What Is Creatine? | Benefits Of Creatine Supplement | Does Creatine Break A Fast? | Side Effects Of Creatine Supplement | Is It Normal To Use Creatine Supplements Every Day?
In the present era of health and fitness where intermittent fasting has gained significant momentum, a pressing query appears for those who wish to incorporate a variety of supplements into their diet: does creatine break a fast? This is not just a matter of inquisitiveness, but a vital context for the fitness enthusiasts who juggle between the fasting advantages and the benefits of creatine supplementation.
Creatine is a supplement used by most of the bodybuilders and athletes. So if you look at building your muscle and improving capacity, creatine may be an option for you.
But when you are on a weight loss journey, trying to shed fat and attain other advantages of regular fasting, certain supplements can fall into the risky category. While most supplements are considered safe, some may stop the process of autophagy and eventually break your fast. Is creatine one of them?
In this article, we will go deeper to know about creatine, its benefits, and the effects of creatine supplements on your health during a fast.
What is Creatine and What Does it Do?
Creatine is a supplement used for improving the physical stamina during workouts. It is a naturally occurring substance located in the skeletal muscles. Creatine helps the muscles generate energy during heavy lifting workouts. (1)
Creatine is believed to help you improve skeletal muscles, build strength, and enhance overall physical performance during workouts. Because of all these reasons, it is considered a popular pre-workout supplement.
Want to know how to improve strength while intermittent fasting? Read the article “Intermittent Fasting And Lifting Weights – Epic Guide For Strength Here.”
Creatine supplements may help boost your fasting because they can empower you with the energy that is required to do the workout even without having food. It can also help you undergo high-intensity exercises without feeling fatigued.
The key reason behind supplementing with creatine is to increase the phosphocreatine level stored in your muscles. When you supplement your body with additional creatine, it helps energize your muscles for a long period by creating more adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the substance that empowers your cells and provides energy to drive many processes such as muscle contraction, nerve impulse propagation, and chemical synthesis. (2)
When you fast, your body undergoes various metabolic changes. Primarily, it shifts towards burning fat for energy. Supplementing with creatine in this phase can help these metabolic processes by providing a continuous supply of ATP for energy. (3)
Although creatine directly does not provide energy to the muscle cells, it ensures that the muscle cells maintain their performance and prevent breakdown. This is essential especially during fasting when the energy sources are limited. While fasting results in muscle catabolism, creatine helps in preserving muscles.
Many creatine supplements recommend a loading phase. This means when you start to use creatine you are recommended to take 20g of creatine daily, divided into 5g portions for about 5-7 days. This helps improve the creatine levels in your body. Taking it with a high-carb meal is best to help your body absorb it better.
Once you complete the loading phase, you can then switch to a maintenance dose of 3 to 5g per day to maintain your creatine levels.
The Benefits of Creatine Supplement
Creatine is not only known for muscle growth, it has other benefits as well.
- It can help you go longer with high-intensity workouts, thus resulting in fat loss and improved muscle mass.
- Helps your blood sugar levels to remain under control
- Prevents injuries and harmful physical conditions such as muscle cramping, wear and tear of muscles, and fatigue. (4)
- Prevents injuries to bones, tendons, ligaments, and nerves.
- Improves cognitive performance, especially in old age.
- It can help people with psychomotor issues such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, epilepsy, etc.
- Supplementation with creatine may help prevent age-related skeletal muscle decline and bone mineral density. (5)
- It boosts exercise performance by increasing the amount of phosphocreatine in the muscles. This, in turn, increases the amount of ATP produced which is required by the muscle to keep going. (6)
Does Creatine Break a Fast?
A fast is said to be broken when you consume anything other than zero-calorie beverages, such as black tea or coffee. Technically, when you fall out of ketosis, a fast is considered to be broken. Ketosis is a state that occurs when your body uses its fat stores for energy rather than glucose stores and leads to weight reduction. Intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet both target to attain this state to promote weight loss.
