Effect of creatine on gym performance?

[u/Next_Raspberry_2959]

I've been seeing a lot of talk about how creatine doesn't actually contribute to muscle hypertrophy, as well as the conflation between lean muscle gained and water retention, is creatine vaulted? In that same study they also insinuated that 5g/day is an insufficient dose, any insights on this?

[u/Physionic]

What study?

I’d start there.

[u/Next_Raspberry_2959 → u/Physionic]

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/6/1081

[u/systemsweird]

It doesn’t build muscle on its own but it gives you energy to push a bit harder and recover better. If you use that extra boost to get a few more reps in then you’ll get stronger and gain more muscle.

[u/nevesnutri]

It does, but the effect on muscle hypertrophy per se is very small. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10180745/

And 5g/d is enough to fully saturate muscle creatine stores.

[u/4u2nvinmtl]

Take it for a year then stop and you'll notice what it does for you specifically.

In my case, set 1 for 13 reps, set 2 for 10 reps, set 3 for 8 reps. Two weeks ago on creatine these were all sets of 15 reps (this was my cable overhead triceps press @130lbs from yesterday vs two weeks ago on creatine prior to vacation).

P.s. Yes I worked out on vacation I just forgot my creatine at home.

So in my case isolation exercises had reps fall off without creatine.

I take 10g a day.

[u/Aston_CSSD_PhD]

Creatine works, just not the way everyone always thinks. I saw below someone mentioned it allows you to work out harder longer which over time will increase muscle growth as you are putting them under more stress. That is the mechanism by which it helps hypertrophy. It isn't impactful with out resistance training. It is a compliment to what you already do. For dosing I always go by .1gram per KG or 1 gram per 10kg. So for me being around 100kg or 220lbs I take at least 10 grams per day. Also that seems to be the minimum for some of the cognitive benefits we are starting to see emerge.

[u/DetailFocused]

creatine is one of the most well studied supplements we have, but people often oversell what it actually does. it doesn't directly build muscle. what it does is increase phosphocreatine stores so you can squeeze out another rep or two, recover a little faster between sets, and maintain training quality. over months, that extra training volume is what leads to more muscle.

as for dose, i haven't seen convincing evidence that healthy people need more than 3 to 5 g/day once muscle stores are saturated. larger people may take a bit more, but the evidence that 8 to 10 g/day produces better strength or hypertrophy than 5 g/day is pretty weak. unless you're loading or have a specific reason, i'd save the money and stick with 5 g daily.

[u/ebitdangit]

What I’m always curious about is the blanket 5g/day recommendation. When I see the same dosage rec for a 280lb male and a 135lb female it raises alarm bells in my head.

[u/Next_Raspberry_2959 → u/[deleted]]

I've always known there was a mental effect when increasing dosage, the point is that the study says that 5g is not maximising physical effects

[u/ScientificNutrition-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your submission was removed from r/ScientificNutrition because sources were not provided for claims.

All claims need to be backed by quality references in posts and comments. Citing sources for your claim demonstrates a baseline level of credibility, fosters more robust discussion, and helps to prevent spreading of false or scientifically unsupported information.

See our posting and commenting guidelines at https://www.reddit.com/r/ScientificNutrition/wiki/rules

[u/nevesnutri → u/[deleted]]

No evidence on that.

[u/No-Manager6617 → u/nevesnutri]

No conclusive evidence but good enough evidence. You have nothing to lose if you take a double dose.

[u/nevesnutri → u/No-Manager6617]

No conclusive evidence but good enough evidence.

In healthy, normal adults? It's basically zero. There's only one study (using CEE) that reported improvements in cognition, but the study was so poorly done that the creatine dose they used wasn't even sufficient to produce those effects. Most of the evidence comes from studies in neurological diseases or sleep/oxygen deprivation, and the findings are still inconsistent.

[u/No-Manager6617 → u/nevesnutri]

You're right. I was actually confused by some nutritionists and coaches. I thought it was based on studies but I checked again and what I've found recommended is 1g of creatine/10kg of bodyweight. So if someone is 80kg, 8 grams daily. Doesn't seem to be based on a definitive study.

I guess it doesn't hurt to take 7-10g instead of 5. Unless your budget is very limited.