Creatine is one of the few supplements where diet predicts the response before anyone takes a dose. People who eat no meat or fish take in almost none, begin with less in their muscles, and — on every biopsy study found for this page — rise further when they supplement. That much is settled. Whether the larger rise becomes more strength or speed is a narrower and less consistent literature, and whether a given creatine product is vegan is a question about its capsule, not its creatine. This page reports what trials measured; it is research journalism, not dietary advice, per our editorial standards.
Lower stores, measured by biopsy
Dietary creatine comes from animal muscle: the founding 1992 study noted that a single 5 g dose corresponds to the creatine in 1.1 kg of fresh, uncooked steak (Harris 1992, PMID 1327657). The body still synthesises creatine — the Australian Institute of Sport's fact sheet puts it at about 1 g a day, matched by about 1 g from a typical mixed diet — so a vegetarian loses the dietary half rather than the whole supply.
The biopsies show the result:
| Study | Who | Baseline finding |
|---|---|---|
| Burke 2003 | 18 vegetarians, 24 non-vegetarians | Muscle total creatine 117 vs 130 mmol/kg dry mass |
| Watt 2004 | Vegetarians and non-vegetarians, crossover | Lower muscle total creatine in vegetarians |
| Shomrat 2000 | Vegetarians vs meat-eaters | Fasting plasma creatine 11 vs 23–24 µM |
| Lukaszuk 2002 | 32 omnivorous men, 21 days lacto-ovo-vegetarian | Muscle creatine fell on the diet |
| Blancquaert 2018 | 40 omnivorous women, 3 months vegetarian | Plasma and muscle total creatine fell |
The last two rows are the strongest evidence, because they are randomised: omnivores were assigned to go vegetarian and their stores dropped. In Blancquaert's trial, 1 g a day of creatine monohydrate taken alongside the vegetarian diet offset the fall in plasma creatine (Blancquaert 2018, PMID 29569535; Lukaszuk 2002, PMID 12432177).
Bigger rises, measured the same way
Supplementation in these studies raised vegetarian stores further than omnivore stores, which is what a ceiling predicts: the lower the start, the more room there is. Watt and colleagues biopsied after one and five days of supplementing and found the rise greater in vegetarians at both points, with no difference in creatine-transporter gene expression — the extra uptake came from headroom, not from a different transporter (Watt 2004, PMID 15673098). The arithmetic of that ceiling, with vegetarian stores set against the 160 mmol/kg upper limit, is on what creatine is.
Lukaszuk's diet trial adds a twist: after 21 days of lacto-ovo-vegetarian eating and then five days of supplementing, muscle total creatine did not differ between the vegetarian-diet and omnivore groups (148.6 vs 141.7 mmol/kg). Starting lower did not mean ending lower.
Does the bigger rise mean more performance?
Here the studies disagree, and the disagreement is informative.
- Burke 2003 (8 weeks, with training): vegetarians on creatine gained more total creatine, phosphocreatine, lean tissue and total work than non-vegetarians on creatine, and the change in muscle creatine correlated with the change in lean tissue and performance (PMID 14600563).
- Shomrat 2000 (1 week): creatine raised body mass by about 1 kg and mean sprint power by about 5% to a similar extent in vegetarians and meat-eaters; peak power rose in meat-eaters but not in vegetarians (PMID 10958375).
- Bonne 2025 (1 week, vegans and vegetarians only): body mass rose 1.56 kg, fat-free mass 1.15 kg and total muscle creatine 30.8 mmol/kg — but phosphocreatine did not change, and neither did peak or mean power across repeated sprints (PMID 40939139).
A 2020 systematic review of nine studies concluded that creatine raised muscle, blood and red-cell creatine in vegetarians, often above omnivore levels, and that studies were mixed on whether performance improved more than in omnivores. It rated the included studies' risk of bias moderate to high (Kaviani 2020, PMID 32349356).
