Table of Contents
- The Existing View
- The New Study
- Response to the Study
- Creatine and Performance
- Back to the Study
- References
A recent study is challenging everything researchers thought they knew about creatine supplements.
Has the scientific community been misinterpreting the evidence all this time?
1. The Existing View
Creatine has been widely used since the 90s. And one of the study results discussed most often is its link to muscle mass gains.
For example, a meta-analysis in 2022 pulled together the data from 35 studies. The analysis revealed that creatine supplementation increased lean body mass by 1.10 kg (about 2½ pounds) when combined with resistance training [1].
Notice something important in those results. Creatine was found to increase lean body mass — and that is not the same as muscle mass. Lean body mass is the weight of everything in the body apart from fat. Muscle mass is a key component of that, but lean body mass also includes bones, organs, water weight, and several other things.
If most of those other factors are staying relatively stable over the course of a study, lean body mass gains serve as a reasonable proxy for muscle mass gains. So when studies find creatine boosting lean body mass, it has seemed like a reasonable assumption that the observed change reflects a gain in actual muscle tissue.
2. The New Study
A 2025 study challenges that assumption — suggesting that earlier research results may have been interpreted incorrectly all along.
The researchers wanted to determine whether creatine genuinely helps build muscle, or whether the lean body mass gains reported in earlier studies are largely explained by short-term increases in water retention.
Here is how the study was set up. Researchers randomly assigned participants to one of two groups. The first group received a creatine supplement of 5 g per day. The other group took nothing. For the first week of the study, the creatine group took the supplement, but neither group exercised. Starting with week two, both groups began a carefully supervised workout program that lasted for the remaining 12 weeks. Lean body mass measurements were taken for all participants three times: once before the study began, once after the first week, and once more at the end [2].
Now there have been many studies examining the effects of creatine on lean body mass before. They look almost exactly like this design. But this study introduced a unique twist. In the past, studies always started the exercise program and the creatine supplementation at the same time. In this study, it was creatine alone for the first week — with no exercise at all.
Why? The researchers were curious about something. Though the evidence has been mixed, there have been some indicators suggesting that creatine increases the amount of water in the body in the short term. And recall that water is a component of lean body mass. So the researchers wondered if part of the lean body mass gains attributed to creatine in earlier studies were actually from increased water retention, not increased muscle tissue [2].
That is exactly what the first week was designed to test. Those taking creatine were not exercising at all during that period. So any lean body mass gains they showed had to be due to water uptake — not new muscle.
So what did they discover? After initial measurements, lean body mass was checked after the first week. As expected, there was a significant difference between the two groups. Those taking creatine gained approximately 0.5 kg (about 1 pound) of lean body mass. Those in the control group showed no change [2].
That first result was interesting, confirming earlier evidence that creatine can boost water uptake in the body. But that result was not especially surprising. The more consequential question was this: would those taking creatine get any additional lean body mass benefit during the 12-week exercise phase — beyond that initial water-related gain?
To find out, lean body mass was assessed again after 12 weeks of supervised exercise. The researchers worked hard to ensure both groups were exercising in the same way. And this is the part that attracted significant attention. The creatine group did not appear to gain any additional lean body mass during the 12 weeks of exercise compared to the control group. When comparing the change in lean body mass from the end of week one to the end of the study, both groups gained approximately the same amount — about 2 kg (or 4½ pounds) [2].
The study authors drew a striking conclusion. Creatine does not appear to provide additional benefits for lean body mass gains beyond that initial boost in the first week — and that initial boost likely has nothing to do with muscle gains [2].
3. Response to the Study
Do these results mean that creatine use has been built on a mistake?
Let us unpack this carefully. Looking again at the numbers reported for the gains during the 12-week exercise period, there actually is a difference between the groups. The supplement group gains a bit more lean body mass on average [2].
When the researchers report "no difference," they technically mean no statistically significant difference. In other words, the mathematics suggests the difference observed is likely due to chance rather than a real effect of creatine.
