Creatine Explained (May 2024 Update)
Creatine continually reigns as one of the most popular, and truly effective, supplements available to you.
I mean that from a fitness standpoint as well as a general wellbeing standpoint.
Still, it’s my opinion that before you invest your money on a supplement, you should have a clear understanding of what it is, what it does, how much to take, and if it is safe.
As such, the aim of this article/video series will be to explain those points of creatine supplementation; and more.
Table of contents
What does creatine do?
Benefits of creatine to muscle, strength, and power
Benefits of creatine to endurance performance
Benefits of creatine to cognitive speed and memory recall
Other benefits
What kind of creatine should you take?
How much creatine should you take?
Side effects
Creatine myths
References
What does creatine do?
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the molecule that provides our bodies with energy; it is often referred to as our bodies’ energy currency.
ATP releaseases one of its three phosphates and becomes adenosine diphosphate (ADP).
There is normally some amount of ATP in our cells ready to release energy; but it is not a large amount.
Within most tissues in the body, there are three energy systems responsible for replenishing this energy and providing more ATP.
They lie on a continuum from producing energy quickly but not lasting long to producing energy slowly but being able to do so in large amounts for a long time.
One of these energy systems is the creatine phosphate system.
As ATP releases its phosphate to release energy, creatine-phosphate donates its creatine to the ADP to convert it back to ATP; allowing more energy to be produced.
This energy system is the one that produces energy the fastest, but cannot do so for very long.
The reason for this, the limiting factor to this equation, is the amount of creatine that is available.
The simple solution to this?
Supplement with creatine.
We do produce creatine in our bodies and it is found in foods such as meat and fish, but we don’t get nearly enough from these sources to fully fuel this energy system.
Upon supplementing with creatine, your muscles and other tissues become saturated with it.
This increases the available pool of creatine phosphate, which in turn fuels this energy system more greatly. [4]
Benefits of creatine to muscle, strength, and power
Remember, the creatine-phosphate energy system produces energy the fastest but cannot do so for very long.
As such, it is largely responsible for energy production during activities such as heavy lifting, jumping, sprinting, etc.
More simply, anything in which you fatigue within ~10-15 seconds is largely driven by your creatine-phosphate system.
Similarly, keep in mind a limiting factor to this reaction is the amount of creatine that is available within your tissue.
One of the reasons you can’t sustain a maximum sprint for longer than ~10-15 seconds is because your creatine stores run out.
So, when you supplement with creatine and saturate your muscles with it, examples of benefits include:
Lifting heavier weight or the same weight for more reps
Sprinting faster or the same speed for longer
Higher vertical jump
etc.
With all of your training sessions having this improvement, you experience a compounding effect that leads to significantly better long-term results in your muscle mass, strength, and power production.
As far as dietary supplements go, the magnitude of benefits should not be understated.
The research suggests improvements of 10-20% in maximum strength or power efforts upon creatine saturation compared to baseline; depending on your baseline levels.
As far as supplements for physical performance go, you will not find anything providing a greater magnitude of improvement. [4]
Benefits of creatine to endurance performance
So far, the research has primarily looked at creatine’s ability to improve strength and power activities.
However, there does seem to be a rationale for its use in longer duration efforts.
Apart from providing more fuel to the creatine phosphate system, creatine has also been suggested to:
reduce workload of other energy systems
buffer acid build-up
improve hydration status
improve oxygen efficiency
and more
These are all effects that you would expect to translate to endurance improvements.
So, what does the research say?
Results on steady state endurance events are mixed.
It does seem, though, that shorter distance endurance events are more greatly benefited by creatine supplementation than longer distance events.
In other words, 1600 meter run would be improved more greatly than a 10k.
In the world of endurance, where creatine really shines is through intermittent bouts of higher intensity.
Most race events and sports such as soccer, basketball, tennis or pickleball, etc. are not accurately characterized by a steady state intensity.
Rather, they are better characterized by near steady state work interspersed by short bouts of high intensity movement.
In instances such as this, creatine has been shown to improve performance in this high intensity bouts and improve recovery from them; which can make a big difference over the course of an event.
Bottom line: creatine does have a reasonable place as part of a plan to improve endurance. [2,4]
Benefits of creatine on cognitive speed and memory recall
When you supplement with creatine, it isn’t just your muscles that become saturated.
Your brain and central nervous system alike experience an increase in creatine stores.
Reasonably, this led researchers to suspect that creatine may be a brain-boosting supplement as well.
What seems to be the case is that creatine can boost cognitive speed and memory recall under conditions in which they are being hindered by some external factor.
For instance, there is an age-related decline in cognition. Creatine supplementation has been shown to partly alleviate this, but a boost in cognition has not been seen in younger populations. [6]
Similarly, a recent paper looked a single, high-dose of creatine and its effect on sleep deprivation. They found that as subjects become more deprived of sleep, the group that took the high dose of creatine did better on memory recall tests than those who took placebo. [3]
So, if you are in a state of “optimal” cognitive health, then creatine might give your brain a small boost; but it likely won’t be much.