When you eat something during fasting, it spikes the insulin level and the state of ketosis is interrupted. In that case, you will need to have another fasting period of around 12 hours to attain ketosis again. Here creatine supplement plays a key role!
Creatine monohydrate is considered a good supplement to consume during fasting because it provides energy to your muscles without provoking the insulin response. Thus, having creatine while fasting does not break your fast.
However, it’s important to be mindful of certain ingredients in creatine supplements that could interfere with your intermittent fasting routine and potentially interrupt ketosis. Watch out for these ingredients to ensure they don’t break your fast. Knowing what’s in your creatine supplement can help you maintain your fasting regimen successfully.
Always try finding the unadulterated form of creatine to avoid breaking your fast. There could be two key ingredients to watch out for while choosing creatine supplements. Check the label for the following ingredients.
Sugar: Some creatine supplements contain added sugar. Consuming these can spike your blood sugar levels and could result in an increased insulin response. This process breaks your fast and interrupts ketosis. If your creatine supplement contains sugar, it is recommended to have it during your eating window to avoid breaking a fast.
Artificial sweetener: It is used in creatine supplements to sweeten and boost flavor. At first, it may not interrupt your ketosis or break your fast, but with continuous consumption, it may result in an increase in blood sugar and affect insulin levels. (7)
Further, artificial sweeteners have been associated with several issues like digestion problems and certain chronic illnesses like obesity, diabetes, and chronic inflammation. Hence artificial sweeteners should be avoided. (8)
Side Effects of Creatine Supplement
Although studies suggest that creatine is well tolerated at recommended dosages, there can be the below side effects. (9)
- People with liver or kidney conditions should avoid using creatine or should consult a medical professional before using it. (10)
- Creatine can cause weight gain by increasing the muscle mass.
Is It Normal to Use Creatine Supplements Every Day?
Usually, creatine can be used daily under the supervision of a medical expert. It is also beneficial for you every time you fast. If you are taking creatine, start taking 20 grams daily, splitting it to 5 grams per serving throughout the day for about 5 to 7 days. This is known as the loading phase and it results in a rapid increase in creatine levels in your muscles. (11)
When the loading phase is over, you can reduce your creatine consumption to 3 to 5 grams daily. This can help maintain the creatine levels in your muscles. You can continue with this dosage for a long time.
However, while consuming creatine, you need to eat meals filled with carbohydrates and protein. This is because carbs and proteins can help absorb creatine well. However, if you are fasting you need not have to eat anything. Instead you need to drink a lot of water to ensure optimal absorption.
Since creatine absorbs water into the muscles, it is essential to keep yourself hydrated throughout the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does creatine give you energy?
While creatine does not directly give you energy, it helps maintain the performance of the muscle cells and prevents them from breaking down. This is especially important during fasting when energy sources are restricted. When fasting results in muscle breakdown, creatine helps maintain muscle function.
Does creatine make you smarter?
Supplementing with creatine may improve cognitive function, memory, intelligence, and reasoning skills. It may specifically benefit older adults, vegetarians, and vegans.
Does creatine spike insulin?
Creatine does not induce a direct insulin response as it is not a carbohydrate. However, some creatine supplements may contain added sugars or ingredients that can spike insulin levels. Hence, it is recommended to choose supplements that contain pure creatine monohydrate.
Conclusion
Creatine is a popular supplement in the fitness industry due to its various beneficial features. It can help improve your stamina and gain more muscle mass.
Further, creatine in its purest form does not break your fast. Hence you can consume it during your fasting period without worrying about calories. However, you must refrain from consuming those supplements that contain added sugar and other ingredients that could cause a spike in insulin levels.
References:
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-199418040-00005
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2278982/
- https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1550-2783-9-56
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34199588/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31652853/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9627907/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7014832/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28594855/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33557850/#:~:text=Furthermore%2C%20evidence%2Dbased%20research%20shows,of%20body%20mass%2Fday).
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3761536/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8401986/#:~:text=Five%20to%20seven%20days%20of,termed%20the%20%E2%80%9Cloading%20phase%E2%80%9D.
