Creatine for Beginners: How to Start & What to Expect

If you’re new to the world of fitness and you’ve never even heard of creatine before, you’ve come to the right place. It’s quite possible that no nutritional supplement is more misunderstood than creatine, and that’s because no supplement has had more misinformation spread about it than creatine has.

Fortunately, 30 years after creatine first ascended to a place of prominence in the world of fitness, it’s virtually impossible to find a supplement that has undergone more testing to identify its benefits, and the optimal conditions under which you should take it. So if you’re curious about how to gain muscle mass quickly, here is what to expect when taking creatine, and how to take creatine for the first time.

What Is Creatine and How Does It Work?

Simply stated, creatine is a compound formed by the amino acids glycine, arginine and methionine. Collectively, these amino acids are stored in your skeletal muscle tissue, and also in organs like your brain that are highly energy-dependent, such as adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. 

Creatine can be acquired and ingested from natural food sources, and is available in its highest quantities in animal sources like meat and fish, and especially in beef and herring. If you are unable to acquire ample creatine in its fully-formed state, your body will be able to create creatine on its own by taking the three required amino acids from other food sources and recombining them into creatine.

While there is almost always creatine present in your body that is able to be called upon to assist with your basic energy needs, your body does not naturally possess a superabundant reservoir of creatine to draw from during sustained activity of a strenuous nature.

Remarkably, your body possesses the capacity to store much larger deposits of creatine than it would ever be conveniently able to acquire from natural sources. When supplemental creatine is consumed, it saturates your muscle tissue, providing it with access to an ample supply of ATP.  

Depending on the circumstances you find yourself training in, your creatine-saturated muscles may enjoy benefits ranging from their ability to sustain an all-out sprinting pace for a few seconds more, to an ability to crank out a few additional training reps with heavy weights, and even an improved ability to spontaneously quicken your pace in the middle of aerobic runs.

While these are scenarios in which the benefits of creatine may be the most obvious, the elevated level of ATP may also act as a buffer to ease the transition between your major energy systems during sustained physical activity. Simultaneous to this, the elevated level of ATP in your brain will increase its energy level, resulting in several cognitive improvements based on this uptick in energy.

Why Creatine Is Great for Beginners

The primary reason that creatine is great for beginners is due to its undeniable effectiveness, at least when consumed consistently and correctly. There are practically countless examples of creatine improving physical performance in all varieties of populations, settings, and circumstances. 

A meta-analysis of 23 studies showed that creatine unequivocally increased both the upper- and lower-body strength of study participants when compared with a placebo. (1) A separate meta-analysis of 10 studies lasting at least six weeks showed clear increases of upper- and lower-body muscle thickness in comparison with a placebo. (2)

Evidence also shows that creatine, due in part to its ability to accelerate ATP transfer and reduce lactic acid, can increase your time to exhaustion during anaerobic activities and sprinting activities. This combination boosts cardiovascular endurance, particularly in endurance activities that require one or more all-out bursts of power. (3)

What’s more, several of creatine’s underpublicized benefits have nothing to do with physical performance, making creatine a supplement that you will benefit from even if you never exercise at all. As just one example, a meta analysis of 16 randomized controlled trials revealed that creatine supplementation improved memory and cognitive processing speed. (4)

While there have been serious concerns raised about potential dangers associated with creatine when it first gained popularity, the majority of them have been scientifically debunked as nonsense. Two particular myths about creatine have lingered for far too long: That creatine initiates bloating, and that it also causes dehydration.  

While creatine does draw water into the cells, most instances of bloating occur only during a classic, structured loading phase during which 20 grams of creatine are consumed each day. Outside of that, instances of bloating are extremely rare. 

Moreover, creatine’s tendency to draw water into the muscles has been shown to have a hydrating effect rather than a dehydrating effect as long as sufficient water is consumed.

How to Start Taking Creatine (Step-by-Step)

Most discussions of taking creatine start with creatine monohydrate — the original form of creatine, the most researched form of creatine, and the most common form of creatine consumed by athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

While the actions of creatine within your body may seem incredibly complex, the process of beginning to take creatine is actually quite simple. It’s simply a matter of whether or not you choose to indulge in a classic loading phase or not.

The classic loading phase stems from the decades’ old belief that doses of 20 grams of creatine per day are required to saturate your skeletal muscle tissue with creatine. In this scenario, four separate five-gram doses of creatine are consumed daily for five to seven days, at which point you would reduce your dose of creatine to one three-to-five gram maintenance dose per day, although most people take five grams to just be on the safe side.

Most people opting to forgo a loading phase will simply begin consuming three to five grams of creatine every day for as long as they wish to benefit from the supplement.

In addition to this, there is the matter of when to take creatine for the best results. There are studies that demonstrate the efficacy of consuming creatine at virtually any time of the day, but the majority of the studies exploring the timing of creatine intake involve creatine consumption either immediately before, during or immediately following workouts.

The results of one study indicated that creatine supplementation immediately before or immediately following resistance training resulted in muscle growth and strength increases regardless of timing. (5) However, the bulk of the evidence supports the premise that it is usually more advantageous to consume creatine after training rather than prior to it. (6)

Since creatine intake can lead to dehydration because of how much water is drawn into the muscle cells, creatine is most effective when it is consumed with plenty of water. Not only is it commonly recommended that creatine should be consumed with 12 ounces of water, but it is also advised that you should imbibe three to four liters of water — or 12-to-16 cups — every day while you’re taking creatine. 

