The Texas A&M Study That Just Rewrote the Rules on Creatine and Weight Loss

Researchers enrolled 73 healthy but mostly sedentary adults and 64 finished. The group averaged about 54 years old with an average BMI near 30, and it skewed female (40 women, 24 men), which matters because older women are often underrepresented in supplement research.

• Supplement: 5 g of creatine monohydrate twice a day (10 g total) or a matching placebo. Neither participants nor researchers knew who got what.
• Exercise group (38 people): 3 sessions per week of resistance training (3 sets of 10 reps with progressive loading) plus about 20 minutes of cardio, and 10,000 or more steps on off days.
• Diet: the exercise group aimed for a modest 300 to 500 calorie daily deficit.
• No exercise group (26 people): kept their normal routine. No structured training, no diet plan.
• Measurements: DXA body composition scans, 1-rep max strength on leg press and bench press, treadmill testing, cognitive testing and blood markers of health.

Funded by the WoodNext Foundation through the Texas A&M Foundation. Published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, August 11, 2026.

This is the headline for anyone focused on weight loss. In a calorie deficit, the body normally gives up some muscle along with fat. The creatine groups went the other direction.

In plain language: when training and a moderate deficit were combined with creatine, people lost roughly 70% more fat mass than the same program without it, while adding lean tissue instead of losing it.

Why "lean tissue" and not "muscle"? DXA scans count everything that is not fat or bone as lean mass, including water. Creatine pulls water into muscle cells, so part of this gain is fluid. See "The Fine Print" below.

Strength is where creatine has the deepest research track record, and this study lined up with it.

• Leg press: +34% with creatine and training vs. +18% with placebo and training.
• Bench press: +23% with creatine and training vs. +12% with placebo and training.
• No-exercise creatine group: still improved leg press and bench press strength without a training program.
• Endurance: time to exhaustion on the treadmill improved, most noticeably with creatine plus training.
• Aerobic capacity (VO2 peak): no clear creatine benefit. Creatine powers short, hard efforts, not your aerobic engine.

Why it works: creatine tops off phosphocreatine stores in muscle, which regenerate ATP during high-intensity efforts. More fuel for each hard set means more quality reps, and more quality reps over 12 weeks means more adaptation.

Your brain also runs on the creatine phosphate energy system, which is why researchers keep testing it for cognition. Here, a word recognition memory test showed a creatine benefit, and some exploratory measures trended positive in the exercise group.

However, most of the overall cognitive analyses did not show statistically significant differences between groups. Treat the brain angle as a "watch this space" finding, not a reason to buy the tub.

"These findings may have important implications for middle-aged and older individuals seeking to reduce body fat while maintaining muscle mass and cognitive function."

The Texas A&M research team

At Teleport Strength we would rather give you the full picture than a hype headline. Here is what to keep in mind:

• Water vs. muscle: DXA cannot separate new muscle protein from extra water stored in muscle. Some of the 2.4 to 3 lb gain is almost certainly water.
• Exercise was not randomized: people chose whether to join the exercise arm. Creatine vs. placebo was randomized, but comparisons between exercisers and non-exercisers are less airtight.
• Small and short: 64 people over 12 weeks. We do not know what happens at 6 or 12 months.
• Higher dose: 10 g per day is double the typical 3 to 5 g maintenance dose. Whether smaller doses deliver the same result is untested here.
• Not every study agrees: a 2019 trial of about 200 older women found no lean mass improvement from creatine without resistance training.
• Industry involvement: creatine manufacturer Alzchem funded laboratory testing, which is common in supplement research but worth knowing.
• Protein was low: participants averaged only about 0.94 g of protein per kg of body weight. Results might look even better with adequate protein, but that was not tested.

For healthy adults, creatine monohydrate has one of the strongest safety records of any supplement. A 2025 analysis of 685 clinical trials found no significant difference in side effect rates between creatine and placebo.

• Scale weight may rise 1 to 3 lbs in the first few weeks. That is water inside the muscle, not fat. Do not let it derail you.
• Blood work note: creatine can raise serum creatinine, a lab value doctors use to estimate kidney function. Tell your doctor you take it so results are read correctly.
• Talk to your physician first if you have kidney disease, are pregnant or nursing, or take medications that affect the kidneys.
• Food alone rarely gets you there. Dr. Kreider notes that getting 10 g from diet would take about 5 to 10 lbs of meat or fish a day.

1. Pick plain creatine monohydrate. It is the form used in this study and nearly all the research. Look for third-party tested products. Skip the pricey "advanced" versions.
2. Dose it daily. 3 to 5 g per day is the proven standard. This study used 5 g twice daily. Timing matters far less than consistency, so take it whenever you will remember.
3. Lift. Seriously. Creatine helped non-exercisers, but the biggest wins came with 3 days a week of resistance training. Creatine amplifies training. It does not replace it.
4. Diet gently. A 300 to 500 calorie deficit protects muscle better than a crash diet. Slow fat loss is the kind that stays off.
5. Eat enough protein. Aim well above the study average, roughly 1.2 to 1.6 g per kg of body weight, spread across meals.
6. Judge progress with more than the scale. Track strength, waist measurements and how your clothes fit. Expect a small early water bump on the scale.