The Quick Take

Creatine reliably boosts strength, power, and training volume (and may even help with cognition in specific situations). The best-supported, best-value form is creatine monohydrate at 3–5 g daily. Those fancy "new" forms rarely work better—they just cost more.

What Is Creatine?

Creatine is a compound your body naturally makes in your liver and kidneys, and you also get it from eating meat and fish. It's stored mostly as phosphocreatine in your muscles (with some in your brain), where it helps rapidly regenerate ATP—your body's "instant energy" currency for heavy lifts, sprints, and quick bursts of neural activity.

How Does It Work?

Think of phosphocreatine as a quick-charge battery. During intense efforts, it donates a phosphate group to rebuild ATP, letting you sustain peak output longer, squeeze out extra reps, and recover faster between high-intensity bouts.

What Does the Science Say?

Strong Evidence

Strength, power, and training volume: Multiple randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses show increases in lean mass when combined with resistance training.

Muscle function in older adults: Benefits are clear when creatine is paired with resistance training.

Promising but Mixed Results

Cognition (memory and attention): Shows benefits in sleep-deprived individuals and people with low dietary creatine intake, particularly vegetarians and vegans.

Limited or Context-Dependent

Pure endurance performance: Benefits in trained endurance athletes are task-specific rather than universal.

Who Actually Benefits?

Great Fit If You're:

• A lifter, sprinter, or team-sport athlete

• Vegetarian or vegan (you have lower baseline stores)

• A masters athlete doing resistance training

• Chasing small but reliable performance gains

Lower Priority If You're:

• Focused solely on endurance training

• An omnivore already eating large amounts of red meat and fish daily

What Results Can You Expect?

Performance: Roughly 1–3% strength improvements, more reps at a given load

Body composition: About 1–2 kg lean mass gain over 8–12 weeks (with proper training and adequate protein)

Cognitive effects: Modest, most evident during sleep deprivation or if you follow a low-creatine diet

Timeline: Effects build up as your muscles saturate over 2–4 weeks

Understanding Different Forms: What's Real vs. Marketing

✅ Best Choice

Creatine Monohydrate The gold standard used in the vast majority of positive research. Stable, effective, and inexpensive. No other form is consistently superior.

😐 Potentially Useful but Not Better

Creatine Citrate, Malate, Nitrate Sometimes dissolve better in water, but show no better outcomes than monohydrate when matched for actual creatine content.

Creatine HCl More soluble and may suit people with digestive sensitivity, but there's no proven performance advantage. Usually costs more.

⛔ Mostly Hype

Buffered Creatine Research shows no advantage over creatine monohydrate for absorption or performance.

Creatine Ethyl Ester (CEE) Degrades faster into creatinine (a waste product). Actually inferior for raising muscle creatine levels.

Bottom line: If you want evidence and value, choose creatine monohydrate.

Dosing and Timing

Option A: Loading Phase (Faster Saturation)

20 g daily split into 4 doses of 5 g each for 5–7 days, then maintain at 3–5 g daily.

Option B: No Loading Phase (Easier on Your System)

Simply take 3–5 g daily. You'll reach saturation in about 3–4 weeks.

Timing Considerations

Not critical overall: You don't need to stress about precise timing.

Slight advantage: Taking creatine with a carb and protein meal (like post-workout) can slightly improve retention and reduce digestive discomfort.

Individual adjustments: Vegetarians and vegans often respond more noticeably due to lower baseline stores. If you're sensitive to digestive issues, split your daily dose (for example, 2–3 g in the morning and 2–3 g in the evening).

Safety and Side Effects

Creatine is well-studied and safe for healthy adults at 3–5 g daily, even when taken for years.

Common effect: Small water retention in muscle tissue (not subcutaneous "bloat" that makes you look puffy).

Occasional issue: Mild digestive discomfort if you take too much at once or dry-scoop it.

Important note: Talk to your doctor if you have kidney disease or take medications that can affect kidney function.

What to Look for When Buying

✓ Label clearly states "Creatine Monohydrate" (micronized versions mix more easily)

✓ Serving size of 3–5 g

✓ Third-party testing (especially important if you're a tested athlete)

✓ Skip the extras: Buffered formulations, esters, and fancy add-ons cost more without delivering better results

The Final Word

Creatine is one of the rare supplements that's consistently effective, inexpensive, and safe. If you train for strength, power, or repeated high-intensity efforts, creatine monohydrate at 3–5 g daily is as close to a sure thing as supplementation gets.

References

Research supporting this guide includes the International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand on creatine published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition—a comprehensive consensus on efficacy, dosing, safety, and target populations; multiple meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials on strength, hypertrophy, and training adaptations showing small-to-moderate improvements with creatine monohydrate; systematic reviews and meta-analyses examining creatine's cognitive effects in sleep-deprived individuals and vegetarian cohorts; randomized studies comparing buffered versus monohydrate formulations showing no superiority of "alkalyn" products; and reviews on creatine's role alongside resistance training for improving strength and function in older adults.