Creatine currently is known as the most effective supplement in the fitness industry (1). So, it provides you more strength and makes your recovery time shorter. Besides, you will even feel that you need less time for recovery between sets. We can also say that it is the strongest supplement from all legal ones. That’s why we decided to write a post about the best creatine supplements. You will figure out the main things here like, is creatine safe, creatine benefits or creatine side effects. So, firstly we describe the best products on the market, and below you’re able to see the description of what creatine is and what does it do:
- 5 best creatine supplements list
- What is Creatine and What Does It Do?
- Do I Need a Creatine?
- Types of creatine
- Creatine Benefits and Does It Really Works?
- Who Can Benefit from Creatine?
- Is Creatine Safe?
- How Do I Take Creatine?
- So, How to Choose the Best Creatine Supplement?
- How Long Creatine Is Stored in Your Body?
- Types of Creatine
- What Are Creatine Side Effects?
- Video for Lazy Readers!
- Bottom Line
CREATINE HMB by Transparent, and again one of the leaders in the sports nutrition industry. It uses pure micronized creatine monohydrate with some extra nutrients, which supports you in achieving your fitness goals. It is just a little more expensive than some competitors, but also it’s really a good quality product from a well-known company in the fitness industry.
Pros & Cons
- 5g of Creatine per serving
- Helps to increase muscle gains
- Blends well into protein shakes and smoothies
- Can be unflavoured or you can choose the flavor you want
- Natural sweetener Stevia
- Exelent discounts if you buy more than one
- Some users say that it doesn’t mix with water very well
- It is a bit more expensive if you buy one, but it is the best quality you can get on the market
One serving contains:
- Creatine Monohydrate 5g
- 𝛽-Hydroxy 𝛽-Methyl butyrate (HMB): 2,000 mg 2g
- BioPerine®(Black Pepper Extract) (95% Piperine): 5 mg
- Blue Raspberry Flavor: 1,000 mg 1 g
- Citric Acid: 800 mg
- Malic Acid: 800 mg
- Stevia: 300 mg
Producer: Transparent Labs, was founded not so long time ago, also it is one of the industry pioneers that has become a global leader in the sports nutrition industry which is not using any GMO, artificial sweeteners, coloring and preservatives. It is growing very fast, and we can say that this company is the best player if we are talking about healthy nutrition.
Bottom line: Creatine HMB b y Transparent Labs is definitely a good product that will help you to improve your strength result and gain some muscle. Besides, it is made by a really known brand, which quality is known in the whole world. The only con is that it is a bit more expensive than the competitors above, but you are paying for the best quality.
ON Micronized Creatine Powder as always is one of the best products on the market. So, it concentrates only on the effectivity of products. It is a simple creatine supplement that contains one main ingredient, pure micronized creatine monohydrate.
Pros & Cons
- 5g of Creatine per serving
- Helps to increase muscle gains
- Blends well into protein shakes and smoothies
- Unflavoured
- Good value for money
- Some users say that it doesn’t mix with water well
One serving contains:
- Creatine Monohydrate 5g
Producer: Optimum Nutrition is a mastodon of the supplements industry, which proved it with their actions in years. Besides, it is developing the most powerful and effective products that satisfy costumers in the whole world. Of course ON is best known for the Gold Standard 100% Whey protein (check 5 Best Whey Protein Powders), the best-selling and known protein powder on the market.
Bottom line: ON Micronized Creatine Powder is a good product that contains one main component pure micronized creatine monohydrate. That’s all that you need, and it is 100% working product. Also, its price is really low, besides it is unflavoured, which means that you can add it to your shakes, smoothies, etc. what makes it even better.
This product has a really good price and contains pure micronized creatine monohydrate, which means that it will mix easily in water. Besides, it definitely will stay with you longer. Also, MuscleTech Platinum 100% Creatine is unflavoured, which makes it nice to mix with your shakes or smoothies.
Pros & Cons
- 5g of Creatine per serving
- Helps to increase muscle gains
- Blends well into protein shakes and smoothies
- Unflavoured
- Good value for money
- Some users say that it doesn’t mix with water, usual issue with creatine products
One serving contains:
- Creatine Monohydrate 5g
Producer: So, MuscleTech is a brand name that is known with premium-quality products that span more than a decade. Development of these supplements has made a proud legacy, also it successfully competes with all companies in the supplement industry.
Bottom line: Basically MuscleTech Platinum 100% Creatine is the same as ON Micronized Creatine Powder. And it is worth to be first too, but we can’t do it for both products. So, we put ON first because the brand dominates on the market, and also it has more different pack size choices.
Musclepharm Creatine is one of the most clinically researched compounds advanced. Besides, this product uses a blend of 5 different types of creatine to produce the best results for you. So, it will let you feel the creatine effect for MAX. It increases muscular energy, increases strength, power and muscular endurance.
