Creatine: the good, the bad and the bulked-up
By Martin Ebner
Updated Sept 2026
Creatine is one of the few sports supplements I can recommend without needing a twenty-minute disclaimer first. It works, it’s inexpensive and we’ve got decades of research behind it. It’s also been blamed for everything from water retention to baldness, so a useful supplement has somehow become far more confusing than it needs to be.
Here’s the sensible version. Creatine can help you perform a little better during repeated hard efforts, which can support better strength and muscle gains over time. It won’t replace training, protein, calories or sleep, and taking twice as much won’t make it work twice as well.
THE SHORT ANSWER
For most healthy adults who lift weights, sprint or do another form of repeated high-intensity exercise, creatine monohydrate is worth considering. Take 3g to 5g every day. The timing doesn’t matter much, and you don’t need to cycle it.
A loading phase is optional. Taking 20g a day, split into four 5g servings for five to seven days, fills your muscle stores more quickly. Taking 3g to 5g a day gets you to much the same place in roughly three to four weeks, with less chance of an unsettled stomach.
You may gain some scale weight during the first week, particularly if you load. That’s mainly water held inside the muscle, not body fat.
WHAT CREATINE ACTUALLY DOES
Creatine isn’t an amino acid. It’s a compound your body makes from the amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine, and you also get a smaller amount from foods such as meat and fish.
Most of your creatine is stored in skeletal muscle, where some of it becomes phosphocreatine. During short, hard efforts, phosphocreatine helps your body restore adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, which is the immediate energy used by your cells. That matters when you’re trying to squeeze out another rep, repeat a sprint or maintain power across several hard sets.
Creatine doesn’t directly build muscle while you sit on the sofa. It may let you perform slightly more high-quality work and recover that immediate energy system more effectively between efforts. Add that advantage up across weeks and months of a decent training program and it can contribute to better results. The International Society of Sports Nutrition’s position stand covers the mechanism, performance evidence and established dosing in detail.
WHAT BENEFITS CAN YOU EXPECT?
The clearest benefits are improved strength, power and performance during repeated high-intensity exercise. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis found that creatine combined with resistance training produced greater upper-body and lower-body strength gains than training with a placebo.
There’s also a useful effect on body composition, although it’s easy to oversell. Another 2024 meta-analysis found that adults under 50 who combined creatine with resistance training gained about 1.14kg more lean body mass than those who trained without it. Lean body mass includes water, so that number shouldn’t be read as 1.14kg of brand-new muscle.
You still have to give the supplement something to work with. If your training lacks progression, your diet doesn’t support your goal or you’re sleeping five hours a night, creatine won’t ride in and save the day. My guide to building more muscle covers the things that matter before any supplement does.
HOW MUCH CREATINE SHOULD YOU TAKE?
Take 3g to 5g of creatine monohydrate every day. Three grams is enough for many people, while larger people may prefer the top end of that range. There’s rarely a reason for an ordinary gym-goer to keep taking 10g or more once their stores are full.
Take it whenever you’re most likely to remember it. With breakfast, in a shake or after training are all fine. Consistency matters more than whether it reaches your stomach within a magical post-workout window.
If it upsets your stomach, take it with a meal, use a smaller serving or split the dose. It also helps to dissolve it properly instead of tipping a dry pile of powder into your mouth and hoping for the best.
DO YOU NEED A LOADING PHASE?
No. Loading gets creatine into your muscles faster, but it isn’t required for the supplement to work.
If you want the quicker route, take 20g a day for five to seven days, divided into four 5g servings, then move to 3g to 5g a day. If you’re in no hurry, start with 3g to 5g and stay there. You’ll avoid the faff and may reduce the chance of bloating or stomach trouble.
You don’t need to cycle on and off creatine either. Your muscles won’t forget how to make it, and a planned break doesn’t make the next tub more effective.
DOES CREATINE CAUSE WATER RETENTION?
It can increase water weight, especially during a loading phase. Much of that water is drawn into the muscle cell, which is rather different from randomly becoming puffy all over. Some people notice the scale rise quickly, some barely notice it at all.
Creatine can’t make you gain body fat unless the rest of your diet puts you into a calorie surplus. It contains very little usable energy and doesn’t suspend the normal rules of energy balance.
