Creatine Benefits Explained: According to an Expert

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Everyone wants a magic pill to help them build muscle, lose body fat, get stronger, and have more energy. What if I told you that such a compound actually exists?

OK, nothing is truly magic, but creatine might be as close as we can get to the coveted magic pill. This dietary supplement is the most popular sports nutrition supplement for a good reason—well, actually, 10 good reasons, as I detail in this guide to creatine benefits.

RELATED: Best Creatine Supplements

Medical disclaimer: This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. For health advice, contact a licensed healthcare provider.

What is Creatine?

Creatine is a chemical compound composed of three nonessential amino acids—arginine, glycine, and methionine—that functions as a natural source of energy in your muscles during contraction. Creatine does this through its active form, phosphocreatine, which stores energy in your skeletal muscles and helps generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the “energy currency” that helps power your body during tough training sessions.

Your body can naturally produce its own creatine since its amino acids are nonessential, but you can also up your creatine stores through a diet rich in seafood, red meat, and poultry. You can also take creatine as a supplementary pill or powder. Creatine isn’t as present in plant-based nutrition, so those on a vegetarian or vegan diet may need to employ creatine supplements to increase their overall amounts.

How Creatine Works In the Body

Creatine¹ is a compound created endogenously (in the body) from the amino acids arginine, methionine, and glycine. Your body already produces creatine on its own in the liver, pancreas, and kidneys, but creatine supplementation can increase the stores of it in your body.

Creatine plays an important role in energy metabolism in the body—that is, how your body creates energy from food (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) to move. It’s especially important in the phosphocreatine system, which is an anaerobic energy system, a system that operates without oxygen. (Learn the difference between aerobic vs anaerobic metabolism here.)

The phosphocreatine system engages during high-intensity activities that last a short amount of time (about 10 seconds of maximal effort). It’s the first of the three energy systems in your body to kick in, and it’s largely what powers your body through a one-rep max deadlift or a 50-yard dash, according to the National Academy of Sports Medicine’s Sports Nutrition Coach Certification course².

Where creatine comes in is the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)³. ATP has been termed the “energy currency” in athletic performance due to its critical role in skeletal muscle contraction⁴—without ATP, your muscles don’t contract and you don’t move.

Benefits of Creatine Supplementation

According to a 2014 review in the journal Sports Medicine⁵ by Kent Sahlin, sports physiologist, “Anaerobic capacity (i.e., the amount of ATP that can be produced) is determined by the muscle content of PCr (phosphocreatine), the buffer capacity and the volume of the contracting muscle mass.”

So, when creatine levels in the muscle are higher, the body has a higher capacity to maintain short-term, high-intensity exercise performance.

The National Academy of Sports Medicine² states that “the body needs to replenish about 1 to 3 grams of creatine per day to maintain normal (unsupplemented) creatine stores, depending on muscle mass.

“When creatine loading strategies are employed,” the course text reads, “particularly with the addition of carbohydrate and protein, muscle creatine stores can be increased above the average individual.²”

The bottom line: supplementing with creatine increases stores of creatine in muscle cells and improves physical performance.

1. Increases Muscle Strength

If you are looking to get the most out of your resistance training sessions, creatine needs to be a part of your supplement stack. Just four weeks of creatine supplementation can produce substantial increases in maximal strength, according to a 2018 randomized controlled trial in the journal Nutrients⁶. These findings are backed by dozens upon dozens of studies reporting similar results, dating back to the 1980s, according to a 2018 clinical review in the journal Sports Health⁷.

2. Increases Muscle Power

In addition to strength, creatine improves power output. This is directly related to the supplement’s role in ATP synthesis.

Thanks to its effects on power output, creatine improves treadmill sprinting performance⁸, increases one-rep max bench press and squat⁹, and repeating jumping ability¹⁰.

3. Improves Muscular Endurance

Traditional endurance athletes who perform primarily aerobic cardio exercise—long-duration, monostructural, lower-intensity work like cycling and jogging—won’t benefit from creatine supplementation in the way that strength training athletes, like Olympic weightlifters and bodybuilding enthusiasts, will.

(The reason is because creatine does not have a significant effect¹¹ on cardiac output, oxygen uptake, or blood lactate, which are key markers of endurance performance. Aerobic exercise doesn’t rely on phosphocreatine to quickly produce ATP like is necessary during high-intensity exercise, rather utilizing oxygen to create energy, so creatine’s role is far less significant.)

However, creatine is known to increase work capacity¹² and result in more reps completed¹³ during an exercise session, which is an improvement in muscular endurance.

