Oral creatine supplementation does not improve body composition in recreationally active men during strength training

The effects of oral creatine supplementation (CR) on body mass (BM), percent body fat (BF), fat mass (FM), and fat free mass (FFM) were examined. A double blind, crossover design compared 10 recreationally active college-aged men during a 10-week strength-training program. Five men were randomly assigned either 20 g creatine/day or 20 g/day of maltodextrine (PL) for five days, followed by a maintenance dose of 2 g/day for three weeks. Treatments were separated by a four-week washout period while training continued. Body composition was determined using whole body plethysmography (Bod Pod®). BM increased (1.52±1.76 kg) (P=0.028) following CR compared to PL. FFM increased (P<0.05) in both CR (1.93±2.61 kg) and PL (2.24±2.10 kg) whereas FM and BF decreased (P<0.018) following PL but not CR (FM -2.60±2.37 kg; BF -3.22±2.88 %). In conclusion, CR significantly increased BM, without lowering BF and did not increase FFM greater than strength training alone.