If there’s one supplement on everyone’s lips, it’s creatine. But, with all the talk about this well-studied supp that was once for gym bros and is now beloved by, well, everyone, it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. Creatine is a compound your body makes naturally from three amino acids called arginine, glycine, and methionine, but you can also get small amounts from meat and fish, says Kristin Kirkpatrick, RDN, a dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Wellness and Preventive Medicine.
The body produces about half of the creatine it needs, and the rest has to come from diet—or supplements. But as creatine’s popularity has exploded, so has the misinformation surrounding it. We asked experts to debunk some of the most persistent myths about the supplement.
Meet the experts: Jay Luthar, MD, is an internal, integrative, and lifestyle medicine physician and a professor at Harvard Medical School. Kristin Kirkpatrick, RDN, is a dietitian at Cleveland Clinic Department of Wellness and Preventive Medicine. You may have heard that when you first start taking creatine, you should do what’s called a loading phase—which is taking about four times the regular dose for up to a week—to saturate your muscle stores with the supp.
A standard dose of creatine is 3 to 5 grams per day; a loading phase calls for about 20 grams per day, split into four doses, Kirkpatrick explains. An athlete who wants results before an upcoming competition may benefit, for example, but if you don’t have anything timely on the calendar, you can skip the load completely, Kirkpatrick says. Doing so might also save you from bloating and stomach upset and other side effects that most often cause people to stop taking the supp.
This one is partly true—but stay with us. Creatine works by drawing more water into your muscles, which means that it’s possible you may experience some bloat at first. Research in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition from 2021 found that creatine does not cause long-term water retention.
Once muscle saturation is reached and you transition to a maintenance dose, this stabilizes.” As for how long that takes? About two to four weeks, he says. Also keep in mind that your dosage and creatine type matter.
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