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Creatine is one of the most widely used dietary supplements in the world, and it’s particularly popular among athletes and gym-goers. Known for helping muscles release more energy during workouts, creatine can be a game-changer if you’re looking to improve performance and build your physique.
If you’re thinking about taking creatine, it’s helpful to get clued up about this food supplement. In this article, you’ll learn:
What creatine actually is
How it is used at the cellular level
What using creatine can do for your performance
Other creatine benefits
Creatine side effects
How to take creatine
Whether you really need creatine
Creatine is an organic compound that is found in muscle cells. It is an energy store that your muscles draw on during short bursts of high intensity, anaerobic exercise - particularly for things like lifting weights.
At a baseline level, adults need about 1-3 g of creatine per day. About 1 g of your daily needs gets made in the liver, pancreas and kidneys, while the rest comes from your food (particularly meat and seafood).
However, if you exercise a lot, you can potentially benefit from consuming more creatine. This helps your body maintain higher stores of this energy source which it can draw on during high-intensity training. Typically, you’d be looking to consume around 5-10 g extra per day when trying to build muscle.
And this is where creatine supplements come in. You’d need to eat impractically large amounts of meat and seafood each day to get more creatine through your diet (there are about 5 grams of creatine in a kilogramme of beef). But creatine supplements, which usually come in the form of powders that are mixed into drinks, make it much easier to increase your creatine levels.
Time for a quick science lesson.
When you consume creatine, most of it gets transported to your skeletal muscles where it’s combined with phosphoric acid to create a new compound called phosphocreatine. Phosphocreatine is then used to create another compound called ATP, or adenosine triphosphate.
When you are doing high-intensity anaerobic exercise, your muscles use ATP as a source of energy. However, during this process, the phosphorus part of the compound gets ‘used up’, and it transforms into a third compound called adenosine diphosphate (ADP).
However, if you have stores of phosphocreatine available in your muscle cells, the ADP can get quickly replenished with phosphoric acid and turn it into ATP again. That equals more energy for more reps (we’ve obviously simplified the chemistry here a bit).
Think of phosphocreatine as a portable battery charger for your cells, and ATP/ADP like a smartphone. The creatine helps charge ATP up, and then this energy gets used when you lift weights, sprint, or do other exercises. That leaves you with an ‘empty battery’ (or ADP).
But if you have lots of phosphocreatine available in your muscles, the ADP can get charged back up again fast, and deliver energy to your muscles again (it takes about two minutes for phosphocreatine to ‘recharge’ your ADP to become energy-rich ATP). Like a portable charger, phosphocreatine will also eventually run out, so it needs to be recharged too. And you do that by consuming more creatine.
Most people take creatine to help with their fitness and training (though there are some other uses that are mentioned below). Various studies have found that anywhere between 29% and 74% of people who exercise a lot (gym goers, professional and amateur athletes, members of the military) take creatine supplements.
Creatine helps athletic performance in a number of ways:
Increases power and speed
Creatine delivers explosive energy production, helping you push harder during short bursts of anaerobic exercise (think squats, calisthenics, sprints). This can improve your overall performance in a wide range of sports or types of training. For example, in one experiment, creatine users had a power output 18% higher than people who didn’t use the supplement.
Increases strength when combined with training
Taking creatine on its own won’t make you stronger. But when combined with appropriate training, it can contribute to making you stronger. Research shows that people who take creatine supplements while doing resistance training increase their strength faster than those who don’t take the supplement. By using creatine, you’re effectively able to push harder during each training session. That means micro-tears will appear in your muscle fibres. As these heal, your muscles grow larger.
Improves all-round performance
More generally, taking creatine has been shown to improve athletic performance on several measures, including maximal work output, power production, and sprint performance.
Faster recovery times
Various studies have found that creatine supplementation is associated with faster recovery times between training sessions. That means you can get back to training sooner.
May reduce injury risk
Taking creatine may also reduce your chances of developing sports injuries. Studies of athletes have shown that creatine users tend to get injured less often than those who go without.
Suggested: How to Fuel Your Body for Exercise
Besides helping your athletic performance and recovery, taking creatine supplements is also associated with several other benefits.
Helps enhance your physique
Combining creatine with appropriate resistance training can help enhance your physique. If you’re looking to develop a specific body shape, then creatine is well known as a way of helping achieve a ‘built’ look.
Related: How to Keep Muscle While Losing Fat
Especially beneficial for vegetarians
If you’re a vegetarian, it can be hard to get enough creatine through your diet (it’s only found in significant quantities in meat and seafood). While you can eat foods that help your body produce creatine on its own, taking a supplement is far more efficient.
Helps your brain too
While most of the creatine you take goes to your skeletal muscles, about 5% is used in the brain. Creatine supplementation is associated with improved cognitive performance. For example, in one study people took creatine supplements for six weeks. After the experiment, they were found to have better working memory and overall intelligence. Brains and brawn!
