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What are the benefits of creatine for women, you ask? Plenty.
Creatine supplies energy to your muscles, which is why many take creatine supplements. They use it to supplement their workout routines, build more strength, and even improve brain health.
Join us as we break down the benefits of creatine supplements for women and how they can help you build muscle, burn fat, and become smarter.
What Is Creatine and How Does It Work?
Fun fact: creatine is not an amino acid. This is a common myth that many believe about creatine.
But the truth is that creatine is not even one of the amino acid protein building blocks. Instead, it’s a compound that our body makes using a combination of three amino acids: arginine, glycine, and methionine.
More and more women are taking creatine supplements to complement their workout routines, get better results, and even fight off menopause symptoms.
Understanding Creatine’s Role in the Body
Creatine is a naturally occurring substance from your liver, kidneys, and pancreas. The body stores roughly 95% of its creatine as phosphocreatine in the muscles. It’s also found in red meat and seafood.
Your body’s creatine levels are responsible for giving your muscles energy during exercise. Creatine also helps in muscle growth and recovery.
Because creatine is important for muscle growth, energy, and recovery, many people are taking creatine supplements to boost their exercise results.
Types of Creatine Supplements Available
There’s plenty of ongoing research about creatine and supplementation. In general, it’s safe to take creatine supplements.
However, most studies show that the best type of creatine supplement in terms of safety, affordability, and consistency is creatine monohydrate. This type of creatine supplement is available in various forms, including pre-workout powders with creatine, pure creatine powder, gummies, creatine tablets, and creatine chews.
Some brands also offer vegan creatine supplements as an alternative.
We recommend consulting your healthcare provider to know more about the best type of creatine supplement.
Building Lean Muscle Mass with Creatine
How Creatine Supports Muscle Growth
Adenosine triphosphate is what fuels our body’s cells. This basic energy form is vital in muscle functionality and metabolism. Unfortunately, while our body naturally produces ATP, it can’t produce enough for more than 10 seconds of high-intensity exercise.
Because your body can’t produce enough ATP per second to keep up with you as you perform maximum-intensity exercises, you need more fuel, which is where creatine supplements come in.
The biggest benefit of creatine for women is it gives your body more phosphocreatine, which it uses to produce more ATP, giving you more energy before you get tired.
While the short-term benefits aren’t always evident, long-term creatine supplementation allows you to engage in more physical activity and build more muscle, even as you age.
Creatine vs. Other Supplements for Muscle Development
There’s a common belief that taking creatine and other supplements is important for muscle development. But, according to some studies, this isn’t true.
Nevertheless, taking creatine can help with muscle gain with proper training and diet.
One of the biggest benefits of creatine for women is fatigue recovery. Taking creatine as a post-workout drink has the best benefits. However, taking other supplements can help women for purposes other than muscle development.
Probiotics, for example, can help in maintaining a healthy gut microbiome, weight, and hormone levels.
Before taking any kind of supplement, we advise contacting your healthcare provider first.
Reducing Body Fat with Creatine
The Role of Creatine in Fat Loss
No, creatine doesn’t help you lose fat. At least not directly. Its effect won’t reflect on the scale.
But that doesn’t mean that creatine doesn’t help you lose weight.
Taking creatine supplements can help you build muscle mass and strength, which leads to better and more toned muscles. Because it gives you more fuel and allows you to put in more work at the gym, you’ll feel less sluggish even when you’re on a calorie deficit.
This increased energy level will allow you to work out harder while spending less time recovering without feeling like you need to eat more.
How Creatine Enhances Metabolic Function
Just as creatine isn’t typically associated with fat loss, it doesn’t have a direct effect on weight loss.
However, because creatine gives your body more ATP, it indirectly affects your body’s metabolism by letting you work out harder, faster, and more often.
Basically, taking creatine lets you power your way through intense workout sessions.
Exercise, as we all know, is crucial to weight loss.
Enhancing Muscle Strength with Creatine
Benefits for Strength Training and Performance
Strength training has many benefits for women, but recovery time is the biggest downside.
Your body needs enough time to rest after each session. Taking creatine supplements can reduce this.
By increasing strength and muscle performance and letting you skip the usual rest period, you can either squeeze in more weekly workout sessions or perform more short-duration and high-intensity resistance exercises in a single session. Some even do both!
Creatine’s Impact on Power and Endurance
Creatine supplementation isn’t as beneficial for low-intensity endurance exercises. In high-intensity exercises like strength training and weight lifting, creatine has the most impact.
According to this study, taking creatine supplements increases your “time to exhaustion” when you’re working out.
There’s growing evidence that creatine’s positive impact on power and endurance benefits endurance athletes.
So, if you run marathons, triathlons, or long-distance cycling, you should look into this supplement.
