Many people have heard of creatine as a supplement, but what is it and what does it do for us?
Creatine is a compound naturally found in our muscles and brain. We make some creatine in our body, and we also consume some through our diet from protein-rich sources like red meat, seafood, and animal milks. The body stores creatine in a form called phosphocreatine where it’s used as quick energy for high-intensity exercise.
Since we naturally make and consume creatine, why do people take creatine supplements?
Well, athletes may supplement with creatine to boost their levels of phosphocreatine and ensure that their muscle stores are fully saturated. Creatine has long been used in resistance training and strength athletes to aid hypertrophy (muscle growth) through improved muscle contraction and faster recovery during repeated high intensity exercise[1]. More recently, creatine has been investigated as a possible performance aid in endurance sports as well..
Recent research has investigated creatine’s possible benefits for repeated sprint performance by improving anaerobic work capacity (the ability to work at very high, anaerobic intensities)–these repeated surges are often during race defining moments in endurance sports, like a final kick, a breakaway move, or a final sprint [2,3]. The results are promising, but creatine has a side effect that may also be beneficial for endurance performance. One of the often-reported side effects of creatine supplementation can be weight gain–albeit this is reported to be less common in females. When weight gain does occur, it’s typically just a matter of a couple pounds, and is typically a result of increased water storage in muscles as a result of increased creatine stores. However, this small increase in water weight (i.e. cellular hydration) when supplementing with creatine may provide benefits to athletic performance by aiding hydration. While important for all endurance athletes, this may be of particular importance for female endurance athletes, who see a shift in fluid into the extracellular space (i.e. not in the muscle cells where it’s needed) during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, increasing the concern for dehydration[4]. As a result, the tendency to store additional intracellular water while supplementing with creatine may serve as a particularly important benefit for female endurance athletes in addition to the benefits provided to anaerobic work capacity. Female athletes may also benefit from creatine supplementation as females tend to exhibit 70-80% lower endogenous muscular phosphocreatine stores than men. Additionally, post-menopausal women may also see benefits to mental health, bone health, and skeletal muscle size and function while consuming higher doses of creatine (0.3 g of creatine per kg of body weight per day) [5].
Depression affects females at approximately double the rate that males are affected [6]. Due to a variety of factors and mechanisms, there is strong evidence to support the fact that increased creatine consumption (from animal proteins) and/or creatine supplementation may help to support mood and depression, particularly in females. There is also consistent evidence to support creatine supplementation improving cognitive performance and brain function in healthy adults [7]. So, for female endurance athletes, on top of potential benefits to strength, lean mass, and bone health, there’s the possibility of mental health benefits as well. Combined with it’s high level of safety and extremely minimal side effects, these benefits make creatine worth trying for female athletes.
When it comes to creatine supplementation, as with any supplement, we recommend purchasing from a reputable brand, and ideally one that’s 3rd party certified (such as NSF, cGMP, or the gold standard of Informed Sport). This helps to ensure that your supplement is what it says it is, and that it’s not contaminated or tainted with other substances that shouldn’t be there. Look for a creatine supplement that has ideally just one ingredient, creatine monohydrate. As for dosage, there are 2 approaches for creatine supplementation. Saturating body stores doesn’t happen immediately, so one approach to supplementation is targeted around increasing body stores of creatine as quickly as possible by taking a loading dose of creatine–0.3g of creatine per kg of body weight per day–split into 4 doses across the day for 5-7 days. Once the loading dose is completed, these saturated creatine stores can be maintained with a dose of 3-5g per day (on training and non-training days). It’s also possible to increase creatine stores with a daily dose of 5g per day, though this may take up to 28 days for creatine stores to increase [5]. Either way, we recommend taking your creatine with a meal or a carb source if possible in order to increase absorption into the muscles.
To summarize, there is emerging research to support the supplementation of creatine for endurance athletes to improve anaerobic work capacity and repeated sprint performance. Creatine supplementation may also be beneficial for female endurance athletes, particularly during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, by helping to ensure additional intracellular water content, helping to reduce the risk of dehydration. Creatine stores are best maximized through 5-7 days of supplementation of 0.3g of creatine per kg of body weight split into 4 doses throughout the day (roughly 4 doses of 5mg per day), and can then be maintained with a daily dose of 3-5mg.
Do you supplement with creatine or are you going to give it a try? Let us know your favorite way to consume it in the comments. We recommend mixing into a beverage or having it in your post workout smoothie, like our Chocolate Peanut Butter Post Workout Shake.
References:
- Hespel P, Derave W. Ergogenic effects of creatine in sports and rehabilitation. Subcell Biochem. 2007;46:245-59. PMID: 18652080.
- Crisafulli DL, Buddhadev HH, Brilla LR, Chalmers GR, Suprak DN, San Juan JG. Creatine-electrolyte supplementation improves repeated sprint cycling performance: A double blind randomized control study. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2018 May 2;15:21. doi: 10.1186/s12970-018-0226-y. PMID: 29743825; PMCID: PMC5930494.
- Scott C. Forbes, Darren G. Candow, Joao Henrique Falk Neto, Michael D. Kennedy, Jennifer L. Forbes, Marco Machado, Erik Bustillo, Jose Gomez-Lopez, Andres Zapata & Jose Antonio (2023) Creatine supplementation and endurance performance: surges and sprints to win the race, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 20:1, DOI: 10.1080/15502783.2023.2204071
- Deminice R., Rosa F.T., Pfrimer K., Ferrioli E., Jordao A.A., Freitas E. Creatine Supplementation Increases Total Body Water in Soccer Players: A Deuterium Oxide Dilution Study. Int. J. Sport. Med. 2015;37:149–153. doi: 10.1055/s-0035-1559690.
- Kreider, R.B., Kalman, D.S., Antonio, J. et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z
- Bebbington P., Dunn G., Jenkins R., et al. The influence of age and sex on the prevalence of depressive conditions: Report from the National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity. Int. Rev. Psychiatry. 2003; 15:74-83. Doi: 10.1080/0954026021000045976
- Allen, PJ. Creatine metabolism and psychiatric disorders: Does creatine supplementation have therapeutic value? Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 2012; 36: 1442-1462. Doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.03.005.