New research suggests creatine may help adults ages 45 to 65 gain lean tissue and strength, even without a structured exercise program.
Creatine, a naturally occurring compound that helps replenish cellular energy, is widely used to build muscle and improve athletic performance. Its effects may also be useful in middle age, when maintaining muscle becomes increasingly important and losing weight can mean losing muscle along with fat.
In a Texas A&M University study of adults ages 45 to 65, participants who took creatine while following an exercise and weight-loss program gained nearly three pounds of lean tissue and reduced their fat mass over 12 weeks. Those who followed the same program while taking a placebo showed little change in lean tissue, which includes muscle and other nonfat components of the body.
Gaining lean tissue during weight loss
The study, published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, included 64 healthy adults who completed the intervention. Participants chose whether to join the exercise and weight-loss program or remain outside it. Within those groups, researchers randomly assigned them to take either 10 grams of creatine monohydrate or a placebo each day.
The exercise program combined resistance and aerobic training three times a week with a diet designed to create a modest calorie deficit. Participants taking creatine had a greater reduction in body fat percentage than those taking the placebo. To the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study to show that adding creatine to an exercise and diet-induced weight-loss program can reduce body fat percentage more than the program alone.
Strength gains without structured exercise
The results also suggest that a structured exercise program was not necessary for participants to see some benefits. Among those outside the program, people taking creatine gained about 2.4 pounds of lean tissue over the 12 weeks and improved their leg press and bench press strength.
Combining creatine with exercise produced greater gains in leg press and bench press strength, as well as in time to exhaustion, a measure of how long participants could continue exercising. Creatine did not appear to add to improvements in aerobic capacity. That distinction is consistent with its primary effects on muscular strength and power.
The study’s principal investigator, Dr. Richard Kreider, is a professor and director of the Exercise and Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M. He has studied creatine for more than 30 years, including its potential health benefits beyond sports. His previous work has highlighted its possible role throughout life, including for older adults experiencing declines in muscle mass and cognitive function.
What 685 trials found about side effects
That broader interest is supported by an extensive body of research on creatine, one of the most studied sports and nutritional supplements. In a 2025 analysis of 685 clinical trials, Kreider and colleagues found no significant difference in the rate of reported side effects between participants taking creatine and those taking a placebo.
The body makes creatine naturally, and foods such as meat and fish provide additional amounts. Kreider says many people do not get enough through food alone. Obtaining the 10 grams used in this study would require eating about five to 10 pounds of meat or fish each day, he notes, making supplementation a more practical and less expensive option.
Reference: “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” by Jisun Chun, Yuhang Liu, Giuliet L. Kibler, Hudson Lee, Khatereh Babakhani, Nathaniel Rhoades, Ian Bivins, Joungbo Ko, Broderick Dickerson, Drew E. Gonzalez, Ryan J. Sowinski, Chris J. Rasmussen and Richard B. Kreider, 11 August 2026, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
DOI: 10.1080/15502783.2026.2716273
This study was funded by the WoodNext Foundation through the Texas A&M Foundation.
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