Last Updated on November 7, 2022 by
Creatine is a supplement that you can use to help you gain muscle mass. It does this by increasing the amount of energy available for your muscle cells to use. This results in bigger, stronger muscles and can also help to improve strength, power and endurance during workouts
Creatine is a powerful, natural substance found in the body and in foods. It helps supply your muscles with ATP, the fuel that allows you to exercise and do more work. Because more creatine equals more energy, your body will perform better. More performance means you can lift heavier weight, sprint faster and go longer in workout sessions. Want to know Is Creatine For Weight Gain, make sure you read this article.
Is Creatine For Weight Gain

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What is creatine?
Creatine is an amino acid that provides energy to your cells and helps build muscle mass. For this reason, some people take oral creatine to enhance their athletic performance and transform their body.
Along with increasing muscle size, however, creatine can also cause unwanted weight gain, which some people mistake as fat.
Before taking creatine supplements, it’s important understand the type of weight gain you may experience, as well as what you can do to reverse unwanted weight.
Can creatine make you gain weight?

Some people are concerned that oral creatine will make them fat. Maybe you’ve heard others complain of looking plump or swollen shortly after starting the supplement.
It’s true that creatine can cause some weight gain, but the weight gain may not be due to fat. There are other reason the number on the scale may have gone up.
1. Water weight
Water weight is a type of weight gain that can occur with creatine. Also known as fluid retention, creatine can cause rapid water weight because the supplement draws water into your muscles’ cells.
Your muscles will hold onto this water, resulting in bloating or puffiness around your arms, legs, or stomach. Your muscles may even appear bigger, even if you’ve just begun your training.
In the first week of taking oral creatine, some people gain about 2 to 4.5 poundsTrusted Source, mainly due to water retention.
2. Muscle mass
Despite causing some water weight gain, research has found that creatine can be an effective supplement for increasing endurance and strength. Over time, you may see an increase in your muscle strength and size.
Increased muscle mass will also tip the scale upward. As your muscles become bigger, water weight becomes less noticeable, and you’ll appear less swollen.
3. Non-muscle weight gain
You may also be concerned about non-muscle weight gain, namely fat. But despite a seemingly rapid increase in weight, creatine will not make you fat.
You have to consume more calories than you expend to gain fat. One scoop of creatine per day (about 5 grams) doesn’t have any calories, or at the very least, only a few calories. If you stay active and eat a healthy diet, you’re not likely to put on fat while using oral creatine.
What to do if you gain weight after taking creatine?
Water weight gain with creatine may be temporary. Even so, here are a few tips to reduce fluid retention:
- Increase your water intake. Drinking water stimulates urination, which helps remove excess water from your body.
- Reduce your sodium intake. Too much sodium causes your body to retain fluid. Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, and limit processed foods and fast food. Keep your sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams per day.
- Reduce your carbohydrate intake. You need carbs for energy, yet carbs also cause your body to hold onto water, so don’t overdo it. Limit your carbohydrate intake to between 225 and 325 grams per day.
- Be patient. Exercise can reduce water retention. The more you work out and train your body, the less water you’ll retain.
How does creatine work?

Creatine helps your muscles use energy. It’s naturally produced by the liver, kidneys, and pancreas, but you can also get creatine from seafood and red meat.
If you take oral creatine, it binds with a phosphate molecule to form creatine phosphate (phosphocreatine), which provides your body with rapid energy for high-intensity performances.
Creatine phosphate helps you produce more adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a neurotransmitter that is your body’s primary source of energy.
Weight training and exercise require a lot of energy. Although your body produces creatine naturally, you may have a low reserve of natural creatine in your muscles.
Supplementation, however, helps increase the availability of ATP, providing your body with extra energy, strength, and endurance.
Why take creatine?

