Creatine: What you need to know
Creatine for Women: Strength, Muscle, Brain Health and What You Actually Need to Know with Megan Berner, RD
Episode Summary
Creatine is one of the most researched supplements available, yet there’s still a surprising amount of confusion around what it does, how to take it, and whether women really need it. In this episode of LIMITLESS with Lina, Lina sits down with Registered Dietitian and fitness professional Megan Berner to break down the science of creatine in a practical, easy-to-understand way. They explore how creatine supports ATP production and what that means for strength, power, recovery, muscle maintenance, metabolic health, and cognitive function.
Lina and Megan also tackle the questions that keep many women from trying creatine in the first place. Does it make you puffy? Will the scale go up? Is it hard on the kidneys? Do you need a loading phase? They discuss creatine versus creatinine, intramuscular water retention, dosing and timing, food sources, potential side effects, and why consistency matters more than complicated protocols. They also cover when a conversation with a healthcare provider is important, particularly for those with kidney or liver disease and during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- How creatine works in the body and supports rapid ATP production
- Why creatine can support strength, recovery, muscle maintenance, metabolic health, and cognitive function
- Why creatine may be particularly valuable for women as they age
- The truth about creatine, water retention, bloating, weight gain, and kidney health
- How much creatine to take, when to take it, and why consistency matters more than loading or perfect timing
- When supplementation may require additional consideration or guidance from a healthcare provider
Action Steps & Invitations
- Take a look at your current nutrition and consider how much creatine you may already be getting from foods like red meat and fish.
- If creatine makes sense for you, focus on consistent daily use rather than getting caught up in complicated timing or loading protocols.
- Have known kidney or liver disease, or are pregnant or breastfeeding? Talk with your healthcare provider before adding creatine.
- Want to hear more from Megan? Listen to her previous LIMITLESS with Lina episode on nourishing through perimenopause.
Connect with Megan
Megan Berner is a Registered Dietitian, fitness professional, wife, and mom of two who is passionate about helping people build healthier lives through practical, sustainable habits. She earned her first degree in Exercise and Sport Science with a minor in Nutrition before pursuing an additional degree and becoming a Registered Dietitian in 2021.
Today, Megan works in both fitness and nutrition, helping people improve their health through evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle strategies. While she primarily works with perimenopausal women, she enjoys educating people of all ages and is especially interested in a functional approach to nutrition that supports long-term wellness.
- Follow Megan on Instagram
- Follow Fitness Lying Down on Instagram
- Learn more about working with Megan
- Email: nourishtoflourish.fld@gmail.com
Let’s Stay Connected
- Follow LIMITLESS with Lina on Instagram
- Ready to explore what working together could look like? Schedule a Find Your Fit Call with Lina.
- Learn more about Lina and The LIMITLESS Studio.
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The Reclamation 3-Day Retreat
THE RECLAMATION RETREAT | OCTOBER 2–4, 2026 What if you gave yourself one weekend to step outside the noise of your everyday life and hear yourself again? The Reclamation is an intimate weekend experience for women ready to come back home to themselves. Through movement, breathwork, reflection, connection, ceremony, and intentional space, we’ll create room to loosen the patterns and expectations you’ve been carrying and reconnect with what you actually want, need, and know. This isn’t about escaping your life. It’s about creating enough space to see it differently, and returning home with the support and practices to carry that shift forward. October 2–4 | Michigan City, Indiana Space is intentionally limited. If you’ve been feeling the pull, this may be your invitation.
Transcript
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Speaker B:Hello and welcome to Limitless with Lena, where we explore what it really means to build strength, resilience and power from the inside out.
Speaker B:I'm your host, Lena Midla, women's fitness expert, wellness guide, mother of two, and a builder of women.
Speaker B:Through candid conversations with incredible guests and honest solo explorations, we bridge the practical and the spiritual, the fringe and the functional, science and intuition.
Speaker B:We question what we think we know, stay curious about what we don't, and explore the tools, ideas and experiences that help us come home to our bodies, ourselves and each other.
Speaker B:Because being limitless isn't about doing more or pushing harder.
Speaker B:It's about building real strength for your real life and the capacity to fully inhabit it.
Speaker B:So let's get into it.
Speaker C:All right, welcome back to the Limitless with Lena podcast and today we're talking about something that I've personally used for years and recommend all of the time and that somehow has gone from being thought of as a very male bodybuilding world supplement to something we're hearing about everywhere and that is creatine.
Speaker C:And I knew exactly who I wanted to bring back to have this conversation with me.
Speaker C:So if you've been listening for a while, you'll remember Megan Burner, also known as Megan the Trainer, from last season when she joined me for an incredible conversation about nutrition for menopause.
Speaker C:Megan is a registered dietitian, fitness professional, a wife and a mom of two who is passionate about helping real people build healthier lives through practical, sustainable habits.
Speaker C: ome a registered dietitian in: Speaker C:Today, Megan works both in a gym setting and through contract nutrition services, helping individuals improve their health through evidence based nutrition and lifestyle strategies.
Speaker C:While she primarily works with perimenopausal women, she enjoys educating people of all ages and is especially interested in a functional approach to nutrition that supports long term wellness.
Speaker C:When she's not working, Megan enjoys spending time outdoors with Craig, her husband, children Ava and Beau, and loyal German shepherd Taz, embracing the simple joys of family, movement and nature.
Speaker C:Welcome back to the show, Megan.
Speaker C:I'm so excited to have you here.
Speaker A:Yes, I'm so excited to be back.
Speaker A:We had so much fun last time, so I hope that listeners listening to this one definitely go back and check out that episode too because we were just a vibe.
Speaker A:It was so fun and I'm excited for that to happen again today.
Speaker C:A hundred percent.
Speaker C:We will link that episode in the show notes.
Speaker C:It's one that I go back to all the time.
Speaker C:It's also one that I send clients to regularly when we're just getting started in figuring out what choices we should be making when it comes to nutrition, especially as we enter perimenopause, and especially when it feels like your body's out to get you.
Speaker C:And when you really understand what's happening under the hood, it's really helpful and even like changing your relationship with what you felt was happening to you and understand why it's happening for you and how to make better choices and changes as our bodies are making changes.
Speaker C:So with that in mind, I want to start with Creatine is having a moment right now.
Speaker C:Now that I've said it like five times already on this podcast, your phone has picked it up.
Speaker C:You're going to start seeing ads in your Instagram feed for creatine gummies, creatine drinks, creatine pills, creatine with taurine, creatine with whatever in it.
Speaker C:It's absol having a moment right now.
Speaker C:And I felt it was really important for us to have a real conversation about it because the benefits we've known about for creatine for a really, really, really long time, it's really well studied, especially in the sports performance world.
Speaker C:But oftentimes our association with it is,.
Speaker A:Oh, you're going to get swole, you're.
Speaker C:Going to get huge, you're going to get bulky because it's a power and bodybuilding assisting supplement and there's so much more to it.
Speaker C:So the first thing that I want to ask you, Megan, is why creatine and why now?
Speaker A:Yeah, so like you said, it definitely it's been around for a while, but it's kind of existed in its own little spaces.