The idea that creatine automatically causes dehydration or muscle cramps hasn’t held up well either. Drink according to your needs, training conditions and climate, as you should whether you use creatine or not. You don’t need to turn hydration into a competitive sport.
IS CREATINE SAFE FOR YOUR KIDNEYS?
For healthy adults using established doses, the evidence doesn’t show that creatine damages kidney function. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that supplementation could cause a small rise in serum creatinine without a significant reduction in measured kidney function. Creatinine is a breakdown product of creatine, so the blood marker can shift without meaning that the kidney itself has been harmed.
That distinction matters if you have blood tests. Tell the clinician interpreting your results that you take creatine rather than leaving them to solve the mystery.
If you have kidney disease, you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you take medication that affects kidney function or you have another relevant medical condition, speak to an appropriately qualified clinician before using it. Evidence from healthy gym-goers isn’t a blank cheque for every person and every situation.
WHAT ARE THE OTHER SIDE EFFECTS?
The most common problems are fairly boring: a little extra scale weight, bloating or an upset stomach. They’re more likely when somebody takes a large dose in one go. Reducing the serving, splitting it across the day or skipping the loading phase will often sort that out.
Creatine doesn’t behave like a stimulant, so it shouldn’t make you jittery or keep you awake. It also isn’t a steroid, a hormone or a testosterone booster. It simply supports a natural energy system that already exists in your body.
DOES CREATINE CAUSE HAIR LOSS?
We don’t have good evidence that creatine causes hair loss. The concern largely came from one small study that found a change in dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, after a loading phase. It didn’t measure hair loss, and the finding hasn’t established that creatine makes people go bald.
That isn’t the same as proving it could never affect anybody. It means the dramatic certainty you see online isn’t supported by the evidence we currently have. If hair loss is a particular concern for you, you can decide the modest training benefit isn’t worth worrying about. Creatine is useful, not compulsory.
WHICH TYPE OF CREATINE IS BEST?
Buy creatine monohydrate. It’s the form used in the overwhelming majority of the useful research, and more elaborate versions haven’t shown a consistent advantage that justifies the extra cost.
Look for a plain product from a reputable company with independent testing. Powder is usually the cheapest option. Capsules and gummies can work too, but check how many you need to reach the actual dose before paying for what may be a very expensive sweetie.
Creatine sits at the top of my list of bulking supplements that are genuinely useful. It earns that place because the evidence is good, not because everybody who owns a gym bag needs a cupboard full of powders.
WHAT IF YOU DON’T EAT MEAT?
People who eat little or no meat and fish often have lower muscle creatine stores. That can leave more room for supplementation to make a difference, although it doesn’t guarantee a dramatic response. A controlled study of vegetarians and non-vegetarians found lower starting stores in the vegetarian group and a greater increase after supplementation.
Creatine monohydrate itself is generally suitable for vegans, but check the full product and capsule ingredients. If you’re building muscle without animal products, my guide to building muscle on a vegan diet covers the bigger dietary picture.
WHAT ABOUT BRAIN HEALTH?
Your brain uses ATP too, which is why creatine has attracted interest beyond the gym. Some research suggests a possible benefit for memory and certain measures of attention or processing speed, but the findings aren’t consistent across every outcome or population. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis called the evidence for memory moderate and the evidence for several other cognitive outcomes low certainty.
Interesting? Definitely. A reason to sell creatine as a cure for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease or a foggy Tuesday afternoon? Absolutely not.
CREATINE ISN’T A PRE-WORKOUT
Creatine works through regular use and gradually fuller muscle stores. You won’t feel a sudden rush when you take it before training, and that’s not a sign that it has stopped working.
If you want more focus and energy before a session, that’s a separate job. Pre Lab Pro is the lower-caffeine pre-workout option I’d consider, but it doesn’t replace creatine, food or sleep. They solve different problems.
SO, IS CREATINE WORTH TAKING?
Creatine monohydrate is effective, well researched and refreshingly uncomplicated. Take 3g to 5g a day, skip loading unless you want faster saturation and don’t spend extra money on a supposedly advanced form without a very good reason.
Expect a modest advantage, not a transformation. It can help you get a little more from good training, and good training repeated for long enough is where the real result still comes from.
If you want fitness advice that still makes sense after the supplement tub is empty, join Check It Oot. It’s one or two emails a month from me, with the useful bit left in and the theatre taken out.
