You have heard of creatine, but you have no idea how much your body actually relies on it. Amy Hudson and Dr. James Fisher explore what creatine really is, why it matters for your health and performance, who should be using it, and how it actually works. They also tackle what the science actually says, how to use it in a way that makes sense for your lifestyle, and why so many people from athletes to everyday health seekers consider it a game changer.

Expect to walk away with practical takeaways you can use immediately, whether your goal is to train harder, improve recovery, support brain health, or simply live with more energy.

• Dr. Fisher starts by explaining what creatine is and what it does.
• It is one of the most researched supplements in the world and plays a direct role in how your body produces energy. Think of it as fuel storage that your muscles, brain, and organs can tap into when they need a boost.
• Why is creatine so important? According to Dr. Fisher, creatine is essentially your body’s backup battery for energy, powering everything from your muscles to your brain. Without it, you would not be able to perform at your best physically or mentally.
• Dr. Fisher explains how creatine boosts performance and allows you to exercise harder and longer.
• Why athletes swear by creatine. From Olympic sprinters to football players, it is one of the most widely used supplements in sports. If you want to train like the best, creatine has likely been part of their routine.
• Dr. Fisher highlights creatine health benefits that go beyond the gym. 
• Studies show creatine can lower cholesterol, protect your liver, and even help with blood sugar control. It is also linked to reducing bone loss, supporting brain health, and minimizing the risk of serious diseases.
• Amy and Dr. Fisher cover why vegetarians may benefit even more from creatine. 
• Since plant based diets do not provide as much creatine naturally, supplements can make an even bigger difference. And yes, vegan friendly options are widely available.
• According to Dr. Fisher, creatine is not just for athletes anymore. It is now considered a supplement for overall health and healthy aging. 
• Amy and Dr. Fisher cover the types of creatine. You can buy it as a pill, a powder, or even gummies. But the gold standard, the one most research supports, is creatine monohydrate.
• Dr. Fisher on dosage: how much should you take daily? Research shows three to five grams per day is enough for most people. Smaller individuals may only need two to three grams, while larger athletes might go slightly above five.
• Does creatine cause water retention? Dr. Fisher says no, there is no research to back that up. That old loading phase of 20 grams a day was more marketing than science, so stick to the steady daily dose.
• Is creatine an anabolic steroid? Absolutely not. It has nothing to do with steroids chemically or functionally, so you can safely separate the two in your mind.
• Is creatine safe for children and teens? While there is less research in younger groups, studies show no evidence of harm. Still, Dr. Fisher emphasizes focusing first on diet, sleep, hydration, and exercise before adding supplements.
• Does creatine increase fat mass? Amy and Dr. Fisher reveal how creatine helps build lean muscle, which actually helps reduce body fat. If anything, it works in your favor for body composition.
• Dr. Fisher busts the myth that creatine is only for strength athletes. It is not just for bodybuilders or powerlifters, it has broad health benefits for anyone. That is why today, it is considered more of a wellness supplement than a performance only one.
• Is creatine only effective for men? According to Dr. Fisher, women benefit just as much. In fact, creatine may even support hormonal health, mood, and energy across the menstrual cycle.

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I would imagine there’s probably not an Olympic athlete on the planet that doesn’t take creatine. Lots of people will be listening and thinking, well, maybe I should be taking it.

These are some of the most common asked questions about this, maybe a little bit of misunderstanding or some mythology. So we’re going to break these down and clarify some things. Welcome to the Strength Changes Everything podcast, where we introduce you to the information, latest research and tools that will enable you to live a strong, healthy life. On this podcast, we will also answer your questions about strength, health, and well -being. I’m Amy Hudson. I own and operate three exercise coach studios.

My co -hosts are Brian Sagan, co -founder and CEO of The Exercise Coach, and Dr. James Fisher, leading researcher in evidence -based strength training. And now for today’s episode. Welcome back to the Strength Changes Everything podcast, everybody. Today we are talking about a popular supplement you may have heard of called creatine. This episode, we’re going to go through what creatine is, why it’s beneficial, who should be using it, how it works. And then we’re going to go through some rapid fire FAQs, frequently asked questions about this supplement.

There’s a lot of myths out there about this and so we’re going to cover those, debunk some of those, and just hopefully leave this episode today understanding a little bit better what creatine is, the benefits of it, and maybe how it could support you in your goals. So Dr. Fisher is here with me today and we’re going to just start by diving in and he’s going to cover for us kind of an overarching description of creatine. So Dr. Fisher, how’s it going today?

