Experts recommend that if you take 5,000 mg daily, it will increase both your strength and performance. But the question is, how do you get there?
Sports doctors and dietitians say that if you consume 5,000 mg of creatine every day, you will incredibly improve your workout with greater strength and endurance. But that's a big step, unless you know the right shortcut... So how can you increase your creatine intake without drastic dietary changes, so you can improve your bodybuilding and performance?
Why does creatine make sense?
Creatine serves as fuel for short-term, high-intensity activities,” says Jose Antonio (Associate Professor of Exercise and Science at Nova Southeastern University). If you sprint, lift weights, or perform any high-intensity interval training (also known as HIIT, high-intensity intermittent exercise, HIIE, or sprint interval training, SIT), creatine can help you perform that training better.
How much creatine does the USDA recommend daily?
Surprisingly none, but you don't have to worry about that, because it's only because it's a non-essential natural nutrient. In other words, you don't need to consume it to be healthy.
How much creatine do exercise blogs recommend daily?
About 5,000 milligrams daily for one month will boost your long-term performance goals. This amount will increase the volume of creatine phosphate in your muscles and allow for optimal/better performance, confirms Chad Kerksick (Director of the Exercise, Performance and Nutrition Science Laboratories at Lindenwood University).
What else would I have to eat daily to get the same amount of creatine?
“You would have to eat an incredible amount of meat daily,” if you wanted to achieve this number naturally and without supplements. To be precise, you would have to eat 1.1 kg of beef or salmon daily. That's eight times the amount of protein the USDA recommends daily. So definitely don't eat that much, as excreting excess protein will unnecessarily cost you energy and burden your liver.
What are the negative effects of creatine?
A healthy adult over 18 can safely use it and does not have to worry about adverse effects on the kidneys. However, these side effects may occur:
Water retention in the muscles will increase your weight.
Dizziness.
Diarrhea.
Nausea.
Muscle cramps / deformities / contractions.
Stomach upset.
However, people under 18 should not use it! Also, if you have liver or kidney disease or high blood pressure.
It can be found today in these forms:
creatine monohydrate (pure creatine without any additives)
kre-alkalyn (creatine monohydrate with added baking soda - sodium bicarbonate)
creatine ethyl ester (produced by reaction with ethanol)
There are no studies yet that would prove that one is better than another, so don't be afraid to take the cheapest one.