Trial reportJournal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition2018
The effects of chronic betaine supplementation on body composition and performance in collegiate females: a double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled trial.
Trial report in Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Effect of Betaine on Reducing Body Fat-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Nutrients · 2019Pooled it
- Betaine supplementation modulates mitochondrial and redox-related adaptations in premenopausal women with overweight: a randomized controlled trial.European journal of nutrition · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Effects of chronic betaine supplementation on performance in professional young soccer players during a competitive season: a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2021Trial
- The effects of 14-week betaine supplementation on endocrine markers, body composition and anthropometrics in professional youth soccer players: a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2021Trial
- Betaine Supplementation Does Not Improve Muscle Hypertrophy or Strength Following 6 Weeks of Cross-Fit Training.Nutrients · 2020Trial
- Effect of Bang® Pre-Workout Master Blaster® combined with four weeks of resistance training on lean body mass, maximal strength, mircoRNA expression, and serum IGF-1 in men: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2019Trial
- Skeletal muscle mitochondrial-methylation-neurotransmitter crosstalk: a novel synergistic model of betaine, tyrosine, and Cordyceps for exercise performance in older adults, individuals with metabolic disorders, and healthy populations.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Exercise-mimicking effects of betaine in chronic disease prevention and management.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- The interactive relationship of dietary choline and betaine with physical activity on circulating creatine kinase (CK), metabolic and glycemic markers, and anthropometric characteristics in physically active young individuals.BMC endocrine disorders · 2023Article
- Betaine as a Functional Ingredient: Metabolism, Health-Promoting Attributes, Food Sources, Applications and Analysis Methods.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Making the case for prophylactic use of betaine to promote brain health in young (15-24 year old) athletes at risk for concussion.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Review
- Effects of 6-Week Betaine Supplementation on Muscular Performance in Male Collegiate Athletes.Biology · 2022Article
- Article
- A Whole-Grain Diet Increases Whole-Body Protein Balance Compared with a Macronutrient-Matched Refined-Grain Diet.Current developments in nutrition · 2021Article
- Betaine, a component ofFood science & nutrition · 2021Article
- Article
- The association of dietary choline and betaine and anthropometric measurements among Iranian children: a cross-sectional study.BMC pediatrics · 2021Article
- Glutathione Protects the Developing Heart from Defects and Global DNA Hypomethylation Induced by Prenatal Alcohol Exposure.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBetaine supplementation has been shown to improve body composition and some metrics of muscular performance in young men; but, whether betaine enhances body composition or performance in female subjects is currently unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction between resistance training adaptation and chronic betaine supplementation in females.
methodsTwenty-three young women (21.0 ± 1.4 years, 165.9 ± 6.4 cm, 68.6 ± 11.8 kg) without prior structured resistance training experience volunteered for this study. Body composition (BodPod), rectus femoris muscle thickness (B-mode Ultrasound), vertical jump, back squat 1RM and bench press 1RM were assessed pre- and post-training. Following 1 week of familiarization training, subjects were matched for body composition and squat strength, and randomly assigned to either a betaine (2.5 g/day; n = 11) or placebo (n = 12) group that completed 3 sets of 6-7 exercises per day performed to momentary muscular failure. Training was divided into two lower and one upper body training sessions per week performed on non-consecutive days for 8 weeks, and weekly volume load was used to analyze work capacity.
resultsSignificant main effects of time were found for changes in lean mass (2.4 ± 1.8 kg), muscle thickness (0.13 ± 0.08 cm), vertical jump (1.8 ± 1.6 cm), squat 1RM (39.8 ± 14.0 kg), and bench press 1 RM (9.1 ± 7.3 kg); however, there were no significant interactions. A trend (p = .056) was found for greater weekly training volumes for betaine versus placebo. Significant interactions were found for changes in body fat percentage and fat mass: body fat percentage and fat mass decreased significantly more in betaine (- 3.3 ± 1.7%; - 2.0 ± 1.1 kg) compared to placebo (- 1.7 ± 1.6%; - 0.8 ± 1.3 kg), respectively.
conclusionsThe results of this study indicated that betaine supplementation may enhance reductions in fat mass, but not absolute strength, that accompany a resistance training program in untrained collegiate females.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.