Oct 06, 2026

What Does Creatine Do? Benefits, Evidence and Who It Is For

Three people of different ages training in a bright modern gym with a navy wall and yellow lifting platforms.

Creatine gives your muscles more of the fuel they burn in the first few seconds of hard effort. Taking 3 to 5 g a day raises the creatine stored in muscle by about 20%, and that lets you squeeze out a little more in sprints, heavy lifts and the last reps of a set. Over weeks of training, that small edge adds up to more strength and about a kilogram more lean mass than training alone. That is the proven part, and in the UK it is the part a supplement is allowed to claim. Everything else you have heard, about the brain, ageing, skin and mood, ranges from promising to unfounded, and this article says which is which.

What it is: a compound your body makes and you eat in meat and fish, stored in muscle as an energy buffer
Proven: better performance in repeated short, intense efforts; more strength and lean mass with resistance training
Authorised UK wording: improves physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise, at 3 g a day; and, for adults over 55, enhances the effect of resistance training on muscle strength
Promising, not authorised: memory in older adults
Unfounded: anti-ageing, wrinkles, "natural steroid"

What is creatine?

Creatine is a small molecule made from three amino acids. Your liver and kidneys produce about a gram a day, and an omnivore eats another gram or two in meat and fish; plant foods contain essentially none.¹ Which foods contain creatine is here. About 95% of it sits in skeletal muscle, where it is converted to phosphocreatine, a reserve that regenerates the muscle's immediate energy currency, ATP, during the first five to ten seconds of maximal effort.

Most people's muscles are around two-thirds full. Supplementing takes them to the ceiling, roughly a 20% increase, in about six days with a loading dose or about four weeks at 3 to 5 g a day, and keeps them there for as long as you continue.² That is the whole mechanism. How quickly it fills, and what you notice, is here.

What does creatine do to the body?

Effect	What the evidence shows	How strong
Short, intense performance	More power and more repetitions in efforts under about 30 seconds: sprints, jumps, heavy sets. The most replicated finding in sports nutrition³	Strong
Strength	Greater strength gains from resistance training than training alone, with the biggest difference in untrained people and at low-to-moderate doses⁴	Strong
Muscle	About 1.1 to 1.4 kg more fat-free mass than training alone over a typical trial, in both novice and experienced lifters^{5, 6}	Strong
Body water	About 0.8 to 0.9 kg of water drawn into muscle cells in the first weeks; not under the skin, not fat⁷	Strong
Fat	No increase and no meaningful decrease⁵	Strong
Memory	A small improvement in healthy adults, concentrated in those over 65; moderate certainty for memory, low for other cognitive measures^{8, 9}	Moderate for memory, limited otherwise

Two things on that list are worth saying plainly. Creatine does not build muscle by itself: it lets you train slightly harder, and the training builds the muscle. And the water it adds is inside the muscle, which is why people on creatine look fuller rather than softer. The full picture on weight is here.

What is creatine good for in the UK, officially?

UK food law only allows a supplement to make health claims that have been authorised after a scientific review, and creatine has two. The first: creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise, obtained with a daily intake of 3 g. The second, added later: daily creatine consumption can enhance the effect of resistance training on muscle strength in adults over the age of 55, at 3 g a day with regular resistance training. Those sentences are the ceiling of what any UK product may say on its label.

Everything else on this page describes research, not a product. Memory, mood, bone and ageing are not authorised claims, and no product can honestly promise them.

Is creatine a steroid?

No. Anabolic steroids are synthetic hormones that act on the body's testosterone receptors. Creatine is a nutrient your body already makes and that you eat in a steak; it has no hormonal action and no effect on testosterone.^{3, 10} It is legal, permitted in every sport and sold as a food supplement.

Does creatine actually build muscle?

Indirectly, and only with training. Creatine plus resistance training produces about a kilogram more lean mass than training plus placebo over eight to twelve weeks.^{5, 6} Without training there is no stimulus for muscle to grow. Creatine is a training aid, not a replacement for training.

Can you take creatine without working out?

You can, and it is not harmful, but for strength or size you will get nothing, because those come from training. You will fill your stores and gain the water. The possible memory effect in older adults did not depend on exercise,⁸ and vegetarians and vegans, who start with lower stores, are brought level with everyone else.¹

Is creatine good for men over 40 and 50?

This is where the evidence is most encouraging and most often oversold. Men over 40 lose muscle and strength gradually, and faster after 50. Across 22 trials in adults with a mean age of 57 to 70, creatine combined with resistance training produced 1.37 kg more lean tissue and greater upper- and lower-body strength than training with placebo.¹¹ A later analysis found the benefit held even when creatine was taken only on training days.¹² The over-55 strength claim above exists because of this research.