Speaker A:And now I feel like, I think with like the emerge of social media and people just sharing their routines, their supplement habits, their activity, their results, that's kind of one big area that people can just get to expose to it a little bit more.
Speaker A:And then I think it's prompting professionals to dig into it a little bit more.
Speaker A:And then therefore researchers to look into it a little bit more.
Speaker A:You know, the number of times that I've had clients come to me saying, hey, I saw this TikTok, I saw this reel, I saw this post, I saw this whatever you want to call it on social media, you know, what truth is there to it?
Speaker A:And sometimes it's stuff that I've heard of and I can give a quick answer and then there's other things where it's like, that is really interesting.
Speaker A:Let me spend the afternoon kind of digging a little bit in PubMed and see what I could find.
Speaker A:But I think as we'll talk about, there's lots of new things that we're discovering about creatine.
Speaker A:It's, we've only kind of known it as, like you said, in that bodybuilding, powerlifting, muscle building era, but it can, it can kind of go into a whole bunch of other things.
Speaker A:Creatine is probably one of the most researched compounds and actually in prep for this, I went to pubmed and just searched creatine just out of my own curiosity and it got like 72,000 hits.
Speaker A:So that's a lot of research.
Speaker A:Wow, right?
Speaker C:That's amazing.
Speaker C:Along those lines, it seems like the research has potentially changed or shifted and we're researching other things regarding creatine as well.
Speaker C:Why do you think women were largely left out of the creatine conversation for so long?
Speaker C:Like it's absolutely having a moment for everyone, but the conversation for women has gotten a lot louder over the last few years.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think kind of, like I mentioned, we're just learning more and more things about it.
Speaker A:And so that's where I think women's health and the connection that it has for women's, you know, all the, the benefits and potential benefits for it, we're starting to kind of uncover those a little more.
Speaker A:It was kind of like we knew the tip of the iceberg and now we're seeing just how big it really is when it comes to creatine.
Speaker A:So when we get into, I mean, we'll talk more about like again, digging into the main functions of creatine, but for the longest time, again, performance realms, powerlifting, bodybuilding, high level, explosive, that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:And we didn't really see as many women involved in sports like this.
Speaker A:So that's where I think we didn't see as much research about it.
Speaker A:I mean, we could also debate, you know, the lack of just women's research in general, whether it's about creatine or other topics.
Speaker A:So I think that's where there's probably the biggest gap, is that for a long time we just didn't have a lot of research subjects to study and to look at what's happening for women's health.
Speaker A:And then again, if we didn't know about it, then there's nobody questioning things, nobody wanting to research it a little bit more.
Speaker A:So like I said, I think now that we're kind of digging into this, we're seeing how big this iceberg really is.
Speaker A:It's kind of prompting more research and I think there's definitely a lot more research that's coming out that's involving more women and the impact on health, especially in perimeter menopause, menopause season as well.
Speaker A:And so I think there's, you know, misconceptions and some half truths about creatine that I think left it really misunderstood and therefore also just underutilized by the female population.
Speaker A:You know, like you were mentioning in the intro.
Speaker A:Is this gonna make me swole bulky, retain a whole bunch of water?
Speaker A:We're gonna talk about all of that too.
Speaker A:But I think that there were a lot of, a lot of hesitations and like I said, just misunderstandings in general where again, the use of creatine in the female population just was not, not super great, not super high.
Speaker A:So I think that was probably kind of the biggest thing in my opinion, anyway.
Speaker C:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker C:And so let's start at the very beginning and actually understand what it is that we're talking about.
Speaker C:What is creatine?
Speaker C:Actually?
Speaker A:Yeah, so it's something that our bodies make naturally.
Speaker A:So it's not some extraneous compound or something.
Speaker A:So if you want to get really technical, our liver and our kidneys can make it through a whole bunch of different processes.
Speaker A:We're using some amino acids, arginine, glycine, methionine, if you want to name the specifics of it.
Speaker A:In short, what creatine is meant to do is to make ATP.
Speaker A:So that's our energy.
Speaker A:You know, if we think back to the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
Speaker A:Why is that?
Speaker A:Is because it makes ATP.
Speaker A:And so making ATP is important for any kind of function.
Speaker A:We need ATP for everything.
Speaker A:But with creatine, this is an extremely quick reaction.
Speaker A:This, we're talking one step, like, boom, you're done, you got ATP.
Speaker A:So when we take creatine phosphate as one of the forms that it exists in our body and we just combine it with adp, adenosine diphosphate, then boom, we get adenosine triphosphate.
Speaker A:So it's just this quick one step kind of reaction.
Speaker A:So that's really the biggest thing that creatine does.
Speaker A:There's a couple of other maybe like little side things that it can do.
Speaker A:But this is the main research, the main benefit, the main thing that creatine offers all of these great positive things for it is energy production and really fast energy production.
Speaker C:Amazing.
Speaker C:So I know There are foods that are high in creatine that don't, you know, there's, there's obviously supplementation that we can do of creatine.
Speaker C:We can take creatine.
Speaker C:What are some foods that are high in creatine?
Speaker C:If somebody is just wanting to dip their toe into the creatine water or understand if they're even getting enough from food.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So it's mainly gonna exist in our animal products, specifically like red meats and fish.
Speaker A:So creatine itself doesn't exactly exist in plants.
Speaker A:As I mentioned, it's made from the building blocks of some amino acids.
Speaker A:So that's where you can, your body will make creatine again from those building blocks that you can still get from plants.
Speaker A:So this is my biggest tip for if you're listening, who's vegetarian or vegan, just make sure we're really emphasizing and leaning into those complimentary proteins.
Speaker A:So that way we can really cross off all of those amino acids that we need.
Speaker A:Because if we're missing out on any of those, then we just don't have the building blocks to make it.
Speaker A:So again, our body can make it and we can get it from foods.
Speaker A:But in reality, the turnover rate of it is that we do need to get some from our food, so we do need to rely on getting it from food sources.
Speaker A:So again, enforcing red meat, fish, complementary proteins.
Speaker A:So on average, I looked into a little bit more of some fine details when it comes to creatine.
Speaker A:On average, our body can store about 120 grams, which is a pretty decent amount.
Speaker A:Most of that is actually going to be found in our muscles or really anywhere that's going to have that high energy turnovers.
Speaker A:Because again, if we think of the main purpose behind creatine and it's creating energy.
Speaker A:So we're gonna store it where we're gonna need to create energy.
Speaker A:And then we do have some small stores in like our brain and our liver and even in some of our sex organs just because of how metabolically active they can be depending on the season of life that we're in.
Speaker A:So again, typically the research is kind of all over the place where we can have, you know, about a 2ish gram per day turnover.
Speaker A:About half of that can be made by our body.
Speaker A:So we would need to get at least one gram, you know, exogenously from, from our food or from supplementing.
Speaker A:So this is where there was one research article that I've come across that is kind of bringing up the debate of creatine being a potentially like Conditionally essential nutrient.
Speaker A:You know, like how we have carbs, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, these are all nutrients, we need to get them from our food.