Could be especially helpful for older people
Other research has found that taking creatine in old age may increase muscle mass and muscle strength, and also slow down bone mineral loss. Taking creatine could therefore potentially help reduce older people’s risk of falls (among other techniques).
Is creatine bad for you? Are there safety limits? And can it really help? Here’s what you need to know about creatine’s limitations.
First up, the good news. Creatine is one of the most widely studied food supplements out there, and there is almost no evidence it has any significant harmful effects. Research strongly suggests it is safe and well-tolerated by the body. For example, in one five-year study with adults taking 30 g of the stuff each day (that’s a lot), no significant adverse effects were identified. Do note, however, that it hasn’t been studied so much in children and adolescents (though there’s no evidence to suggest it’s dangerous for them either).
Creatine can have some undesirable side effects - particularly diarrhea, bloating, and muscle cramping.
Another creatine side effect is weight gain. This is likely due to water retention at the cellular level. For some people, this could be viewed as a benefit but might be irritating for others.
If you are receiving treatment for any medical issues, speak with your doctor before taking creatine supplements. Medical professionals may advise against creatine supplementation if:
You are pregnant
You are being treated for kidney diseases
You have high blood pressure
You have liver disease
You have diabetes
You have bipolar disorder
There may be other health conditions not listed above where creatine is contraindicated too.
Taking creatine is less helpful for people who take part in endurance-type training (think long-distance running). Since it tends to increase people’s body mass, creatine can be an issue in sports where added mass could hinder performance.
Unfortunately, the effects of creatine on women are less well-studied than they are for men. Some research suggests that women’s bodies may use creatine in slightly different ways than men's. The evidence isn’t totally clear, but women may need to take more of it than men to get the same effects. Or, potentially, it just doesn’t work as well in women’s bodies.
Like many kinds of food supplements, there are various misconceptions about creatine. Research has shown that some of the most common myths about creatine are untrue:
Creatine is not an anabolic steroid
Creatine does not cause hair loss
Creatine does not increase fat mass
Creatine doesn’t cause muscle cramps or dehydration
Creatine supplements do not cause kidney damage
Creatine doesn’t cause long-term water retention (although it might in the short term)
If you’ve decided to start taking creatine, it’s worth doing some research to find a high-quality, reputable brand. It’s best to follow the instructions in the packaging. But here are some general recommendations around how to take creatine.
When you begin taking creatine, it’s generally recommended to ‘load’ for the first week. This loading phase helps increase reserves of creatine in your body. You’ll be looking to consume around 20g per day, typically by taking it in four batches of 5g.
After the loading phase, you then enter a maintenance phase where you take around 5 g per day for 4-6 weeks. Finally, there is a time of phase, lasting 2-4 weeks. You then begin the loading phase again.
The rules here aren’t hard and fast, however. It’s not essential to follow a loading phase, and even without one, you can still expect the same benefits in the long run. But the loading phase can be helpful if you’re looking for an immediate impact.
If you’re looking to build muscle, it’s generally recommended to take around 5g of creatine supplement per day. The amount will vary depending on your weight, gender, age, and the amount of creatine you get from food (meat and seafood eaters will need less than vegetarians, for instance). Check the packaging of your creatine product to estimate the right levels.
There’s no set time you should drink your creatine. However, on exercise days, it’s generally recommended to take the supplement just before or after your workouts. But on rest days you can drink it whenever it’s convenient.
Creatine supplements usually come in a powdered form that you mix with a drink. You should follow the package instructions, but it’s often recommended to take it with simple carbohydrates (for example, fruit juice) since this helps with absorbing creatine into your muscle cells.
Yes, it is fine to take creatine supplements alongside all Huel meals. Huel provides nutritionally complete meals but does not contain creatine (since creatine is not an essential amino acid). So, if you wish to add more creatine to your diet, you can take it alongside your Huel meals.
There is an enormous body of evidence showing, pretty convincingly, that creatine does help with athletic performance, strength, and muscle growth. If you want to bulk up or boost performance, then taking creatine can be a good option.
But there are a couple of caveats. Most importantly, creatine will only ‘work’ if you perform appropriate exercises. Taking creatine won’t, on its own, build muscle. You’ll still have to hit the gym and follow a consistent routine.
Creatine itself doesn’t build muscle either. For that, you need to consume adequate quantities of protein. So, you’ll still need to plan your diet to eat high-protein foods. At the same time, people who already eat lots of protein may not notice so much of an effect when they begin taking creatine compared to people on a low-protein diet.
Last of all, you can still build muscle without taking creatine. Sure, the muscle growth will probably be slower and may be less pronounced. But you don’t need creatine to increase your overall strength.
Creatine can help with boosting strength, athletic performance, and muscle growth. But it’s not the only method. Read our guide to learn how to build muscle.
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