Interesting study here comparing 3 groups. Summary: Whey + carbs + creatine generated the most muscle gained, increase in 1RM and showed some fat loss. If your goal is fat loss, whey/protein only is the way to go. NOTE: They drank the shakes 3x's a day, morning/after training and before bed.
More info here - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17986903
MY TAKE: You need to take this with a grain of salt, as the lead researcher (Paul Cribb) works for AST Reseach. Their bread and butter just happen to be whey, creatine and to a lesser extent - a carb based product called "DRGC" or some such nonsense. That's short for "dextro rotary glucose crystals". Fancy term for carbs, LOL. It'd be more interesting to study Whey + Creatine, as that would likely strike the best balance between fat loss and muscle gain.
MASS has always been a top shelf protein/creatine company, to say nothing of the herbal extracts. No carb products. They were the very first to offer Kre-Alkalyn, which may be a surprise to many.
Dressed up carbs are an easy sell/high margin product, so kudos to MASS for sticking to their guns. AST? Not the company they used to be IMO. Dressed up basics. They used to be the industries top innovator. Today, they're dead in the water IMO.
You saw many groundbreakers here, from DHEA (one of if not first to market) to Kre-Alkalyn (first to market) to Synthagen (enough said) - lots of industry firsts. We continue to innovate, but only when the time is right/we have something rock solid to offer.
More info here - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17986903