In this video JJ Virgin explains why creatine, a supplement often associated with male bodybuilders, is especially important for women, particularly those over 40 or in perimenopause/menopause. She outlines the body’s natural creatine stores, how dietary intake (especially from raw meat) is insufficient for most women, and why plant‑based diets further limit creatine availability. Virgin debunks common myths—bloating, kidney damage, and bulkiness—by contrasting creatine monohydrate (poorly absorbed, 15% uptake, high bloating incidence) with creatine HCl (seven‑times better absorption, allowing micro‑dosing of ~750 mg). She details the wide‑ranging benefits for women: enhanced muscle strength and recovery, indirect fat‑loss via increased muscle mass and metabolic rate, improved bone density through heavier lifting, and brain health advantages (cognition, mood, reduced depression, potential neuro‑protection). She cites research showing creatine’s synergy with SSRIs and its role in mitigating age‑related cognitive decline. The practical dosing protocol she recommends is a foundational 750 mg of creatine HCl daily (combined with magnesium glycinate and taurine), with additional doses on heavy training days, high stress, poor sleep, or during jet‑lag adjustments. She emphasizes daily use for vegans/vegetarians, who lack dietary creatine. The video concludes with a call for viewers to share personal results and directs them to a step‑by‑step guide in the description.
Chapters
Today we are diving into the game-changing supplement creatine. It is not just for gym bros. Women need it actually more than men. And I'm going to bust some myths that still seem to be out there and then tell you exactly how to use it. First, let's talk about what creatine is. And here's the reality. We have about 120 grams of creatine in our body at any one time. We make a little bit each day, about a gram from methionine, arginine, and glycine. And then we need to get another gram or more from our diet. Here's where things get wonky for us. So in order to get that gram or more, you need to eat at least a pound of rare or raw meat or fish. You doing that every day? I know I'm not. So then if you're not eating it raw or rare, then you need to eat 2 pounds or more because some creatine is denatured with cooking of meat or fish. So likely you're not getting that because the average woman's not even getting enough protein in their diet, much less protein from meat and fish. So that's the first thing. Second thing, and the reason why this is such an issue for women, we store 95% of our creatine in our muscles, and we have less muscle mass than men, duh, and 5% in our brain. Just by that nature, we have about 70 to 80% less tissue stores of creatine than men. Creatine is important here because it's basically like your body's battery pack. It creates your energy currency, ATP. So if you are low in energy, I can pretty much promise you, you are low in creatine. Oh, and by the way, if you're plant-based, especially if you're totally plant-based vegan, you are definitely low in creatine because creatine is found in muscle meat of animals. So while you can make that little bit from arginine glycine and methionine, unless you are actively taking it or eating animal protein, you are not going to get what you need. So here's the reality with women. Again, we have less tissue stores of it than men, but also we have more of a demand of it because both cycling and perimenopause and menopause can create more of a demand for creatine. And here's some really cool information about creatine. When you look at some of the biggest things that challenge women, especially women in perimenopause, we start to lose our strength and muscle as estrogen goes down. Creatine helps you build muscle and helps you recover more. We start to lower our brain function. In fact, we know Women are way more at risk for dementia than men are. Creatine can help potentially not have that happen to you, and it can help with bone density too. In fact, there was research study on women with creatine, and they found that women who took creatine had lower rates of depression than women who didn't. If they were— these were women who were diagnosed with depression on SSRIs. The women who were taking additional creatine with it responded better, had less depression. You know, it's interesting, I love supplements, and, and I've recommended a bunch of different things over the years, and I usually get really great response. And so I started recommending creatine monohydrate a couple years ago as I was digging into the research. I'm like, oh, every woman needs to be on this. First it was like every woman 40 plus. And then I was like, no, this is every woman. Where was this all my life? And I got more blowback than I've ever gotten from any supplement. Women complaining about feeling bloated, about feeling gassy, about gaining weight. And I was like, just, just power through it. Well, you know what? Women don't power through gaining weight, do we? Turns out I found some research that is going to be published showing that 76% of people who go on creatine monohydrate struggle with bloating and gas. 76% of people. Now, I say monohydrate because creatine is what you're looking for, and then there's different carriers to get it into the cells. It turns out that creatine monohydrate is not such a great carrier. It is the most studied form of creatine. It's been around the longest. But hey, do you still use an iPhone 1.0? I don't think so. It'd be like saying, I'm gonna use a rotary phone. It's been around the longest. So creatine monohydrates only absorb about 15%. The research studies they've done, they extrapolate from a very small amount of creatine and said, oh, it's completely absorbed. It's not. When you really start to dig into the studies, you find it's poorly absorbed and causing all those side effects. So I started looking around for a better creatine because I knew we needed to be on it. You look at all of the benefits of creatine and they are extensive, especially important for