Science1 publisher3 min readPublished
Middle-aged adults on creatine gained lean tissue and strength without a structured workout plan
Texas A&M researchers say adults aged 45 to 65 on 10 grams of creatine a day gained about 2.4 pounds of lean tissue in 12 weeks without a workout program. The creatine-versus-placebo comparison was randomized, but a three-month study of healthy middle-aged people cannot yet show whether the supplement preserves muscle into old age.
The Scientist · Science desk
What happened
- Those creatine exercisers also cut body fat percentage more, a result the researchers call the first of its kind for creatine added to diet and exercise.
- Alongside training, creatine brought bigger gains in leg press, bench press and time to exhaustion but did not appear to raise aerobic capacity beyond exercise alone.
- Richard Kreider of Texas A&M, who has studied creatine for more than 30 years, led the study, published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
Compiled by The ScientistSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- constraint Because participants picked their own exercise arm, only the creatine-versus-placebo comparisons inside each arm support causal claims; the exercise-versus-no-exercise contrast cannot.
- constraint With about 16 completers per cell on average, the no-workout gain needs a larger replication before it can be treated as a dependable effect size.
- precedent If the body-fat result replicates, creatine becomes a testable add-on for diet-and-exercise weight-loss programs that try to spare lean tissue.
- decision People aged 45 to 65 weighing creatine have evidence of a three-month strength and lean-tissue effect, while long-term muscle retention with age went untested here.
The trial has two layers, and only one was left to chance. Participants decided for themselves whether to join a structured exercise and diet-induced weight-loss program or stay in a non-exercise group [4]. Inside each group, they were then randomly assigned 10 grams of creatine monohydrate or a placebo each day [5]. A creatine-versus-placebo difference within one arm is therefore a fair test. A difference between the arms compares people who chose differently, and whatever drove that choice may also have shaped how their bodies changed.
The groups are small. The 64 counted are the healthy adults who completed all 12 weeks [3], spread over four cells, an average of 16 people each [1].
The headline result has the least-described control. Among non-exercisers, creatine takers gained roughly 2.4 pounds of lean tissue and got stronger on the leg press and bench press [6]. The Texas A&M release does not report what placebo takers in that arm gained, so the size of the creatine effect there cannot be worked out from it [6].
The exercise arm is better specified. Those participants did resistance and aerobic training three times a week on a modest calorie deficit [7]. Creatine takers added nearly three pounds of lean tissue while losing fat mass. Placebo takers on the same program showed little change in lean tissue [10]. Both sides of that comparison are described, and I think it is the strongest result in the study. The creatine group also lost more body fat percentage, and according to the researchers this is the first study to show creatine adding to the fat-percentage drop from exercise and diet alone [11].
The performance results fit creatine's known profile. With training, creatine brought larger gains in leg press, bench press and time to exhaustion [8]. It did not appear to raise aerobic capacity beyond what exercise alone achieved [9]. The release says that matches earlier evidence that creatine mainly supports strength and power [9].
The case for ageing rests on a different population from the one tested. The participants were healthy and aged 45 to 65 [1][3], and the outcome was a gain over three months. Kreider has argued that creatine may have value for older adults facing age-related declines in muscle mass and cognitive function [12]. A 12-week gain in healthy middle-aged people does not show whether muscle is kept over years, or whether people who have already lost muscle respond the same way.
Kreider's cost argument concerns dose. Reaching 10 grams a day from food would take roughly five to 10 pounds of meat or fish, he says, making supplements the more practical and less costly route [13]. Creatine is among the most heavily studied supplements, and in a 2025 analysis Kreider and colleagues reviewed 685 clinical trials [14]. Kreider led this trial and has studied creatine for more than three decades [2].
What to watch
- The full journal paper's placebo figures for the non-exercise arm, plus how many people enrolled against the 64 who finished.
- A longer trial in adults over 65, or in people with measured muscle loss, testing whether creatine preserves muscle over years.
- An independent replication of the finding that creatine deepens body-fat-percentage loss in a diet-and-exercise program.