Speaker A:And so this was a research article kind of prompting, like, is creatine, should that be considered a nutrient now?
Speaker A:But again, the, the conclusion was that it's again, conditionally essential, meaning that in the wrong situations, when we're not getting enough building blocks, yeah, it then becomes an important nutrient.
Speaker A:But if we can, you know, ensure that we're getting enough from our food, then our, our body can also kind of, can kind of bridge the gap too.
Speaker C:So amazing.
Speaker C:And so would you say, realistically, can, can, can we get enough creatine from food alone or is supplementation something that most of us need to consider?
Speaker A:I would say for like average Joe, average Jane, you probably could get enough from your food again if you're having, you know, meat and fish kind of sprinkled into your diet throughout the day or again prioritizing complimentary proteins.
Speaker A:But if you want, and this is more so to meet like physiological minimums.
Speaker A:So this is again, I talk to clients a lot about are you thriving or are you surviving?
Speaker A:So this is for more of like a survival kind of basis.
Speaker A:So this is where again, all of the benefits that we can see of creatine coming in when we have included more where we're getting, we're being way more intentional on getting it through our foods or we're adding a supplement to ensure that we're getting a concentrated amount coming in consistently.
Speaker A:Because that's also a big thing with creatine is consistency.
Speaker A:So, so that's where you can get enough from your food.
Speaker A:Depending on what you're looking to get out of it, you might benefit from, from adding more like through a supp.
Speaker C:So amazing.
Speaker C:So let's talk a little bit more.
Speaker C:You.
Speaker C:We kind of briefly talked about how it works in donating a, to to the ATP cycle.
Speaker C:So going from ADP to ATP.
Speaker C:So that's quicker, what does that mean in terms of strength training, high intensity exercise, repeated efforts, recovery between efforts.
Speaker C:So before we kind of launch into all of the amazing benefits of creatine, when we look at it traditional usage and when we're looking at how it can help us on the training floor, what does that look like?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:So as I mentioned, this is an extremely quick way to create energy.
Speaker A:So anytime you're doing activity that's very fast, that's very explosive, anything under like 10ish seconds creatine or the creatine phosphagen system is going to be the main energy pathway for that.
Speaker A:So if we're thinking of, you know, if you're trying to run a sprint, you know, if you're trying to run as hard, as fast as you can, you can only maintain, maintain that for, you know, a very short period of time.
Speaker A:So that's the, the fuel system that we're working with here.
Speaker A:So that's where again, the OG research is coming in, is looking at supplying more building blocks, more pieces.
Speaker A:So that way we can have that short burst of energy.
Speaker A:Maybe we can have it last a little bit longer, maybe we can have it be a little bit more intense.
Speaker A:Maybe we can, you know, our rate of perceived exertion might be a little bit less.
Speaker A:So it feels even easier to kind of maintain that.
Speaker A:So really the big goal of all of that is why is all of that important is because then you can have a bigger stimulus, you can have a bigger challenge to your body, to your muscles, to your energy systems, et cetera, which is then going to prompt a bigger adaptation, which therefore leads to stronger, bigger muscular, et cetera.
Speaker A:So if that's kind of the end goal that we're looking for, if we're looking to be faster, if we're looking to have more muscle tissue, we need to have that stimulus in order to prompt it.
Speaker A:Using creatine allows us to undergo a bigger stimulus or to really like maximize that stimulus in a sense.
Speaker A:So, so yeah, so creatine donates that phosphate from, gives it to ADP to turn into ATP.
Speaker A:So anything that's using that quick, short energy system is really gonna benefit from again from a sport performance side of using creatine.
Speaker A:And that's where supplementing can be really helpful because then you can time it right before your activity so it's fresh and it's available and it's ready to rock and roll.
Speaker A:So of course, you know, when we get it from our food, it will reach our bloodstream, it will go where it needs to go.
Speaker A:But again, if we can take it again in a concentrated form, like again with the supplement, it can be, you know, we can be a little bit more specific on when it's going to be ready, when it's going to be available.
Speaker A:So when it comes to like recovery, it's kind of a similar aspect where if we can just have more energy available, then that means that we can create again a, a, a stronger output, we can move waste products out quicker, we can move nutrients and things in faster.
Speaker A:So if we just, it just makes the whole process a lot More efficient.
Speaker C:So again at that quick level, amazing.
Speaker C:So if we're timing, if we're trying to think about capitalizing on creatine supplementation prior to training, is that like something you take an hour before, half an hour before.
Speaker C:You know, I've seen people sipping on, on, on drinks during their training set like intro workout when, when timing wise, can we maximize the benefits of creatine supplementation?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So in the end game if we zoom way out, my biggest tip to people taking creatine is that I want you just to take it every day and bottom line it comes down to consistency.
Speaker A:So if we can all agree that that foundation has already been set and has already been met, cool.
Speaker A:Now if we want to get into the nitty gritty because of course everybody wants to get nitty gritty but yet will not maintain the foundational, you know, habits and things.
Speaker A:So but now that if you're looking at again if you want to capitalize on those gains, I would say anywhere between like 30 to 45, maybe an hour before workout.
Speaker A:We don't want it to be too far out where we're now going to kind of miss that window in a sense.
Speaker A:And it's not that oh we missed it and it's no longer, it's just not again we can kind of time it to try to, to match that peak to with our activity and you can drink it intra, intra workout.
Speaker A:That definitely is something that, that a lot of like you said will be kind of sipping on like a intra workout drink or sometimes creatine can be found in pre workouts.
Speaker A:Creatine in and of itself isn't necessarily like pre workout in my opinion is more of like there's a couple of other things that can factor into it.
Speaker A:Creatine can definitely be part of that ingredient mix.
Speaker A:Then creatine is also fair game intra workout.
Speaker A:So I again a little bit before or during.
Speaker A:I know that there's clients that I work with that are like I don't wanna drink anything during my workout that makes me feel sick.
Speaker A:So then again if we go back to that foundational consistency then take it before so, so yeah kind of that like that beginning start.
Speaker A:So that way again we can try to time that that release of all of it to when you're doing your activity or give kind of a steady release during your workout.
Speaker C:Amazing.
Speaker C:So talk to me about then creatine and women.
Speaker C:Meaning.
Speaker C:Okay, here are the benefits for training.
Speaker C:I don't think we necessarily need to be athletes or high level athletes to benefit from creatine for training.
Speaker C:So if you can talk through a little bit, why a woman who's listening, who's, you know, somewhere in the ballpark of 30s-70s, should consider supplementing with creatine both for its benefits in training and are there any other benefits?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So for, for training, the biggest thing is that creatine is going to be able to help us make more muscle tissue.
Speaker A:It's going to help help support muscle protein synthesis.
Speaker A:It's kind of the big end game of strength training, lifting heavy.
Speaker A:So for, from a women's perspective, as we get into the perimenopause menopause season, our hormones aren't really doing us any favors in maintaining our current lean tissue muscle mass.
Speaker A:So that's where using creatine can help us get the most out of our training sessions.
Speaker A:So that way we can preserve as much lean mass as possible.