If you are currently in a state where external factors are hindering your cognitive ability, such as advanced age or sleep deprivation, then creatine will be of greater help.
Other benefits
The impact of creatine supplementation on strength, power, and cognition are certainly where it gets most of its notoriety.
However, the cool thing about creatine is that it seems to come with a laundry list of other benefits.
The following are some that have been shown in the research:
1) Enhanced recovery from exercise
Consuming creatine alongside carbohydrates has been shown to enhance uptake of carbohydrate into muscle cells.
During exercise, you deplete your carbohydrate stores. Replenishing these stores is important because recovery is an energy-consuming process.
This, plus the increased stores of creatine, can enhance the rate at which you recover as well as reduce risk of overtraining symptoms. [4]
2) Enhanced tolerance to the heat
As more creatine is stored in your muscles, more water is also held inside the muscles.
This can, in turn, help improve and maintain hydration status when you are exposed to high temperatures. [4,5]
What kind of creatine you should take?
There are various forms of creatine on the market such as creatine monohydrate, creatine hydrochloric (HCL), etc.
Of all the the types available, creatine monohydrate has been shown to be the best option [4] for the following reasons:
It is 100% bioavailable
It consistently helps users reach 100% of creatine saturation
It is the least expensive form of creatine you can purchase
How much creatine should you take?
Based on the current state of the research, I recommend taking a minimum of 5 grams per day of creatine monohydrate.
It does not necessarily matter when you take your creatine because there is no acute effect.
The benefits of creatine are found when your muscles reach saturation, which takes a more extended period of time.
If you were to just start out taking 5 grams per day, it would take somewhere around ~28 days to for your muscle creatine stores to saturate.
An option to expedite this is to use a loading phase. This is where you take 10-20 grams per day for 1-2 weeks, with the goal of reaching. muscle saturation faster.
One is not necessarily better than the other. This is entirely up to your preference.
Once you reach muscle saturation, it takes ~30 days of zero creatine supplementation for you to return to baseline.
So, if you miss a day, or even a week for that matter, it is nothing to worry about. [4]
Side effects
To date, there have been over 2,800 studies done on creatine supplementation.
None of which have reported adverse effects as a direct result of creatine supplementation.
Anecdotally, the most common side effect noted is stomach discomfort.
However, controlled research has suggested that when people experience stomach discomfort after taking creatine, it isn’t inherently because of the creatine.
For instance, oftentimes ingesting any isolated nutrient can cause stomach distress. If you drank protein power and water on an empty stomach, you might feel a little but of stomach distress.
So, in many cases, simply taking your creatine with a meal can alleviate this.
Creatine myths
There are some misconceptions around creatine supplementation that just do not seem to go away with time.
So, I’d like to spend this portion of the article analyzing them in detail; so you can be confidant as to if they are a concern or not.
Myth 1: creatine causes hair loss
This started from a 2009 study in rugby players. [7]
The researchers found that creatine supplementation led to a slight increase in dihydrotestosterone; a compound that, in some cases, correlates with hair loss.
The problem here is in automatically assuming this leads to hair loss.
Since the publishing of this study, numerous studies looking at creatine supplementation and hair loss specifically have been done. All have shown no relationship, and there has been no further evidence to suggest any relationship.
Bottom line: the overall body of research does not indicate that creatine causes hair loss. In fact, here does not seem to be a relationship at all. [1]
Myth 2: creatine causes fat gain
If you were to snap your figures and go from your current state to a state of creatine saturated muscles, that might come with some degree of weight gain.
You need to understand, though, that this gain in bodyweight is NOT body fat.
A muscle that is saturated with creatine will also tend to hold onto more water, which may cause a small gain in weight. [1]
If this is worrisome to you, then you need to re-evaluate the value you put into the scale.
It is a common mistake to think that the less weight the better, and this couldn’t be more wrong.
If you have a weight loss goal, then you should realize that your actual goal is FAT loss; not weight loss of any kind.
Almost all day-to-day changes in bodyweight are caused by changes in water weight or by whether or not you need to go #2. Therefore, these day-to-day changes should mean nothing to you because they are not indicative of fat loss or gain.
Similarly, the process of building muscle means your overall bodyweight will increase to some degree.
Myth #3: creatine harms the kidneys
A byproduct of creatine metabolism is something called creatinine.
In blood tests, creatinine is used as a marker of kidney health.
If creatinine increases spontaneously, that can be a problem. If it increases as a result of creatine intake, it does not seem to be.
A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis found that long-term ingestion of creatine did not alter creatine function or health; despite elevated creatinine levels. [8]