Many people take creatine to build strength, increase endurance, enhance their athletic performance, and build lean muscle mass. But it can be taken for other reasons, too.
Oral creatine may help improveTrusted Source brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy. More studiesTrusted Source are needed, as most research has been on animal models.
Additionally, it can help improve some muscular disorders. In a 2013 review of studies, researchers found that people living with muscular dystrophy had increased muscle strength after taking creatine supplements.
A 2012 studyTrusted Source suggested that creatine may improve symptoms of major depression in women, too. Fifty-two women received 5 grams of creatine a day over an 8-week period.
Researchers found that the women who received creatine had improvements in their symptoms in as little as two weeks, with symptoms continuing to improve eight weeks later.
Are there other risks of taking creatine?
For the most part, creatine is safe and causes few adverse side effects. There are, however, concerns over the possibility of creatine causing liver, kidney, or heart damage in high doses.
If you have liver, kidney, or heart problems, consult your doctor to see if creatine is right for you.
Some minor side effects of creatine include muscle cramps, nausea, diarrhea, heat intolerance, and dizziness. Stop taking oral creatine if adverse side effects worsen or don’t improve.
Also, talk to your doctor if you have bipolar disorder. It is believed that creatine may increase maniaTrusted Source in people with this condition. You should also consult a doctor if you take medications to avoid possible drug interactions.
Creatine can boost your energy stores and increase your athletic performance, but it may cause some water weight gain.
Fluid retention might be temporary, or it might continue for as long as you use creatine. However, it may become less noticeable as you build lean muscle mass.
Creatine Facts and Myths
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Even if you’re not a weight lifter, you’ve undoubtedly heard of creatine, one of the most researched supplements in history.
It’s a combination of amino acids produced by the liver, kidney, and pancreas. Creatine is not a steroid—it’s naturally found in muscle and in red meat and fish, though at far lower levels than in the powder form sold on bodybuilding websites and at your local GNC.
How does it work? Creatine reduces fatigue by transporting extra energy into your cells, says Ari Levy, M.D., who works with patients at the Program for Personalized Health and Prevention at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, is the compound your body uses for energy. For a muscle to contract, it breaks off a phosphate molecule from ATP. As a result, ATP becomes ADP (adenosine diphosphate). The problem: You can’t use ADP for energy, and your body only has so much stored ATP. The fix: ADP takes a phosphate molecule from your body’s stores of creatine phosphate, forming more ATP.
If you have more creatine phosphate—which you do if you take a creatine supplement—you can work out longer and do sets of, say, eight reps instead of six. Over weeks and months, that added workload allows you to add lean muscle mass, lift heavier weights, and become stronger. (Want the perfect workout to build muscle and torch fat? Check out the new 8-DVD metabolic training series from Men’s Health Speed Shred.)
But should you worry about side effects? Does creatine cause you to lose weight when you stop it, or does it hurt your kidneys, like you may have heard? Here are the key myths and facts you need to know.
Creatine is similar to anabolic steroids. Myth. Steroids mimic testosterone and are banned in the Olympics and in professional sports. By contrast, the International Olympic Committee, professional sports leagues, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association do not prohibit creatine. (The NCAA won’t let colleges give it to athletes, though.)
Creatine can help you build muscle mass without hitting the gym. Myth. It shows some improvement in kids with muscular dystrophy, even if they’re not exercising, says Mark Tarnopolsky, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and medicine and director of the neuromuscular and neurometabolic clinic at McMaster University Medical Center in Ontario. “[But] the best effect in healthy humans is seen when creatine is combined with resistance exercise training.”
Creatine causes gastrointestinal upset. True—but it’s rare. Tarnopolsky says his studies show 5 to 7 percent of people experience either stomach aches, diarrhea, or both. (More seriously, we spoke to expert Lou Schuler about whether Creatine Will Make You Crazy.)
Creatine will help you run a faster 5K. Myth. Creatine helps athletes with more fast-twitch muscle fibers (used to swing a baseball bat) more than athletes with more slow-twitch ones (used by marathon runners). “If you’re an endurance athlete, if you’re not doing something that involves the fast-twitch muscle fibers, you don’t need to be on creatine,” says orthopedic surgeon Tony Wanich, M.D., a sports medicine specialist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
If you do want to run a faster 5K, use this plan from Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S. You’ll run only three days a week, but finish faster than ever before!
Creatine causes weight gain. Fact. (But that’s kind of the point.) It pulls H2O into your muscles, which causes water-weight gain and makes muscles look bigger initially. (You don’t actually gain muscle fibers until you work out.) “Creatine is a molecule that has a very strong attraction for water,” says Gordon Purser, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at the University of Tulsa who studies creatine and has used it himself for the past decade. No two people will have the same results. “Weight gain of about 0.8 to 2.9 percent of body weight in the first few days of creatine supplementation occurs in about two-thirds of users,” says Christine Rosenbloom, Ph.D., R.D., sports dietitian for Georgia State University Athletics and editor in chief of Sports Nutrition: A Practice Manual for Professionals. What can you expect after the water weight gain? In a study of 20-year-olds taking creatine and doing weight training, Tarnopolsky found some gained two pounds of muscle but one even gained 17 pounds of it—with the same amount of supplement and the same training.
Creatine doesn’t work well for everyone. True. “One major factor with creatine is that some people have high levels in muscle naturally,” says Tarnopolsky. Meat and fish eaters are less likely to respond than vegans, who have low levels in their diet. Your muscle makeup matters, too. Most people have about 50 percent fast-twitch fibers (responsible for sprinting and jumping) and 50 percent slow-twitch fibers (responsible for endurance exercise), says Peter Adhihetty, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of applied physiology and kinesiology at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Those guys should respond well. But people with 70 percent fast-twitch and 30 percent slow-twitch muscle will see even more results, he says.
Creatine makes you look softer. True. There’s a reason bodybuilders stop using creatine a month or so before a competition. “As the creatine hydrates itself, it causes water to flow into the muscle. That extra water may increase the volume of the muscles, but it also makes them look mushy rather than defined,” says Purser. Your move: Take it during the fall, winter, and spring to build muscle. Go off it during the summer to show off your beach abs.
Creatine users will lose muscle when they stop taking the supplement. Myth. Your muscles may look smaller because creatine adds water volume. “The real question is, ‘Will you maintain your strength and muscle mass, dry muscle mass, when you discontinue the use of creatine?’ ” says Purser. “The answer to that is absolutely yes. Once you have built the muscle, as long as you continue to lift, you will maintain it.”
You shouldn’t take too much creatine. Fact. “It is illogical to take more than 20 grams a day for a week max or seven grams a day for months,” says Tarnopolsky. “[There is] no evidence that this would do anything more in terms of loading the muscle, so why on earth would someone waste money and time and effort for unknown risks and zippo added benefit. Anything in the world—sugar, coffee, fat, protein, salt—taken in excess can lead to health issues.”
So, you want to take creatine? Here’s how.
You’ll see a bunch of different forms of creatine on your supplement store’s shelves. The one you want is creatine monohydrate. “Creatine monohydrate is the exact compound that more than 95 percent of the studies used, so why take a chance on another compound from a safety and effectiveness perspective?” Tarnopolsky says.
The first week you go on creatine, some experts recommend a “loading phase” of 20 grams a day for five to seven days. Afterward, go to 5 grams per day.
The fine print: See your doctor first if you have high blood pressure or diabetes, if you regularly take any prescription meds or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen (which can tax the kidneys), if you’re over age 40 (since kidney function slowly declines after age 30), or if you have a history of kidney or liver disease.