Supplements Guide
What Is Creatine? Benefits, Dosage & What It Actually Does
Creatine is one of the cheapest, safest, and most effective supplements in existence. Here's what the research actually shows — and what it doesn't.
What Creatine Is
Creatine is a naturally occurring compound made from three amino acids: glycine, arginine, and methionine. Your body produces about 1 gram per day in the liver and kidneys, and you get another 1-2 grams from eating meat and fish. About 95% of your body's creatine is stored in muscle, where it plays a central role in short, high-intensity energy production.
During explosive movements — a heavy set of squats, a sprint, a jump — your muscles run on a fuel called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP stores are limited and burn out in a few seconds. Creatine, stored as phosphocreatine, rapidly regenerates ATP so you can keep going. More creatine in your muscles means more fuel for explosive work.
Why Supplement If Your Body Makes It?
Your muscles can store more creatine than your diet and body production typically provide. Vegetarians and vegans, who eat no meat or fish, have particularly low natural stores. Supplementation reliably increases muscle creatine by about 20-40%, pushing it closer to maximum capacity. That extra capacity is where the performance and size gains come from.
Research-Backed Benefits
Strength and Power
Hundreds of studies show creatine increases maximal strength by an average of 5-15% and improves performance in short, explosive efforts (1-10 rep sets, sprints, jumps). These are among the most replicated findings in sports science.
Muscle Growth
Combined with resistance training, creatine increases lean muscle mass by an average of 1-2 kg more than training alone over 4-12 weeks. Some of this is water inside muscle cells (which is good — it's a cell-volumizing signal for growth), but a significant portion is real contractile tissue.
Recovery and Training Volume
Creatine lets you perform more reps at a given weight and recover faster between sets and workouts, which compounds into more total training stimulus over weeks and months.
Cognitive Benefits
Emerging research shows creatine benefits brain function too, particularly under stress, sleep deprivation, or in older adults. Vegetarians often see the biggest cognitive effect, since their baseline brain creatine is lower.
How to Take It
Creatine monohydrate is the most studied, cheapest, and most effective form. Don't pay extra for 'hydrochloride,' 'buffered,' or 'ethyl ester' versions — none have been shown to outperform plain monohydrate.
- Take 3-5 grams per day, every day. This is the entire protocol.
- Timing doesn't really matter. Morning, post-workout, with food, without food — studies show no meaningful difference. Just take it consistently.
- Mixing with water, juice, or a shake is fine. It's slightly more soluble in warm liquid but the effect is trivial.
- Skip the 'loading phase' unless you want full saturation in a week. Loading means 20g per day for 5-7 days, then 3-5g after. Plain daily dosing gets you to the same place in 3-4 weeks with zero downside.
Safety
Creatine is one of the safest supplements ever studied. Multi-decade use has not shown kidney damage, liver damage, hair loss, or any other meaningful side effect in healthy people. The common 'creatine causes kidney problems' claim stems from a single case report from the 1990s and has been repeatedly debunked in controlled research.
The only real side effects are mild: a few people get minor bloating or GI upset at high doses (usually resolved by splitting doses or reducing to 3g), and most people gain 1-2 kg of water weight in the first few weeks, which is muscle-beneficial water, not fat.
Does It Cause Hair Loss?
A single 2009 study in rugby players found increased DHT (a hair-loss-related hormone) after creatine loading. No study before or since has replicated this finding, and DHT-related hair loss requires genetic predisposition. If you're worried, know that the evidence base for creatine causing hair loss is essentially one study with no follow-up — and the evidence for benefit is hundreds of studies.
Who Should Take Creatine
Nearly anyone doing resistance training or high-intensity sport will benefit. Vegetarians and vegans stand to gain the most, since their baseline stores are lowest. Older adults benefit especially for maintaining muscle and brain function. Endurance athletes see less performance benefit, but may still gain from training recovery.
- Lifters and bodybuilders: proven strength, size, and volume benefits
- Team sport athletes: sprinting, jumping, repeat-effort power
- Vegetarians and vegans: largest response due to low dietary intake
- Older adults: muscle preservation and cognitive support
- People with depression or sleep deprivation: emerging but promising evidence
Who Should Skip It (or Ask a Doctor First)
- People with pre-existing kidney disease
- Pregnant or breastfeeding women (insufficient safety data, not because it's known to be harmful)
- Teens under 18 should consult a sports medicine professional before starting
- Anyone on medications that stress the kidneys
The Bottom Line
Creatine monohydrate is the most evidence-backed performance supplement in existence. 3-5 grams daily, pure monohydrate, taken consistently, produces measurable strength, size, recovery, and possibly cognitive benefits. It costs roughly a dollar a week and has an extraordinary safety profile.
If you're lifting weights seriously, it's one of the few supplements worth taking. Combine it with a sensible calorie target from our calculator and enough quality protein in your diet, and you have the three pillars of muscle-building nutrition covered.