Creatine, without the hype.

What creatine actually does

Creatine is a compound your body already produces and which you also get from meat and fish. It is stored in muscle as phosphocreatine, where it serves to rapidly regenerate ATP — the molecule that powers muscular contraction — during short, intense efforts lasting up to roughly ten seconds.

Supplementing raises muscle phosphocreatine stores above what diet alone provides. The practical result is modest but real: you get perhaps one or two extra reps before failure on heavy sets. Creatine does not build muscle directly — it lets you do slightly more work, and that accumulated extra work is what builds muscle over months. It also draws water into muscle cells, which typically shows up as one to two kilograms of scale weight in the first fortnight. That is intracellular water, not fat.

Dose and timing

Three to five grams daily is the standard maintenance dose, with larger and more muscular people at the upper end. Loading — 20g a day split into four doses for five to seven days — saturates muscle stores in under a week rather than three to four, but arrives at exactly the same destination and more often causes bloating or stomach upset. Unless you have a competition in a fortnight, skip it.

Because creatine works through saturation rather than an acute effect, when you take it is close to irrelevant. Post-training may hold a marginal edge in the research, but the difference is small enough to ignore. Attach it to a habit you already have, because the only variable that genuinely matters is whether you take it every day.

Safety, honestly

Creatine monohydrate has been studied for decades and is consistently found safe for healthy adults at standard doses. The persistent claim that it damages kidneys stems from a misreading of creatinine — a waste marker used to assess kidney function. Creatine supplementation raises creatinine slightly without any underlying kidney damage, which can make a routine blood test look alarming when nothing is wrong. Mention that you supplement if you are having bloods done.

If you have existing kidney disease, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are under 18, speak to your doctor first. This is general information, not medical advice.

What to ignore on the label

Creatine HCl, ethyl ester, buffered (“Kre-Alkalyn”), liquid and “micronised for superior absorption” formulations all command a premium over plain monohydrate, and none has demonstrated superiority in well-controlled research. Monohydrate is already about 99% bioavailable, which leaves very little room for a better version to improve upon. Look for Creapure or a similarly certified monohydrate and pay as little as you can for it.

Amit’s own supplement recommendations link to Premium Nutrition NZ — a referral relationship that is disclosed on every page and never changes what gets recommended.

Creatine sits on top of the fundamentals, never in place of them. If your calories and protein are not yet dialled in, start with the protein calculator and the TDEE calculator.