the mineral for the plate, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, UK made, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day. The full label breakdown is here.

The verdict: the best supplement to take with creatine for muscle gain is the one that fills the largest unspent line in the buyer's kilogram budget. Creatine supplies one to two kilograms over a block; closing a protein shortfall supplies a similar amount, which makes protein the best pair for the most lifters; a modest surplus from food supplies the energy, which makes food the best pair for the lifter who is not in one; the training supplies the majority and the signal; and the muscle-gain shelf, from the amino acid blends to the boosters and the mass gainers, supplies nothing the trials can attribute a kilogram to.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

What should I take with creatine to build muscle faster?

Whichever line in your kilogram budget is unspent: the meta-analyses attribute one to two kilograms over a block to creatine on top of training, a similar amount to closing a protein shortfall in a lifter below about 1.6g per kilogram, and the majority to the training and a modest surplus, so protein is the best pair for the most lifters, food is the best pair for the lifter eating at maintenance while trying to grow, and nothing is the best pair for the lifter who has both, because the remaining lines on the muscle-gain shelf are zero in the trials.

Is creatine and protein the best combination for muscle gain?

For most lifters, yes, because the surveys find most below the protein target and the protein line is then worth a similar number of kilograms to the creatine line: creatine lets a session contain slightly more work and protein at around 1.6g per kilogram supplies what the extra work is built from, the training trials that gave both against either alone find the two together produce the gains, and a protein-containing meal with the dose also fills the uptake effect the early trials showed; a lifter already at the target gains nothing from more protein and looks at the surplus line instead.

Should I take a mass gainer with creatine?

No; the surplus line is real, since a lifter in no surplus builds little, and a mass gainer fills it with a thousand or more calories of sugar and fat in a shake that overshoots the usable surplus and stores the excess as fat, so the scale moves and the lean mass does not; the line is filled by food, a larger portion at each meal with protein kept at the target, which supplies a few hundred calories a day above maintenance at the rate the muscle-building rate can use, with the satiety that keeps the next meal normal and at a lower price.

Do BCAAs or HMB add muscle on top of creatine?

Not in a trained lifter: branched-chain amino acids add nothing to adequate protein because their three amino acids are already in any protein a lifter eats and the building signal needs the full set, and HMB has small effects in untrained and older people and little in trained lifters, with the one creatine-and-HMB combination trial additive and not replicated; both lines are zero in the kilogram budget for the person asking this question, as are the boosters, glutamine, the pump products, the greens and the stacks that bundle them with creatine at a premium.

Does magnesium help with muscle gain alongside creatine?

It has no line in the kilogram budget and claims none: magnesium has authorised claims for normal muscle function, normal protein synthesis and electrolyte balance, which describe the mineral's role in a working muscle and are not a muscle-gain claim, and the worked example is 300mg elemental at 80% NRV in two capsules with the evening meal for 22p a day, batch tested for four metals and UK made, taken by a lifter whose plate is short of the mineral for the plate, beside creatine as a separate purchase for a separate reason.

Sources

1. Rawson ES, Volek JS. Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2003;17(4):822-831: creatine with resistance training produced around 8 per cent greater gains in maximal strength and around 14 per cent greater gains in repetitions at a given load than training alone. PubMed record
2. Morton RW, et al. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2018;52(6):376-384: protein supplementation added around 0.3kg of fat-free mass, with the benefit plateauing at total intakes around 1.6g per kilogram a day. PubMed record
3. The resistance training hypertrophy literature: muscle growth tracks weekly set volume with diminishing returns beyond around ten to twenty hard sets per muscle, progressive overload, proximity to failure, protein around 1.6 grams per kilogram and adequate sleep, with creatine the one supplement adding measurably to lean mass gains. PubMed record
4. The rate of muscle hypertrophy literature: untrained adults add lean mass fastest in the first year of consistent training, after which the rate falls each year, with total gains over a lifting career bounded by sex, frame and genetics, and no nutritional intervention raising the ceiling, only helping a person reach it. PubMed record

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