Speaker A:Now, regardless of if you are in that season or if you're still maybe even in your reproductive seasons, like, just muscle mass in general is so precious.
Speaker A:And this is such a valuable tissue to have in your body, whether you're a male, female, perimenopause, post menopause, whatever.
Speaker A:So this is where creatine is almost kind of like this, like, dare I say, universal supplement, where it's, it's going to be helpful for a lot of those kinds of things.
Speaker A:Now, of course, there are certain populations and times when it would not be advised.
Speaker A:But again, if we're thinking about what is creatine doing and who benefits from that outcome, again, building muscle is going to be a big thing again for, for women especially, maintaining our metabolic rate.
Speaker A:So if we talk about, you know, like, oh, my metabolism is crashing, our muscle mass is, is very closely connected to our metabolic rate.
Speaker A:So the more lean tissue you can have, the more metabolically active tissue you can have, the more, therefore your overall metabolism is going to be.
Speaker A:So that's always like big number one is just preservation of muscle, helping you build muscle, maintain muscle, all of that.
Speaker A:There's some interesting things now coming out from a cognitive perspective.
Speaker A:And I've done a little bit more, I've been exposed to it a little bit more from a sleep deprivation.
Speaker A:So there's some interesting research in connections to using creatine and cognitive things like memory recall, just like that kind of side of cognition and creatine use, but specifically under people who have gone through some sleep deprivation.
Speaker A:So me being a new mom times two, I am in the season of mild sleep deprivation.
Speaker A:My daughter's about six months old, so she's a pretty good sleeper, but there's still moments where we're waking up in the middle of the night, doing a little feed, rocking her back to sleep, et cetera.
Speaker A:But now, for those women who are perimenopausal or menopausal, sleep is also a tricky thing to come by.
Speaker A:Uh, maybe we're waking up, we're feeling really hot, or we're just uncomfortable, or maybe we're stressed.
Speaker A:And again, that season, it's a little bit harder for our body, our nervous system to kind of recover from stresses, whether it's physiological stresses, emotional stresses, stresses.
Speaker A:And so that's where I think that's kind of a cool thing about creatine, is that it can be really helpful from a cognitive perspective, especially in those cases.
Speaker A:There's a lot of really interesting research articles that dive down rabbit holes.
Speaker A:I love going down rabbit holes.
Speaker A:So that was a fun one to go down, especially knowing that I directly benefited from that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So yeah, so again, it comes down to creating that quick energy.
Speaker A:So that's kind of how it helps, at least in our brain too.
Speaker A:So like I said, most of it's going to be stored in our muscle, but again, we'll have some stored up in our brain as well.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So yeah, I think that that's kind of a, a fun extra benefit of, of creatine.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Especially when you think about the fact that our brains demand like, they're like a huge suck of energy.
Speaker C:They just take so much energy to, to run our, our cognition.
Speaker C:And I know with.
Speaker C:So when, when I had my two, I had no.
Speaker C:I had.
Speaker C:I wish I'd known about creatine.
Speaker C:I just thought it was making me look puffy.
Speaker C:So I didn't use it at the time.
Speaker C:And I had no brain for like five years.
Speaker C:Like, couldn't learn anything new, couldn't retain information from.
Speaker C:Because the sleep deprivation is, is real on your cognitive function is.
Speaker C:Is high for sure.
Speaker C:And then we, you know, to your point, we start to experience that again in perimenopause and menopause.
Speaker C:And, you know, a lot of the women I work with talk a lot about just like the brain fog that sets in, in that period of time.
Speaker C:And so if this is promising to be helpful for, for the energetics of the brain, that's.
Speaker C:That's amazing.
Speaker C:That can be game changing along those lines though, are there.
Speaker C:So is this a supplement that is appropriate for children or adolescents or young athletes?
Speaker C:Like, where is kind of the cutoff in the age spectrum that we want to be introducing it or holding off until we introduce creatine before we get into more of the specific contraindications.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:I would say from again, from, from my perspective as an RD and from the research that I have been exposed to, we don't really have as much research on the younger crowds.
Speaker A:It's really like maybe collegiate ish kind of level thinking again, like athletes.
Speaker A:So this is where like, okay, if you, maybe if you have a high school athlete who wants to explore in this, this is where again, there's not as much research about it.
Speaker A:Not to say that it's, it's should be avoided, but at the same time not saying that this should be like a top thing to be reaching for either.
Speaker A:I think that again, research is, there's not as many scary side effect things to it, but again there's not as many like cool validating things either.
Speaker A:So that's where I would tread cautiously at that kind of age.
Speaker A:But I would save it for, you know, when we are kind of like fully vested in our like adult body thinking, you know, at least like above 18, at least into our 20s again, that's where a lot of the research at least is kind of starting, is kind of looking at, at people starting around that age.
Speaker A:So and that's where again, when we think of what are we trying to get out of using creatine and this is where we're looking for that, to squeeze in that extra rep because we're a college athlete on a scholarship because we're having scouts looking at us for professional things or we're training for the Olympics or what have you.
Speaker A:So this, I mean, yeah, it's going to help you be stronger in things too.
Speaker A:But at the same time, like I think think priorities would be a little different for adolescents and even like high school kids where I think this is almost like a little too big kiddish almost for those that kind of age.
Speaker A:So that's where I would say would be appropriate to start exploring it more.
Speaker A:And I don't think it would necessarily be necessary any, at any kind of younger age.
Speaker A:This is where we could just lean into getting enough from our food because again, if we can have a good variety of foods coming in, that's going to cross off enough, especially for that survival, you know, threshold.
Speaker A:That's where I would then have conversations of if you do want to help support your strength training efforts, if you do want to support your activity performance, that's then I would just emphasize leaning into those kinds of protein sources instead.
Speaker C:That makes a lot of Sense.
Speaker C:So along those lines, then what.
Speaker C:What populations should be cautious or should avoid or are contraindicated for use of creatine supplementation?
Speaker A:Yeah, the, the biggest ones would be anybody who's got anything going on with kidney, liver disease, just because these are, these organs are going to be filtering everything.
Speaker A:And so when we break down creatine, that's when it kind of turns into creatinine.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And that is.
Speaker A:That can be one lab test to look at kidney function.
Speaker A:Now there's a lot of other lab tests that we need to look at to fully determine if somebody has kidney disease or if it's impacting kidney function.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So that's one very small piece of it.
Speaker C:But definitely.
Speaker C:I want to pause you there.
Speaker C:Yeah, just for a second.
Speaker C:We're gonna.
Speaker C:I just wanna hit it because I think that, like, some of the, the scariness and bad name that creatine receives isn't actually creatine.
Speaker C:People are nervous about the creatinine number.
Speaker C:So if you can talk just very briefly about creatine and creatinine, what are the difference between the two and then we can continue on.
Speaker C:But I know that, like.
Speaker C:Yes, for something like you want me to supplement, like, I thought that's a number we're trying to keep really low, like, what's going on.
Speaker A:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker A:So, yeah, so creatine, creatinine, they are connected.
Speaker A:So when we use up creatine in our body or as it's going through some different metabolic processes, we can sometimes convert into creatinine, totally normal.
