{"id":358952,"date":"2025-12-21T03:37:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/358952\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T03:37:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:37:04","slug":"when-is-the-best-time-to-take-creatine-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/358952\/","title":{"rendered":"When Is the Best Time to Take Creatine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re strength training<\/a>, there\u2019s a good chance that you’ve dabbled in the world of creatine<\/a>. Studies have shown that regularly taking creatine is associated with better brain health<\/a>, bone strength, and supporting muscle growth.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve heard about those benefits, but what\u2019s less clear is when exactly you should be taking take it. After all, creatine supplements<\/a> aren\u2019t cheap. If you\u2019re shelling out for it, you want to make sure you\u2019re getting everything you can out of it.<\/p>\n

What does the science say about when to take it? We talked to sports dietitians to find out the exact best time to take creatine, how much to take, and if it should be paired with anything for optimal absorption.<\/p>\n

What are the benefits of creatine supplements?<\/p>\n

\u201cCreatine is a compound your liver and kidneys synthesise from three amino acids: arginine, glycine, and methionine,\u201d says Jordan Mazur,<\/a> the director of nutrition for the San Francisco 49ers. Mazur explains that about 95% of creatine is stored in muscles as phosphocreatine, a molecule that is important for energy production in muscle cells. \u201cYou get a little creatine from meat and fish, but supplementing pushes your muscle stores to full capacity, giving you a larger on-demand energy reserve,\u201d Mazur says.<\/p>\n

Phosphocreatine provides immediate fuel that is used to synthesise ATP in muscle cells, says Joel Ramdial,<\/a> the program director of nutrition in the Department of Allied Health, Kinesiology, and Sport Sciences at Southeast Missouri State University<\/a>. This helps muscles with explosive movements, like box jumps and deadlifts. \u201cWe normally have a very limited supply of phosphocreatine in the muscles, but supplementing with creatine can increase this phosphocreatine supply, which can extend the duration of high-intensity strength exercises,\u201d Ramdial says, adding that over time, this can lead to an increase in muscle and bone strength.<\/p>\n

What all of this means is that if your goal is to become stronger, supplementing with creatine can work in your favor. \u201cAnyone chasing strength, power, or lean mass gains\u2014think lifters, sprinters, and team sport athletes [can benefit from a creatine supplement],\u201d Mazur says, adding that it can also be helpful for vegans and vegetarians whose diets tend to be low in natural creatine. Jonathan Poyourow,<\/a> a former dietitian in the U.S. Army and who is now a sports dietitian at Johnson & Wales University, says that older adults can also benefit from supplementing with creatine as a way to preserve muscle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re strength training, there\u2019s a good chance that you’ve dabbled in the world of creatine. Studies have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[49,48,407,2998,84,51617,395,12365],"class_list":{"0":"post-358952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-food","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-life-advice","14":"tag-nutrition","15":"tag-working-out"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}