Yeah, very good. Thank you, Amy.

How are you?

I’m doing great.

So I’m looking forward to learning a little bit more about creatine. It’s newer to me. And I know you also take it. But let’s start by diving in and talking about what is creatine and what does it do?

Yeah. So it’s probably worth clarifying first off, creatine is one of the most researched supplements in existence. There’s just a plethora of academic studies that have looked at the effects of creatine, both from an exercise point of view, but also from a cognitive point of view and health benefit as well. So there is just an absolute mountain of research around creatine itself. But what is it? So it’s a natural compound that’s synthesized endogenously.

So the body will produce creatine from amino acids that we take in from meat or fish or eggs or so forth. But it’s also a naturally occurring product in meat and fish and eggs. So we can consume it, but we can also produce it. Now it’s primarily made in the liver, but also to some extent in the kidneys and the pancreas, and that’s worth a mention because we’ll probably come back to that a bit later on. But as far as what it is as a biological process, it’s stored in the scolipal muscle and it’s essential for providing energy. So creatine is converted to phosphocreatine and then it’s actually The process is adenosine diphosphate is added to phosphocreatine to regenerate adenosine triphosphate, and adenosine triphosphate, or ATP as it’s called, is basically our body’s way of producing energy.

So the best way to think of it is that creatine is essential for our body to have as either as a store or to produce, to be able to produce energy, whether that’s in our brain, in our organs, or in our skeletal muscle.

Okay, great. So it’s a very basic component of our metabolic system. how we produce energy in our bodies. Yeah. OK, great.

So then what exactly does creatine do and what what are the health benefits associated with, you know, adequate amounts of creatine in one’s body? Yeah, absolutely. So obviously, if we’ve got more creatine there to convert to phosphocreatine to add it to our energy production cycle, then we can exercise for longer. exercise harder, recruit higher threshold motor units and muscle fibers, so recruit those type 2 muscle fibers that we’ve talked about previously that are so important. So we tend to think of it in terms of the maximal end of exercise, that we can go for that extra percentage points longer, we can recruit those muscle fibers, we can improve our respiratory fitness and our muscular endurance as well. And that’s where the bulk of the body of research lies.

I would imagine there’s probably not an Olympic athlete on the planet that doesn’t take creatine or hasn’t taken creatine at some point, and there’s probably not many football players, soccer players, baseball players, basketball players, again, that don’t use creatine in some form, because it’s just one of the most commonly used supplements. Now, of course, if we’re gaining it from our nutritional habits, from a high meat diet or eggs or fish or so forth, as we said, then it might be that we are consuming a good amount of creatine. I tend to think of it as a bit of a belt and braces approach, that it’s a relatively inexpensive supplement. It’s a relatively small dosage with very minimal side effects, if any, and we will talk about that. So adding creatine into my diet as a supplement effectively doesn’t cost me anything. And so I’m sure most athletes, high -performance

athletes, feel exactly the same way. So when we talk about the health benefits, there’s a few studies that have shown that creatine can lower cholesterol. It can reduce accumulation of fat on the liver. It can reduce risk of heart disease and enhance glycemic control and glucose management. So reducing HbA1c levels, we’ve talked about that previously. And even things like it can reduce progression of cancer, minimize bone loss in older adults, and even enhance cognitive function.

Now, if we think about what we’ve just said about creatine as uh, one of the essential kind of building blocks of energy production, it kind of makes sense that it’s going to do those things, that it’s going to enhance cognitive function because our brain obviously is dependent upon energy as well, uh, minimize bone loss. So the more energy we have there, the less we’re reliant upon breaking down bone and things like that.

So, so there are a number of studies that have really supported great health benefits from creating as well.

Wow. Okay, great. So there’s quite a lot of benefits there then.

So then who should consider taking a creatine supplement?

Who would you say that it would be for?

Yeah. So, and this is the great question because lots of people will be listening and thinking, well, maybe I should be taking it. And the reality is, it’s for everybody. You know, historically, this has been a key supplement for athletes or for you know, young males looking to get stronger or build muscle or so forth. But the reality is, it’s for anybody. It’s shown to help regulate hormones in females.