Pros & Cons
- 5g of Creatine per serving
- Helps to increase muscle gains
- Contains Blend of different creatine
- Unflavoured
- Some users say they get bloated after using it
- Small packs can be more expensive, worth to buy a bigger one
One serving contains:
- Creatine Monohydrate 5g
Producer: MusclePharm Corporation is an American nutritional supplement company founded in 2010. As a result, the company is stable on the market for quite a long time. They have a line of popular products and are mostly known from their proteins and bars. MusclePharm these supplements are trusted by pro athletes because they’re clinically proven and free of banned substances.
Bottom line: If you are bored with classic products, this one is for you! The benefit of MusclePharm Creatine is that it includes a blend of 5 different types of creatine. It provides you the optimal results, and also this product is really worth to be on this list.
For athletes bored with no taste creatine Cellucor give you a choice with a flavor, but also they have unflavoured creatine. Cellucor makes their supplement from a micronized formula which makes absorption and blending easier.
Pros & Cons
- 5g of Creatine per serving
- Helps to increase muscle gains
- Blends well into protein shakes and smoothies
- Unflavoured and flavored choice
- Some users say that it doesn’t mix with water well
- It is slightly more expensive, but still really affordable
One serving contains:
- Creatine Monohydrate 5g
- If you choose flavored contains sweeteners
Producer: COR-Performance Creatine is manufactured by Cellucor. The company exists since 2002 and it is a big player in the fitness supplements market. Also, it is known by their famous pre-workout C4, which also is one of the best and most affordable pre-workouts in the fitness industry (check our post about best pre-workout supplements in 2019).
Bottom line: COR-Performance Creatine is manufactured by Cellucor, which is known and also a respectable company in the world. Besides, if you are really bored with unflavoured products, this can surprise you with 6 nice flavors like soft gels, icy blue razz, etc., which will make the creatine effect only nicer.
What is creatine and what does it do?
Very often people have mixed opinions about the creatine. When some people say it is a typical supplement that helps you increase strength and energy, then another part thinks it is kind of steroid and is trying to avoid it.
So, we want to make you clear about it, and explain what is creatine and what does it do.
Creatine is a natural compound your body can create and also can receive through dietary meat or fish. Your body uses creatine to help provide energy to cells all over the body, which allows you to increase your energy and power (2).
Creatine is made of 3 amino acids: L-arginine, glycine, and L-methionine. In your body, creatine maintains an energy reserve of ATP that can be used for physical and cerebral pressure. So, your body synthesizes creatine in a natural way too, besides creatine is also in protein-rich food like fish and meat (3).
So, you should not be afraid of it, as you are getting the same nutrients from food. Creatine supplements help to increase your body’s natural levels of creatine and even can help you lose some fat. So, creatine works fast, so it is a really easy and affordable fitness supplement helping you by saturating your muscles with a useful organic acid.
Do I Need Creatine?
Well, you don’t have to, but if you want to progress faster creatine monohydrate is your best friend. It is known as the most effective legal supplement for muscle and strength growth. A typical dose of creatine is 5 grams once or twice per day. But if you want to get a better and faster result, the first week you should take more, like 15-20 grams per day. You can gradually reduce it to 5 grams after the second – third week. Also, you should take breaks after 6 – 8th week. Actually, it is recommended almost every supplement. Your body is adapting to everything quite fast, and the effect is not so strong after.
Types of Creatine
As we told above, there are few types of creatine and creatine monohydrate is the most popular one. But we want to introduce you some details about all most known types of creatine:
- Creatine Monohydrate – It is the most known, standard and proven as the most effective and affordable creatine.
- Micronized Creatine – So, Micronized means that it was divided/split. It increases creatine’s surface and makes it absorption faster and easier for your body. Usually, this type of creatine is a little more expensive, but it is worth to pay for faster and better effect.
- Creapure Creatine – This type of creatine is known as a premium one. It is the purest of the form of creatine monohydrate. Usually, it doesn’t include any additives. Also, Creapure has a unique, patented manufacturing process in an FDA-registered plant in Germany.
- Other types of Creatine – Above, we wrote about the most popular creatine types, but there are more of them. They also are effective, but you need to pay attention to price then, it must be cheaper if you will see one of these.
- MagnaPower
- Creatine HCL
- Creatine Kinase
- CreaNitrate
- Creatine Nitrate
- DiCreatine Maleat
- Creatine AAV
- etc.
Creatine Benefits and Does It Really Works?
Athletes are using creatine for many years, as it is the only supplement that can really increase your strength faster. A huge amount of people take creatine to help you build muscle, increase strength, increase energy, etc.
There were done a lot of scientific tests, which proved that this supplement really works and can provide you the long list of benefits like:
- Reduce recovery time – very often is said that BCAA and Protein are the way for recovery, but scientific studies have shown that creatine can be also a good supporter in it as well.
