Creatine supplementation and exercise performance in vegetarians and omnivores

Abstract

Creatine and its effects on athletic performance have been extensively studied in omnivore populations. However, little research has been conducted on creatine intake and its impact on vegetarian athletic performance. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of short-term creatine supplementation on Wingate Anaerobic Test (WanT) performance in vegetarian versus omnivore subjects. Ten male vegetarian and ten male omnivore subjects participated in the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to four groups: Vegetarian + creatine (VCr), Vegetarian + placebo (VPl), Omnivore + creatine (OCr) and Omnivore + placebo (OPl). Creatine dosage was based on lean body mass (LBM) (0.25 g/kg LBM/d x 5 d). Subjects performed 3 consecutive 30 s WAnT bouts pre and post creatine supplementation. No significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were found between groups in changes in Peak Power Output (PPO), fatigue index (FI) or mean anaerobic power (MAnP) post creatine supplementation. However, further examination of the results did reveal some interesting trends. During bout 1 of the WanT the VCr group outperformed the VPl group in both ManP and FI (p ≤ 0.05) and the OCr group outperformed the OPl group in PPO (p ≤ 0.06) post creatine supplementation. Nonetheless, results indicate that creatine supplementation in vegetarian males did not enhance overall performance based on WanT measures compared to their omnivore counterparts.