The honest caveat is in every one of those trials: the men were lifting weights. Creatine for a sedentary 50-year-old has not been shown to preserve muscle. Creatine for a 50-year-old who starts lifting twice a week has.

For women the picture is similar, with its own evidence and its own questions. Creatine for women is covered here.

Is creatine good for seniors?

For strength and muscle with resistance training, yes, and the over-55 claim is authorised for exactly that use.¹¹ For memory, the benefit is concentrated in adults aged 66 to 76 and not yet strong enough to be a reason to take it.⁸ Check with a GP first if you have reduced kidney function or take regular medication, because creatine raises blood creatinine and can muddle kidney tests. Side effects, kidneys and who should check first are covered here.

Is creatine good for anti-ageing, skin or wrinkles?

No evidence supports it. There are no trials showing creatine changes skin, wrinkles or any marker of biological ageing. The ageing research is about muscle and strength in older adults who train, and about memory. Anyone selling creatine as anti-ageing is selling the muscle research under another name.

What about the brain?

The brain holds its own creatine store, which supplements raise more slowly and at higher doses than muscle. Pooled trials show a small memory improvement with moderate certainty, weaker signals for attention and processing speed, and no change in overall cognition.^{8, 9} The effect is largest in older adults. It is a real field and the most over-claimed one. Treat it as a possible bonus, not a reason to buy.

Is it really worth taking creatine?

If you train with short, hard efforts and will take it every day, yes: it is cheap, the best-studied supplement there is, and reliable even if modest. For endurance only, the case is weak. Without training, it rests on the memory research and on topping up a low dietary intake, reasonable for vegetarians and older adults, optional for everyone else.

The dose is 3 to 5 g a day of creatine monohydrate, the form in essentially every trial. A beginner's first 30 days is here. How much to take for your bodyweight is here, when to take it is here, and whether to load is here. We make two creatine products: creatine gummies at 3,000 mg per three-gummy serving, the authorised dose, independently batch-tested, and Peach Perfect, a 5,000 mg creatine powder with collagen and magnesium. Whether gummies work, and what to check, is here.

Side effects and safety, briefly

About a kilogram of water weight; an upset stomach if you take too much at once; a raised creatinine reading on blood tests that is a measurement effect, not kidney damage. Kidney and liver harm, hair loss, cramps and dehydration have been tested and not found in healthy adults.^{3, 10, 13} The hair loss question is answered here and what happens when you stop is here.

What we don't know

Creatine without exercise in older adults. The muscle evidence is all with training.
Pregnancy. Under study; no data to advise either way.
Long-term use above 5 g a day. Most multi-year safety data is at 3 to 5 g.

Sources

Ostojic SM. The evolving role of creatine in public health: from food-based nutrient to supplement and beyond. Public Health Nutrition, 2025. PubMed 41243431.
Hultman E, Söderlund K, Timmons JA, Cederblad G, Greenhaff PL. Muscle creatine loading in men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 1996. PubMed 8828669.
Kreider RB, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017. PubMed 28615996.
Zhang H, et al. Effects of creatine supplementation on muscle strength gains: a meta-analysis and systematic review. PeerJ, 2025. PubMed 41328071.
Ashtary-Larky D, et al. Creatine supplementation and resistance training: a comparison between novice and experienced lifters. A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2025. PubMed 41433021.
Desai I, et al. The effect of creatine supplementation on resistance training-based changes to body composition: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2024. PubMed 39074168.
Pashayee-Khamene F, et al. Creatine supplementation protocols with or without training interventions on body composition: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2024. PubMed 39042054.
Prokopidis K, et al. Effects of creatine supplementation on memory in healthy individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition Reviews, 2023. PubMed 35984306.
Xu C, Bi S, Zhang W, Luo L. The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Nutrition, 2024. PubMed 39070254.
Antonio J, et al. Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show? Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2021. PubMed 33557850.
Chilibeck PD, Kaviani M, Candow DG, Zello GA. Effect of creatine supplementation during resistance training on lean tissue mass and muscular strength in older adults: a meta-analysis. Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine, 2017. PubMed 29138605.
Forbes SC, Candow DG, Ostojic SM, Roberts MD, Chilibeck PD. Meta-analysis examining the importance of creatine ingestion strategies on lean tissue mass and strength in older adults. Nutrients, 2021. PubMed 34199420.
Effect of creatine supplementation on kidney function: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Nephrology, 2025. PubMed 41199218.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition or take regular medication, check with your GP or pharmacist before starting creatine.

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