The pattern that fits all three: a one-week trial can show the stores filling without a performance change, while the eight-week training trial is where vegetarians pulled ahead. That matches the order of events measured in the general literature, set out on how long creatine takes to work — muscle first, performance later. The brain-function claims that often accompany this topic are a separate literature, graded on creatine and brain claims.
The only vegan-only trial is 15 people for 7 days
Search demand splits roughly evenly between "vegetarian" and "vegan", but the research does not. Most trials enrolled lacto-ovo-vegetarians, whose eggs and dairy carry no meaningful creatine either but whose diets otherwise differ from a vegan one. Bonne 2025 is the only randomised trial found for this page restricted to vegans and vegetarians, with seven people on creatine and eight on placebo. No trial found compares vegans and lacto-ovo-vegetarians head to head, so any statement that vegans respond differently from vegetarians is unmeasured.
Is the product vegan? Count the capsules
The creatine molecule sold as a supplement is typically made in a factory, not extracted from meat: Creapure's maker describes chemical synthesis from sarcosinate and cyanamide, covered on Creapure explained. So "is creatine vegan" is usually answered yes — and then the capsule changes the answer.
This site queried the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements' label database on 2026-09-23 for capsule products with creatine in the product name:
| Capsule material named on the label | Products | On market |
|---|---|---|
| Gelatin (animal-derived) | 47 | 31 |
| Plant-based (cellulose, hypromellose, pullulan) | 24 | 16 |
| Neither named | 12 | 8 |
| Total | 83 | 55 |
More than half of the creatine capsule labels in the federal database list gelatin, and one in seven does not say what the capsule is made of. Powders avoid the shell question but not every other ingredient; gummies — covered on creatine gummies — are a separate check again, because gelling agents vary. How capsule serving sizes compare with powder is on creatine pills versus powder.
What is not established
- Whether vegans differ from vegetarians. No head-to-head trial exists.
- Long-term performance in vegans. The only vegan-inclusive randomised trial ran for seven days.
- Which intake closes the gap. Blancquaert 2018 showed 1 g a day offset the fall in plasma creatine in women going vegetarian; no trial found tested the smallest amount that restores muscle stores to omnivore levels.
- Whether the capsule census is complete. The label database is not a full market record, and labels can change after entry; the table counts what labels in the database state.
Sources and dates
- Harris RC, Söderlund K, Hultman E. Clin Sci 1992;83:367–74 — PMID 1327657
- Shomrat A, Weinstein Y, Katz A. Effect of creatine feeding on maximal exercise performance in vegetarians. Eur J Appl Physiol 2000;82:321–5 — PMID 10958375
- Lukaszuk JM, Robertson RJ, Arch JE, et al. Effect of creatine supplementation and a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet on muscle creatine concentration. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 2002;12:336–48 — PMID 12432177
- Burke DG, Chilibeck PD, Parise G, et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2003;35:1946–55 — PMID 14600563
- Watt KK, Garnham AP, Snow RJ. Skeletal muscle total creatine content and creatine transporter gene expression in vegetarians prior to and following creatine supplementation. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 2004;14:517–31 — PMID 15673098
- Blancquaert L, Baguet A, Bex T, et al. Changing to a vegetarian diet reduces the body creatine pool in omnivorous women. Br J Nutr 2018;119:759–70 — PMID 29569535
- Kaviani M, Shaw K, Chilibeck PD. Benefits of creatine supplementation for vegetarians compared to omnivorous athletes: a systematic review. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2020;17:3041 — PMID 32349356
- Bonne TC, Arthemalle V, Doherty CS, et al. Muscle creatine levels and sprint performance in young adult vegans and vegetarians after 7 days of creatine monohydrate supplementation. Physiol Rep 2025;13:e70539 — PMID 40939139
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, Dietary Supplement Label Database API v9, capsule form, product names containing "creatine", queried 2026-09-23 (83 distinct brand–product labels).
- Australian Institute of Sport, Sports Supplement Framework — Group A, creatine entry, read 2026-09-23.