4. Produces More Muscle Growth

Muscle growth is probably the most common anecdotal use of creatine. And it works: a 9-year review of clinical trials¹⁴ found that creatine supplementation has a positive effect on muscle mass in “all healthy young populations, even in those who were untrained” but stresses that the most profound effects occur in conjunction with resistance training.

Additionally, a 2019 report in the Journal of Clinical Medicine¹⁵ found that creatine seems to be beneficial for older adults with sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss.

5. Expedites Recovery After Workouts

Creatine may enhance post-workout muscle recovery by reducing the overall volume of muscle damage that occurs during exercise, as well as reducing the post-exercise inflammatory response, according to a 2021 literature review in the journal Nutrients¹⁶.

6. Might Reduce Incidence of Dehydration and Cramping

One common claim about creatine is that it can cause dehydration and cramping. This could have been hypothesized because creatine alters the water balance in your muscle cells. However, research shows that the opposite is true despite the altered water retention.

For example, one study¹⁷ followed college athletes for three years and found that those who supplemented with creatine were less likely to experience muscle cramps and dehydration. Another study¹⁸ looked at cyclists who performed a 30-minute cycling session followed by three 10-second sprints in a hot and humid environment. Compared to the placebo group, the cyclists who took creatine did not experience more cramping or dehydration. In fact, the creatine group performed better.

7. May Help Keep Blood Sugar Stable

Creatine affects the way a glucose transporter (GLUT-4) in your body works. It’s thought that creatine supplementation can increase the amount of GLUT-4¹⁹, which removes glucose (sugar) from your blood and diverts it into your muscle cells.

In a 2007 randomized controlled trial published in the journal Amino Acids²⁰, people who had diabetes and supplemented with creatine exhibited improved blood glucose control compared to people who had diabetes and did not take creatine. It’s important to know that aerobic exercise was a factor in this trial; so it can’t be said that creatine supplementation alone improves blood sugar control. More research is needed.

8. May Be Neuroprotective

In addition to its many benefits on performance, creatine may also have neurological benefits. It has been shown to assist in the treatment of muscular dystrophy²¹, Parkinson’s disease ²², and Huntington’s disease ²³. It’s important to note, though, that much of the research on creatine and its neuroprotective benefits has been conducted on animals, not humans, and many more, long-term human studies are needed to determine these relationships.

9. Improves Brain Function

If you’re looking to keep your brain health in tip-top shape, you may be in luck if you’re taking creatine supplements. Creatine plays a role in brain health and energy homeostasis, and taking oral creatine has been shown to increase measures of cognitive function, including intelligence test scores²⁴ and memory²⁵. However, research findings are very mixed, and it seems that these effects are more pronounced when the brain is in a challenged state, such as during sleep deprivation, according to a 2022 narrative review in the journal Nutrients²⁶.

10. Fights Fatigue

Creatine may reduce general fatigue associated with sleep deprivation, as well as fatigue during exercise. There isn’t a ton of research on the relationship between creatine and fatigue prevention, but a few studies have shown that creatine can reduce mental fatigue, according to a 2021 systematic review in Nutrients²⁷.

In a 2008 study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition²⁸, cyclists who consumed oral creatine had lower ratings of perceived fatigue than those who did not take creatine.

How To Supplement With Creatine

Creatine comes in powder, pill, and sometimes, gummy form. So, there are a few options for supplementing it.

Then, there’s the amount you should take. You can follow the recommendations on the product and take the daily maintenance dose of about 3 to 5 grams, or you can do a creatine loading phase and ramp up your usage over several weeks, ultimately taking about 20 to 25 grams of creatine split into equal doses throughout the day.

As for creatine timing, there’s mixed research on whether there’s an ideal time of day to take it. Most users will just have their creatine as part of their pre-workout regimen before a training session. Essentially, you can take creatine whenever it works for your schedule, and it won’t affect your results.

Common Myths and Misconceptions About Creatine

Let’s start by saying creatine is not a steroid. Some other common myths/misconceptions that you’ll see about creatine involve situations like weight gain, acne, hair loss, and dehydration.

In her article on creatine myths, Sports Dietitian Destini Moody, RD, CSSD, LD, dispels a lot of these. She concludes, “In reality, science over the years has shown that creatine is one of the safest supplements you can take, and there are no serious creatine side effects when taken as directed, except maybe a little GI distress when creatine loading if your body is not used to the compound. All in all, there are very few reasons to avoid taking creatine if you regularly engage in resistance training.”