It’s shown to retain muscle and bone density in older adults and cognitive function. So it’s great for the aging population. Everybody is now more and more aware of their physical strength and their muscle mass. And if creatine is gonna help support and maintain their strength and muscle mass, or help rebuild it if they’re engaging in strength training, then it’s almost an essential supplement for everybody. Now, we can add to that and say, based on where we can find creatine in our dietary habits, in meat, fish, and eggs, If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan listening to this podcast then creatine might be even more important for you and certainly the studies have shown that the effects of creatine are even greater for people on a vegetarian diet compared to people on an omnivore diet.

Um, so, and you can buy creatine that is vegan friendly and vegetarian friendly and so forth. So don’t think that there’s an animal product in what you’re consuming. It’s not that way at all. But yeah, so it could be specifically important for, for vegetarians. Um, and like I said, because it shows the, the aspects of cognitive function, improving, uh, increased energy and, and, you know, for people suffering with sleep deprivation and so forth. It’s really a supplement that everybody should consider.

It’s not considered an athletic supplement anymore.

It’s really just a healthy lifestyle supplement. OK, that really, really helps just to kind of demystify, you know, what creatine is, how it works and who should be using it and why somebody would choose to use it. I hope that helps you if you’re listening to this. So then let’s talk about types of creatine.

What type of creatine, you know, should people be using?

taking.

Yeah. Yeah. So creatine is available in a number of forms. You can buy it as a pill, you can buy it as a powder or a capsule. You used to, I think you can buy like creating gummies now as well that you can kind of chew.

And so it’s available in a plethora of different formats for you to consume in whatever way might be your preference. The majority of research is done on what’s called creatine monohydrate. So it’s basically creatine where it’s bonded with one molecule of water, hence it gives it the monohydrate name. And that’s typically the most popular form of creatine supplement. It’s considered to be the sort of the purest form. It’s not mixed with other bulking agents and things like that.

And like I say, that’s that’s what the majority of the research has been done on.

So when we talk about health benefits, we’re talking about the research studies that have looked at creating monohydrate.

And this is a very fine powder that you effectively add to a to a drink of some kind. OK, and then what kind of dosage would you suggest then adding? Yeah, so this is a great question, because historically, there’s been talk about a loading phase. And of course, I’m sure we’ll talk about this in a moment. But actually, the evidence now says three to five grams per day is absolutely sufficient. You don’t need to take any more than that.

It can be based on your body size. So if you’re a much smaller male or female, you might choose to take, you know, two or three grams a day.

If you’re a much, much bigger male, you know, if you’re six foot six or seven foot or, you know, 250, 300 pounds, you could probably take a little bit more than five grams per day. But typically the research says three to five grams per day.

Okay, great, great. Okay. So Now, let’s just go through some FAQs. These are some of the most common asked questions about this, and some of these imply maybe a little bit of misunderstanding or some mythology.

So, we’re going to break these down and clarify some things.

Are you ready, Dr. Fisher? I’m ready, Lester Forge. Okay.

The first question is,

is, you know, does creatine lead to water retention? Okay. So there’s, there’s no evidence to support this. There’s no studies that have ever supported this. Um, and it’s probably built on the premise of taking a loading phase. So I mentioned this just a moment ago.

So historically, I mean, when I was in my teens, my late teens, I used creatine and it was, uh, at the time you took 20 grams a day for five days as a loading phase. So you used a hundred grams within the first five days of, of. buying a tub of creatine and then you drop to a sort of a five gram or three to five gram per day maintenance dosage. Now, I have no idea why it was pitched as a loading phase and the skeptic in me now thinks that actually it was just a great way for products to market a loading phase so that you used your tub of creatine powder a lot quicker.

You know, if you buy a 300 gram tub, that of course, if you get through a hundred grams in the first five days, then you’re going to buy more sooner.

Um, so, you know, so it was probably built around that, but there’s absolutely no evidence to support that, that creatine leads to water retention. Okay. And, and just if you’re new to the term loading phase, so basically the idea was you’re supposed to like add, you’re supposed to compound it a little bit more in your system.

You’re supposed to let it build up in your system for optimal effect.

Is that, is that the thinking? Yeah. So it was always advocated that your, your body is suffering with not having enough creatine. So you need to kind of add a lot of it every day for five days. You need to load your body. You need to kind of fill the, uh, fill the sink up and then you can kind of just drip feed it in bit by bit.

Well, now there’s no evidence to support that. So, you know, just three to five grams per day. Okay, awesome.