But it is also possible that the benefit creatine provides is genuine but modest in this particular study setup. A small effect can be difficult to detect against the noise of individual variation, which tends to be quite large in exercise studies. This trial enrolled only 60 participants over a period of just 12 weeks. Ideally, a larger, longer-term trial would provide a much clearer picture. More data means more precision in detecting real effects.
It is also worth noting that if the comparison is made from the start of the study (baseline) to the end — rather than from week one to the end — the creatine group still shows a greater overall change in lean body mass [2].
4. Creatine and Performance
There is something important — and easy to miss — about what this study actually measured.
This study did not address the main benefit of creatine.
So what is creatine's primary benefit? Creatine helps restore ATP — the primary energy source for cells. It is particularly important when high-intensity, short bursts of muscle movement are needed. Think of it like an emergency battery pack for muscles.
Muscles can store a certain amount of creatine. Taking creatine supplements increases how much creatine is available in muscle tissue. It is like filling that battery pack to 100% [3].
And this results in measurable performance gains during exercise. Studies have documented benefits ranging from increased power output and endurance in strength training to enhanced recovery between sessions [3].
And since creatine allows harder effort during strength training, strength gains accumulate more quickly. A meta-analysis of studies in adults under 50 years old supports this effect. When compared to placebo, those taking creatine saw their strength grow more rapidly [4].
A separate meta-analysis focused specifically on studies of older adults. The results were consistent. Creatine supplementation increased the chest press and leg press one-rep maximum in older participants [5].
A position paper from the International Society of Sports Nutrition summarised the evidence in broad terms. Hundreds of peer-reviewed studies have evaluated the impact of creatine supplements on exercise performance, and approximately 70% of them found a significant improvement in exercise capacity [6].
From the MicroVitamin range
MicroVitamin+ includes creatine monohydrate at the 5 g daily dose used across the research literature on exercise performance. More about the formula: MicroVitamin+.
5. Back to the Study
This is a really important distinction.
This new trial casts doubt on creatine's effects on lean body mass. But it did not measure muscle performance.
So creatine lets people exercise with more intensity. And this translates into strength gains. But then the natural question is: if strength is growing, shouldn't muscles be growing too? And wouldn't that show up as gains in lean muscle mass? That recent study raises a question mark here.
The simple answer is — it is not that simple. The assumption that strength grows because muscles get bigger is understandable, but the reality is more complex. Consider this example. Bodybuilders and weightlifters both engage in rigorous resistance training. Both groups gain a significant amount of muscle. But the relationship between their muscle size and their strength is different.
In one analysis, researchers measured the size of the triceps muscle along with its power output. In their sample, the bodybuilders had, on average, larger muscles. But for a given amount of muscle tissue, the weightlifters were stronger [7].
So, surprisingly, strength gains and muscle size gains are not identical. One study found that a group of young, healthy people had average strength gains of 21% over the study period. But that corresponded to only a 7% gain in muscle size [7].
Incredibly, several people in that study increased their leg strength without any measurable gains in muscle size at all [7].
What explains this? Strength gains are partly a result of increased muscle mass — but they are also driven by changes in neural activity. The nervous system becomes more efficient at recruiting and coordinating muscle fibres. Research suggests that early strength gains are primarily driven by these neural adaptations, while later gains become more closely tied to actual muscle growth [7].
And this raises an intriguing possibility for interpreting the new creatine study. Could those taking creatine have seen meaningful benefits in terms of strength gains, even without measurable lean body mass differences? There is no way to know from this trial, since muscle performance was not measured. But it is certainly plausible — and consistent with the extensive body of prior evidence. In other words, perhaps participants did not add extra lean body mass because of creatine during the exercise phase. But they very likely added extra strength and muscle performance, as the large existing body of trial data consistently suggests.
Overall, the new study raises a legitimate question about whether earlier research may have overstated creatine's contribution to muscle mass gains specifically. But for the reasons examined here, the evidence base for creatine's usefulness remains strong. The substantial evidence that creatine boosts exercise performance and strength gains comes from studies that actually measured those outcomes. This new study did not measure muscle performance at all — and that distinction matters greatly in interpreting what the findings mean.
