Creatine — New Heroes

The item

Three squares: proven in human trials. Two: a strong signal. One: early human data. Striped: the trials disagree.

Strength Focus Calm Vitality Recovery Metabolism

Buffs

Strength and power
Muscle size
Hard efforts, again and again: sprints and heavy sets
Keeping muscle and strength as you age
Memory contested
Low mood, added to depression treatment
Bone density
Less muscle damage after a single hard session contested
A small drop in body-fat percentage when lifting

Debuffs

Know firstWater weight
ManageableGut discomfort
ManageableSlightly lower VO2max, a measure of endurance
MildCreatinine reads high on a blood test; the kidneys are fine

Busted

Cramps and dehydration: A meta-analysis found no evidence that creatine hinders heat tolerance or fluid balance at recommended doses.

Attunes: Muscle stores fill in about a week with a loading week, about four weeks without; strength and size show after six weeks of training
Studied dose: 20 g a day for 5 to 7 days to load, then 5 g a day

“Take 5 g a day for life, and load 20 g a day the first week.”

Start today

Buy plain creatine monohydrate powder. It is the form the trials used.
Take 20 g a day, split across the day, for 5 to 7 days.
Then take 5 g a day, every day, and keep training.
Before a blood test, tell your doctor you take it. Creatinine reads high, and kidney filtration does not change.

How you'll know it's working

Track: Muscle size on the tape, and the load you move on chest press and leg press
When to judge: After six weeks of training. The shortest trials that measured size ran that long.

Why it works

Your muscles run a hard set on ATP, and they hold very little of it. They rebuild it within seconds from a store called phosphocreatine.

Creatine fills that store, so your hardest efforts last longer before they fade.

Your brain uses the same fast energy store. That is why creatine is studied for memory.

Figure 1. A loading week of 20 g a day raised the creatine stored in muscle by about a fifth.

Where it fits

Creatine is a move in 16 protocols. Each one opens the plan it sits in.

What people say

Here is what doctors, influencers and men online say about Creatine, word for word.

Experts

Clinicians, authorities

“the data showed that people that use creatine at the doses recommended and if they have normal kidney function no harm to the kidney is done”
Christy Risinger, MD · 577K views
“No conclusive evidence suggests that creatine increases testosterone or causes hair loss.”
Cleveland Clinic (registered dietitian Kate Patton, MEd, RD, CSSD, LD)
“Increases body/(lean)muscle mass/size when used in conjunction with a resistance training regimen”
Health Canada (Natural Health Products Ingredients Database monograph)

Gurus

Podcasts, channels, influencers

“let's start this video by clearing up all the bull surrounding the most widely researched and safest sports supplement”
supplement brand's channel · 2.5M views
“If you split the doses, if you take it with food, particularly carbohydrates, it seems to help negate some of the bloating and nausea and negative effects people feel”
podcast clip channel · 1.2M views
“some people are allergic to it so you might want to you know take a little first to make sure you're not allergic to it”
chiropractor's YouTube channel · 740K views

Regular people

Forums, reviews, comments

“Creatine has been proven completely harmless for people of all ages absent rare kidney disorder and has clearly measurable positive effects.”
Hacker News, 'Does creatine make you smarter?', 341 points, 275 comments
“I noticed a difference very quickly, I'm stronger in the gym, and recover faster.”
Mumsnet Talk (Exercise), 'Creatine - anyone take it?', 102 replies
“25% of people are non-responders to creatine. But it’s just science. Not a myth”
r/naturalbodybuilding · 9 points

Questions

Do I need the loading week?: It helps. In the pooled trials, the chest press and leg press gains came from the trials that loaded. Without a loading week, the gains matched a dummy pill.
Is it hard on my kidneys?: The trials say no. A review found no kidney damage at the amounts studied. Creatinine on a blood test rises a little, because creatine breaks down into it, while filtration holds steady.
Will I gain weight?: A little, and it is water your body holds. It is the first thing on its risk list.
What happens if I stop?: Your muscle stores drift back to where they started, over about a month.
Does it help my brain?: Early signs say yes. A pooled look at 16 trials found better memory and attention, and the authors ask for bigger trials.

The studies

Every study behind this page.

Words on this page

ATP: The molecule that powers every muscle contraction.
Phosphocreatine: The store your muscles use to rebuild ATP within seconds.
Loading week: A week of a higher dose to fill the muscle store fast.
Creatinine: What creatine breaks down into. Blood tests use it to estimate kidney function.
VO2max: The most oxygen your body can use in hard exercise, a measure of endurance fitness.
Meta-analysis: Many studies pooled into one result.
RCT: A randomized controlled trial: people put by chance on the treatment or on a dummy version.
PMID: A study's ID number in PubMed, the public index of medical research.

Choose plain monohydrate, load for a week, then take 5 g a day for good. Judge it on the tape and the bar at six weeks.

Emergency: call 911.

When to see a doctor

You have kidney disease, or a doctor watches your kidney function.
A blood test flags your creatinine and nobody knows you take creatine.

I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. This is self-education. Every dose on this page is the one a trial used. Talk to a physician who has your history before you change anything.