Creatine is Overrated
But that's okay. The supplement’s modest benefits are exactly what makes it so great.
Full disclosure: I take creatine. 5 grams. Every day. And I think you should too.
That said, the health and fitness space is massively overselling its benefits. Creatine isn’t as miraculous as it's purported to be—but that’s ok. Why?
Unlike most supplements, creatine seems to be a “free lunch.” What I mean by that is we get some benefits (which I’ll discuss later) with apparently zero downside—there are no established harmful side effects of creatine supplementation. That’s a good thing, but it also means we shouldn’t be surprised that its benefits aren’t that large. Most performance enhancers come with downsides: Too much caffeine makes you anxious and builds a tolerance, anabolic steroids come with a plethora of hormonal effects, and even overdosing on carbs can give you stomach issues. But when used correctly these ergogenic aids can also massively enhance physical and cognitive performance.
With creatine, chronic, high-dose supplementation appears to be safe, beneficial, and well-tolerated. In fact, higher doses appear to be necessary for some of the benefits on certain aspects of health (brain and bone). More is better to some degree.
Unfortunately, the ease with which the health sphere has (errantly) attributed miraculous properties to creatine is pretty astounding. I’ve seen claims that it’ll help reduce cancer risk, cure depression, boost immune system health, and enhance fertility. It’s easy enough to make this logical (and mechanistic) leap given that nearly all cells and tissues in the body use creatine to produce energy. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence (yet) to support many of these claims.
Let’s address a few of the key areas where creatine is being oversold.
Creatine for muscles
Let’s get this out of the way: creatine is effective for increasing muscle mass and strength. No debate there.
Mechanistically, creatine boosts intramuscular phosphocreatine levels by 10–40%, depending on your starting point and the dosing protocol. That means more rapid regeneration of ATP, the energy currency your muscles burn during explosive movement.1
But how much muscle does that translate to?
On average, creatine users gain about 1.1 to 2.2 kg (2.4 to 4.8 lbs) more lean mass over 8–12 weeks of resistance training compared to non-users. Strength-wise, you’re typically looking at 8–14% greater improvements in lifts like the bench press and leg press. Not bad—but not superhuman.234
And yes, some of that mass is just water. Creatine increases intracellular water retention, which makes muscles look fuller but doesn’t necessarily mean more contractile tissue. Lean mass is not all muscle mass. This was the premise of a recent study (and clickbait headlines claiming that the popular supplement is “worthless”) showing that over 12 weeks, creatine provided no advantage for lean mass gains compared to a placebo that couldn’t be explained by initial gains in water weight.
Last but certainly not least is the fact that creatine supplementation does absolutely nothing for muscle mass and muscle strength if you don’t also combine it with resistance exercise training. There is a sentiment, especially among those who don’t really understand how creatine works, that taking it will just make you bigger and stronger. This cannot be further from the truth. The mechanism by which creatine works is that it helps you train harder—meaning you can get stronger via more reps and more weight lifted.
Creatine for the Brain
The hype around creatine as a brain booster is gaining steam—and while there’s some science behind it, the effects are context-dependent and typically small.
Creatine supports brain energetics in the same way it does for muscle: by helping regenerate ATP. The brain uses about 20% of your body’s energy despite making up only ~2% of your body weight. So theoretically, supplementing with creatine should help under metabolically stressful conditions.
And in some cases, it does.
In a 2003 double-blind trial, creatine supplementation (5g/day for 6 weeks) improved working memory and intelligence test scores in healthy young adults—but only in vegetarians. In omnivores, who already get creatine from animal products, the effects are much smaller or non-existent.5
Another study found creatine could reduce mental fatigue and improve mood under sleep-deprived conditions.6 But again, this is not your average day at the office—it’s “I haven’t slept for 24 hours and now I’m doing math” type stress. Useful for Navy Seals during hell week but probably not for the average desk jockey inputting spreadsheet data.
The most recent systematic review concluded that creatine supplementation may offer small cognitive benefits in tasks involving memory, processing speed, or executive function—but mostly in stressed, sleep-deprived, or older populations.7
And don’t get me started on the idea that creatine will somehow cure depression. There’s a pilot study showing that combining creatine with SSRIs may provide a greater benefit than SSRIs alone. But this is in clinically depressed people, and I think there’s a lot more research that needs to be done in this area before we can conclude a benefit of creatine for depression.8
If you’re healthy, young, well-fed, and not sleep-deprived, creatine probably won’t do much for your mental performance. But if you’re an overtrained athlete, a chronically stressed student, or over 60? It might offer a small edge. Social media might have you thinking it will double your IQ, but that’s hardly the case.
