According to a new study, creatine supplementation might help maintain and increase lean mass even without diet or exercise. It also enhanced the effects of a combined diet and exercise intervention [1].
How to lose weight but not muscle
As people age, they often accumulate fat while losing muscle. When these changes occur together, in what is called sarcopenic obesity, they can undermine mobility and metabolic health, contributing to other age-related conditions [2].
Losing weight is a natural solution, but caloric restriction carries the risk of further reducing muscle mass. This creates a practical problem: how can middle-aged and older adults lose fat while preserving or increasing their lean tissue and strength? Resistance training helps address this problem, while creatine might provide additional support because it participates in the regeneration of ATP, the molecule cells use to power their activities.
Creatine’s potential benefits extend beyond muscle. The brain is also energy-hungry, and previous studies have suggested that creatine supplementation might improve cognitive function [3]. One study linked creatine intake to lower blood levels of neurofilament light chain, a marker of neuroaxonal damage [4].
A new study from Texas A&M University, published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, set out to evaluate the effects of creatine monohydrate (CrM) supplementation on body composition and cognition in healthy middle-aged and older adults, both on its own and alongside an exercise and weight-loss program. The study duration was 12 weeks, and the investigated CrM dose was five grams twice a day, higher than typical maintenance supplementation.
Creatine helps preserve lean mass
Participants first chose whether to join the exercise program. Within each category, they were randomly assigned to creatine or placebo. This means that supplement allocation was randomized, but exercise participation was not.
64 participants completed the study and were included in the main analysis. They were aged 45-65, with an average age of approximately 54.5 years. 40 were women and 24 were men. Their average BMI was approximately 30. Participants and staff were blinded to supplement assignment.
The exercise program included resistance and aerobic training three times a week. Resistance exercises included three sets of ten repetitions, with progressively increasing loads. Aerobic exercise lasted about 20 minutes per session. Participants were also asked to clock at least 10,000 steps on non-training days. The intended dietary intervention involved a daily energy deficit of approximately 300 to 500 calories.
Food questionnaires did not show statistically significant differences in dietary changes between groups over time. Average reported protein intake was about 74 grams daily, or 0.94 grams per kilogram of body weight. Hence, this was not a high-protein intervention.
To assess body composition, the researchers used DXA, an X-ray method that estimates fat, lean tissue, and bone mineral. Both creatine groups gained lean tissue, while the placebo groups showed little change.
Exercise and dieting reduced fat, and adding creatine produced an even greater reduction in body-fat percentage. At twelve weeks, body-fat percentage declined by about 3.24% with exercise/diet plus creatine, versus 1.87% with exercise/diet plus placebo.
However, measured lean tissue is not necessarily all muscle. Creatine can increase body water, which affects DXA lean-mass estimates.
Increased strength, inconsistent cognitive results
The researchers next tested maximal strength, muscular endurance, and treadmill performance. Strength increased most consistently in the active intervention groups, with the creatine and exercise group showing the largest gains.
After twelve weeks, leg-press maximum increased by about 34% with exercise plus creatine, versus 18% with exercise plus placebo. Bench-press maximum increased by about 23% with exercise plus creatine, versus 12% with exercise plus placebo. Interestingly, creatine without exercise also improved bench-press strength relative to the non-exercising placebo group.
Treadmill time to exhaustion improved, especially with exercise plus creatine, but creatine did not produce a clear additional improvement in peak oxygen uptake. This is consistent with creatine being mainly beneficial for muscle strength.
Most overall cognitive analyses did not detect statistically significant differences between the groups, although a few individual comparisons did. For instance, on a word recognition test, where participants are asked to identify previously presented words among unfamiliar ones, people on creatine generally performed better. Taken together, however, the cognitive tests did not demonstrate a broad cognitive benefit.
This study’s most intriguing finding is probably that creatine might help preserve or increase muscle mass even when not combined with diet or exercise. However, this study was small and had its fair share of limitations.
Literature
[1] Chun, J., Liu, Y., Kibler, G. L., Lee, H., Babakhani, K., Rhoades, N., … & Kreider, R. B. (2026). Effects of creatine supplementation with and without exercise and diet intervention on body composition, cognitive function, and markers of health in middle-aged and older adults. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 23(sup1), 2716273.
[2] Zamboni, M., Mazzali, G., Fantin, F., Rossi, A., & Di Francesco, V. (2008). Sarcopenic obesity: a new category of obesity in the elderly. Nutrition, metabolism and cardiovascular diseases, 18(5), 388-395.
[3] Avgerinos, K. I., Spyrou, N., Bougioukas, K. I., & Kapogiannis, D. (2018). Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Experimental gerontology, 108, 166-173.
[4] Ostojic, S. M., Grasaas, E., Baltic, S., & Cvejic, J. (2024). Dietary creatine is associated with lower serum neurofilament light chain levels. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 49(8), 1121-1123.
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