Jeremy Ethier breaks down creatine supplementation: how it boosts ATP for strength, why some people respond better than others, and that monohydrate is the best value. Taking it with carbs increases muscle uptake. Loading speeds results but doesn't change long-term gains, and timing barely matters.
Questions this video answers
≈0.3 g/kg/day (often ~20 g/day) for 5–7 days.
3–5 g/day (3 g may suffice; 5 g to be safe).
Taking creatine with ~93 g carbohydrates, or ~47 g carbohydrates plus ~50 g protein, increased muscle creatine uptake (~60% more) versus creatine with water.
≈3 g/day of beta-alanine.
Polyethylene-glycosylated creatine showed similar strength effects while requiring ~75% less creatine versus creatine monohydrate in one study.
Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jeremy here, and today we're going to be talking about creatine. And throughout the video, we're going to be going through the six most important things that you need to know when it comes to taking creatine most effectively. So let's first take a look at what exactly creatine does.
So for those of you that may not know, ATP is a molecule in our body that is the main form of energy for our muscles. It's what our muscles use for energy whenever we exercise. So when we lift weights and we start contracting our muscles, we use up this ATP for energy and eventually we deplete our ATP storage to the point where we fatigue. And this is part of what prevents us from performing more reps after we reach our point of exhaustion. This is where creatine comes in. So creatine is already found in our body and it's responsible for regenerating ATP to maintain our ATP stores. And when we supplement with creatine, we enhance our ability to regenerate ATP. And this allows our ATP store to be better maintained during short term intense exercise and ultimately allows us to perform that extra repertoire when we're lifting weights, which leads to greater strength improvements in the long run.
You should also keep in mind that.
There are responders and non responders to creatine.
So for some people it works great, and for others it doesn't work at all.
One study actually indicated that responders typically.
Had a high percentage of type 2.
Muscle fibers and a low initial muscle creatine content. On the other hand, non responders had.
A lower percentage of type 2 muscle.
Fibers and a higher initial muscle creatine.
Content, implicating that there is an upper.
Limit with regards to creatine and its effects, since further increasing creatine content was not beneficial for non responders.
So the first thing we're going to take a look at is what type of creatine should you get? And this is probably the most common question that I get asked about creatine. Now, there are a variety of different types of creatine. There's creatine citrate, creatine ester, etc.
Etc.
However, most studies actually show that creatine monohydrate is able to raise muscle creatine levels as much or even more than the other forms of creatine. So we can conclude that the other forms of creatine are basically just marketing gimmicks to get you to spend more money. However, one study of interest actually showed that Polyethylene glycosylated creatine was actually able to have the same effect on strength as creatine monohydrate. But you only needed to take 75% less creatine than that with creatine monohydrate, which indicates that this molecule may be better absorbed by the body. So, but more research needs to be done in order to come up with a definite answer. So the next thing we're going to talk about is what should you take a creatine with? And this is another really common question that I get asked. Many studies have shown that taking creatine with 93 grams of carbohydrates or with an equivalent of 47 grams of carbohydrates and 50 grams of protein were able to raise muscle creatine levels by 60% more than if you were to just take creatine with water. And this 60% increase in muscle creatine levels actually led to a slight improvement in muscle hypertrophy and one rep max strength.
Also, research towards ingesting creatine with carbs and protein seems more promising than carbohydrates alone. So I think the best and most convenient option is to take your creatine with a post workout meal as this will likely provide close to the 47 grams of carbs and 50 grams of protein suggested within studies to provide a more enhanced absorption. Another option is to take creatine with your post workout shake, especially if you use milk as this will likely provide a decent level of carbs and protein and will likely enhance its absorption as opposed to taking it with just water.
And this brings me to my next point which is when should you take your creatine? So the short answer is it doesn't really matter because creatine doesn't have an immediate effect. It can take up to a few weeks, even longer than that to have an effect on your body. But like I said before, if you tend to have a big post workout shake or a big post workout meal, then I would suggest taking it with that. One study that I found actually compared taking creatine pre workout versus post workout, they found that taking a post workout actually led to a slight improvement in strength and body composition compared to taking a pre workout. So we can conclude based on the founders of this study that taking it post workout may be slightly more beneficial than taking a pre workout. So the next point I want to cover is what protocol should you use to take your creatine? You basically have three options when it comes to taking your creatine you can use the loading phase, you can do no loading phase, or you can cycle your creatine. So I'm going to be going through the differences of each protocol and the benefits of each as well.
So loading requires you to ingest around 0.3 grams of creatine per kilogram of your body weight per day, and this often comes out to around 20 grams per day. So we do this for five to seven days, and then you ingest three to five grams per day after that, or if three grams is likely sufficient enough to maintain the elevated creatine stores. But you can always do 5 grams per day to be safe. And on the other hand, doing it with no loading phase involves just taking 3 to 5 grams of creatine every day right from the start. And research shows that the two methods are equally effective in raising muscle creatine levels. But the loading protocol is able to provide faster initial effects than without a loading phase.
And on the other hand, cycling protocols do not appear to be more effective than the other two protocols. So really, it's up to you whether you want to do the loading or non loading protocol. And in the long run, it doesn't make a difference. So the next point I'm going to go through very briefly and it's how long should you take creatine for? And the question I most often get asked is, should you take creatine when you're bulking or when you're cutting? And personally, what I suggest is if you're a responder and it's helping out with your strength, then there's no real reason to stop taking it, regardless of whether you're bulking or cutting. However, some people do claim that they get bloated when they take creatine. So when you're cutting and you want to look as lean as possible, then this may be a reason why you shouldn't take creatine when you're cutting, otherwise I would just continue taking it. Now, the last point I want to go through is should you stack creatine with any other supplement? And basically this means should you take creatine with another supplement? And recent studies have shown that taking beta alanine with creatine appears to create a synergistic effect. One study I looked at actually found that taking creatine and beta alanine together led to better improvements in strength and changes in lean body mass compared to just taking creatine alone or a placebo. So you can implement this by just adding 3 grams of beta alanine to your daily creatine intake. So to sum up the video use creatine monohydrate. Have it with your post workout shake or your post workout meal. Use the loading phase protocol if you'd like to see faster initial effects and if not just use the non loading phase protocol as these will both provide the same long term effects.
Take it regardless of if you're bulking.
Or cutting if you're responding to it. And finally you can take creatine with 3 grams of beta alanine which may provide enhanced benefits. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you guys enjoyed the video and found it useful. I just want to say that moving forward with my channel I really want to make an effort to clear up a lot of the BS that's currently in the fitness industry. I'm going to continue making videos that are backed by scientific research. So please help me out and like and comment on the video and don't forget to subscribe. See you next time.
