Do Vegan Athletes Need Creatine Supplements?

Besides protein powder and maybe a pre-workout, creatine is one of the most commonly used fitness supplements. And creatine is no doubt one of the most powerful and effective ergogenic aids available to athletes.

It’s widely available in animal products, but if you’re a vegan or follow a mostly plant-based diet, how do you get enough of it, and do you need to supplement?The simple answer: yes. A lot of people underestimate the power of creatine and classify it as just another bro supplement used to maximize muscle growth, but it’s so much more.

And because you often can’t get enough of it through diet alone, supplementation becomes necessary.

In lieu of the solid yes—you do need it, let’s explore why.

What Is Creatine And What Does It Do?

Creatine is naturally found in animal tissues like red meat, poultry, and fish, but is also produced in the body from non-essential amino acids. Roughly 90% of the body’s creatine is stored in muscle as free creatine and phosphocreatine ¹.

During high-intensity exercise, phosphocreatine is broken down into creatine and a phosphate molecule; the phosphate is then rapidly paired with an ADP molecule to form ATP—the body’s main source of energy that is used to power muscle contraction.

Because there is a rapid decrease in phosphocreatine concentrations after the onset of intense physical activity, fatigue can set in as there is not enough substrate to fuel high intensity, short-duration work ².

However, when you supplement with creatine before exercise, you can boost phosphocreatine stores, which helps to enhance both physical performance and recovery.

Long story short, creatine helps to provide more substrate for energy production, allowing you to work harder for longer.

Creatine and Veganism

Creatine is important for all athletes, no matter the diet you follow. But for vegan athletes who aren’t getting any creatine from food sources, supplementation becomes that much more critical.

The body can produce creatine, largely in the liver and kidneys, from arginine, glycine, and methionine to provide about 1g/day, but the other half of the creatine we make typically comes from the diet ³. This 1:1 ratio keeps things in line and provides enough creatine to fuel everyday activities.

But the problem plant-powered athletes face is that dietary creatine is found in only animal products, which means that creatine stores are generally lower.

This opens up the possibility for an adverse effect on performance in high-intensity, short-term activities that largely rely on anaerobic energy system pathways ⁴.

Should You Supplement?

For vegetarians, they may receive small amounts in things like dairy and eggs, but for vegans who consume no animal products whatsoever, there is no exogenous source of creatine being consumed. Creatine levels are therefore lower in serum, plasma, red blood cells, and muscle.

And when you pair that with low vitamin B12 stores, which are common in vegetarians and vegans, you impair methionine production (a precursor for endogenous creatine synthesis), which may lead to lower creatine biosynthesis ⁵.

As such, if you’re looking to enhance athletic performance, maximize strength gains, increase fat-free mass, boost muscle hypertrophy, and accelerate recovery, creatine supplementation is a must.

Creatine supplementation may also lead to increased plasma volume, improved glycogen storage, improved ventilatory threshold, and reduce oxygen consumption during submaximal exercise ⁶.

And if you’re subject to low pre-existing muscle creatine stores, the benefit of supplementation may be even more significant.

One study found that supplemental creatine attenuated low muscle creatine stores in people following a plant-based diet, which resulted in greater improvements in fat-free mass, maximal strength, and type II muscle fiber area compared to meat-eaters ⁷.

Where Can You Get Creatine?

As we said, creatine comes from two places: endogenous production (within the body) and exogenous supplementation (diet and supplements).

Obviously for people who eat meat, they’re getting adequate amounts of creatine to bump up supply, but for people who don’t eat meat, levels may be a bit sparse, which is where supplementation comes in handy.

However, regardless of whether you eat meat or not, creatine supplementation is generally a good idea if you’re looking for performance enhancements.

You’ll commonly see practices of creatine loading to maximize muscle saturation with doses of 10- 20g/day for 3–7 days, followed by maintenance doses around 3–5g/day. But you can also do smaller maintenance doses over a longer duration and achieve the same saturation effect.

Some research suggests that vegan athletes supplementing with creatine may benefit from co-ingestion of creatine with whole food and/or a protein and carbohydrate mixture to increase creatine storage ⁸.

To Conclude

With all of that said, the point here is that you can achieve good results from training without creatine supplementation, but if you’re looking for that extra competitive advantage and to maximize the results of training—especially if you follow a plant-based diet—supplementing with creatine is to your benefit.

Creatine has gotten a bad rep over the years, but it’s actually one of the best fitness supplements you can take. And because vegans don’t get an adequate amount through diet, exogenous creatine is the only way to go.