Speaker A:That's going to happen regardless of if we're supplementing or not.
Speaker A:So it's kind of a, again, a waste product that is then filtered again, if we think of through liver, through kidneys, and then we excrete it in our urine.
Speaker A:So when it comes to, again, like kidney damage, if our kidneys aren't functioning quite as well, we can see then levels of creatinine increase because we can't excrete it to the same capacity.
Speaker A:But now if we also supplement with creatine, if we're starting with more raw materials and we have more of it floating around and then we're using more of it, it.
Speaker A:We're therefore going to be dumping more waste products into the realm or into the blood.
Speaker A:So this by default might rise your creatinine?
Speaker A:Yes, creatinine.
Speaker A:I wanna make sure that my tongue is cooperating as I'm saying both of these.
Speaker A:By default, we can see that your creatinine levels are going to increase because we're starting with more creatine.
Speaker A:But that does not necessarily mean that, again, our kidneys are getting backed up.
Speaker A:If we see it continue to rise and.
Speaker A:And, you know, then we see there's a whole bunch of other things that can come into play for determining kidney disease and things especially like gfr.
Speaker A:Let's just call it gfr.
Speaker A:I don't need to ask too much of my tongue today.
Speaker A:And bun urea.
Speaker A:There's a lot of other things that can be better indicators of kidney function.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So, yes, you can take creatine, and we can see some changes in creatinine, and it is safe to be like, ooh, ooh, let's be mindful of what's going on with kidneys.
Speaker A:But it doesn't necessarily imply that there is impaired filtration.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So, yes, one does not automatically equal the other.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But if you're somebody who has a family history of that, or if that's something that you've already been watching or has seen, been on the rise, then this is where I would say definitely have a conversation with your provider and, you know, look at a lot of your lab work.
Speaker A:Work before.
Speaker A:Before using this as a supplement.
Speaker C:Got it.
Speaker C:So for.
Speaker C:For anyone who is experiencing some sort of kidney disease or impaired kidney function, liver disease, these are people who should be talking with their primary care or, you know, somebody who is way more knowledgeable and.
Speaker C:And certified in giving guidance on that.
Speaker A:What other.
Speaker C:Are there any other contraindications?
Speaker C:We kind of talked about adolescence, what about pregnancy, breastfeeding, medications we should be concerned about, or any other health conditions or populations that should first speak with their primary care before beginning any sort of creatine supplementation protocol.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:So when it comes to especially knowing that there's gonna be a lot of women listening to this pregnancy, breastfeeding.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So research, again, is kind of limited in this realm.
Speaker A:More so because sometimes doing research on this population, just.
Speaker A:Just an overall ability to research this.
Speaker A:Let's try that again.
Speaker A:Researching this population can just be tricky in general just because of safety.
Speaker A:And it's not always, you know, it's not always very safe to start intervening and manipulating things and then seeing what happens, especially during this very, very important time.
Speaker A:So when it comes to pregnancy, I wouldn't say that it's, you know, it has a complete green light for pregnancy, and it's not that it has a complete red light either.
Speaker A:So this is where, again, just having conversations with providers and knowing why you're doing it.
Speaker A:And again, Looking at what else is kind of any other factors that are coming into play.
Speaker A:Is the pregnancy impacting your body in, in different ways?
Speaker A:Are you able to eat regular food or are you having of nausea and things where again just your overall oral intake is just reduced?
Speaker A:That's where I would say I wouldn't prioritize creatine.
Speaker A:I would just prioritize you eating good quality foods first and then going from there.
Speaker A:So creatine is, you know, physiologically important.
Speaker A:There's a lot of activity and things going on in the body during this time.
Speaker A:So there would be a value for creating and making ATP and let me see if I still have it.
Speaker A:There was a study that found short term five gram dosing was tolerated in a small group of third tri western women.
Speaker A:But that's again nowhere near enough to really call it like safe, safe for this population.
Speaker A:So that's where I think this population is just kind of a tricky one in general.
Speaker A:Just because it's difficult to study.
Speaker A:I think that overall it is relatively safe.
Speaker A:At least speaking from my own experience when I was pregnant with both Beau and Ava, I did take some creatine.
Speaker A:I wasn't super consistent with it and that was more so of just my own fault of being human than trying to just survive and get through those seasons.
Speaker A:But when it comes to breastfeeding, again there's still a little bit of, you know, a research evidence gap.
Speaker A:Creatine is naturally present in human milk.
Speaker A:So you know, an infant is going to get some by mom by default.
Speaker A:And so the tricky thing is, is like okay, well if mom supplements, does that change what happens in breast milk?
Speaker A:And I mean honestly this is such a, I think it's such a cool thing on what our bodies can do and how we can change the composition of breast milk depending on what baby needs.
Speaker A:So it's, it's tricky again to kind of navigate.
Speaker A:So that's where again I would just recommend just having a conversation with a provider.
Speaker A:So that way at least, you know, they're also informed on it as well and just being open about, about having, you know, kind of conversations about it.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker C:So any other populations that, that need to be more cautious or do you think we've covered our, our bases there?
Speaker A:Yes, um, I just kind of went on a tangent on just talking about pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Speaker A:Those are kind of my, my.
Speaker A:Yes, exactly those.
Speaker A:My big three is again somebody with kidney, liver things going on.
Speaker A:We don't really want it in like our youth, youth, you know, kind of populations and then just Again, proceed with caution.
Speaker A:Yellow light when it comes to pregnancy, breastfeeding, things.
Speaker A:I'm sure there probably are some other ones, but these are at least ones that I have been exposed to and that I have done a lot more digging into and going into those kind of rabbit holes.
Speaker C:Got it.
Speaker C:Talk to me about side effects.
Speaker C:Like when someone begins supplementing with creatine, what may someone be like realistically experiencing at the, at the start or on an ongoing basis?
Speaker C:What things should we be aware of feeling?
Speaker A:Yes, the two biggest kind of side effects that come with using creatine is going to be any kind of GI discomfort.
Speaker A:So this can be nausea, bloating.
Speaker A:You know, maybe we're more constipated, maybe we have more loose stools.
Speaker A:So it's just kind of changes in bowel movements in general and then water retention.
Speaker A:And so I kind of equate bloating and water retention to being two kind of separate things in my train of thought.
Speaker A:Bloating is more so equated to that water retention, specifically in your gi.
Speaker A:And again, that's more of like an irritation for that or just like widespread inflammation, too.
Speaker A:Sometimes that can lead to a little bit of bloating as well if our, if our GI tract is just a little irritated.
Speaker A:But again, when it comes to taking creatine, those are kind of the two biggest things is maybe a little bit of GI stuff and some the retaining of water.
Speaker A:And so because water is going to be shifting all over the place, sometimes we can see cramping, we can see some dehydration going on as well.
Speaker A:But this isn't going to be like severe dehydration and severe cramping, at least from what, you know, I've experienced, from what that, you know, clients that I've worked with have reported.
Speaker A:And if anything, these are things that can either be easily mitigated, can easily be worked around.
Speaker A:So it's just things to just, like you said, just kind of be mindful of.
