How Much Water Should You Drink with Creatine?

Creatine is widely known for its power-enhancing potential. It promotes muscle mass building, strength gains and faster regeneration. However, many people forget to connect creatine and water intake. Hydration is critical to utilise this supplement capabilities in full. Read how much water to take with creatine and why it’s so important.

Understanding Hydration Needs with Creatine

To better understand the connection between creatine and water, let’s start from a little reminder of what creatine is. It’s an amino acid derivative naturally occurring within the body. Creatine can be produced internally from amino acids. You can also ingest it with some food, especially red meat and some types of fish.

The main role of creatine is to enable ATP (adenosine triphosphate) resynthesise. An ATP molecule is a basic source of energy, needed when fat oxidation is not effective enough. Typically, stores of ATP are enough to maintain several seconds of intensive effort at most. After that time, it has to be regenerated and here's where creatine comes in. It speeds up ATP regeneration and muscle tissue growth and repair. Creatine is a good post-workout supplement, fat loss and muscle building, depending on your needs.

It’s a perfect moment to ask, do you need to drink more water when taking creatine and why? Well, the short answer is, yes, you should.

Before the phosphate group is broken down from creatine phosphate as a way of ATP regeneration, your body has to produce certain creatine-specific enzymes and proceed with reaction. It's a so-called hydrolytic reaction. It means, water is needed to conduct ATP recreation effectively. Proper hydration is important not only for ATP creation, but also muscle tissue repair, muscle size growth and enhanced regeneration between sets or sprints.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that drinking not enough water stops creatine from acting totally. In the end, we all have to drink at least some fluids on a daily basis. Drinking small amounts of water however greatly reduces benefits of creatine supplementation. Water is also important to get rid of creatinine.

What happens if you don’t drink enough water with creatine? Well, basically speaking, creatine can’t supply muscles with power. However, taking creatine incorrectly, as well as irregularly, is a waste of money.

How Much Water Should I Drink a Day with Creatine?

Athletes often consider how much water to drink on a creatine cycle. It certainly should be a greater amount than usual, but it’s challenging to declare a specific number in litres or flouting ounces. Critical factors, needed to establish water-drinking protocol are:

• Muscle mass – the more muscles you have, the more fluids you need.
• The form of creatine – lesser solubility of creatine monohydrate makes it more demanding for water than, for example, a creatine malate or magnesium creatine chelate, which are better soluble.
• Conditions in which you train – high temperature and great air humidity contribute to stronger sweating, so fluids have to be drunk more often and in greater amounts.

Safely speaking, you can assume that you do need to drink more water with creatine. If you drink 2,5 litres daily, aim for circa 4 litres a day. It should be enough to keep the chemical reaction in your body running smoothly.

Is Creatine Water Retention Something Normal?

Doubts about creatine and water retention is something that deters some physically active people (especially endurance athletes and women). To some extent, it is inevitable, but you should remember that additional kilograms on the scale are water gathered in muscles, not adipose tissue. How much water weight does creatine add? Typically, it ranges from 1 to 2 kilograms, depending on plenty of different factors, such as amount of water ingested, form of creatine and even your training experience. Seasoned bodybuilders’ muscles are often less responsive than beginners.

Sometimes it is important to limit retention, for examples in endurance-based disciplines, like long-distance running, but also martial arts and CrossFit, where additional weight can impair performance. If that is your case, try more advanced forms of creatine, like creatine HCl. Another strategy is to buy a creatine stack. Different forms of creatine combined stimulate cell receptors on a slightly different level. It can be more effective than a simple product with one ingredient.

How long does creatine retention last? Usually, it’s about 4 to 6 weeks. Creatine (and creatinine) is flushed out gradually. You’ll notice less muscle fullness and your performance with intense exercises may slightly decrease. However, it won’t be that way, if you keep a healthy, well-balanced diet and fuel your body with enough calories and macronutrients as well as train honestly. After additional creatine is dropped out from muscles, a natural concentration of it will return.

How to Get Rid of Creatine Water Weight Faster?

If you prepare for a contest, where weight is crucial for success (for example a fight or a marathon run), you may want to reduce water retention as quickly as possible. An effective method would be to reduce carbohydrates, since glycogen, which is made of carbs, absorbs a lot of water. If you don’t want to expose your endurance due to lack of carbohydrates, try drinking natural herbal extracts. A lot of them act like weight-loss supplements for more frequent urination.

How Much Water to Drink When Taking Creatine: A Practical Approach

Now let’s look at a few key aspects of hydration during the creatine cycle from a practical standpoint.

Firstly – your weight. The heavier you are, the more you should drink. A slim marathoner or triathlete, who weighs 55–60 kilograms, needs less water than a bodybuilder with 100+ kilograms on scale. Don’t copy someone's supplementation plan. It’s better to ask a personal trainer or sports dietitian for advice.

Secondly – activity level. The more you exercise, the more water you should ingest. Fluids are vital for a wide range of different biochemical processes concerning blood flow, muscle work and even joint lubrication. While most people train three or four times a week, triathletes and CrossFit enthusiasts are known for several training units per week. If you count as one of such extreme physically active people, proper hydration is even more important.

Thirdly – the environment. Hot and humid weather conditions are difficult to challenge even without working out. If you train in a tropical rainforest zone, never forget about hydration. Your body needs it badly to function properly.

Fourthly – the diet. If you eat a lot of protein, your body needs more water to break down the amino acids. Many people drink protein shakes as a way to increase protein supply. If you also do that, a few additional cups of water may come in handy.

Overall, it is important to notice that less-soluble forms of creatine, as well as using creatine loading phase, means your body needs more water. That is because creatine particles are harder to break down and resupply ATP. For example, Kre-Alkalyn is easier to soluble and digest than monohydrate, but not as easy as creatine HCl.

Tips for Staying Hydrated While Using Creatine

It’s very easy to forget about hydration during the day. What can you do to effectively drink a few litres of fluids?

Try to make a routine out of drinking. Bring a refillable bottle wherever you go. It’s light, cheap and can be replenished easily at home, at work or at the gym. After a few days, you will feel odd without a water jug. Set up an alarm clock or a reminder in one of the popular apps for mobile devices. It’s also a common function in modern smartwatches. Even if you get sidetracked, an alarm would signal a ‘water brake.’

If you are a ‘coffee-drinker,’ water is especially important, while caffeine is a mild diuretic. Even in small doses, it may promote extra urination. If you combine it with a caffeine-based pre-workout supplement, that effect will be multiplied. Set yourself a simple, yet effective rule. If you drink more than two cups of typical coffee or take a pre-workout shot, drink additional two glasses of water. This way, you are likely to avoid even the slightest dehydration.

What To Drink With Creatine?

Drinking water with creatine seems obvious, but it is not the only strategy. If you want to enhance supplementation effectiveness even further, choose carbohydrates. Simple sugars promote insulin secretion and it’s a potent anabolic hormone. Carbs also act as a firestarter and a basic fuel for mid-to-high physical activity. It may be a good method for long-distance runners, since they need plenty of carbs. Also bodybuilders will make use of this tactic during the muscle-building phase.