What Happens To Your Body After Taking Creatine For 30 Days

What Happens To Your Body After Taking Creatine For 30 Days?

Creatine has been consistently proven to make you look bigger, build muscle faster, improve your performance, and even make you smarter. In fact, over 50 percent of professional power athletes such as powerlifters, boxers, and track and field athletes reportedly use creatine for these reasons. Its popularity is also rising among high school lifters and athletes. But what exactly does creatine do to your body, where does it go, what should you expect to feel, and how soon? Is it safe, and are there any side effects you should know about? How do you know if it's working or not? Today, we'll cover all that by doing a deep dive into what to expect throughout your first 30 days of taking creatine.

Understanding Creatine

Before you start taking creatine, it's important to understand what it does to the body and why it doesn't necessarily work for everyone. Creatine is a substance that we naturally produce and use as an indirect energy source to power our muscles through high-intensity activities such as sprints or tough sets of bench presses. Most of our creatine is stored in our muscles, but about 5 percent is actually stored in the brain, which is why it has been heavily linked to both improvements and impairments in brain function.

Although we have a baseline level of creatine in our muscles, supplementing with it can increase these baseline levels by about 30 percent. This results in more strength and muscle mass over time. However, not everyone will experience the same increase in creatine levels. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of individuals naturally walk around with fully saturated muscle creatine levels, resulting in little to no benefit from creatine supplementation. Other individuals, especially vegetarians (since creatine is found in small amounts in meat), have naturally lower levels of creatine and will experience greater benefits from supplementation.

The First 30 Days of Creatine

Initial Saturation Phase

When you first start taking creatine, it takes time for your muscles to become fully saturated with additional creatine. You won't experience the performance benefits until full saturation, although you will experience a few side effects throughout this period. The saturation process duration depends on how much creatine you take every day.

Loading Phase: This involves taking a high dose of creatine every day to increase your stores as quickly as possible, then decreasing the dose to maintain the elevated levels. This method takes about seven days to fully saturate your muscles, at which point you can start experiencing some benefits.
Non-Loading Phase: This involves taking a baseline dose of creatine every day to slowly increase your levels over time, typically taking about two to three weeks to reach full saturation.

Side Effects

Water Retention and Weight Gain: Since creatine draws water into the muscle cell, you might experience water retention and a small spike in body weight (1 to 3 pounds). This can make your muscles look and feel fuller. The initial weight spike is more rapid with the loading phase.
Stomach Discomfort: Taking large amounts of creatine at once, especially during a loading phase, can cause stomach discomfort. To avoid this, you can split the doses throughout the day, avoid taking it on an empty stomach or with caffeine, and dissolve creatine fully in hot water.
Creatinine Levels: As a breakdown product of creatine, creatinine levels will slightly increase. High creatinine levels can indicate impaired kidney function, but creatine has been proven safe for healthy individuals. Health professionals should be aware of this effect.

Full Saturation Stage

Performance Improvements

Once your muscles are fully saturated, your strength should start increasing across most of your movements. A meta-analysis of 22 studies found that trained lifters can expect roughly an 8 percent boost in strength and a 14 percent boost in the number of reps performed. Less experienced lifters might see even larger benefits.

Recovery and Brain Function

Creatine also seems to support faster recovery between workouts. A study surveying 52 NCAA athletes found that 81 percent reported faster recovery.

Regarding brain function, creatine supplementation can increase brain creatine levels by up to 10 percent, improving performance on short-term memory tests and intelligence, especially under stress states such as sleep deprivation. Vegetarians and vegans tend to benefit the most.

Conclusion

Creatine supplementation is promising for those looking to enhance their physical and mental performance. However, as with any supplement, individual results may vary. Always prioritize your training and nutrition for the best results.

Keywords

Creatine
Supplementation
Muscle Saturation
Loading Phase
Non-Loading Phase
Water Retention
Weight Gain
Stomach Discomfort
Creatinine Levels
Strength Increase
Recovery
Brain Function
Vegetarians
Vegans

FAQ

Q1: How long does it take for creatine to work? A1: The time it takes for creatine to work depends on the method of supplementation. A loading phase saturates muscles in about seven days, while a non-loading phase takes about two to three weeks.

Q2: Are there side effects to taking creatine? A2: Common side effects include water retention, weight gain, and stomach discomfort. Splitting doses and proper dissolution can help mitigate these effects.

Q3: How can I minimize stomach discomfort when taking creatine? A3: To minimize stomach discomfort, avoid taking creatine on an empty stomach, split doses throughout the day if you're doing a loading phase, and mix it with hot water.

Q4: Does creatine affect kidney function? A4: Creatine can increase creatinine levels, which can be concerning on a blood test, but studies have consistently shown that creatine is safe for healthy individuals.

Q5: Can creatine boost brain function? A5: Yes, creatine can improve short-term memory and intelligence, particularly under stress or in individuals like vegetarians and vegans, who have lower baseline levels of creatine.

Q6: How much weight will I gain initially when taking creatine? A6: Initial weight gain due to water retention ranges from one to three pounds, with the exact amount depending on whether you use a loading or non-loading phase.