Creatine Monohydrate - Your Comprehensive Guide

One of the most well-researched supplements out there, creatine is a chemical compound found naturally in your muscles and brain that you can ‘top up’.

What is Creatine Monohydrate?

Stored mostly in your muscles, creatine is most widely known for its benefits as a quick energy reserve, supporting cells involved in energy production and helping you perform better in short bursts of high intensity activity like sprinting or lifting weights. In doing so it enhances both sports performance and strength gain, which is where the bulk of evidence supporting it sits, but on top of that it may also help support better recovery times, improved glycogen storage (think endurance exercise), and even cognitive performance (however the jury is still out, particularly on this one, as evidence is mixed).

Creatine certainly brings with it a lot of promise and potential. But, you have to have the stimulus of training one way or another to actually reap the benefits to muscle gain, strength or fitness; on its own, creatine isn’t likely to improve these things.

You get creatine from foods like meat and fish. There’s around 5g of creatine in about 1kg of meat, which is a lot of meat to eat to eat in one day, but you can top your levels up easily with supplements that come in either powder or tablet form.

If you don’t eat a lot of meat and fish, for example if you follow a vegetarian or vegan style of eating, then in theory you may be someone who stands to gain the most from creatine supplementation because your stores are likely to be naturally lower.

It’s worth mentioning that just because evidence is mixed for something (eg in the case of creatine and cognitive performance), this doesn’t mean it doesn’t work - for some people it might. What is does mean is there’s a lack of certainty when it comes to the research and evidence currently available. This is something to bear in mind when considering some of the strong claims currently being made by supplement companies and celebrities about where it’s benefits lie.

Creatine is considered widely to be safe if you’re healthy, so even if the evidence for some of the claimed benefits isn’t strong there may be possible upsides with little risk, which means it could still be worth considering even if you don’t train, particularly during times of stress or sleep deprivation since it’s also stored in the brain; this is where research is particularly scant but emerging, and so there seems to be little harm in trying if you want to - but any benefit is a possibility and not by any means a certainty.

How to take Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine monohydrate comes in powder or pill format; creatine powder can be taken either direct on your tongue, or you can put it in a shake or mix it in a meal (eg in yoghurt).

If you have no kidney issues, are not breastfeeding or pregnant, and have no stomach issues, a maintenance dose of 0.03g per kg of bodyweight is all that is needed to keep your levels topped up once they are replenished. If you fall into any of the above categories then you shouldn’t take it without medical advice.

Our natural turnover of creatine amounts to approximately 1 to 2g per day, which equates to about .025g creatine per kg of bodyweight; hence the O.03g per kg of bodyweight per day dosage recommendation above. This really isn’t very much, so taking between 3-5g per day means you know you’ve hit you’re target and is why you’ll see this kind of dose on most packets. For most people, unless you are loading, take any more than that and you’re just wasting it - there’s a ceiling, and anything over that ceiling won’t be stored.

A loading phase might be beneficial if you’re new to creatine, or restarting after a break, as this will top your levels up faster allowing you to reap any potential benefits sooner.

Loading is by no means essential though. Either way, stores are slow to top-up or replenish, which means you’re unlikely to feel an immediate impact from taking it - if you feel one at all. Benefits to training rely on consistency and can be so gradual they are hard to spot in the short-term.

How to load Creatine Monohydrate

Loading phases can vary; there’s no hard and fast rule. You can be thinking as low as 5g per day for 30 days for a long load. For a shorter, faster load over 5 to 7 days think 0.3g per kg of bodyweight per day, spread across the day in small doses. For example, you could take 6 doses of 3g per day, or 4 doses of 5g, or 3 doses of 6g, depending on your preference and your body weight. Or you can do anything in between.

The closer you get to 10g in a dose the more likely you are to experience stomach issues if you’re someone affected in this way (not everyone) – so smaller more frequent doses may be beneficial if this is you.

How much you increase your stores will depend on your starting levels – not something you can easily measure. And non-responders do exist, particularly if dietary levels are already sufficient.

Do water, heat and caffeine degrade Creatine Monohydrate?

In water, creatine degrades slowly over time, by a few % a day. A few hours or so in water isn’t going to make a difference – but more than a couple of days or so probably will.

There’s some evidence that it’s less effective when taken with caffeine, but it’s not robust evidence and there’s not a lot of it. A coffee before your workout and a shake afterwards isn’t likely to make a difference.

Avoid mixing creatine monohydrate directly with your coffee though, because heat degrades it.

Should you cycle Creatine Monohydrate?

Creatine supplementation slows your natural production, but this goes back up when supplementation stops so isn’t something to worry about.

Some people prefer to ‘cycle’ creatine which you can do by taking advantage of by not taking it during holidays and training de-loads a few times a year if you want to. Then you just reload and start again.

What should you do if you miss a dose of creatine?

Consistency is key when it comes to creatine - but it can take around 30 days of not taking creatine for it to get back down to baseline, so missing a day or two here and there isn’t going to make much of a difference and isn’t something to worry about.

When to take Creatine Monohydrate

Take creatine monohydrate with carbohydrate and/or protein (eg, with a shake post training, or with a meal), so that insulin can drive it into your cells. Taking it in a fasted state (3 to 4 hours or more with no food) will mean you won’t take it up so well. In other words, the uptake process into the muscles is an insulin mediated one.

Post training gives a slight advantage too, as your cells will be more ready for the uptake.

Does Creatine Monohydrate cause weight gain?

There is often weight gain from creatine, yes, and this can be as much as 2kg (4lbs) on the scales. Some of this might possibly be muscle gain, most will be intracellular water.

Creatine supplementation results in intracellular anabolic water retention. This is a fancy way of saying creatine monohydrate results in hydration within your cells – the fact it’s within the cells means you can’t feel it or see it, but it might show up on the scales. This makes a difference if weight is important for your sport, or if your relationship with the scale isn’t a good one. This doesn’t make a difference to body fat stores and does not represent weight gain in a fat gain sense.

Is Creatine Monohydrate beneficial for Menopausal Women?

Creatine is known for supporting performance and muscle gain. It shows potential in research for cognitive benefits. But resistance training and exercise are the things that make the biggest difference when it comes to strength gain and fitness.

In the absence of these things, creatine monohydrate is no wonder-drug. There are many reasons to take it, for sure – not least because it’s a low-risk high-potential supplement that’s relatively cheap and easy to get hold of. But for the majority of us it’s icing on a cake rather than a foundation of health.

I recommend it to the women I work with often, but not because they are experiencing symptoms of perimenopause or post-menopausal; I recommend creatine monohydrate to women (and men) who are exercising and training consistently, are interested in evidence-based supplements, and for whom it is safe - irrespective of age or menopause status.

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This is not medical advice and should not be considered as a substitute for medical advice.  Please seek the advice of your GP if you think you need medical advice.