If you’ve started adding creatine to your daily routine to help you build muscle, you may be wondering how fast it takes to see the benefits.
According to available research, you can expect to notice a difference from taking creatine in as little as 5-7 days if completing a loading phase. If not, it can take between 2-4 weeks to see the benefits [1, 2].
Do you still have questions about creatine and muscle building? Read on to learn more.
Key Takeaways
How Does Creatine Help Increase Muscle?
Creatine is one of the most well-researched performance-enhancing athletic supplements on the market. It’s believed to provide benefits in building muscle by its action on adenosine-triphosphate (ATP), an essential molecule our body uses as an energy source for muscle contraction.
Creatine helps to increase the available ATP for your muscles to use during high-intensity exercise and heavy weight lifting. When you can do more, you get more results [2].
It’s also believed that creatine may help to boost muscle protein synthesis (the process of building new muscle tissue) and reduce post-exercise recovery time by increasing important cell signaling in our muscle tissue in response to resistance exercise [3].
How Fast Does Creatine Help Build Muscle?
The average length of time it’s estimated to take to see the benefits of creatine is between 2-4 weeks on the maintenance dose of 2-5 grams per day. Keep in mind, this is in those who are consistently taking their creatine supplements without gaps.
Those who complete a creatine loading phase when initially beginning creatine supplements may notice benefits earlier, around 5-7 days. Creatine loading is when you increase your creatine dose from 3-5 grams a day to 20-30 grams (split into 5-gram increments throughout the day) for 5-7 days [1, 4, 5].
Once you’ve completed the creatine loading phase you will decrease the dose to 3-5 grams daily for maintenance.
Creatine loading is believed to help saturate your muscle tissue with creatine so that you can start to see the effects a lot sooner. Creatine loading is not required and sometimes causes uncomfortable side effects for some, such as bloating or an upset stomach.
Are Creatine Muscle Gains Permanent?
The muscle gains you experience from taking creatine are permanent as long as you keep up with your nutrition and training routine after stopping creatine. If you stop taking supplemental creatine and fall off track with your diet and exercise, those gains will be temporary.
Does Creatine Make You Bloated?
A common side effect of taking creatine is water retention. This is because creatine is highly osmotic, meaning it causes water to be pulled into the muscle tissue with it. This can make you appear puffy or bloated but it is temporary and will subside once you stop taking creatine.
Water retention from creatine is usually exacerbated in high doses, such as during a loading phase. While there will remain some water retention as long as you are taking creatine, it is not often significant enough to be uncomfortable for most people.
Does Creatine Make You Gain Weight?
Because creatine can cause water retention, this may appear as an increase in weight on the scale. However, creatine does not cause fat gain and water weight gain is temporary. Most people experience weight gain of 2-5 pounds once starting creatine as a result of water retention [6].
Creatine also helps to increase muscle mass which is more dense than fat. That can show up as an increase in weight that is not related to fat gain.
Does Creatine Make You Retain Water?
As mentioned above, creatine supplementation often results in water retention. This is because creatine draws water into the muscle tissue which can make you appear slightly bloated or puffy. This may also show up as an increase in weight on the scale.
Water retention with creatine is usually most substantial during a loading phase, which should last no longer than 5-7 days. Once you reduce to a maintenance dose or stop using creatine, that water retention will reduce and/or resolve.
Why You Should Not Worry About Creatine and Water Retention
While weight gain of any kind can be triggering for many, weight gain from creatine is typically a result of water retention and an increase in lean body mass. Creating pulls water into your muscle tissues which can make you appear a little bloated or puffy.
This is typically mild and may be increasingly irritated for a short period during a loading phase when your creatine dose is a lot higher. While this may seem like an uncomfortable side effect, water retention from creatine shouldn’t be feared as it is temporary.
The benefits of creatine on exercise performance and muscle growth far outweigh the temporary irritations of minor water retention. If you are worried about bloating while taking creatine, consider skipping the loading dose.
Creatine Monohydrate or HCL: Which is Better?
Creatine monohydrate and creatine HCL are two different types of creatine you can commonly find in creatine supplements. Creatine monohydrate has been around the longest and is the most widely studied form of creatine.
The main difference between the two is what it is bound to. Creatine monohydrate is creatine bound to a water molecule while creatine HCL is creatine bound to hydrochloric acid. Creatine HCL has not been around as long as creatine monohydrate but it is believed to be more stable and may produce better results without a loading phase and less water retention than creatine monohydrate [7].
Creatine monohydrate tends to be favored due to the wide availability of research to support its benefits but either one will produce similar results.
TL;DR
Creatine is one of the most well-researched performance-enhancing athletic supplements on the market. It helps boost exercise performance and muscle gains by increasing available energy in your muscle tissue to fuel muscle contraction.
If you recently started taking creatine supplements, you can expect to notice a difference in as little as 5-7 days if completing a loading phase. If not, it can take between 2-4 weeks to see the benefits [1, 2].
The muscle gains you experience from taking creatine are permanent, but only if you keep up with your diet and exercise routine and remain consistent. If not, these gains will quickly fade away.
Creatine may cause water retention, particularly during the loading phase which may make you feel puffy or see an increase in the number on the scale. This is a normal side effect of creatine and is temporary.