Thank you for clarifying. So the next question is, is creatine considered to be an anabolic steroid? Yeah, I hear this question a lot, especially from parents whose children are thinking of taking creatine. And it’s absolutely not an anabolic steroid. It’s a completely different chemical structure. It doesn’t have the same properties as an anabolic steroid in any way.

So it’s not steroidal in any format. In fact, there’s evidence to talk about safety in different population groups. But yeah, absolutely not an anabolic steroid. It’s not listed as a banned substance in any sport at all.

You know, I’ve done a lot of work with WADA and UK anti -doping, and it’s certainly not a banned substance. So it’s, yeah, it’s not an anabolic steroid at all. Okay.

Yeah, I can see why people may wonder that, just because it is going to help with your performance.

And so people think of that, and I think steroids do that too.

So maybe it’s sort of this like, one for the other mindset, but you’re saying that’s not true.

Great. How about the next one is, does creatine cause kidney damage or renal dysfunction? Yeah. So this is another kind of commonly held myth. And again, the experimental sort of controlled research says that when it’s ingested in recommended dosages of sort of three to five grams a day, that creates the subtle meditation doesn’t induce kidney damage or renal dysfunction in healthy individuals. There were a couple of studies, historic studies, where people with kidney failure on kidney dialysis took creatine and it had a negative impact on that.

They then stopped taking creatine almost instantly and their numbers changed almost instantly, so changed positively. So yes, it doesn’t seem that it causes any issues for healthy people when taken in normal dosages.

So it certainly shouldn’t be abused.

We certainly shouldn’t take a lot more than we need to. If you have no kidney issues, then it’s something to maybe consider discussing with your doctor or your physician. Okay, next question is, does creatine cause hair loss or baldness? Yeah, so again, this is a really funny one, because it’s associated with muscle building and strength increases. And that’s kind of this historic kind of acceptance of creatine use.

It is listed, as you mentioned, potentially, you know, a lot of people think of it in forms of a steroid. And therefore, a lot of people also think that creatine maybe increases testosterone, and there have been some studies which show that testosterone levels are associated with hair loss or baldness. Creatine doesn’t affect testosterone levels and therefore whether testosterone is or isn’t associated with hair loss or baldness, creatine isn’t going to impact it in any way.

Got you.

There’s a lot there. A lot of assumptions in that question.

Okay. How about the next one? So does creatine lead to dehydration and muscle cramping? Yeah, again, there’s absolutely no experimental or clinical research to validate the concept that creatine supplementation leads to dehydration or muscle cramping.

In fact, on a personal note, because I mix creatine in quite a large drink when I consume it, it probably makes me drink more or it adds to what I drink during the day.

So I would go as far as to say, you know, as long as we’re sensible about staying well hydrated, it certainly wouldn’t lead to

dehydration and muscle cramping and might even increase our hydration levels. Okay. So next, is creatine harmful for children and adolescents? Yeah, so this is going to be a great question from parents of young athletes or certainly young people who are looking to maybe build muscle or get fit or improve their fitness in some form. So they might look at taking supplements. So, first of all, it’s worth clarifying there’s no evidence to support that it’s harmful for children or adolescents at all.

There’s certainly no studies that have reported side effects in children or adolescents. But there is also limited or certainly less research in that population group compared to kind of the 18 plus population group of athletes and so forth. The one thing that I would say for any parent looking for support their child in their kind of athletic or health endeavors is it’s key to get. The, the things, the other things, right. You know, a healthy diet, good sleep patterns, good exercise habits, good hydration levels, you know, being outside in the sun, you know, and getting vitamin D, you know, all of the things that we generally consider as kind of healthy, a healthy lifestyle.

I would say it’s important to get those right first. They’re going to give you more bang for your buck than just not doing any of those things and adding creatine. But if you have a high school football player who is already devoted to the gym and devoted to their sleep habits and eats really well and so forth, then there’s certainly no evidence to say that creatine would be harmful for them in any way at all. OK, that’s a great answer. Very thorough. Thank you so much for that.

That really makes sense. And I always like how you remind us like, you know, we’re not trying to shortcut things. We have to get the basics correct, and then we can expand upon that from there. You know, there’s no such thing as like a free lunch.

