Creatine and Weight Loss: Can Creatine Help Burn Fat?

Creatine supplements are mainly associated with muscle mass gain. If you want to bulk up, this kind of support goes well with resistance training and caloric-surplus diet plan. However, during the cutting phase, taking creatine also can be helpful. Read how to use creatine for weight loss properly.

What Is Creatine? A Quick Summary

First and foremost, let’s summarise what creatine is. Creatine itself is an organic compound used to resynthesise ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is a basic energy source for explosive energy. When ATP is running low, your muscle will be unable to lift heavy loads. You need to rest for a couple of minutes to create ATP. So basically, taking creatine as a powder or pills allows your body to accumulate its greater reserve and create ATP faster.

In most cases, creatine supplements are used for lean muscle mass building and strength enhancement in combination with heavy resistance training and diet with caloric supply greater than requirements.

Can Creatine Help You Lose Weight?

The main rule, with which most of the bodybuilders agree, suggests taking creatine in the muscle gain phase and setting it aside during body mass reduction. However, nowadays, creatine is often used by athletes also during the cutting phase. How does it work?

A fat loss process demands eating fewer calories than you burn. The recommended deficit should be around 500-750 kcal, but it’s strongly individual. However, eating less carbohydrates also has another, darker side. It's a lack of energy, since carbs are the main energy source for medium-to-high intensity workouts and deliver simple glucose, so your body can spare glycogen and replenish ATP faster. If you don’t have fuel from food, muscle will release amino acids to support the exercise’s intensity. Creatine acts as an anticatabolic, preventing muscles from breaking down.

It can be said that creatine supplementation supports losing weight by boosting your muscles to work harder and protecting them at the same time. It doesn’t work though as a 'direct' fat burner, such as synephrine, conjugated linoleic acid or green tea extract.

Understanding Creatine's Role in Weight Management

To better implement creatine into training regimen, let’s look how it affects exercise performance. As mentioned before, creatine enhances muscle strength and power through faster ATP resynthesis. From the practical standpoint, it means greater results when lifting heavy weights (let's say above 70% maximum loading capacity) as well as doing sprints and interval training, such as short distance running and CrossFit. Some scientific results also indicate faster regeneration, both between sets (sprint repetitions) and after a workout as a whole.

Taking creatine is undeniably connected with weight gains. The number of surplus kilograms is strongly individual. Nevertheless, it is closely tied with training plan, calories intake (especially carbohydrates because they absorb a lot of water) and training plan.

It can be assumed that bodybuilders will gain more weight than endurance athletes due to the specifics of their training regimen. Although it doesn’t mean that if you’re a runner, a cyclist, or a triathlete, reaching creatine can’t support your results.

Creatine and Weight Loss: Can Creatine Help Burn Fat?

The impact of creatine on fat loss is indirect, although it surely exists. Why can you burn fat while taking creatine?

• Training heavier makes your body burn more energy (mostly from glycogen and glucose, but also aerobic pathways are included).
• Maintaining muscle mass with the help of creatine allows changes in body composition – to some extent, it is possible to build muscles and burn fat simultaneously.
• Creatine can enhance thermogenesis in beige fat cells, so more energy is burnt on a daily basis.

Energy metabolism during the creatine cycle becomes slightly more effective. Thus, it can be a little bit easier to work out heavier on a calorie deficit. Of course, you can’t expect to implement a very low-energy intake and train effectively. Sport supplementation can only enhance your efforts, but won’t replace a healthy, balanced diet and deep sleep.

Is Creatine Safe for Athletes of All Ages?

In the context of weight-loss it’s worth saying that creatine is mostly safe no matter the age. Use of this type of sport supplement is legal and healthy people can use creatine according to their needs. The main contraindications contain renal or liver dysfunction, diabetes, and electrolyte imbalances.

The most often mentioned side effect of taking creatine is weight gain. It can be diminished by choosing the right type of supplementation. Basically, creatine can be useful for weightlifting, short-distance running, martial arts, cycling and a lot of different power-based disciplines.

How Different Types of Creatine Support Weight-Loss?

To maximise the effects of creatine supplementation, it is recommended to take care of hydration. Water is vital for creating a beneficial environment for muscle tissue to grow. Especially less advanced forms of creatine, such as monohydrate or Kre-Alkalyn may induce greater water retention, so you will notice a weight gain. However, don’t worry! It’s only water, not adipocytes.

If you want to limit a retention effect, choose creatine HCl, creatine nitrate, or creatine magnesium chelate. There’s no medical evidence that supports the claim that these are 'stronger' forms of creatine.

To enhance regeneration during the cutting phase, try post-workout supplements for recovery. Remember to combine creatine with simple carbohydrates (e.g. fruit juice) but be aware of maximum caloric load.

Tips for Incorporating Creatine into a Weight Loss Regimen

Incorporating creatine into a training plan is quite simple. The basics involve 'creatine cycling'. It means the product cannot be taken only before a workout, e.g. caffeine. It’s not an ergogenic (a power-creation support) supplement. To act properly, creatine has to accumulate in the body for several days at least. Usually after a few days of taking monohydrate first results can be visible, but full potential unveils after 2-3 weeks or so.

Start taking creatine simultaneously with a meal plan for cutting. There are two different strategies:

• Loading phase for 5–7 days and then maintenance phase,
• Only the maintenance phase until cessation.

Basically, both can be effective, but the second one creates less body retention — so overall for weight loss it should be better.

Dosage and Timing for Creatine While Cutting

Let’s summarise — when is the best time to take creatine? Basically, timing doesn’t matter, since creatine acts in the long-term perspective. It will be enough to supplement the product regularly. Some people choose the strategy with a loading phase but if you decide on constant supplementation, a single dose of 3 to 5 grams can be taken any time of the day.