How Much Creatine Do You REALLY Need?
Not 10-20 grams, in my opinion.
The recent dialogue around d creatine, a darling of the supplements world, needs clarification.
Podcasters love to jump on recently-published papers to try and get a head start on their newest thesis for people to obsess over.
I’m here to set the record straight, because the world of supplements, as I’ve written about many times before, is a misguided one that leads people down rabbit holes of Google searching and spending that results in no tangible health benefits.
Newsletter Summary
Why people are freaking out over creatine dosage, and the real amount you’ll be fine with
Who really needs to macro-dose creatine and when
How Much Creatine Do You REALLY Need?
First and foremost, before you go buying a container of powdered creatine, a reminder:
Creatine comes naturally from meat and animal proteins like beef, chicken, pork (and the foie gras above in trace amounts).
Supplementing it is not as important if you eat these foods regularly, but even if you do choose to do that, 5g a day will help you retain muscle and reap the benefits of strength training just as much as the next person.
So, why is there hysteria about indulging in 10+ grams daily, then?
In the past few weeks, I’ve had more than five people ask me whether or not they should take 10 grams daily and for brand recommendations.
A study was recently published that suggested those who are sleep-deprived or dealing with or other “mental demands” like jet-lag can benefit from this dosage.
Of course, anyone who wants to command any kind of influence on social media conveniently omitted the fine print about mental demands and simply suggested just plain macro-dosing.
Because some of these people have large audiences and newsletters 100x the size of mine, they went viral.
With the exception of Dan Go up top, these top-performing tweets are all anecdotal mega-threads coming from hacks.
Even Dan is a bit misguided on that recommendation. There are no quantifiable mental acuity benefits from macro-dosing creatine.
Simply “feeling sharper” is likely just a placebo these people are telling themselves to, in my opinion, skimp out on drinking and excuse their bad sleeping habits.
Some glaring stats to remember:
A variety of sources — CDC, the NIH, and many Ivy League studies, to name a few — suggest that 1/3 of Americans are sleep-deprived.
If you don’t trust those sources, Healthline has actually suggested that number is closer to 50%.
Sleep-deprived is averaging less than 7 hours of sleep per night.
If you regularly feel tired and are chugging coffee (or creatine) to compensate for it, you’re putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.
While sources on hydration tend to be less reliable, it’s generally assumed among medical professionals that dehydration is also a nationwide problem.
Dehydration leads to a host of other cellular and bodily issues like migraines, joint pain, and general discomfort/tightness
The more people I talk to who are in pain, the more I find they are inadequately hydrated.
While this is anecdotal, I know health practitioners who have solved their clients’ problems simply by upping hydration. In my experience, it seems many people will do anything but drink the adequate amount of water.
So before you jump on the creatine wave, remember that unless you’re trying to PR your lifts every single week or qualify the Boston Marathon, 10g of creatine probably isn’t necessary for anyone who sleeps 7-8 hours a night and is well-hydrated.
Who Actually Needs Extra Creatine and When
Shout out to Rhonda Patrick for her annotation on this tweet above.
I still don’t appreciate the “you might be missing out” part, as it gives regular people fomo and makes them feel like they’re not doing enough.
As I mentioned above, unless you’re training for some incredible athletic feat, the extra 5-10 grams of creatine isn’t going to be noticeable.
I know this because I run 30-40 miles a week and I tried 10 grams a day.
My running and lifting didn’t drastically improve, and I kept an open-mind to the fact that I might possibly see improvements in performance.
Cognitively, I couldn’t report any “increases in focus” like the gurus claim. I’m generally pretty focused off on one cup of coffee in the morning and a 5g creatine and Poppi mixture in the afternoon.
The only instances in which 10+ grams of creatine make sense to me are as follows:
A period of extreme sleep deprivation (6 or fewer hours) followed by a demanding stretch at work, 12-15 hour days, etc
A “loading” period for an endurance athlete — triathlete, cyclist, or marathoner — where carbohydrate intake is high and high-lactate clearing is necessary
A hyper-focused session of flow state (1-2 hours) after recovering from extreme stress (jet lag, sickness, intense exercise) — think writing a manuscript for a book, cramming a thesis, or putting together a pitch deck for your startup
I don’t want to sound rude here.
But most people don’t train hard enough to require that much creatine.
And that’s not a call to action to train exponentially harder.
It’s a subtle reminder that you’re not an elite athlete — and given the trade-offs of that lifestyle, I would wager you wouldn’t want to be one — and you won’t benefit from a macrodose.
If I’m wearing my tin-foil hat here, this just feels like good marketing from Big Creatine (who may be sponsoring these research studies) to get you to buy more of their products.
Ok, I’ll shut up now.
See you guys on Monday!