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Comment by diob | Hacker News Reader

I've worked out my whole life (since around age 14, now over 35) and had periods where I did a lot of supplements like creatine or pre-workout.

I no longer bother with them, although creatine is one of the more well researched / "real" supplements, so you're better off with that than lots of others.

To me though they've never really done anything (besides cost money). In my opinion the best bang for your buck is drinking a coffee before or during your workout. That and make sure you get enough sleep and eat nutritious food.

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If we’re sharing anecdata, Creatine has very noticeable positive impact on recovery time for me. Without it, I basically have to take an extra rest day between workouts.

I'm at the point where I weight train about once every two weeks, over the course of two days (around 5 hrs each day, super focused on good form / slow movements). Cardio everyday though.

Been doing this for almost two years at this point. Used to do the more normal splits, but this has resulted in the best results / workouts of my life.

I don't recommend it necessarily, since I'm a sample size of one. I wish there were studies on this sort of thing.

I know caffeine is detrimental to my workouts because it dehydrates me and raises my heart rate. I have clear personal data on this. Creatine is well established as a substance that has a real measurable positive impact on people.

It depends on your goals and heart health. If you want to burn through fat fast, then caffeine before heavy cardio workouts is the way to go (assuming your heart is in good condition)

Sure. My heart is very healthy and I am seeking to maintain a very low body fat percentage. However, my raw performance is better if I have low/no caffeine.

If you have 23&me you can check your result for CYP1A2.

I have the fast processing version, but those with the slow processing should avoid caffeine at all costs.

And if you lost your report, you can try searching for it on the dark web.

That's a somewhat expected result (in the sense that averaged over the whole population I'd expect results like yours more than half the time, and averaged over the subset prone to taking pre-workout supplements I'd still expect a 20+% rate of creatine doing almost nothing). Creatine has a gender bias, doesn't work for everyone, has effects that overlap non-cumulatively with extra red meat consumption (lessening the relative effect size), and is most helpful when taken 1-2 times daily rather than just pre-workout.

If it doesn't work for you, by all means don't waste your time and money.

Other people reading might still want to give it a shot. Proper size experimental design is a bit hard, especially if you start taking creatine as you also start working out more, so keep that in mind when evaluating results.

Yes, in terms of supplements it is one of the few I'd recommend if folks want a bit of a boost.

Creatine for responders slightly improves your leverages by increasing water in muscles, which translates to a few % more weight or few more reps. Guestimate, 5% for weight, 10% for reps on higher rep sets. Which is to say it gives a little more headroom for intermediate/advanced lifters who needs to start dialing in program /volumes/recovery/diet in to progress. A few % of intensity or reps per set across training block makes all the difference. Which makes creatine pretty good no shit supplement if you taking lifting remotely seriously as a hobby when it cost $30-60 per year when bought bulk. Ultimately it's deciding if you're willing to shell out $5 a month to look a bit more swole, have slightly more headroom programming/dietting, or if programming and diet on point, lift slightly more than you otherwise would with the extra water balloon leverages. It's like the cheapest pay to win, pay for slight boost in gym ego/self esteem supplement along with a caffeine, which for many is enough.

Keep in mind every body is different, and responds differently to inputs.

Creatine may not have done much for your body, but that absolutely does not mean it won't be very beneficial for others.

FWIW, coffee destroys me - I get the sweats, by heartbeat goes jittery and later in the day I crash HARD. It makes my stomach churn and grumble too. So for me, coffee is terrible advice.

Try tea instead of coffee, sounds like you're just taking too much caffeine

I get the same results from regular black tea, now I'm on decaf.

Even decaf coffee messes with me.

For me personally, coffee is true poison. I bless the day I decided to stop drinking it. It is a proper addictive substance messing with everything in your body. I'm sure studies will slowly but surely find correlation between coffee daily intake and a myriad of diseases plaguing humanity today.

100%. I had no idea I was living life through a fog, and it wasn't until a week or two after I got off coffee that the world got more vibrant. Almost like I'd been wearing dirty glasses and thick gloves and slight sound muffling headphones.

I find life is much more enjoyable now - that drug was really messing with me.

It really depends on your CYP1A2 gene. For me I'm a fast processor. For slow processor folks it is definitely poison.

Yes, absolutely. I have the "processes caffeine fast" gene according to 23&me.

For those on the other end, they should avoid it at all costs.

Maybe because you have been working out since 14, that's why the effect has been negligible or minimal?

Really could be, it's hard to know if my routines work because I have such a huge base, or if they're effective for everyone.

You are not alone in finding no benefit, and apparently about 1/3 of people are actually non responders.

Interesting! Do you have sources/studies that show this?

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