Speaker A:And those are kind of the common things to notice.
Speaker A:And I think that's also a big misconception and misunderstanding when it comes to taking creatine, especially for women, because of the water retention and the bloating and therefore the number, the scale.
Speaker A:Like,.
Speaker C:So I'm laughing, I shouldn't be laughing because I, I know that feeling, and it's real.
Speaker C:And also what you're experiencing is.
Speaker C:Well, I'll let, I'll let Megan fill you in on what you're experiencing when you see the numbers creep up with use of creatine yes.
Speaker A:So if we think back to where creatine is stored, it's stored almost exclusively in our muscles.
Speaker A:And so, so when we think of getting down to, like, the nitty gritty.
Speaker A:Nitty gritty, the biochemistry of things.
Speaker A:In order for us to get creatine into our muscle, it needs a sodium transport.
Speaker A:So like the sodium potassium pump.
Speaker A:So we have all of these different changes in concentration, and this exists everywhere in our body that are going to move things, you know, in and out of the cells.
Speaker A:And so this is where, like using electrolytes, that's the whole point of electrolytes is we're now shifting that charge around and we can shift water here, there, and yonder in our body, similar to eating salty foods and retaining water.
Speaker A:So this is where again, creatine can cause water to shift in with it as well.
Speaker A:So, but where again is this water going?
Speaker A:It's going into your muscles.
Speaker A:So this is not widespread water retention.
Speaker A:Like, this is not puffiness in your face, puffiness in your joints, puffiness in your fingers.
Speaker A:This is again, going to your muscles.
Speaker A:So that's kind of the difference, you know, with where water is gonna be shifting.
Speaker A:And water can go all over the place in our body for a whole slew of different reasons, you know, regardless of creatine going on.
Speaker A:And I think that's kind of a big misconception, again with water weight in general, in seeing that number go up on the scale.
Speaker A:So I talk to clients a lot about, again, water weight, and, you know, that can change like up to three to five pounds a day.
Speaker A:So if you hop on the scale in the morning and you hop on the scale at lunch, and then you hop on the scale at night, you can get.
Speaker A:Get three completely different readouts.
Speaker A:And it's not to say that each one of those readouts is giving you live action, you know, reporting specifically on body fat, because I think that's what we often equate that number to is, oh, this number is going up, therefore I'm getting more fat.
Speaker A:But it's not always adipose tissue.
Speaker A:We can see, again, shifts in water weight going all over the place.
Speaker C:So if you're gaining three to five pounds a day in body fat, that.
Speaker C:That's like, that's another really serious conversation.
Speaker C:We need to be having that, because that's not realistic.
Speaker A:I don't even know, like, physiologically, like, how quickly, like, what kind of caloric surplus metabolic adaptations, enzyme activity you would need to have going on in order for that much to be reflected on the scale.
Speaker A:That Quickly.
Speaker A:And I think I also then talk to clients.
Speaker A:It's also kind of the same about, like inversing that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So, you know, if you had a day where all of a sudden you're like, oh, wow, I'm down like a pound and a half, two pounds in like one day.
Speaker A:Like, whatever I did yesterday was great.
Speaker A:Like, I should keep doing that.
Speaker A:You know, then we talk about whatever it was that they did.
Speaker A:I'm like, I don't think it was any changes.
Speaker A:You know, again, specifically when all of that weight shift has been exclusive to, you know, fat tissue, I think our water is kind of shifting all over the place.
Speaker A:So that's where it can be kind of a tricky thing.
Speaker A:I know psychologically, if somebody's gonna start taking creatine.
Speaker A:So in a way that can be kind of like a weird side effect, like an indirect side effect of sometimes the psychological impacts with seeing that number on the scale go up because of the.
Speaker A:The water retention.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So again, when with water, though, with it being intramuscular, like, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker A:You know, we want to have hydration.
Speaker A:We need it.
Speaker A:Again, if we think of all of those metabolic processes that are taking place that are helping us lift heavy things, move quickly, you know, water is good.
Speaker A:We want to be hydrated.
Speaker A:And so creatine in a way, is a.
Speaker A:Is a way to keep our muscles hydrated.
Speaker A:So I think that's kind of a cool.
Speaker A:A cool kind of thing.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And I think when we see shifting water outside of the cells versus going into the cells, again, like with what creatine is doing, this is more of like an inflammatory response.
Speaker A:So if you're feeling the puffy fingers, if you're feeling the puffy face, if you're feeling puffy feet everywhere, and not just like in your arms where your muscles are, you know, or in your legs, again where your muscles are, then this is probably a better indicator of some kind of level of inflammation, which I think that could be a whole nother podcast in and of itself.
Speaker A:But again, just distinguishing water is impacted by a lot.
Speaker A:And again, creatine, you know, again, can cause it to go into your muscles.
Speaker A:The other thing that I tell clients too, is that if you've ever wanted to have that like, like toned, you know, look, this is going to help you get a little bit more muscular toned looking physique because it's going to be adding.
Speaker C:Yeah, you're going to be.
Speaker C:Yeah, we're adding pump.
Speaker A:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And then also just again, thinking back to just General functions of creatine with higher levels of this intracellular water.
Speaker A:You know, this is a really big, important signal for protein synthesis.
Speaker A:So again, supporting that increase in muscle mass over time.
Speaker A:And when we see higher levels of outside of the cell, again, not only is that an inflammatory thing, but we see that with aging and with a lot of, like, just depreciation things in our body in general.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So having water go into your cells, go into your.
Speaker A:Your pro.
Speaker A:Your.
Speaker A:Your muscles, definitely not a bad thing.
Speaker C:I wish I'd known that sooner because I.
Speaker C:Cause I'm also like, I'm.
Speaker C:I'm as guilty as anyone else who saw, you know, the.
Speaker C:The scale weight creep up or just felt that, whoa, my arms got bigger.
Speaker C:And in my head I was like, oh, I'm.
Speaker C:I'm getting bulky.
Speaker C:I shouldn't.
Speaker C:I. I shouldn't be supplementing with creatine.
Speaker C:It's just for men, Interestingly so.
Speaker C:Both my husband and I take creatine.
Speaker C:He has more of the digestive distress when taking creatine monohydrate on an empty stomach.
Speaker C:I did a little bit more research and do it myself, and what I learned was that oftentimes that digestive distress is a result of the.
Speaker C:Be the solids not getting fully dissolved in whatever beverage you're consuming them with.
Speaker C:And that can create the issue.
Speaker C:And using warm, not like boiling hot, but, like, think like a.
Speaker C:For most people, palatable cup of coffee.
Speaker C:I mean, I'm.
Speaker C:I'm like mother of dragons.
Speaker C:It needs to be scalding.
Speaker C:But, like, if we're thinking about, like a normal cup of coffee, maybe you've added cream to it or whatever that, like, lukewarm and.
Speaker C:And warm temperatures actually allow it to get suspended and dissolved better so that we're not experiencing that same level potentially of GI distress.
Speaker C:And the other thing that actually has really helped my husband and I've switched over as well, is instead of taking a creatine monohydrate, which is.