Creatine for Bone Health
Bone health is another area where creatine is not useless, but where its benefits are certainly overplayed—at least given the current evidence.
Yes, creatine has been studied for its effects on bone health, especially in aging populations. But the key word here is “studied,” not “proven miracle.”
A year-long trial in postmenopausal women found that creatine + resistance training increased bone mineral density at the femoral neck by about 1.2%—versus no change in the control group. Other studies show similar trends: small improvements in bone markers when creatine is combined with strength training, but almost nothing when it’s taken alone.9
What’s happening here is likely indirect. Creatine lets you train harder and recover faster, which leads to more mechanical loading of the skeleton—one of the most powerful drivers of bone adaptation.
So no, creatine won’t save your bones on its own. But it can make your training more effective—and that’s where the real benefit lies.
I want to make it clear that by no means am I saying that creatine is useless as a supplement. It is just that: a supplement to, not a replacement for, regular exercise training.
I take creatine every day and I think that everyone should probably be taking it. Not doing so means missing out on the potential benefits, which are real, no matter how minor they may be. Everyone’s looking to eke out as much from their training program as possible, and that is what creatine allows you to do.
The point of my writing here is that we need to be cautious when interpreting the results of research studies and especially cautious when interpreting statements that we see on social media. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. That’s highly relevant in the world of supplements.
It’s easy to get excited about a supplement like creatine (It’s something I talk about all the time because the research is cool). But our excitement often intensifies to the point of hyperbole.
This excitement can lead to creatine having somewhat greater effects than the research would suggest due to a well-known phenomenon in science known as the expectation effect. When we think an intervention or supplement will have some benefit, our expectations can produce a large and real biological effect, even without downright changes in our physiology.
If I take a 20g dose of creatine in the hopes that it will supercharge my brain for the next few hours, my brain might very well feel supercharged for the next few hours. Is it creatine? Maybe. Are my expectations playing a role? Certainly.
So let’s appreciate creatine for what it is, something that we can get from our diet by consuming meat and milk, but by supplementing with more, we can increase our stores. And by doing so we can boost our capacity to work just a bit harder and make our training more effective. It’s not a miracle supplement and that’s okay. We shouldn’t expect it to work wonders—we should be happy enough with the small yet real benefits it can provide.
Kreider, R. B. et al. (2017). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 14(1), 18.
Branch, J. D. (2003). Effect of creatine supplementation on body composition and performance: a meta-analysis. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 13(2), 198-226.
Chilibeck, P. D., Kaviani, M., Candow, D. G., & Zello, G. A. (2017). Effect of creatine supplementation during resistance training on lean tissue mass and muscular strength in older adults: a meta-analysis. Open Access J Sports Med, 8, 213–226.
Rawson, E. S., & Volek, J. S. (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. J Strength Cond Res, 17(4), 822–831.
Benton, D., & Donohoe, R. T. (2011). The influence of creatine supplementation on the cognitive functioning of vegetarians and omnivores. Br J Nutr, 105(7), 1100–1105.
Gordji-Nejad, A., Matusch, A., Kleedörfer, S. et al. Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation. Sci Rep 14, 4937 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-54249-9
Avgerinos KI. et al. Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Exp Gerontol. 2018 Jul 15;108:166-173. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2018.04.013. Epub 2018 Apr 25. PMID: 29704637; PMCID: PMC6093191.
Lyoo IK, Yoon S, Kim TS, Hwang J, Kim JE, Won W, Bae S, Renshaw PF. A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial of oral creatine monohydrate augmentation for enhanced response to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor in women with major depressive disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 2012 Sep;169(9):937-945. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12010009. PMID: 22864465; PMCID: PMC4624319.
Chilibeck, P. D. et al. (2015). Effect of creatine and resistance training on bone health in postmenopausal women. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 47(8), 1587–1595.
The next frontier in supliments are really good placebos.
I use 5g daily too and it does give me an excuse to start my morning with a glass of water but I've never felt that it was a big change.
Awesome article, thank you! I am a big fan of creatine and take 5 grams a day. I did know some of this information. I did not know that the small increase in memory function only happened for vegetarians. I think I hopped on the hype train and have been selling this more than it actually is. Will still take though and as you said, no side effects so what's the harm.