What we know about creatine in 2025

Posted on: May 27th, 2025 by Our Team

Creatine is one of the most well-studied and safest supplements. It’s an amino acid that we get in our diet from animal muscle (such as beef, seafood, pork, and poultry) and we store creatine in our own muscle. Carnivores get an average of 1–2 g creatine /day from eating the above sources.

An adult weighing 70 kg needs ~2 g of creatine a day to replenish their body creatine stores,, which equates to 16oz of meat, so people fall short in getting this across a day even if they are eating 3 x 5oz portions of meat /day.

Supplementing with creatine increases whole body creatine to a greater extent than eating it from meat, and this has been found to:

Enhance physical performance

• Weightlifting performance (training volume)
• Attenuate exercise induced muscle damage
• Improve bioenergetics of exercise training

Improve body composition

• Muscle strength/fiber size
• Growth factor/gene expression
• reduce exercise-induced oxidative stress to mitochondria

Post-surgery / during rehab

• Reduced atrophy
• antioxidant & anti-inflammatory properties
• Increased GLUT4 transporters & rate of muscle/strength growth
• Improve muscle tissue efficiency in preventing fatigue & creating energy
• Greater increase in CSA of muscle fiber & peak strength

Enhance cognitive function

• Act as a neuroprotective agent

Form: Creatine monohydrate is the most well studied form- I recommend this product:
creatine monohydrate

Dosing: Start with a loading phase of 0.3 g/kg split up between 4 doses across the day for 5 days, followed by a maintenance phase 0.03g/kg creatine over a minimum of 5 weeks. Supplemental protocol during Immobilization: 20 g/day (in 4 different doses ~5 g each) for 7 – 14 days; During Rehabilitation: 5 g/day

Timing: Take either prior to or after training; If taken post-workout, ingest within half an hour along with a combination of carbohydrates & protein (such as this low-fat chocolate milk) to enhance muscle creatine uptake and the ergogenic effect.