A Word on Supplement Quality

Before we dive into creatine specifically, it is essential to address supplement quality. The supplement industry is not as tightly regulated as pharmaceuticals, which means product quality can vary significantly between brands. If you choose to take any supplement, always look for products that have undergone third-party testing by organizations such as NSF, Labdoor, Consumer Lab, Informed-Choice, or USP. These certifications help ensure that what is on the label matches what is in the bottle, and that the product is free from harmful contaminants or banned substances. We will explore supplement quality and how to choose reliable products in greater detail in a future article.

What Is Creatine?

Creatine is a naturally occurring compound found primarily in muscle tissue. Your body produces it from amino acids, and you also obtain it through dietary sources, particularly meat and fish. Creatine plays a critical role in energy metabolism by helping regenerate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the primary energy currency of cells. When you perform high-intensity, short-duration activities—such as lifting weights or sprinting—your muscles rely heavily on the stored phosphocreatine to rapidly replenish ATP. This is called the “Phosphagen System”.

Supplementing with creatine monohydrate increases the creatine stores in your muscles, which enhances your capacity to produce energy during these intense efforts. This mechanism is why creatine has become one of the most researched and widely used supplements in sports nutrition.

What Does Creatine Do? The Most Supported Uses

The evidence supporting creatine supplementation is robust, particularly for increasing strength and power output during resistance training.

Numerous studies, including meta-analyses, have demonstrated that creatine supplementation, when combined with resistance training, significantly increases lean body mass and muscular strength compared to training alone. For example, a comprehensive meta-analysis by Branch (2003) concluded that creatine supplementation enhances performance in high-intensity exercise and promotes greater gains in lean tissue mass. Similarly, Rawson and Volek (2003) found that creatine supplementation improves muscle strength and power output during resistance training.

Beyond these well-established benefits, emerging research suggests that creatine may offer additional advantages in specific populations. Studies are exploring its potential role in cognitive function, neuroprotection, bone health, and even mood regulation, particularly in older adults and individuals with certain medical conditions. While these applications are promising, they require further investigation before definitive recommendations can be made.

Creatine and Weight Loss: Supporting Lean Mass Preservation

When you are in a calorie deficit to lose weight, your body is under metabolic stress. While the primary goal is fat loss, there is always a risk of losing lean muscle mass along with fat, especially if protein intake is inadequate or resistance training is not prioritized. This is where creatine can be particularly valuable.

Creatine supplementation during weight loss can help support the preservation—or even the accretion—of lean mass. By enhancing your performance in the gym, creatine allows you to maintain training intensity and volume, which are critical signals for your body to retain muscle tissue. Additionally, the increased intramuscular creatine stores may have direct effects on muscle protein synthesis and cellular hydration, both of which support muscle maintenance.

While creatine’s primary benefits during weight loss are helping you maintain exercise performance, and/or build lean mass, there has been some investigation as to whether there are mechanisms outside of these effects that can contribute to fat loss, such as increased thermogenesis, or decreases in triglyceride production (9).

The Initial Weight Gain: What to Expect

When you begin taking creatine, your muscles store more water intracellularly. Research indicates that body weight can increase by approximately 1 to 3 percent within the first few weeks of supplementation due to this water retention.

This is a normal and expected response. The water is stored within the muscle cells themselves, contributing to cell volumization, which may even support anabolic signaling. However, if you are actively trying to lose weight, this initial uptick on the scale can be disconcerting.

Here is what you need to know: creatine-induced water retention will mask some of your weight loss on the scale, but it does not stop fat loss. After about a month, your weight will stabilize, and the downward trend associated with fat loss will resume. If you are tracking progress, consider using additional metrics such as body measurements, or progress photos to get a clearer picture of your fat loss, independent of scale weight.

Studies such as those by Powers et al. (2003) and Ziegenfuss et al. (1998) have documented this transient increase in body mass with creatine supplementation, reinforcing that it is a predictable and temporary phenomenon. Meaning when you discontinue supplementation, the “water weight” will revert to baseline.

Dosing

As a general guideline, taking about 3-5 grams of creatine per day, every day, is plenty for most folks. Larger folks may require slightly larger doses daily. Avoiding the loading dose (5g 4x/day for 1 week) will help avoid the most commonly reported side-effect of creatine, GI distress. Creatine can be taken at any time of day, what matters most is consistency - meaning it should be taken every day, not just on your exercise days.

And while there are many types of creatine on the market, the most well-researched form of creatine is creatine monohydrate. It has fantastic bioavailability, and is cheap, safe, and effective.

Individualization: The Redesign Nutrition Approach

At Redesign Nutrition, we believe that supplement use should be individualized based on your unique goals, lifestyle, health status, and preferences. Creatine can be a useful tool during weight loss, but it is not a requirement for success.

Supplement companies often market their products as essential for progress, implying that without them, your results will be suboptimal. The reality is that while creatine has measurable benefits, the effect sizes are modest. The foundation of successful weight loss and body composition improvement remains consistent: a well-designed nutrition plan, regular resistance training, adequate sleep, and stress management. Supplements like creatine can enhance your efforts, but they will not make or break your progress.

If you are considering creatine during weight loss, always do a proper cost:benefit analysis, and always do your due diligence when choosing a supplement.

References

1.   Branch, J. D. (2003). Effect of creatine supplementation on body composition and performance: a meta-analysis. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 13(2), 198-226.
2.   Rawson, E. S., & Volek, J. S. (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 17(4), 822-831.
3.   Powers, M. E., Arnold, B. L., Weltman, A. L., Perrin, D. H., Mistry, D., Kahler, D. M., … & Volek, J. (2003). Creatine supplementation increases total body water without altering fluid distribution. Journal of Athletic Training, 38(1), 44-50.
4.   Ziegenfuss, T. N., Lowery, L. M., & Lemon, P. W. (1998). Acute fluid volume changes in men during three days of creatine supplementation. Journal of Exercise Physiology Online, 1(3), 1-9.
5.   Kreider, R. B., Kalman, D. S., Antonio, J., Ziegenfuss, T. N., Wildman, R., Collins, R., … & Lopez, H. L. (2017). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 14(1), 18.
6.   Forbes, S. C., Candow, D. G., Little, J. P., Magnus, C., & Chilibeck, P. D. (2007). Effect of Red Bull energy drink on repeated Wingate cycle performance and bench-press muscle endurance. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 17(5), 433-444.
7.   Parise, G., Mihic, S., MacLennan, D., Yarasheski, K. E., & Tarnopolsky, M. A. (2001). Effects of acute creatine monohydrate supplementation on leucine kinetics and mixed-muscle protein synthesis. Journal of Applied Physiology, 91(3), 1041-1047.
8.   Volek, J. S., Duncan, N. D., Mazzetti, S. A., Staron, R. S., Putukian, M., Gómez, A. L., … & Kraemer, W. J. (1999). Performance and muscle fiber adaptations to creatine supplementation and heavy resistance training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31(8), 1147-1156.
9. Forbes, S. C., Candow, D. G., Krentz, J. R., Roberts, M. D., & Young, K. C. (2019). Changes in fat mass following creatine supplementation and resistance training in adults ≥50 years of age: A meta-analysis. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 4(3), 62. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk4030062
10. Desai, I., Wewege, M. A., Jones, M. D., Clifford, B. K., Pandit, A., Kaakoush, N. O., Simar, D., & Hagstrom, A. D. (2024). The effect of creatine supplementation on resistance training–based changes to body composition: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 38(10), 1813-1821. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000004862