We have to, we can’t shortcut health, you know, and so, you know, reminding us about those basics is very important. All right, next one. Does creatine increase fat mass? No, creatine doesn’t increase fat mass, and if anything, it increases muscle mass, which would serve to reduce fat mass. This is a myth that’s been held. Coming back to the water retention question, actually, there was an argument many, many years ago that people that took creatine sort of got bigger, but maybe got a little bit softer with it.

They weren’t as defined, as muscularly defined or as lean. Um, now what people do with their nutritional habits when they take a supplement or when they’re trying to build muscle, uh, quickly is they’ll often go through a bulking phase. So males will historically, you know, go through what they call a bulk where they’ll effectively just over consume calories with an intent to build muscle. They’ll add fat mass as well. And then they’ll go through a kind of a stripping phase where they’ll then try and strip that fat back down. and lean their body back down again.

And it’s a really funny concept because for the most part, all they do is they add fat and then they lose fat.

They don’t necessarily add any more muscle than they would have done if they just kept their diet pretty consistent. But yeah, as far as does creatine supplementation add fat mass? No, not at all. Okay, yep. I mean, is there anything to, if somebody’s doing a body composition scan and the fat cells have more water internally, would that read?

Is that what people are afraid of? Is maybe a body composition fat mass read that looks higher? because of the water. Well by that rationale if you use a bioelectrical impedance analysis so to need to scale or an in body or something like that the more hydrated a cell is then the the better the body composition reading you’ll get. So effectively, when you measure body composition using bioelectrical impedance analysis, you’re actually measuring hydration. So if somebody is very well hydrated, then their body composition will come back better than if they’re in a state of dehydration.

Um, cause the muscle is like 90 something percent water anyway.

So yes, there’s a, I can see why people would say, well, if you’ve got a hydrated fat cell compared to a shrunk fat cell, but creatine doesn’t go into fat cells or hydrate fat cells, creatine is there to help produce energy.

you know, stored, as we said, in the kidney, the liver, pancreas and muscle cells.

So it just doesn’t work that way. Gotcha.

All right.

Thank you, Dr. Fisher, for that.

That makes sense. All right. So then, is creatine only useful for resistance or power type of activities? Yeah. So this is the historic thinking that if you’re looking to get stronger or looking to do a sport where you, I don’t know, throw a shot or a javelin, then you can add creatine and you’ll get stronger and more powerful, but it’s not for the people.

That’s totally debunked now. Creatine, as we said earlier, has a large number of even health properties. So it’s certainly not just limited to that population group.

I would say that creatine is really now a health supplement rather than a sports performance supplement. Okay, all right, great. And the last FAQ that we have here today… is creatine only effective for males? But this is the age old kind of thinking that when it comes to strength training, uh, that’s for men and men should do strength training and, and, you know, that’s kind of their whole thing. Uh, and it’s not the case at all.

And our career is exactly the same. There’s no reason why creatine wouldn’t be equally effective for females for both the strength and kind of, uh, muscle building and muscle retention, uh, benefits. Um, but we can even go so far as to say that creatine, um.

can support hormonal regulation in females and hormonal health, including things like mood disturbances or stress or fatigue, which might be associated with menstrual cycle fluctuations.

Through the lifespan, through a female’s lifespan, through puberty and menopause, Creatine is shown to improve muscle function and bone health and cognitive function. I potentially buffer the effects of those hormonal shifts. So, you know, creatine certainly could be even more beneficial for females than it is for males. Gotcha. Okay. Well, that concludes kind of the rapid -fire FAQs about creatine.

And just so all the listeners know, I mean, this podcast is informational purposes only. This is for you to understand some of the known studied benefits of creatine. We’re not recommending anything specific to you personally. You should consult with your doctor related to any supplementation that you have. decide to take on, but I hope that you have learned a little bit of new information about some of the potential benefits of creatine, paying attention to, you know, your basics, are your basics in order? How is your nutrition foundation?

Is your strength training habit in place?

And then how could, you know, considering any additional supplementation benefit you and why that would be?

So I hope that’s what you got out of today’s podcast.

Dr. Fisher, is there anything else that you’d like to leave a listener for when it comes to considering a creatine supplement? No, I think we covered everything, Amy. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you for breaking it all down for us. And we will see you next time on the podcast.

Until then, I hope you remember strength changes everything. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please share it with a friend. You can submit a question or connect with the show at strengthchangeseverything . com. Join us next week for another episode and be sure to follow the show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts so that you never miss another episode.

Here’s to you and your best health.