📋 THE STUDY
🔬 WHAT THEY DID
Study design: Systematic review of 9 studies (covered in 11 full-text articles)
Who was studied: Vegetarians (including vegans, lacto-ovo, and ovo-vegetarians) compared with omnivores or placebo groups. Participants ranged from active non-athletes to recreational athletes involved in resistance training.
How long: The review analyzed interventions of varying lengths, ranging from short-term loading phases (5–7 days) to longer durations (up to 8 weeks).
What they measured: Concentrations of creatine and phosphocreatine (in muscle, blood, and brain), lean tissue mass, muscle fiber area, muscular strength/endurance, power output, and cognitive performance (memory and intelligence).
Funding: The authors declared that the research received no external funding.
📊 WHAT THEY FOUND
A plant-based diet creates a "physiological gap" that this supplement effectively closes, offering vegetarians potentially higher relative returns on their usage than meat-eaters receive.
Vegetarians see a "super compensation" in creatine stores. While vegetarians have lower creatine levels in muscle and blood at baseline, supplementation effectively increases these levels, often resulting in concentrations that exceed those of omnivores who also supplement.
Supplementation improves body composition and muscle capacity. Creatine supplementation in vegetarians was found to increase lean tissue mass, type II muscle fiber area, muscular strength, and endurance.
Cognitive function improves specifically for vegetarians. While supplementation did not significantly change measured brain creatine levels, it did improve brain function—specifically memory and intelligence—in vegetarians, a benefit that was not consistently observed in omnivores.
⚠️ LIMITATIONS
While the biological changes are promising, you should view the practical benefits with some caution because the research quality is often lacking and increased muscle stores haven't always translated into winning performances.
High risk of bias. The systematic review noted that the majority of studies included had "moderate to high" risk of bias issues, with only one study rated as low risk, which reduces the certainty of these conclusions.
Lack of elite athletic populations. Most studies assessed non-athletic or recreational populations rather than elite vegetarian athletes. Consequently, it is difficult to say definitively how these findings translate to high-level competitive sports performance.
Short washout periods. Vegetarians appear to retain stored creatine longer than omnivores (requiring more than 6 weeks to return to baseline). Some studies used shorter breaks between cycles (e.g., 5 weeks), meaning participants may have still had elevated creatine levels during their "placebo" phase, potentially hiding the true benefits of the supplement.
💡 BOTTOM LINE
Vegetarian athletes appear likely to benefit significantly from creatine supplementation—potentially experiencing greater gains in lean mass and cognitive function than omnivores due to their lower baseline stores—though high-quality on elite competitors remains scarce.
🔗 MORE TO EXPLORE
