First Study to Provide Evidence Creatine HCL Could Beat Monohydrate as a Muscle Builder and Fat Shredder, BUT...

"Dude, that better be creatine HCL in dat drink of yours, because..." - bullshit, no?

I have to admit that I still have my doubts about the reproducibility and practical significance of the results, but since the authors declare that they have no competing interests, I think it is worth taking a look at what is the first (and only) study to suggest that any of the bazillion allegedly "superior" forms of creatine are actually an improvement over good old plain creatine monohydrate.

You will probably have heard the yadiyada about how creatine doesn't dissolve properly and creatine HCL was 41 times more soluble in water than creatine monohydrate, would permeate the intestinal tract easier and would thus yield significantly better results than plain monohydrate... right?

Obviously you've heard that bullshit. "Bullshit"? Yes, it's bullshit, because as of now there has been ZERO experimental evidence that the last and most important claim that the increased solubility of the product would improve its effect is more than yet another marketing gag.
With a recent study from Brazil, this evidence appears to be finally there. In the corresponding experiment, Elias de Franca et al. compared the effects of two different doses of creatine HCl (1.5 g and 5 g) with creatine monohydrate (or "monohidrate" as the scientists like to spell it ;-) on the strength (std. 1-RM testing) and body composition (skinfold method) of recreational weightlifters.

As the scientists point out, all subjects had their diet homogenized by the research team nutritionist. In addition, subjects who hadn't been "creatine free" for at least 2 months were excluded. Whey protein, ad other amino acid supplements were - that's my understanding of the full text - allowed, but "managed to fit in the protein amount of the diet" (Franca. 2015). How much of a standardization in terms supplementation existed, is yet by no means clear. What I can tell you is that all subjects received either placebo (CG | capsules with resistant starch), 5 g creatine monohydrate (CMG), 5g creatine HCL (HCl-1) or 1.5 g creatine HCL (HCl-2) for 28 days. In that, the dosage for the creatine monohydrate group was selected based on a study by Hultman et al. that shows that 5 g of CrM during 28 days, is enough to promote the ergogenic effects of the supplement. By choosing the same and a lower dose of creatine HCL of which the the manufacturer obviously claims that it has the same effect as 5 g of the real deal, Franca et al. were able to (a) verify / falsify the claim and (b) check whether increasing the dosage beyond those 1.5g that are supposedly equal to 5 g of creatine monohydrate would yield significant advantages..

Figure 1: Pre / post (and rel. change in % above post-bar) strength data (de Franca. 2015).

As you would expect it, the training alone produced some changes in the male and female subjects' strength parameters. Figure 1 displays how the 1RM strength on the leg and bench press developed over the course of the 28 days and 8 workouts that were completed in an AB, CD, AB, CD fashion, i.a. as a basic 2-way split with different exercises in weeks 1, 3 vs. 2, 4. All programs (full text lacks detailed information) were composed of four exercises of chest and back muscles, three to shoulder muscles, four to legs muscles, three to biceps and triceps, and two abdominal exercises, though; and subjects performed four sets of 10 to 12 reps (80% to 90% of 1 MR) of each exercise and with every set being executed until momentary exhaustion.
Interestingly, enough, the scientist analysis of the data shows that none of the (in absolute terms high) increases in bench press performance reached statistical significance. Similarly, the only 1-RM increase for the leg press was the one in the 5g creatine HCL group, where the probability p that the increase we see was coincidental is smaller than 5% (p < 0.05)

Figure 2: Pre / post (and rel. change in % above post-bar) body composition data (de Franca. 2015).

If we continue to look at statistical significant results, only, the data in Figure 2 is what will make snake oil vendors love and abuse this study: according to the researchers' statistics software, only the 8% reduction in body fat of the two creatine HCL groups and the 15% increase in lean mass in the 5g creatine HCL groups were statistically significant.

Now, malicious gossip has it that this wouldn't prove anything, because there is (a) no significant inter-group difference, and because (b) the absolute increase in lean mass in the creatine monohydrate group was greater than in any HCL group and that the subjects in the 8 subjects in the monohydrate group were much fatter (yes, not significantly, though) than the 13 men and women in the other two groups. Speaking of men and women,... I wonder why the authors don't disclose the number of each in the groups. They only say that there were 60-70% men, 30-40% women in both groups. Well, that's nice, but since de Franca et al. "lost" 13 of their 40 subjects along the way (the abstract says they had 40 subjects, but there are 6, 7, 6, and 8 subjects in the four groups), this only adds to the already existing doubts about the reliability, reproducibility and the foreseeable mainstream interpretation of this study.
References:

• de França, Elias, et al. "Creatine HCl and Creatine Monohydrate Improve Strength but Only Creatine HCl Induced Changes on Body Composition in Recreational Weightlifters." Food and Nutrition Sciences 6.17 (2015): 1624.
• Gufford, Brandon T., et al. "Physicochemical characterization of creatine N-methylguanidinium salts." Journal of dietary supplements 7.3 (2010): 240-252.
• Pietrobelli, Angelo, et al. "Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry: fat estimation errors due to variation in soft tissue hydration." American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology And Metabolism 274.5 (1998): E808-E816.
• Wells, J. C. K., and M. S. Fewtrell. "Measuring body composition." Archives of Disease in Childhood 91.7 (2006): 612-617.