Creatine for Strength, Power and Muscle Growth: What Trials Found

How the terms are used

• Strength is usually the heaviest weight a person can lift once, such as a bench press or leg press.
• Power is force produced quickly, for example a vertical jump or a short all-out cycling test.
• Lean body mass is body weight minus fat, estimated by scans or other methods. It includes water, which matters below.
• Muscle growth (hypertrophy) can be measured more directly by imaging of muscle thickness.

What the reviews found

Effect sizes are unit-free numbers that let researchers combine different tests. They are not kilograms. The reviews above do not all measure the same things, so the rows should not be added together.

Differences that matter

• Training. The lean-mass gain in one review was clear with resistance training (+1.10 kg) and not significant without exercise (+0.03 kg). [5] A position paper says that lean-mass increases occasionally attributed to creatine in short-term studies (for example 7 days) are likely explained by extra body water. [7]
• Age and sex. The 2025 review found benefits were most consistent in younger adults and males, while older adults and females showed smaller or non-significant changes in several outcomes. [3] Another review found males on creatine gained 1.46 kg of lean mass and females a non-significant 0.29 kg. [5] These groups are studied less often, so gaps are partly a lack of trials.
• Carbohydrate with creatine. A review of trials found no added hypertrophy benefit from taking carbohydrate at the same time. [4]
• Water. A loading phase in studies typically came with a 1 to 3 kg rise in body mass, mostly water. [7] Weight on the scale is not the same as muscle.

For older adults and women, see Creatine for older adults: sarcopenia, falls and bone and Creatine for women.

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