I Took Creatine for 3 Months & I Didn't Turn into a Bodybuilder (but I Did Improve My Brain Health, According to Experts)

Who doesn’t want to be smarter? Faster? Better? I do, since I’m pretty sure my daily juggling of self-care, family and work would go a lot smoother if I could optimize productivity and efficiency. Between figuring out what are my menopause essential products,  considering what happens to your brain when you start Ozempic and whether non-sleep deep rest is the answer to my midday slump (spoiler: the napper in me approves), I’m really trying all the things. So when I saw a bajillion social media posts touting the merits of creatine for women, not only for my muscles, but also for brain health, I had to try it.

I’d always thought of creatine as some sort of muscle builder for extreme athletes, and assumed it was a man-made substance invented in a lab. Like most “facts” I think I know, I was only partly right—actually creatine is a compound of three amino acids that is naturally found in your muscles and brain; your liver, pancreas and kidneys make about 1 gram of creatine per day. You also consume natural creatine when you eat meat and fish. The creatine you see sold as supplements? Those are synthetic versions, and they began selling like gangbusters in the ‘90s after top athletes at the Barcelona Olympic Games attributed their success to creatine supplements. There are different creatine compounds, including the most widely used and studied, creatine monohydrate.

When you ingest creatine (or when your organs make it), the substance goes to your skeletal muscles to create adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a nucleotide that gives the cells energy—that’s why creatine is used to keep muscles from getting fatigued and to encourage faster muscle recovery. All your cells need ATP to keep operating, for lots of processes including DNA and RNA synthesis and synaptic signaling.

Women’s health guru Dr. Mary Claire Haver cites a 2021 study in the science journal Nutrients to explain why creatine is a critical daily supplement for her. This study details how women store 70 to 80 percent less creatine than men, and how hormone fluctuations (during menses, pregnancy, post-partum, during and post-menopause) affect creatine in the body. There’s also evidence that taking creatine supplementation improves strength and exercise performance among pre-menopausal females, while post-menopausal females may also experience benefits in skeletal muscle size and function as well as good effects on bone when combined with resistance training. And in addition to all these hardbody effects, the study reports, “Pre-clinical and clinical evidence indicates positive effects from creatine supplementation on mood and cognition, possibly by restoring brain energy levels and homeostasis.”

In addition to providing more energy and helping to increase muscle growth, creatine helps speed up muscle recovery, increase growth and tissue repair through increasing anabolic hormones including insulin, human growth hormone (hGH), estrogen and testosterone and boost water content in muscle cells, believed to aid muscle growth and reduce muscle cramps.

While a 2020 study shows that taking the supplement does not lead to permanent weight gain in women, it can lead to increased muscle mass, which is a good thing, both for bone health and weight maintenance. While short-term feelings of water retention or bloat do effect some women, the water retention evens out as your body becomes used to its supplemental creatine.

I decided to take creatine both to increase muscle mass—I’m an intermittent but enthusiastic exerciser who loves resistance training and a post-workout calm—as well as for any productivity/brain health bump I might get out of the stuff. I started with one scoop of  Cor-Performance Creatine ($27; $25)—the recommended dosage of 5 grams—in the morning in a cold glass of water, which was a little daunting because I wasn’t awake enough first thing to drink a whole glass of water straight down, so I had to keep re-stirring to get it to stay dissolved.

Then I did a little more research, and found out that there’s a technique called “creatine loading” recommended by trainers. You’re supposed to take 20 to 25 grams of creatine a day for the first week to saturate your muscles, after which you can maintain with 5 grams a day. I tried the 20-gram-a-day method, and was not only given pause by how often I had to drink a glass of water, but also I then got firsthand experience of the stomach upset that is among the side effects some users experience with supplemental creatine. (Other side effects I did not experience include cramps, diarrhea, dizziness, liver dysfunction and kidney damage.) The stomach upset was enough of a downside for me to stop the heavier dosages, so I settled in to a regimen of a scoop of powder in a watered down 8 ounces of orange juice in the morning, and waited for my cells to soak up the creatine in their own time. Some days I found myself forgetting until the afternoon to take my supplement, which I didn’t like because  I was worried the creatine might stimulate me into not getting to sleep on time, but this never happened. In the first five weeks I took creatine, I found that I wanted to add a workout or two whereas before I’d opted for a nap instead.

Overall, after five weeks I not only had increased performance in my weekly workouts with my trainer, but I also had more energy overall and didn’t experience the mid-afternoon vitality slump I usually experience. My anecdotal experience is consistent with the 2019 study which found people over 50 who took creatine and lifted weights twice a week lost a pound of fat over five weeks; while I didn’t undergo a body composition assessment, the waistline of my jeans is looser and my squats and lunges are stronger, both of which usually mean I’ve gained muscle.

More than the way my clothes fit or my workouts go, I’m noticing that my ability to concentrate as well as move through my daily tasks is getting better. I’m not feeling so mentally sluggish. It’s hard to explain, except to say that I feel like I’m grasping concepts more rapidly, in way that’s similar to after I have an extra cup of coffee—but without the impatient agitation. I’m more awake, which is appreciated, so for now I’ll keep taking my creatine…I hate to break my winning streak.