Speaker C:Is the gold standard, it's the most studied, we've shifted to using a creatine HCl hydrochloride, which is in capsule form, you end up taking less of it.
Speaker C:And it seems to not have the same digestive impact because from what I've read, it gets absorbed prior to digestion, so it kind of bypasses that system.
Speaker C:I'm curious your thoughts on.
Speaker C:On creatine monohydrate versus hcl.
Speaker C:If you've played around with the two kind of what.
Speaker C:Your thoughts are there?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So like you said, monohydrate is the gold standard.
Speaker A:But that's more so just because we have the most research behind it.
Speaker A:That one has the largest evidence base.
Speaker A:And so again, not to say that it's necessarily superior because you can still.
Speaker A:Again, there's also just as much evidence supporting hcl as well.
Speaker A:Creatine, hcl, that is so like you said, it can be sometimes more or more easily tolerated.
Speaker A:And so that's where again, if you're somebody who is maybe trying to dabble in the creatine realm, you can start with monohydrate if you want and see if, if you can tolerate it.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:But a little goes a long way with creatine.
Speaker A:And in a lot of supplements you can get a tub that has like at least 30 to 60, you know, servings of it.
Speaker A:And if after two servings you're like, this makes me feel yucky and I'm having a lot of, you know, GI symptoms that I am not comfortable with finishing the rest of this tub.
Speaker A:That's where if you wanted, you could just start with hcl.
Speaker A:I just, I more so just educate clients on that.
Speaker A:I don't specifically say do this over this.
Speaker A:I just say this one causes this, this one doesn't do this.
Speaker A:So you can use your cognitive thoughts, your critical thinking to decide what is going to be best for you, especially with, you know, like, whatever resources are available.
Speaker A:Sometimes some supplements could be a little bit pricier than other in different forms and things.
Speaker A:So, so that's where I see myself as an educator of it least, like understand the why behind them.
Speaker A:And then that way you don't fall for any kind of marketing because that can be just kind of a yucky, yucky stuff to deal with in the supplement realm in general.
Speaker A:But, but yeah, so HCL definitely can be a little bit more easily absorbable, which is why you can see that if you're taking it in a capsule form, it's going to be in a smaller dose.
Speaker A:So that's why again, you don't need as much of it because your body can do more with smaller amounts versus, you know, taking it in a monohydrate.
Speaker A:I think there's a lot of supplements out there that I think the companies kind of go under the assumption that your body isn't going to be able to absorb all of it.
Speaker A:So that's why, if you look at the back label, sometimes there's crazy amounts of certain, certain nutrients in there.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker A:And when it comes to, you know, is one better than the other, it kind of comes back to my biggest generalized statement.
Speaker A:Of consistency.
Speaker A:Consistency kind of trumps all.
Speaker A:You know, if you're having uncomfortable symptoms, you're probably going to struggle taking it consistently.
Speaker A:So even if you can, you know, white knuckle it through whatever things you're kind of experiencing and you know, I feel like from the things that I've experienced and that clients have experienced the GI symptoms that, that I've at least been made aware of from that firsthand experience, haven't been anything like, I'm miserable, I'm throwing up, I. I'm going to the bathroom every 20 minutes.
Speaker A:Like, it's nothing super extreme, but it can definitely be different if you are somebody who is very regular, very consist, having a very specific, you know, kind of expectation when it comes to.
Speaker A:Comes to your GI habits.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So that's where you might be able to still take it.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But yeah, just kind of know that if you're experiencing those things that, that that's probably what's going on.
Speaker C:Got it.
Speaker C:So if we're sticking with creatine monohydrate, is there a loading phase?
Speaker C:Like, how much should we be working our way up to taking on a daily basis consistently?
Speaker C:I know with the hcl, at least, my protocol has been that, that there's, there is no loading phase for the hcl.
Speaker C:Um, and generally you kind of start with one capsule on days that I train.
Speaker C:I tend to take two on those days.
Speaker C:And yeah, I'm curious about with, with the monohydrate, like, what's the protocol?
Speaker C:You, you're excited, you want to get started, you've ordered your powder not from Amazon.
Speaker C:I want to throw this disclaimer out there that, I mean, we all buy so much from Amazon.
Speaker C:I don't, I don't personally buy my supplements from Amazon and it's because there are some issues with people duping brands with, you know, warehouse temperatures, transportation, just like the overall chain of custody.
Speaker C:I know they tested a whole bunch of brands of creatine coming from Amazon once, and I don't have the research in front of me, but from, from what I remember, most of those products tested like not even having creatine in them.
Speaker C:And it wasn't the fault of the, the companies.
Speaker C:It's just kind of.
Speaker C: ike mid March of this year of: Speaker C:But when we're looking at supplements, I personally would recommend not purchasing them off of Amazon and either go direct from the supplier or, you know, some other sources for that.
Speaker C:So that's a side caveat.
Speaker C:But I do want to just quickly ask.
Speaker C:Okay, we're.
Speaker C:We're all on board with supplementing with creatine now.
Speaker C:How do we do it?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So the loading phase.
Speaker A:So that's been something.
Speaker A:Again, if you're thinking of, I don't know, side note, Ava's just kind of waking up from a nap.
Speaker A:She's totally fine and content.
Speaker A:I don't know if you can.
Speaker A:Is it picking up on her chatting in the background?
Speaker C:It is, but I think we might, we might be able to.
Speaker C:To whatever, scrub over that a little bit.
Speaker C:Fine.
Speaker C:This is, this is females.
Speaker C:It's all good.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And again, she's totally fine.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So we can just keep finishing up on this by.
Speaker A:By all means.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Loading phase.
Speaker A:So when it comes to taking creatine, there is kind of this standard of following a loading phase.
Speaker A:Usually it's taking like up to like 20 grams a day for three to five days, and then you kind of taper back down into that 5 gram kind of realm.
Speaker A:So a lot of this research with using a loading phase is again, looking at that specific subject line when it comes to activity and performance and athletes and that kind of caliber.
Speaker A:So this is where, in my opinion, when it comes to, you know, the average individual fitness connoisseur, you know, just somebody who's living a healthy, active lifestyle, I wouldn't say that you would have to go through a loading phase.
Speaker A:It's just a way to again, essentially just preload a lot of creatine in your body.
Speaker A:And again, after a couple of days, you drop back down to that 5 grams anyway.
Speaker A:And I think sometimes also.
Speaker A:So going from taking no creatine to taking 20 grams, I think can be a bit hard on the system.
Speaker A:So whether you're taking, you know, creatine, monohydrate or hcl, if you're following a loading phase, usually the loading phase is with monohydrate.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But that's where I would say the general person would be just fine just jumping in with, you know, three to five grams.
Speaker A:Sometimes there's scoops that will have, you know, different, varying amounts.
Speaker A:Amounts.
Speaker A:So it kind of just depends on what's all on the.
Speaker A:What the manufacturer is kind of putting forth with that.
Speaker A:But I would say that you wouldn't have to do a loading phase.
Speaker A:Again, somebody who's looking to have advances and support in their performance.
Speaker A:That would be, you know, if you wanted to dabble in that, you could.
