Can stacking creatine and β-alanine give you extra gains? Here’s what science says

By Hugo Francisco de SouzaReviewed by Susha Cheriyedath, M.Sc.Jul 30 2025

Curious if stacking creatine and β-alanine will supercharge your training? This systematic review reveals who actually benefits, and when you might be wasting your money.

Review: Effects of Creatine and β-Alanine Co-Supplementation on Exercise Performance and Body Composition: A Systematic Review. Image Credit: Andrii Zastrozhnov / Shutterstock

In a recent systematic review published in the journal Nutrients, researchers investigated whether co-supplementation with creatine and β-alanine, two of the most popular and effective sports supplements, provides synergistic benefits. It synthesizes evidence from seven randomized controlled trials and found that co-supplementation effectively enhances high-intensity exercise performance, particularly in repeated, short-duration efforts.

Surprisingly, however, the review concluded that the combination of creatine and β-alanine offered no additional benefit over creatine alone for improving maximal strength, body composition, or aerobic capacity. These findings provide crucial insights for athletes and coaches, allowing for the development of science-based supplement plans.

Background

Creatine and β-alanine are well-established ergogenic aids in the world of sports nutrition, backed by decades of scientific research. The former (specifically creatine monohydrate) boosts the body's stores of phosphocreatine, enhancing the rapid regeneration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), thereby fueling explosive movements like sprinting and heavy lifting. This leads to measurable improvements in athlete strength and power.

In contrast, β-alanine aids athletic performance through a distinct physiological pathway. β-alanine is a precursor to carnosine, a molecule that acts as an intracellular buffer. During high-intensity exercise, muscles produce hydrogen ions, leading to acidosis (a drop in pH) and fatigue. Carnosine neutralizes this acid, delaying fatigue in intensive efforts lasting between one and four minutes.

Notably, creatine and β-alanine function through complementary mechanisms – while the former promotes energy supply, the latter delays fatigue, leading sports nutritionists to hypothesize that combining the two could produce a synergistic effect. However, existing research shows inconsistent results.

About the review

The present systematic review aims to address this knowledge gap, examine an increasingly popular hypothesis (the “synergistic effect”), and inform athletes’ supplementation programmes by synthesizing all available evidence from high-quality clinical trials on the combined use of creatine and β-alanine. The review adhered to the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) guidelines (CRD420251066302).

Study data (relevant publications) were identified via a custom keyword search of three online scientific repositories: PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science. Due to limited research on this specific combination, all peer-reviewed studies from database initiation until March 2025 were included in the repository search.

Study inclusion criteria comprised: randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with adult participants (any sex), combination use of both creatine and β-alanine for at least four weeks, and direct comparison of the combined supplement group to groups taking either creatine alone, β-alanine alone, or a placebo.

The outcomes of interest included exercise performance (e.g., maximal strength via one-repetition maximum [1RM], anaerobic power from a Wingate test) and body composition (lean body mass and fat mass). The methodological quality of each study was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Since the included studies were substantially different in terms of study designs, participant populations, and specific outcomes measured (heterogeneity), a quantitative meta-analysis could not be performed, restricting the findings to a qualitative synthesis.

Study findings

Of the 5,537 publications initially collated from the title search, abstract, and full-text screening, only seven RCTs (comprising 231 male and 32 female participants, 263 total) met all systematic review criteria. Review findings were organized into: 1. High-intensity exercise and anaerobic power evaluations, 2. Maximal strength outcomes, 3. Body composition changes, and 4. Aerobic endurance.

High-intensity exercises demonstrated a clear, positive effect of co-supplementation, with cases consistently improving performance in activities requiring repeated, high-intensity efforts. Okudan et al.’s study involving repeated Wingate anaerobic tests found that while creatine alone improved peak power, when combined with β-alanine, the combination significantly increased mean power output across multiple sprints and reduced the fatigue index, suggesting that creatine provides the initial power burst while β-alanine helps sustain that power over successive efforts.

Body composition evaluations showed mixed results: One study in resistance-trained males found co-supplementation yielded greater lean mass gains and fat loss versus creatine alone after 10 weeks of training. However, another 4-week study in females found no body composition benefits. Overall, the review concluded these effects were equivocal.

In contrast, maximal strength and aerobic endurance-based metrics did not reveal a significant advantage of adding β-alanine to an otherwise creatine-only supplementation program. Studies measuring maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max), lactate threshold, or time-to-exhaustion found no meaningful improvements from the combination compared to either supplement alone or placebo.

Conclusions

The review reveals that while co-supplementing with creatine and β-alanine does not universally boost sports/athletic performance, it can be an effective strategy for meeting specific training or competition goals.

Individuals engaged in high-intensity, repeated-bout activities where muscle fatigue from acidosis is a limiting factor (e.g., HIIT, combat sports, or repeated sprinting) stand to gain meaningful benefits from co-supplementation regimes according to the evidence. For athletes focused purely on maximal strength or power, creatine monohydrate remains the cornerstone supplement, with β-alanine offering little additional value. The body composition benefits appear context-dependent and require further validation.