How Long Does it Take for Creatine to Work?
Creatine is involved in making energy for the muscles. About 95% of it is found in skeletal muscle. Studies show that it can increase muscle mass, strength, and exercise performance. The majority of sports supplements in the US contain creatine, and besides the different forms available on the market, one of the safest and most effective is creatine monohydrate. Here we’ll discuss what is creatine, creatine supplementation, and its effects on the human body.
Creatine
Creatine is a nutrient that humans can process from the food they eat, and can also create themselves through natural biological processes. Creatine is a substance found naturally in muscle cells. It helps your muscles produce energy during heavy lifting or high-intensity exercise. Creatine has been recognized as a natural substance for over 150 years and is best known for contributing to muscle growth. It is an amino acid derivative, naturally produced in the human body from the amino acids glycine and arginine, which later transform into creatine. This non-protein compound is actually turned into creatine phosphate inside the body, which is used to regenerate ATP within the cell. ATP is often called the body’s energy currency. More ATP means the body can perform better during exercise. When ingested, through blood circulation 95% of the human body's total creatine and phosphocreatine are distributed in the skeletal muscle, while the remainder is distributed in the blood, brain, testes, and other tissues. High concentrations in skeletal muscle prove its use as a supplement in sports and weightlifting.
Creatine Supplementation
One thing is clear about creatine: it is one of the most popular performance-enhancing supplements on the market. A large review of the most popular supplements selected creatine as the single most popular supplement for attempting to add muscle mass.
The amount of ATP found within a muscle is generally so low that it’s only enough to generate energy for a fraction of a second. Such as through lifting a weight in the gym. After it generates that energy, it breaks down into ADP, which can't be used for energy. And that’s exactly where creatine phosphate comes into play. Creatine phosphate serves as the phosphate donor for the replenishment of ATP.
Our body creates around one gram of creatine per day on its own. Our bodies also process creatine from food, for example, we can get around one gram of creatine from one pound of salmon. So, the primary benefit of creatine supplementation is placing more creatine phosphate at the disposal of your muscles, than would naturally occur or could be reasonably created from dietary intake. Supplementation has been proven to yield an improvement in strength and power output during resistance exercise. Creatine is well researched for its role here, and the effects are quite notable for a supplement when compared to others. When used in conjunction with resistance exercise, creatine may modestly increase lean mass.
Creatine Monohydrate and Dosing
There are many different forms of creatine available on the market, but creatine monohydrate is the cheapest, most effective, and has the most scientific support. Studies have shown that this supplement can increase strength gains from a weight-training program by approximately 5–15%, on average. RDA (recommended daily allowance) for creatine is 3-5g maintenance dose and 20-25g loading dose (lasting 5-7 days only).
Loading Dose
When we use the term "creatine loading", we're talking about taking a higher initial dose of creatine for 5-7 days only, before continuously taking a lower "maintenance" dose.
You can determine your daily dose for the loading phase by multiplying your weight by 0.3. For example, an individual weighing 180 lbs. (82 kg) would consume 25 g (82 x 0.3) of creatine daily during the loading phase only.
The loading phase leads to a rapid increase in musculature stores of creatine. As those creatine stores fill, not only does the level of creatine phosphate increase, but you also retain more water. This is because when creatine is taken into a muscle cell it also draws water into that cell. Water retention within your muscle cells may contribute to increased body weight. Your muscles retain more water which is why you can reasonably expect to weigh more after a week of creatine loading. While extra water being retained within your muscles may give the appearance of a “fuller look,” it’s important to remember that once the water has dissipated or is removed through the bodies natural functions, that this appearance may be dissolved as well. This may also confer a psychological detriment that since you can see your muscles “getting smaller” that more creatine supplementation is needed, which in turn can become a dangerous cycle for your filtration system (i.e. liver, kidneys, etc.) to eliminate the excessive dosing.
Maintenance Dose
After the 5-7 day loading phase, muscle creatine stores are fully saturated and supplementation now only needs to cover the amount of creatine broken down per day, meaning taking approximately only 3-5 g per day.
Creatine loading may give you a big “headstart” if you want to build muscle in a short amount of time, but it could result in digestive discomfort, dehydration, cramps, and/or diarrhea. If you want to avoid these side effects you can simply start with the smaller, maintenance doses and you will still see the results within 2-4 weeks. Taking a smaller dose for a longer period of time will still reach the same saturation point. For the health benefit risk-to-reward, starting with and continuing the maintenance dose is highly recommended if choosing to use creatine supplementation.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, creatine may be an effective supplement with benefits for athletic performance. It generally will take 2-4 weeks of consistent supplementation for creatine to be effective, whether you’re running a loading phase or maintenance phase. If you choose to use it or not, you should continue to see improvements in muscle growth as long as you’re leveraging progressive overload.