- Increase your strength – you will see it very fast, strength increase is the first symptom athletes usually see.
- Provides a fast boost of energy – creatine is one of the ingredients to provide you an energy boost commonly used in almost all pre-workout supplement
- Increase your performance – Creatine helps your body to produce more energy, and use it effectively in your workout.
- Stimulate muscle growth – as it provides more power, it’s logically that when you lift heavier weights your muscle grows faster.
- Increase Endurance – Creatine supplements will not let you feel exhaustion so fast. It will provide extra energy and will allow you to workout longer (4).
So, if you are asking if creatine is working? The short answer is YES it is. There is a huge amount of scientific researches that prove creatine effect, and also as main evidence is, athletes results (5)
Who Can Benefit from Creatine?
Athletes/Bodybuilders/Cross-fitters/Weightlifters – People who work out permanently and have wanted to improve their fitness conditions. Also, the people who want to increase their strength, muscle mass and recovery time.
Men and women – Creatine is a supplement that can help to make benefit both men and women in reaching their fitness goal. If you see that you are not progressing, just take creatine and you will feel progress pretty fast.
Vegetarians – Creatine is found in meats like beef and seafood. So, this is the reason why vegetarians have lower natural levels of creatine in their organism. Besides, when a vegetarian starts to take creatine, they see a much stronger effect, because before taking it, creatine level was very low. So, vegetarians can get double creatine benefit as normal eating people
Is Creatine Safe?
The short answer is YES – According to the JISSN as of 2017.
“In fact, the JISSN believes that creatine restriction enforced by sports organizations is actually putting athletes at greater risk of injury in high-impact sports” (6).
These claims are for creatine monohydrate exclusively and do not vouch for alternative forms of creatine with less extensive research performed (7).
How Do I Take Creatine?
- Usual serving varies from 4 to 6 grams. So, the serving in the creatine supplements provided above is really optimal, but women should take a little smaller portion of about 3-4 grams.
- Creatine can be taken at any time of the day, but if you want to feel the best effect from it take it after a workout with your meal. Most of the scientific researches shows that it is the most effective to take it after a workout.
So, How to Choose the Best Creatine Supplement?
- Quality of ingredients – most of the best product has only one ingredient creatine monohydrate. Other ingredients can be not necessary because creatine monohydrate is doing its job the best of all others.
- Check value for money – Firstly, you are spending your money, so why should you pay more? Also, the truth is that creatine is pretty affordable, but again, it doesn’t mean that you have to pay more. On every pack, you are able to see servings amount, so just divide the sum of you paid for the number of servings. The lowest price will win. Also, pay attention that for bigger packs, one serving is usually cheaper.
- Brand – Reputation of the brand is a pretty valuable thing. It shows status, customer satisfaction and also the quality of products. Check customer reviews, what people are saying, also what awards the company has, etc.
- Product reviews – All points mentioned above are really valuable, but product reviews show the real experience of people who tried this product. So, that is a good thing that all the products we are describing are available in the Amazon if you click just on them. You will be able to see what real users are saying about it.
How Long Creatine is Stored in Your Body?
Usually, creatine starts to leave your body on the first day when you stop to use it. About 15% is going out after day one (8). That’s why most athletes and bodybuilders are taking creatine daily. So, no one just wants to feel how they are losing their strength and mass.
What Are Creatine Side Effects?
Above we have told you about creatine benefits, but we also have to tell about creatine side effects. It can provide you strength, muscle growth, endurance, etc., but it has some mild side effects which are better to know.
Creatine side effects:
- Dehydration – Creatine makes your muscles absorb more water from all possible places of your body, so this can cause dehydration. So, this side effect can be solved pretty easy, just drink more water.
- Possible weight gain – Some users report that they are gaining weight when they are using creatine. This is a temporary issue, because of the above-mentioned side effect (holding water). So, you just should not worry, as it is water weight, besides you will get rid of it when you will stop use creatine, and you will get rid of water in a few weeks.
- Stomach ache and cramping – Some people are getting a minor stomach ache. It is a rare side effect and happens if you are using it on empty stomach. So, the best recommendation to avoid cramping after taking creatine just eats before.
- Kidney and liver issues – There were a lot of rumors that creatine hurts your liver and kidneys, but that’s not true. It was proven that it is not true (9), but it also fact that it makes your kidneys work harder. So, people who have any kidney issues should better avoid creatine.
Video for Lazy Readers!
Bottom Line
We hope you know enough about creatine benefits and all possible cons now and are ready to use it. It’s a really good and effective supplement that can help and support you in reaching your mass, strength, endurance and other goals. Let us know if you want to know more about creatine, we will update missing information in our post. We want you to have all the necessary data you need.
Please note – we do not recommend you take ANY supplements featured on this site without consulting a doctor first.
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