Supplements
Does Turkesterone Improve Muscle Growth? (Explaining the Scam)
Turkesterone is one of the most popular (and infamous) muscle-building supplements on the market. Joe Rogan, More Plates More Dates, and Vitruvian Physique have all discussed turkesterone’s benefits. Most famously of all, Greg Doucette touts the benefits of his turkesterone supplement (Turk Builder) several times per week to hundreds of thousands of people per video.
At first, the claim was that turkesterone could boost testosterone production, boosting muscle growth. However, there isn’t any research showing increases in testosterone. Also, it doesn’t bind to the androgen receptor, so you wouldn’t expect it to increase testosterone (study). When this came out, there was a marketing pivot. Now, it’s said to promote muscle growth via other pathways, such as stimulating the production of more IGF-1, increasing mTOR. More on that in a moment.
To get to the bottom of this, I started by speaking with Dr. Eric Trexler. He’s got a doctorate degree in sports science, has published over 30 strength and hypertrophy studies, and studies metabolism at Duke University.
We also have a few studies to review, including two new human trials on turkesterone.
And then there’s the drama: the scams, scandals, and redemption arcs.
We don’t sell turkesterone. No affiliate links.
Read More
The Best Protein Powder for Bulking (2025)
I’ll tell you the best protein powder for bulking, but you might be asking the wrong question. Protein is an important part of a balanced bulking diet, and protein powder is an easy way to get that protein, but you might be thinking of a weight gainer.
Weight gainers are high-calorie bulking supplements that contain both protein and carbs. You mix it into water just like protein powder, but you can get around 10x as many calories per serving. That can make it easier to gain weight. That might be what you’re thinking of. We’ll cover the best weight gainers, too.
Read More
Does Creatine Make You Gain Weight?
Supplementing with creatine will probably make you gain about 2 pounds in 12 weeks. There are two big meta-analyses on creatine (Burke, Branch). Both found that creatine causes a man of average size to gain 2 pounds, with roughly 1.5 pounds from water retention, 1.5 pounds from muscle growth, and -1 pounds from fat loss.
That means creatine can make you gain weight in a calorie deficit. Losing a pound of fat burns about 3,500 calories. Gaining 1.5 pounds of muscle takes around 1,200 calories. The water retention doesn’t take any calories. That means the average study participant had a calorie deficit of 2,300 calories while gaining 2 pounds on the scale.
The amount of weight you gain can vary. Most people gain a couple of pounds, but for an extreme example, my roommate back in university gained 8 pounds after a week of supplementing with creatine. He was doing a “loading phase,” taking 5 grams of creatine four times per day, and he had an exaggerated response to it. During that same week, I took the same amount of creatine and didn’t gain any weight at all.
This makes creatine confusing. Creatine is great for building and maintaining muscle, making it a great supplement for both bulking and cutting. But since it causes a somewhat unpredictable amount of weight gain, creatine can make it hard to tell how big your calorie surplus or deficit is, making it hard to know if you’re eating the right amount of food.
Here are some tips.
Read More
Should Skinny Guys Use Mass Gainers?
Mass gainers, also known as weight gainers, are popular with skinny guys trying to bulk up. They’re especially popular with “hardgainers” whose metabolisms make it difficult to gain weight. I’m a naturally skinny guy myself, and I’ve always found it nearly impossible to get into a sustainable calorie surplus.
I’ve experimented with my fair share of mass gainers. I’ve tried all the popular brands, I’ve made my own homemade shakes from whey protein and maltodextrin, and I’ve tried all sorts of thousand-calorie bulking shakes. That’s how I gained my first 50 pounds.
So, do mass gainers work? Are they healthy? Do they cause excess fat gain? And, if you’re a skinny guy struggling to gain weight, should you use them?
Read More
How Much Protein Powder Can You Have Per Day?
One of the most common questions we get is how much protein powder is too much protein powder? One scoop of whey per day is probably fine, right? But what about 2 scoops? 3 scoops? 4?
I’ve seen dozens of muscle-building studies where the researchers give participants upwards of 60 or even 90 grams of protein per day for several months in a row, measuring what effects it has on muscle growth.
There are other studies looking directly at how much protein powder you can safely have per day.
Read More
The Best Time to Have a Protein Shake
You can have a protein shake at any time. The most important thing is to consume enough protein overall. Still, some times are better than others.
Maybe you’ve heard of a bodybuilder who wakes up in the middle of the night to chug the shake they’ve left on their bedside table. You can do better than that.
And what about the anabolic window? Should you be having protein shakes before and after working out? Maybe, yes.
Read More
Before & After Creatine: How Much Extra Muscle Will You Gain?
Creatine helps you build muscle, sure, but how much? Creatine has thousands of studies proving its effectiveness, and every expert recommends it, but most people don’t know how whether it will help them build 5% or 50% more muscle.
One way to get an idea of how well it works is to look at before-and-after photos of guys combining weight training, a good bulking diet, and creatine supplementation. But that won’t tell you exactly how effective creatine is. That’s why we need to look at the research.
There are two big meta-analyses looking at how creatine affects muscle growth. The first tells us how much extra lean mass we can expect to gain. The second tells us how much extra muscle mass we can expect.
We don’t sell supplements. There are no affiliate links in this article.
Read More
Should Skinny Guys Take Creatine to Build Muscle?
Once upon a time, I was 23 years old and 130 pounds at 6 feet tall. I was skinny and underweight, with a BMI of just under 18. I was hunchbacked from all my time spent hunched over my desk studying graphic design.
My roommate, Shane, was similarly thin, so we made a pact to bulk up together. We called it Muscle May and spent much of April preparing for it. But even before I started lifting weights or eating more food, my body was already transforming.
In preparation for the start of Muscle May, I started taking creatine monohydrate a week early. I wanted to load up on creatine beforehand so that my levels were optimized for my first workout. I mixed 5 grams of creatine into a glass of blueberry juice. The creatine was grainy but tasteless. It was the first muscle-building supplement I ever took.
By the end of the week, before I started lifting weights or eating a bulking diet, I had gained 8 pounds from creatine alone. I couldn’t believe it.
Read More
Does Collagen Help Build Muscle? A Quick Research Overview
Collagen is a popular “anti-aging” supplement for maintaining skin elasticity, keeping our joints strong, and helping our connective tissues recover. So far, the research has shown that collagen does indeed offer all of those benefits, in a small way—probably (study, study).
Lifters often run into nagging aches and pains in their joints and tendons. Supplementing with collagen seems like a reasonable way to improve recovery. That raises an obvious question: what about muscle growth? Does collagen help build muscle?
Jacinto and colleagues tried to answer that question by comparing whey protein against collagen protein, then seeing which yielded more muscle growth. It’s a neat study. Let’s delve into it.
Delve Deeper
The Best Bulking Supplements for Skinny Guys
Over 5,000 shares and 500 comments later, here’s our revised supplement guide for skinny guys trying to build muscle in time for last summer. We’ll cover supplements that speed up muscle growth, such as creatine. We’ll review supplements that help skinny guys bulk up, like mass gainers. We’ll talk about pre-workout supplements, too.
When talking about supplements, we use research, personal experience, and over a decade of full-time coaching experience. We’ve each gained seventy pounds (naturally). We’ve also helped over 10,000 skinny guys bulk up with our Bony to Beastly Bulking Program. Marco has a degree in Health Sciences, and he’s trained hundreds of clients, ranging from everyday desk workers all the way up to college, professional, and Olympic athletes.
We don’t sell supplements. There are no affiliate links.
Read More