What to Expect in the First Few Weeks

Within your first two weeks of creatine intake, you should notice some rather immediate gains in strength as your enhanced muscles are able to complete reps at a higher volume than ever before, or move larger quantities of weight per rep.

Moving beyond that, you should expect to experience endurance gains in three to four weeks, as the durability of your muscles also increases, and the effects of your workouts begin to compound.

While your muscles may appear to thicken very quickly within the first month of training, this will more than likely be owed to the influx of water into your muscles, drawn in by the presence of creatine. The creation of new, visible muscle tissue takes time, so you’ll need to maintain your training program for several weeks before you notice any obvious new muscle growth.

Common Mistakes First-Time Users Make

There are a number of mistakes that beginners tend to make when they first start taking creatine. Of these mistakes, the most critical mistake is that they either take too little creatine, or take it too inconsistently. In both of these instances, the saturation of skeletal muscle tissue goes unaccomplished, which means the benefits of creatine are unattained.

This can lead directly to the second most frequent error seen when people start taking creatine, which is that they discontinue their use of creatine altogether too soon. Because the benefits of creatine are cumulative, they take an extended amount of time to fully experience and appreciate. Many people give up on creatine altogether too soon before they can perceive any noticeable change in their performance or physique.

While creatine monohydrate is the gold standard, many sources of creatine are poor in quality, and for this reason fail to generate the desired outcome. This is commonly seen when creatine is mixed with another substance for the sake of making its consumption easier. When creatine is premixed with water before it is stored on the shelf, it degrades, resulting in the effectiveness of the creatine being greatly diminished.

Similarly, many “creatine gummies” have been discovered to contain far less creatine than advertised. While this may be owed in part to some of the brands failing to add the advertised amount of creatine to the gummies, the majority of the cases are likely the result of the creatine being degraded during the processing of the supplements. 

As such, for the sake of ensuring that you receive your intended dose of creatine, you would be advised to consume creatine in a relatively pure or unadulterated form, or take a type of creatine whose content has been certified by a reliable third party. 

Choosing a High-Quality Creatine Supplement

If you’d like a simple guide to reference to help you choose a high-quality creatine supplement, this checklist will help you.

• Confirm that your supplement contains an adequate dose of creatine (3-to-5 grams)per serving.
• Ensure that your creatine contains no harmful additives, including artificial flavors, sweeteners, or colors.
• Look for a certification indicating that your creatine has been proven through          laboratory testing to contain no impurities or contaminants.

To save yourself some time, you can purchase Transparent Labs Creatine HMB. It already passes every test present on the aforementioned checklist, and it also combines creatine monohydrate with the muscle-preserving properties of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) to ensure that you keep even more of your hard-won gains.

Ready to Start Your Creatine Journey?

The keys to obtaining the most benefits from creatine are to take the right dose every day, to train hard, and to stick with it even if the results seem like they’re slow to come by. Creatine is remarkably effective, but it isn’t magic. It can’t substitute for hard work, but it can make some of the hard work easier to perform, and ensure that you get the most out of it.

Sources

1. Wang Z, Qiu B, Li R, Han Y, Petersen C, Liu S, Zhang Y, Liu C, Candow DG, Del Coso J. Effects of Creatine Supplementation and Resistance Training on Muscle Strength Gains in Adults <50 Years of Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2024 Oct 28;16(21):3665. doi: 10.3390/nu16213665. PMID: 39519498; PMCID: PMC11547435.

2. Burke R, Piñero A, Coleman M, Mohan A, Sapuppo M, Augustin F, Aragon AA, Candow DG, Forbes SC, Swinton P, Schoenfeld BJ. The Effects of Creatine Supplementation Combined with Resistance Training on Regional Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2023 Apr 28;15(9):2116. doi: 10.3390/nu15092116. PMID: 37432300; PMCID: PMC10180745.

3. Forbes SC, Candow DG, Neto JHF, Kennedy MD, Forbes JL, Machado M, Bustillo E, Gomez-Lopez J, Zapata A, Antonio J. Creatine supplementation and endurance performance: surges and sprints to win the race. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2023 Dec;20(1):2204071. doi: 10.1080/15502783.2023.2204071. PMID: 37096381; PMCID: PMC10132248.

4. Xu C, Bi S, Zhang W, Luo L. The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Nutr. 2024 Jul 12;11:1424972. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1424972. Erratum in: Front Nutr. 2025 Feb 17;12:1570800. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1570800. PMID: 39070254; PMCID: PMC11275561.

5. Candow DG, Vogt E, Johannsmeyer S, Forbes SC, Farthing JP. Strategic creatine supplementation and resistance training in healthy older adults. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2015 Jul;40(7):689-94. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2014-0498. Epub 2015 Feb 26. PMID: 25993883.

6. Ribeiro F, Longobardi I, Perim P, Duarte B, Ferreira P, Gualano B, Roschel H, Saunders B. Timing of Creatine Supplementation around Exercise: A Real Concern? Nutrients. 2021 Aug 19;13(8):2844. doi: 10.3390/nu13082844. PMID: 34445003; PMCID: PMC8401986.