IntroductionSatellite cells can be isolated from skeletal muscle biopsies, activated to proliferating myoblast and differentiated into multinuclear myotubes in culture. These cell cultures represent an essential model system to intact human skeletal muscle, which can be modulated ex vivo. Advantages of this system include; having the most relevant genetic background to study human disease (as opposed to rodent cell cultures), the extracellular environment can be precisely controlled and the cells are not immortalized, thereby offering the possibility of studying innate characteristics of the donor. This review will focus on how human myotubes can be used as a tool to study metabolism in skeletal muscles, with a special attention to changes in muscle energy metabolism in obesity and type 2 diabetes.Limitations of this cell system and possible approaches to improve the current model will also be discussed.