When is the best time to take creatine

One week study provided a dietary supplement containing creatine, carbs and protein to adults who weight trained Participants were divided into two groups. One group took the supplement soon before and after exercise, while the other group took the supplement in the morning and evening, so not close to exercise.

At the end of the study, the group that took the supplement close to exercise gained more muscle and strength than the group that took the supplement in the morning and evening. Based on this research, it may be better to take creatine close to exercise, rather than at some other time of the day. For example, you could take the whole dose after you exercise or split the dose, taking half of it before you exercise and the other half afterward.

This phase involves taking relatively high amounts approximately 20 grams for about five days This quickly increases the creatine content of your muscles over several days After that, a lower daily maintenance dose of 3—5 grams is recommended 1. If you are taking a maintenance dose, the purpose of supplementing on rest days is simply to maintain the high levels of creatine in your muscles.

When you take creatine on rest days, the timing is probably less important than on days you exercise. However, it may be a good idea to take it with a meal. While the benefits of supplementing with creatine are well established, many people wonder how to maximize them. Researchers have tried adding other ingredients, including protein, carbs, amino acids, cinnamon and various plant-based compounds to increase its effectiveness 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , However, other studies have demonstrated that adding carbs provides no added performance benefits 22 , Overall, there may be benefits to consuming creatine and carbs at the same time, but the extra carbs could put you at risk of consuming too many calories.

A practical strategy would be to take creatine when you normally eat a carb-containing meal, but not to consume extra carbs beyond your normal diet. Ingredients are sometimes added to creatine to increase its effectiveness. Carbs may do this, and a good strategy is to take creatine when you eat a meal containing carbs and protein. On workout days, research shows that it may be better to take creatine shortly before or after you exercise, rather than long before or after.

On rest days, it may be beneficial to take it with food, but the timing is probably not as important as on exercise days. Furthermore, taking creatine with foods that contain carbs and protein could help you maximize the benefits.

Studies have shown that creatine can boost your athletic performance, but many wonder whether it's possible to take too much. This article details…. It depends when you exercise and, for the loading phase, when works best for you. Beyond muscle size and strength, creatine may also improve productivity and boost testosterone.

Read six reasons you should be taking creatine to see what else the supplement can do for you, or check out our recommendations for the best creatine powders.

Should You Take it With a Meal? Is Morning or Evening Better? Other Benefits and Side-Effects of Creatine Beyond muscle size and strength, creatine may also improve productivity and boost testosterone. More Videos. The argument for "take it at any time" is based on the hypothesis that both of the former arguments are more or less supplement superstition—there's no shortage of that, right?

Basically, they say, you don't need to stress yourself about timing. Since creatine is good for you, as long as you supplement with it you'll see the benefits. The "take creatine after your workout" camp seemed to receive a big boost in in the form of a study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. They trained five days per week and were also directed to consume 5 grams on their rest days at any time they wanted. The workouts were fairly standard push-pull-legs splits, and the methodology used in the study suggests that the findings would apply to most weightlifters.

This study became popular because the abstract appeared to say clearly that taking creatine after a workout is better than taking it before. Yet upon closer inspection, the results of the study become far less clear than the abstract makes them out to be. While both groups found benefit from the creatine supplementation, the benefit they received was more or less equal.

Put another way, there wasn't any significant effect of one over the other. Rather, when the researchers broke the results down on a case-by-case basis, they saw a trend that suggested that there may be a difference.

So if we removed all of the jargon and big words, the researchers are really saying they think taking creatine after a workout is better than before, but really need to do more research in order to prove that. Until something more conclusive comes along, I take this as a vote for Camp 3: "Take it whenever," or maybe more appropriately, "Take it when it works for you. All the other standard creatine advice seems to hold up in this and other studies. Optimal creatine dosing still appears to be between grams per day.

You can "load" for the first days to help saturate your cells, but beyond that there's no benefit to taking large amounts.