Your body stores creatine as phosphocreatine primarily in your muscles, where it's used for energy. As a result, people take creatine orally to improve athletic performance and increase muscle mass.
Creatine makes your muscles look bigger, while actually making them bigger as well. First, creatine causes your muscle cells to store more water which causes your muscles to appear fuller and larger. You may notice the size increase a few days or weeks after starting creatine supplementation.
Is creatine safe to take every day? Research has shown that it is safe to consume creatine supplements daily, even over several years. There is no evidence to support any significantly detrimental side effects in people who consume high doses of creatine (30 grams/day) for up to 5 years ( 2 ).
Creatine creates “quick burst” energy and increased strength, which improves performance but has little effect on aerobic endurance. Most people who use creatine supplements are male athletes and are mostly involved in power sports, such as football, wrestling, hockey and bodybuilding.
With over 500 research studies, creatine monohydrate has proven to enhance power and strength amongst high-intensity training. Yet despite the pros, there are a few cons such as water retention, bloating, poor bioavailability, and loading associated with creatine supplementation.
Overall, creatine is an efficient form of supplementation for muscle growth in the healthy young population with adequate training in a variety of dosage strategies and athletic activities.
Surveys indicate that 17-74% of athletes of various ages in a variety of sports use creatine supplements. Creatine supplementation has been shown to improve performance of brief (<30 s) high-intensity exercise, but there is limited evidence that it can enhance performance during exercise lasting longer than about 90 s.
Creatine results kick in after roughly 2-4 weeks, depending on dose and personal response. They also begin to wear off, as you establish a new normal within the body, after around six weeks. The difference here is that you're maintaining levels at a healthy, optimal state, rather than addressing a deficiency.
Creatine isn't recommended for people with kidney or liver disease, or diabetes. Others who should avoid taking it are children under age 18 and women who are pregnant or nursing.
Taking the two together does not appear to offer additional benefits for muscle and strength gains. However, if you'd like to try both and are looking to increase muscle mass and performance in the gym or on the field, taking whey protein and creatine together is safe and effective.
Key takeaways. Creatine supplementation increases creatine stores in the brain. By reducing the accumulation of adenosine and adenosine triphosphate in the brain during wakefulness, creatine supplementation seems to reduce sleep depth, duration, and “rebound sleep” after sleep deprivation.
Some people think that if they take creatine and don't work out, they'll put on fat—but Roussell says it isn't true. "Creatine contains no calories, and has no impact on your fat metabolism," he says. "So taking creatine and not working out is just going to lead to nothing."
But despite a seemingly rapid increase in weight, creatine will not make you fat. You have to consume more calories than you expend to gain fat. One scoop of creatine per day (about 5 grams) doesn't have any calories, or at the very least, only a few calories.
Creatine does not directly burn body fat, which is often a common misconception. Taking creatine supplements can help your body build lean muscle mass.
SOLUTION: Although research does show that creatine can increase water retention under the skin, there is no research that supports the notion that creatine will prevent you from dropping bodyfat. In fact, research suggests creatine will not only help you gain lean muscle mass, but also may help you to lose fat.
Well, creatine has been consistently proven to make you look bigger, build muscle faster, improve your performance, and even make you smarter. In fact, over 50% of professional power athletes such as powerlifters, boxers, and track and field athletes are reportedly using the supplement for these reasons.
Creatine and Water
Therefore, proper hydration is essential. As previously mentioned, 6-8 cups of water are the average drinking amount when out of training. However, when supplementing with creatine, you should drink an additional 8-10 cups of water daily, or slightly more, depending on your exercise regimen.
Creatine can be effective for both bulking and cutting, depending on how you use it and what your goals are. Creatine creates a water retention surrounding the muscle that not only preserves the muscle during a cutting phase but also provides immediate muscle recovery in order to continue intense workouts.
If you are striving for a strength goal, such as lifting a certain amount of weight, then creatine will give you the energy boost you are looking for. For long-term results, protein will be helpful in rebuilding muscle that will continue to increase your strength over time.
Some people may experience weight gain when taking creatine. Weight gain is most commonly a result of water retention, but increased muscle mass can also contribute. Creatine can help you gain lean muscle mass by making it easier for you to build muscle.
An adult taking creatine may gain about 1.5 to 3.5 pounds initially, then gain up to 6 pounds of muscle mass if taken longer term. Fortunately, the weight gain associated with creatine is typically due to an increase in muscle mass rather than body fat, as well as water retention in the muscles.
Creatine supplementation plus resistance exercise increases fat-free mass and strength. Based on the magnitude inferences it appears that consuming creatine immediately post-workout is superior to pre-workout vis a vis body composition and strength.
Creatine is the world's most effective supplement for adding muscle mass ( 1 , 27 ). Taking it for as few as 5–7 days has been shown to significantly increase lean body weight and muscle size. This initial rise is caused by increases in the water content of your muscles ( 15 , 17 ).