Creatine Benefits: Final Thoughts

Creatine is the ideal supplement for people who want to:

Increase muscle mass
Increase muscle size
Improve physical performance

It’s one of the only supplements that has an impressively conclusive clinically proven background, and it’s been proven safe for long-term use.

Creatine Benefits: FAQs

What are creatine side effects?

There are some adverse effects of creatine supplementation, but they are generally minor. Common complaints include bloating and water retention, abdominal cramping, and weight gain, the latter of which is often a combination of water weight and new muscle mass.

Some people are concerned about creatinine, a waste product of creatine. This byproduct is eliminated by the kidneys and excreted in urine, and it’s been hypothesized that creatine causes kidney damage due to elevated creatinine levels. However, research²⁹ shows that this isn’t true and creatine has no negative effects on kidney function in healthy individuals (though people with kidney disease should always check with their doctor before starting to supplement with creatine). Even in people who supplemented³⁰ with creatine for four years, no kidney damage was reported.

The International Society of Sports Nutrition’s position³¹ on creatine supplementation reports that no long-term adverse effects are associated with creatine supplementation.

Does creatine help with weight loss?

No, creatine is not a weight-loss supplement, although it may help you “recomp” your body weight. Body recomposition involves reducing body fat and increasing lean body mass. Exercise, including cardio and resistance training, a healthy diet, and plenty of quality sleep go a long way for body recomposition, and you don’t need supplements to do it.

Can I get enough creatine from food?

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine², creatine is found in the highest amounts in red meat and fish. This means vegetarians and vegans are likely to have lower levels of muscle creatine. If you eat enough animal products every day, you might be able to naturally replenish your creatine stores (remember, your body requires 1 to 3 grams of unsupplemented replenishment per day). However, to increase your muscle stores of creatine, you’ll benefit from the dietary supplement.

When to take creatine?

Research³³ has revealed that it doesn’t really matter when you take creatine, as long as you meet the clinically recommended dose per day, although there might be a small benefit to taking creatine shortly post-workout, according to other research³⁴.

How much creatine should I take?

To complete a creatine loading phase, you should take 20 to 25 grams of creatine per day for five to seven days, split up into equal doses and taken throughout the day. For creatine maintenance, the recommended dose³² is 3 to 5 grams per day. You don’t need to do a loading phase to build muscle or reap the other benefits, but it will saturate your muscles much faster (in about a week compared to in about a month).

Is creatine OK to take everyday?

There are no known side effects of taking creatine every day as long as you stick to the recommended dose.

What form of creatine is best?

There are two forms of creatine you’ll see in supplements: creatine monohydrate and creatine hydrochloride (HCl). Creatine monohydrate is the “legacy” form of creatine and it’s the supplement that has been so heavily studied. Creatine HCl is newer and the addition of hydrochloric acid makes creatine more bioavailable and water-soluble. However, studies show that there is no notable benefit to taking HCl over monohydrate.

You may have also seen the term “creatine phosphate.” This isn’t usually sold as a supplement, rather, it’s the storage form of creatine in your body. Creatine phosphate “donates” its phosphate to adenosine diphosphate during the phosphocreatine cycle to create ATP, the molecule that powers your muscle fibers to contract.

Current research³⁵ reports that there is not enough scientific evidence on newer forms of creatine to determine if they are more effective than creatine monohydrate.

What are the benefits of creatine?

Some creatine benefits include increases in muscular strength, power, and endurance and elevated levels of energy and cognition. Many of these purported benefits are well-studied with evidence to support these claims.

What are the pros and cons of creatine?

Pros of creatine are that it’s one of the most studied nutritional supplements, so there is a ton of data to support its effectiveness for muscle size and strength and the potential to help reduce muscle loss as you age.

Cons are that it may lead to increased water weight/bloating or cause other issues of stomach upset and digestive distress.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.

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Amanda Capritto, CPT, CES, CNC, CF-L1, CSNC

Amanda is a content writer and journalist with extensive experience in the health, fitness, lifestyle, and nutrition niches. Before joining Garage Gym Reviews, she worked as an independent writer for various brands and outlets.Her work has appeared in national and global digital publications, including Health.com and Shape.com (Meredith Corporation), CNET (Red Ventures, formerly ViacomCBS), LIVESTRONG (Leaf Group), Verywell Fit and The Balance (DotDash), SlickDeals (Goldman Sachs/Hearst), Health Journal, and more.Now, Amanda brings her expertise in fitness to the GGR team by testing equipment and writing authentic, honest reviews on everything you might need to stock your home gym.

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