According to various studies – creatine is the world’s most researched supplement – taking creatine may help with<\/a> cognitive decline, fend off symptoms of fatigue (including long covid) and even reduce your risk of developing some cancers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pretty neat, huh? <\/p>\n The compound is naturally occurring in our body, with the liver, kidneys, and pancreas creating around 1 gram of creatine daily, and can be found in meat and dairy<\/a> products, according to Mayo Clinic<\/a>. <\/p>\n Some people also supplement their intake by adding creatine monohydrate to their diets in order to maximise its benefits. <\/p>\n But what happens if you suddenly stop? <\/p>\n What happens to the body when you stop taking creatine?Week one<\/p>\n The first change you’re likely to notice when you stop taking creatine is a slight decrease in your weight, around one to 3kg. This isn’t due to fat or muscle loss but instead a loss of water retention in the muscles. <\/p>\n Creatine helps give your muscles a more ‘pumped’ look by soaking up<\/a> excess water. <\/p>\n “Creatine increases intracellular water in muscles, which contributes to that fuller muscle look and sometimes adds one to three pounds on the scale,” said Avery Zenker, RD, a registered dietitian at Queen\u2019s University, explained to Very Well Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stop taking the supplement, and this reverses.<\/p>\n Women’s Health<\/a> notes that creatine stores in the muscles will return to baseline within four to six weeks of stopping creatine. <\/p>\n This can lead to a decline in strength performance as the body adjusts to new levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) regeneration. <\/p>\n “Some people may therefore feel slightly more fatigued during intense sessions,” Esra Soylucicek, specialist in nutrition<\/a> and functional medicine at Reborne Longevity, told the outlet. <\/p>\n There may also be a reduction in your performance during compound lifts or sprinting. <\/p>\n Given creatine’s ability to improve cognition, users may also experience some brain fog, although Very Well notes this is minimal for most people. <\/p>\n Long term<\/p>\n After four to six weeks, your body will have returned to its original levels of creatine, pre-supplement. <\/p>\n “Your natural creatine production goes back to its regular levels to compensate, water balance normalises, and you settle into your original baseline,” Soylucicek added. <\/p>\n While you may look less ‘pumped’ and notice a reduction in your performance levels, stopping creatine will not cause the muscles you’ve built to atrophy. <\/p>\n “So if I took creatine for six months, and made some gains in the gym, then stopped using creatine, I’d still have those gains. I just won’t have that extra energy for subsequent sessions,” strength coach Meg Callagher explained to Men’s Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although primarily associated with the gym-going community, creatine has a number of benefits outside of the bodybuilding world.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[10931,134,263,111,139,556,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-356148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-food-and-drink","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-lifestyle","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nutrition","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/aHR0cHM6Ly9ldS1pbWFnZXMuY29udGVudHN0YWNrLmNvbS92My9hc3NldHMvYmx0Y2Q3NGFjYzFkMGE5OWYzYS9ibHQyNTBhOTE5.webp\"\/)
The most researched supplement, creatine, has benefits in and outside of the gym (Getty Stock Images)<\/p>\n![\"Stopping](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/aHR0cHM6Ly9ldS1pbWFnZXMuY29udGVudHN0YWNrLmNvbS92My9hc3NldHMvYmx0Y2Q3NGFjYzFkMGE5OWYzYS9ibHQ4ZGU2N2E1.webp\"\/)
Stopping the supplement will of course lead to changes for your body (Getty Stock Images)Four to six weeks<\/p>\n![\"Stopping](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/aHR0cHM6Ly9ldS1pbWFnZXMuY29udGVudHN0YWNrLmNvbS92My9hc3NldHMvYmx0Y2Q3NGFjYzFkMGE5OWYzYS9ibHQ5NDBkMzli.webp\"\/)
Stopping creatine will decrease your weight, but also make you look less ‘pumped’ (Getty Stock Images)Will you lose muscle mass if you stop taking creatine?<\/p>\n