Speaker A:But there's no research that says that, you know, thou shalt do loading phase.
Speaker C:So that's Fair.
Speaker C:So with long term usage, do we need to be cycling off creatine?
Speaker C:What happens if we get derailed with consistency because we go on vacation and we choose not to travel with loose white powders for, you know, ease of travel?
Speaker C:Curious.
Speaker C:Like, should we be stopping periodically if we're not, Is it a big problem if we stop?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I would say in terms of cycling off of it, I have not heard of anything about if you want to stop taking creatine, if there's a specific approach or kind of step down a way way to take it.
Speaker A:So that's just not something that at least I've explored again for my purposes and for the clients that I've worked with.
Speaker A:We all are like, we love this, we want it, we want more creatine.
Speaker A:So I think when you get to a point where you aren't wanting to take it anymore, Again, based on at least what I have been informed of and what I've seen, there isn't anything specific that says like, hey, you should taper, you should go slow and whatnot in following that regard.
Speaker A:So this is where if you are traveling or if you're gone or if you miss a dose or something like that, it's not necessarily going to make your breakup break.
Speaker A:And that's where you know, if you did a loading phase and you take a day off, do you have to start a loading phase over?
Speaker A:No, I would say you could just jump right back in.
Speaker A:And that's where again, consistency is going to be, you know, a valuable thing.
Speaker A:The more consistent you are at taking it, the more adjusted, you know, your body will be for it.
Speaker A:And then the longer you take it, you know, just the more enhanced your stores, you know, will kind of be for that.
Speaker C:So, baby, amazing.
Speaker C:All right, we're.
Speaker C:I can't believe we've already talked as long as we have about a single nutrient.
Speaker C:That's amazing.
Speaker C:I love it.
Speaker C:I want to finish up with some just kind of like rapid fire creatine myths or facts, kind of just like true or false.
Speaker C:So I'm gonna have you answer true, false, or maybe slash.
Speaker C:It's complicated.
Speaker C:And we won't go into any of the explanations of those things, but just as kind of like to wrap things up and then we'll talk about how people can work with you and, and all of that.
Speaker C:So true or false?
Speaker C:Creatine makes women bulky.
Speaker A:False.
Speaker C:Creatine makes you gain one weight, not gain fat.
Speaker A:You might retain water, so you might see that.
Speaker A:But again, distinguishing weight because a lot of times Weight and fat in our brains are synonymous.
Speaker A:So that's where being specific, yes, the number could go up, but false to it being fat.
Speaker C:Okay, true or false?
Speaker C:Creatine causes hair loss.
Speaker A:Ooh, I don't know.
Speaker A:That is a good one.
Speaker A:I did not look at.
Speaker A:I, I saw that one on there.
Speaker A:I have no idea.
Speaker A:Yeah, I have not heard of that actually.
Speaker A:Have you seen that one?
Speaker C:I haven't, no.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:Okay, well, so we'll leave that one as false slash.
Speaker C:It's complicated.
Speaker C:True or false.
Speaker C:You have to drink significantly more water when you're taking creatine.
Speaker A:False.
Speaker C:You only need creatine on days you exercise.
Speaker C:False.
Speaker C:Creatine is only beneficial if you lift really, really, really heavy, heavy weights.
Speaker A:False.
Speaker C:Women need less creatine than men.
Speaker A:False.
Speaker A:Not necessarily.
Speaker C:More creatine equals more benefit.
Speaker C:False.
Speaker C:Amazing.
Speaker C:Okay, so I think I'm, I'm hoping that everyone really got some solid understanding of what creatine is.
Speaker C:Maybe stepped over that fear threshold of gaining weight, turning into the Incredible Hulk, having massive GI issues.
Speaker C:All of the potential barriers to incorporating more choiceful creatine in our active and longevity focused optimization style lifestyles.
Speaker C:So thank you so much, Megan, for, for breaking this all down for us.
Speaker C:And obviously, like, research continues to come out.
Speaker C:Nuance, nuances are going to vary based on the individual as well.
Speaker C:And we're learning all the time, different protocols, stacks.
Speaker C:You know, the creatine HCL has not been around for a really long time, which is part of the reason it hasn't been studied for a long time, because it hasn't existed.
Speaker C:So that's like a newer way to consume creatine.
Speaker C:And there are gummies and there are all kinds of things that people are, are doing with, with creatine.
Speaker C:But setting aside creatine for a moment, Megan, can you remind everyone where they can find you, work with you, learn more about what you're doing with, with clients in the realm of nutrition?
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:So the easiest way to find me is on social media.
Speaker A:I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook.
Speaker A:My Instagram handle is Megan the Trainerrd, with periods in between each of those words.
Speaker A:You can also follow fitness lying down.
Speaker A:That's the gym that I work at and so I do training there as well as dietetics, again, nutrition consulting, so you can work with me through that.
Speaker A:I also do kind of pop up challenges and things throughout the year, so I post a lot of those on my social.
Speaker A:Um, I do have a little email list that I send out to clients as well or you know, just following very small following.
Speaker A:But my email, if you wanted to get ahold of me directly, you definitely can nourish to flourish, period.
Speaker A:Fldmail.com um, and again, I'm sure Lena will have all those things in the show notes too but.
Speaker A:But yeah, that's the easiest way to get ahold of me.
Speaker A:If any of you come and visit up in the lacrosse area, that's where I'm stationed out of.
Speaker A:So definitely pop by and say hi or let me know if you're coming and we can definitely set something up where, where we can meet and it'd be fun chat.
Speaker C:Amazing.
Speaker C:Megan, I always love, I love working with you.
Speaker C:I love referring clients to you as well.
Speaker C:To work more specifically on nutrition, she's running all kinds of group programs and one on one support and all kinds of ways that she can help you make your nutrition goals more actionable and and, and better because she's incredible in, in all the ways, shapes and forms forms.
Speaker C:We will link all of her contact info in the show notes as well.
Speaker C:So if you're feeling called to get even deeper with Megan on all of the things, she makes everything so easy to understand, so accessible and really where I think she's a gifted and skilled practitioner is she's not coming at you from above and in a, in a condescending or demanding of perfection kind of way, because that's not realistic.
Speaker C:Just like we both work in the realm of functional movement and understanding the nuance and the context and all the ways we can progress and regress, she brings that same approach to nutrition as well, which is so important because our lives are so different and complicated and all of us are different.
Speaker C:And she brings that same enthusiasm and energy and ability to move forward, meeting you where you're at in that realm as well.
Speaker C:Megan, thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker C:And if this episode makes you think of another woman who's been curious about creatine or has been hesitant to try it, send her this episode.
Speaker C:And until next time, keep cultivating your resilience and unleashing your limitless potential.
Speaker B:The information shared on the LIA is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, psychological or professional advice.
Speaker B:While we discuss wellness, health and personal development, nothing in this podcast should be taken as a substitute for professional guidance.
Speaker B:Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for making any changes to your health or wellness routine.
Speaker B:The views expressed by guests on their own do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host.
Speaker B:By listening, you agree to take full responsibility for your own health and well being.
