As an athlete, the supplement creatine is certainly not unfamiliar. Over the years, it has become one of the most popular dietary supplements, partly thanks to its significant effects. With the various types of creatine available on the market, it may be unclear which creatine is best suited to your goals and how to use it. You can read all about it in our article: creatine use.
What is creatine
Creatine is a substance produced by our body. It occurs naturally in vertebrate species and plays a major role in supplying energy to muscle cells. The word “creatine” comes from Greek and is derived from the word “Kreas,” which means flesh. This name was given to the substance in 1832 by the French scientist Michel-Eugene Chevreul.
Every day, your body produces about 1 gram of creatine in the kidneys, pancreas, and liver. The creatine produced by your body is synthesized from arginine, methionine, and glycine. The amount of creatine your body produces from these amino acids is not large enough to have the effect that creatine as a dietary supplement can have on your athletic performance.
How does creatine work
Creatine plays a significant role in supplying energy to the muscles. As you may have read in our article on energy systems, the body has 3 different energy systems, each working in its own way. We can distinguish the following 3 energy systems:
1. The phosphagen or ATP-CP system
2. The anaerobic or lactic acid system
3. The aerobic oxygen system
Creatine plays a major role in the ATP-CP system, also known as the phosphagen system. When you use your muscles in this ATP system during training, your body extracts energy from adenosine triphosphate, abbreviated as ATP. This ATP is broken down into adenosine diphosphate (ADP). ATP is only available for a few seconds to supply efforts in the muscles before it is converted into ADP. To replenish the ATP store, creatine phosphate is broken down, and from this released energy, ATP is made again.
Creatine plays a significant role in the regeneration of ATP. When muscle cells run out of ATP after an active force exertion, it needs to be replenished, and creatine does this by converting ADP back into ATP. This is done by the presence of creatine phosphate (CP), also called phosphocreatine (PCr). Essentially, a creatine supplement ensures that more creatine phosphate is available to remake ATP. This can increase the maximum effort in number of seconds and also increase strength.
When to use creatine
A frequently asked question is when to use creatine. Initially, it is not advisable to use this supplement when you are just starting strength training. The maximum effects of creatine are often achieved when you reach a plateau, where your athletic performance no longer increases due to diminished returns. When you are just starting to train, this is not the case, and by training and eating well, you will make sufficient progress without creatine.
It is not necessary to plan creatine before or after workouts. Unlike other supplements, you can easily distribute creatine throughout the day, with absorption of the substance being one of the largest factors of its effect. A large amount, namely 95%, is absorbed and stored in the muscles.
Creatine loading phase
Previously, a loading phase was also mentioned when using creatine, but over the years, it has been found that this is not necessary with creatine supplementation. It just takes longer to reach the maximum levels, which you could achieve more quickly with a loading phase. These levels vary greatly from person to person. If you naturally have little creatine in your muscles, the effect of this supplement can easily increase muscle mass by 25% to even 50%. Creatine can thus ensure that natural differences are offset and you can achieve the maximum amount of creatine in your body, with all the benefits that come with it.
Conversely, this works the same way. If your body’s creatine levels are already close to the maximum achievable, supplementation with this dietary supplement may have less significant effects than someone who is only at 25% of this maximum.
It is due to the significant interests at stake for the manufacturers and suppliers of dietary supplements that a loading phase of 20 grams per day is still recommended, while with a regular dosage of 5 grams per day, the same effect can be achieved, although it takes slightly longer to reach this level.
Example loading phase with creatine
If we assume a month of 30 days, maintaining a loading phase for 1 week where we take 20 grams of creatine per day, followed by a maintenance phase of 5 grams of creatine use per day:
With loading phase:
- 7 x 20 grams + 23 x 5 grams = 255 grams per month
Without loading phase:
- 30 x 5 grams = 150 grams per month.
Read more about this in our article: creatine loading
Disadvantages of creatine
Over the years, extensive research has been conducted on creatine. So much so that it has become the most researched dietary supplement. There are known situations where people experience intestinal discomfort with cramps, diarrhea, and a sensitive stomach, but the cause of these complaints often lies in excessive dosage. Additionally, creatine can lead to weight gain due to temporarily retaining more fluid by the muscles. But the biggest disadvantages of this supplement would be:
- Baldness due to creatine
- Kidney damage due to creatine
As you can see, we have paid considerable attention to these. If you would like to read more about this, you can consult the relevant articles. To conclude this article with a summary of both claimed disadvantages:
Baldness due to creatine
Creatine can lead to baldness if there is heredity for it. By increasing dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. This is a metabolite of testosterone and can have various effects on the body such as muscle growth but also hair loss, if there is a predisposition.
Kidney damage due to creatine
Creatine has no negative effects on kidney function in the long term, this has been researched and confirmed by multiple studies. There is a possibility that kidney function may deteriorate due to creatine if they were already not functioning well. The studies conducted on possible kidney damage were done with monohydrate.
Conclusion
Creatine is a natural substance that can provide more energy in the muscles by increasing the creatine phosphate pool. This can allow the body to have explosive strength for longer periods and can enable heavier and more intense training. This can lead to the building of more muscle mass and strength. The increase in weight is often not permanent and is certainly not only muscle mass, but largely fluid, but the effect on muscle mass can be permanent. Creatine does not need to be loaded; with a dosage of 5 grams per day, it will just take longer to reach the maximum level than with a loading phase of 20 grams per day.
Benefits of creatine
- Increased strength in muscle cells
- More energy in the muscles
- Increased muscle mass
Disadvantages of creatine
- Possible abdominal pain and cramps
- Weight gain due to extra fluid
- Possible baldness if hereditary