women. We need to be able to be on it, but I also know that women are not going to take things that make them feel bloated. I know I'm not. It turns out there's a form of creatine called creatine HCL that is absorbed 7 times better than creatine monohydrate. So basically gives you all the benefits without any of the bloat. And that is why I doubled down on that one. And I've been amazed with this because I've tested on myself taking higher and higher doses of this. No issues whatsoever. But you don't have to take high doses. You can basically microdose this compared to creatine monohydrate because it's so well absorbed, you don't need that much. And I want you just to think of this math equation. If we have about 120 grams of creatine in our body, if we get about a gram a day that we make from arginine, methionine, and glycine, why then would we ever need to take 5 grams or more of creatine monohydrate? And that's what the recommendation is. Look at the dosing. The reason is, is because it's poorly absorbed. I want you taking creatine HCL because you only need to take 750 milligrams. Why do you need so little? Because it's absorbed very well. So one of the big questions obviously is, can creatine help with fat loss? Indirectly. Creatine's not a fat burner. In fact, there are very few things out there that are fat burners, but creatine will help you burn fat. And here's how. What creatine is going to do is help you work out harder. Well, what happens if you work out harder? It also helps you recover better too. And if you can recover better, guess what you can do next time you work out? You can work out harder. Well, when you work out harder, you can spend more calories, but you can more importantly put on more muscle. When you can put on more muscle, muscle is going to help you become more metabolically flexible, insulin sensitive, and burn more fat. Muscle is going to make you have a better resting metabolic rate, burn more calories at rest. But also, when you have more muscle, it's going to help you burn more fat because you're now more insulin sensitive. So creatine helps you build muscle, and muscle helps you burn fat. I think one of the scariest things that women face is osteopenia and osteoporosis. And when you look at how do we really offset that, one of the big things that you can do is lift heavy. Creatine helps you lift heavy, and so when you can lift heavy, you put the stress on your bones. So creatine helps with bone mass because creatine helps you work out harder. Some of the greatest things that creatine does for us postmenopausally have to do with brain health. Creatine's currently being studied for neurodegenerative disease, dementia, mood, brain fog. And when you think about it, some of the biggest things that happen as we go through menopause is we just get forgetful and brain foggy. And creatine can get that energy into the brain because 5% of creatine is in the brain, and the brain actually uses about 20% of your overall creatine. So creatine can help you cut through all of that fog and feel more energized and focused. I remember back in the day I used to workout at Gold's Gym in Venice. I was one of the first personal trainers down there. And I liked to go down there because I was petite amongst both the women and the men because they were all so big and they were all on steroids and they were all taking creatine. So I remember back then going, I'm never taking that. That makes you big. That was not what was making people big. What was making people big were the steroids they were taking, right? Creatine does not make you bulky. Creatine helps you work out harder so that you can build muscle, and muscle is your metabolic Spanx. It holds everything in tighter, so then boosts your metabolism as well. So the reality is creatine doesn't, doesn't make you bulky because resistance training doesn't make you bulky. What makes you bulky is sitting on the couch and eating too much. So it's interesting, just like there's a myth about protein and kidney health, there's a similar myth about creatine and kidney health. Here's the reality with creatine. If you take more creatine than your body can process, you will see the byproduct of it, creatinine. If creatinine is elevated and everything else looks normal, it's not an issue anyway, but you probably won't even see that happen. Creatine is not bad for your kidneys, nor, by the way, is protein. It's if you have active kidney problems, you might need to worry about protein. So creatine does nothing bad for your kidneys. So here's the best thing for you to do for creatine. Number one, you want to take a foundational dose each day. So I put together creatine HCL. Plus magnesium glycinate and taurine. And I have it in capsules or powder, and I want you to take a 750mg dose a day as your foundational dose. Do that every day. Then if you're working out hard, if you're under a lot of stress, or you didn't sleep well, add another dose. And if you're really working on time zone adjusting, I'd say even try pushing a third dose if you need it. And if you're going to do time zone adjusting, start a day or two before and then take it for a couple extra days. So generally it's 1 dose a day, 2 if you're working out hard or under stress. So for most of us, it's probably 2 doses a day. Now, if you're vegan or vegetarian, plant-based, creatine's got to be on your radar. It's got to be on your kitchen counter. You've got to be taking it every single day because you are not going to get what you need from your diet. So here's what I'm hearing from people around, is they're adding creatine into their workout. One girlfriend of mine said, okay, after the first week of taking, my personal trainer's like, what the heck have you done? Another gal saw her swimming times get cut down. And I want to hear from you. If you started taking chiotine, I want to hear what it's done for you and your workouts. Be sure to check in the description for my step-by-step guide on exactly how to use creatine, plus all of the myth-busting benefits and studies that you'll want to see.