How Creatine Supports Brain Health
While it isn’t possible to lose weight by thinking harder (at least, not yet), the human brain is an energy hog.
For an organ that barely makes up over a percentage of your total body weight, the brain takes up a fifth of your body’s daily energy needs.
With so much energy dedicated to our brain, taking creatine may help.
The brain might not be a muscle, but it benefits from elevated ATP levels when taking creatine supplements. Creatine gives the brain more fuel and helps with brain fatigue (and maybe even brain fog). In fact, older adults who took creatine had significantly better memory and higher intelligence scores.
Creatine is a practical and non-invasive way to support brain health and improve mental function.
How to Incorporate Creatine into Your Routine
Best Practices for Dosage and Timing
There are two ways people take creatine. The first starts with a “loading phase” and moves on to a “maintenance phase” after some time. The second is taking creatine supplements daily without going through a “loading phase.”
Neither approach is better. It’s all a matter of wanting to experience some discomfort for the benefit of gaining muscular levels more quickly by loading up.
Taking 3-5 grams of creatine supplement daily without loading takes three weeks to reach ideal creatine levels, as opposed to five to seven days at 20-25 grams of daily creatine intake.
Regardless of which approach you choose, you should always take a daily “maintenance dose” of 3-5 grams.
Combining Creatine with Other Supplements
On its own, creatine can increase muscle mass muscle strength, and improve your overall workout performance.
Pairing it with other vitamins, minerals, and supplements like whey protein could possibly lead to better results. However, unlike other supplements, creatine has the benefit of being one of the most studied supplements.
Because of this, it’s best to consult your healthcare provider first if you want to take creatine and combine it with other supplements.
Addressing Common Myths About Creatine
Myth: Creatine Is Only for Men
Most who take creatine are men, but it’s not just for them. In fact, the benefits of creatine for women might even be higher compared to men.
This review paper from 2021 suggests that “creatine supplementation may be even more effective for females by supporting a pro-energetic environment in the brain,” adding that taking creatine has a low “risk-to-benefit ratio.”
Older women, in particular, may benefit from taking creatine the most.
During perimenopause and menopause, women experience a drop in hormone levels and muscle elasticity. They also need to rest more after exercising, become more prone to accidents, and have a heightened risk for osteoporosis.
Strength training can help older women fight the natural effects of aging and menopause. Supplementing with creatine can help your muscles struggle less with recovery and gain more while working out.
Of course, creatine is good for women of all ages. The sooner you begin exploring its benefits for women, the earlier you can slow the aging process down.
Myth: Creatine Causes Weight Gain and Bloating
No. Creatine doesn’t make you gain weight, but bloating does happen.
Creatine bloating is common during the loading phase. However, this isn’t because of added weight. It’s just that your muscles look bigger due to the added water intake. You can avoid this if you want by taking regular doses of creatine instead.
If you feel bloated while taking creatine, you should examine your diet and how much salt you’re consuming.
If the symptoms persist, consult your healthcare provider.
Conclusion: Why Creatine Is a Powerful Supplement for Women
Did you know that most research about creatine is positive?
In fact, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) claims that “creatine monohydrate is the most effective ergogenic nutritional supplement currently available to athletes with the intent of increasing high-tensity exercise capacity and lean body mass during training.”
But, you may ask, “I’m not an athlete, so creatine isn’t safe for me?”
This is definitely not true.
Everyone can benefit from creating supplements. In fact, the benefits of creatine for women might be even more pronounced.
Because female bodies have lower creatine stores than men, you can technically experience more muscle growth, higher performance gains, and faster recovery times by taking creatine compared to men.
Take creatine if you want to become a fitter and healthier version of yourself at any point in your life.
FAQs
What are the main benefits of creatine supplements for women?
Creatine supplements can help women increase muscle strength, improve exercise performance, enhance recovery after workouts, and support muscle mass maintenance, especially during resistance training.
Is creatine safe for women to use?
Yes, creatine is generally safe for women when used as directed. It has been extensively studied and is considered one of the most researched and effective supplements for improving physical performance with minimal side effects.
Can creatine help with weight management in women?
Creatine can support weight management by promoting lean muscle mass, which in turn can increase metabolism. While it may cause a slight increase in water retention initially, it does not contribute to fat gain.
How should women take creatine supplements for best results?
Women should typically start with a loading phase of 20 grams per day, split into 4 doses for 5-7 days, followed by a maintenance dose of 3-5 grams per day. Consuming creatine with a carbohydrate source can enhance its absorption.
Will creatine make women bulky or masculine?
No, creatine will not make women bulky or masculine. It primarily helps increase strength and muscle tone, not mass, and the extent of muscle growth depends on the type of training and diet. Women generally do not produce enough testosterone to develop a bulky physique.
