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There really is no way to test the effects of supplements on muscle building. Thats the gimmick that "fake" companies use. For example, if i train for two months without supplements and put an inch on each arm, then train the left arm only with supplements and every other weekend than the right arm, than it will grow more right? But then this experiment has way too many extra factors that may or may not change the outcome. Factors like diet, sleep, mental prepareness, intensity, focus, other things like that. It is truly difficult to show supplements do work. You will see" Increased muscle protein content by 48%, bench press by 32 pounds in two months? But then you have to know what was the rate of progress without supplementation. And then even this is pointless because it is common knowledge that it becomes harder and harder to grow as the body adapts to stress over time.

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Either 100 percent serious or none at all
"How the hell can you be sure if its a guy or girl?"
"Shoot em and hear them scream. Trust me, you'll know." cleaningotis answering SniperXL50

WOW. That's very not true IMO. It is for this reason that most studies use a control group. If the sample size (number of participants) is large enough, then you can definitely get a good idea. Also, if enough studies have been done, then you can start to get an idea. Granted, there will always be a sampling error. But you can definitely say with a large amount of confidence that supplements such as creatine may aid in building muscle.

The problem is that companies (and sometimes the people conducting the studies) take good studies and misinterpret the results. Most of the studies that supplement companies reference were done with two groups of less than 10 people. That is NOT a large enough sample to have a significant outcome.

Supplementing creatine has been proven to work to aid in building muscle IMO. There are over 100 studies that show this. High protein diets, and supplemental protein have been proven to help.

So overall, some claims are efficacious while others are likely, but not necessarily, false. It is definitely possible to show that supplements do work. Most companies don't take the time to do so because they don't have to. Or they manipulate the studies or the interpretations. I understand where you're coming from because I'm pretty cynical too.

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I am deeply involved in research (not supplement, but psychology) and I can actually give an educated reply for once!

In response to OTIS, there is no way to experimentally determine a causal relationship between supplements and muscle gains. This is entirely due to the impossibility of isolating supplements as the only independent variable, there are simply too many confounding variables to control (i.e., life stressors, motivational fluctuations, effort, etc.).

However, studies can come to a statistically significant correlational relationship, showing that when supplements are used, whichever they may be researching, a positive correlational relationship occurs (when supplement intake increases, so does muscle mass, or when supplement intake decreases, muscle mass decreases). THIS DOES NOT MEAN SUPPLEMENTS CAUSE, in ANY way, MUSCLE MASS INCREASE.

I would be very interested in a meta-analysis of supplement studies, if anyone has found one.