If you’ve been taking creatine to help build muscle, a new study suggests it may not be doing much—at least not at the usual dose.
A group of researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) ran a clinical trial to see whether taking five grams of creatine daily would help people gain more muscle during a 12-week weight training program. Their results? There was no difference between those who took creatine and those who didn’t.
Creatine is one of the most popular supplements among people who want to gain muscle and improve performance at the gym. It’s a substance naturally made by the body and found in foods like meat and fish.
It helps supply energy to muscles, and earlier research has suggested it might improve muscle growth, strength, and even brain function. But many of those studies had weaknesses, including unclear timing of creatine use and exercise, which could make the results less reliable.
To improve on that, the UNSW team designed their study carefully. They recruited 54 healthy adults aged 18 to 50 who were not doing much exercise at the time—less than the recommended 150 minutes per week.
All participants did the same resistance training program for three months, lifting weights three times a week under supervision. Half of them took a daily five-gram dose of creatine, while the other half didn’t take any supplement.
Before the training began, those taking creatine had a one-week “wash-in” period where they took the supplement without changing anything else in their routine. This was done to give their bodies time to adjust, making it easier to see the true effects of creatine alone, without confusing it with the effects of exercise.
Surprisingly, during that first week—when they weren’t yet working out—people taking creatine gained a bit more lean body mass, especially women. But this early gain faded once exercise began, leading researchers to suspect it wasn’t real muscle growth, but likely water retention—a known side effect of creatine.
Once both groups started exercising, they each gained about two kilograms of lean mass on average. But there was no extra gain in the creatine group. This was different from earlier studies, which often reported that creatine users gained one kilogram more muscle than non-users.
However, those earlier studies usually began creatine and exercise at the same time and didn’t include a wash-in phase, making it harder to tell what was causing the gains.
Dr. Mandy Hagstrom, one of the study’s authors, explained, “Taking five grams of creatine per day doesn’t seem to help people build more muscle during resistance training.” She said the benefits of creatine may have been exaggerated in the past, and better-designed studies like this one are important to get clearer answers.
The team also made sure that diet wasn’t affecting the results. Participants kept food logs to track what they ate, and no major differences in diet were found between the groups. The researchers used high-tech scans (DXA scans) to measure body composition before, during, and after the program.
One limitation of this study is that it didn’t include a “loading phase”—a short period where people take higher doses of creatine (about 20–25 grams a day) to quickly saturate their muscles. While common, this loading phase can cause stomach problems and isn’t required to get the full effect over time. Still, skipping the loading phase might have played a role in the lack of extra gains.
So what does this mean for people taking creatine? According to Dr. Hagstrom and co-author Dr. Imtiaz Desai, the usual dose of five grams per day might not be enough if the goal is to build muscle quickly. They suggest that future studies should test higher doses—like 10 grams per day—and see what happens over a longer time.
It may also help to track things like body water, creatine absorption, and even hormone levels during different phases of the menstrual cycle, which can affect how the body responds.
Dr. Desai said that the results may help people set more realistic expectations about what creatine can actually do. “This doesn’t mean creatine is useless,” he added, “but it might not be the magic muscle-builder many people think it is.”
Review and Analysis
This study is one of the most carefully designed trials yet on the effect of creatine during weight training. It controlled for many common variables and used a more cautious approach to understand how creatine works on its own. The use of a wash-in phase is especially valuable and may explain why earlier studies appeared to show better results.
The key takeaway is that creatine, at the commonly used dose of five grams per day, may not provide extra muscle-building benefits in the short term, especially for beginners. Some early gains seen in past studies might have been due to water retention rather than real muscle growth.
For athletes and regular gym-goers, this means creatine may still have some value—but likely not as much as some claims suggest. If your goal is to gain muscle, consistent training and a healthy diet still matter most. As for creatine, more research is needed on higher doses and long-term use before any new recommendations can be made.
Until then, the supplement industry may need to rethink how it markets creatine, and people hoping for quick results might want to manage their expectations.
If you care about muscle health, please read studies about factors that can cause muscle weakness in older people, and scientists find a way to reverse high blood sugar and muscle loss.
For more health information, please see recent studies about an easy, cheap way to maintain muscles, and results showing these vegetables essential for your muscle strength.
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