Objective <p>Recent study links sarcopenia with lipid metabolism disorders. This study aimed to examine the associations between non-traditional lipid indices—specifically the lipoprotein combined index (LCI) and the non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (non-HDL-C to HDL-C ratio, NHHR)—and incident sarcopenia in a Chinese population.</p> Methods <p>Participants aged ≥ 45&#xa0;years were enrolled from the 2011–2015 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Multivariate logistic regression was applied in cross-sectional analyses (n = 3,161) to assess the associations between log-transformed LCI, NHHR and sarcopenia. Longitudinal analyses (n = 2,898) were performed using multivariate Cox proportional hazards models, restricted cubic splines, subgroup analyses, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to test the robustness of the results.</p> Results <p>Higher quartiles of lnLCI and lnNHHR were inversely associated with sarcopenia in both cross-sectional (lnLCI Q4: OR 0.58, <i>P</i> = 0.015; lnNHHR Q3: OR 0.56, <i>P</i> = 0.005) and longitudinal analyses (lnLCI Q4: HR 0.57, <i>P</i> = 0.001; lnNHHR Q4: HR 0.46, <i>P</i> = 0.002), with linear trends observed in spline models. Alcohol intake modified the association between lnNHHR and sarcopenia (<i>P</i> = 0.017), whereas the association of lnLCI with sarcopenia remained consistent in alcohol intake subgroup. ROC analyses showed similar predictive ability (lnLCI AUC 0.599; lnNHHR AUC 0.603). Sensitivity analyses excluding participants with hypercholesterolemia further validated the findings.</p> Conclusions <p>Among Chinese adults aged ≥ 45&#xa0;years, LCI and NHHR were inversely associated with sarcopenia, with NHHR demonstrating slightly superior diagnostic potential.</p>