Creatine Benefits for Women Science Backed

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Creatine is not only use for bodybuilders or gym rats but creatine has many farther and wider reaching potential benefits for women than what we currenlty know. We will cover creatine topics that have been studied.

Can Creatine Have Impact on Mood?

When it comes to mood regulation decreased depression neuroprotection and cognitive ability. Many fascinating research coming out showing that creatine supplementation may be particularly beneficial for women with mood disorders such as depression.

Recent studies found that the use of dietary creatine in conjunction with other therapeutic modalities accelerated treatment response in depressed adolescent adult females. This 2011 study in particular by a condo at all evaluated teenage girls with major depressive disorder. They were taking 4 grams of creatine daily for 8 weeks in conjunction with Prozac, which they had been taking for 8 or more weeks prior with no change in symptoms. After 8 weeks of adding creatine into their treatment protocol, the score on average on the children’s depression rating scale decreased by 56 percent.

For reference, the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder is a score of over 40. Young female on test protocol started on average with a score of 69 and by the end of the 8 weeks of supplementation with creatine their score on average was 30.6, which is under the diagnostic criteria. Technically it cured them of major depressive disorder according to this one study. More research are still needed but so far the results are quite impressive.

Creatine and menstrual cycle

The main sex hormones for females, estrogen and progesterone, have been demonstrated to affect not only the body’s ability to produce creatine kinase, but also the essential enzymes responsible for endogenous synthesis of creatine.

In plain English this means is estrogen and progesterone or as your hormones fluctuate throughout your cycle. It’s going to impact not only how your body utilizes creatine but also how it’s able to produce creatine out of what you consume, whether it be via supplement or in your diet.

This information is going to matter a lot more for females with natural menstrual cycles. Hormones are always fluctuating throughout the month rather than being stable. On this chart you can see hormonal fluctuations throughout the 28 day menstrual cycle. Estrogen concentrations in red progesterone with the dashed line and you can see how the creatine kinase activity very closely mirrors the fluctuation in hormones.

Does Creatine help with Weight Loss?

Creatine has been gaining a lot of attention in recent years as a potential aid for weight loss and weight management.  Creatine works by increasing the production of ATP, which is the body’s main energy source. This helps increase metabolism and burn more calories, leading to weight loss. It also helps build muscle mass, which can help you maintain a healthy weight in the long run.

One study found that a woman who supplemented with creatine experienced a significant increase in lean mass. Another showed that men who supplemented with creatine saw their waistline decline by 3% over 12 weeks, but it was not statistically significant. So, there is evidence to suggest that creatine supplementation can lead to short-term weight loss. This is only seen in the short term and isn’t seen on a long-term basis or when used without exercise.

Can creatine make you Lean

Journal of Applied Physiology published a study conducted by Vandenberghe at all which study the effects of creatine on strength performance and body composition in females. Two groups of female volunteers do the same resistance training exercises over a period of 10 weeks. First group supplemented with creatine while the other group were given placebo.

At the end of 10 weeks, the change in muscle mass was 16 times greater in the creatine group than the placebo group. Similar results are seen in countless other studies showing the benefits when it comes to building lean muscle mass when you are supplementing with creatine.

The same study also demonstrated an increase in strength in the creatine group at the end of the 10 weeks the females who have been supplementing with creatine had more strength gains than the placebo group. The one rep max for leg extension and squats was 20 to 25 percent higher in the creatine group than the placebo group.

In just 10 weeks which is a very short amount of time to make a 20 to 25 bigger increase in strength. Creatine can contribute to an increase in muscle mass which contribute to overall body composition decreasing body fat percentage.

A review of the Literature published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism surveyed over 150 studies and reported not only a 2.2 percent increase in lean body mass in women taking creatine . They also noted a 3.2 percent decrease in body fat in study participants.

These profound benefits in not only beginners but also advanced lifters. Newbies will likely get a lot of the good gains as their body’s new to adapting and likely to get a lot more benefit with creatine.

Does creatine make you gain weight?

Creatine can increase body weight if you do a loading phase of creatine. You may see a 2-6  pound increase on the scale in just one week. A long-term studies show that increase in weight may continue on an upward trend if you continue creatine supplementation.

The truth is this isn’t a negative side effect at all. Why is that?  Creatine helps you build muscle, muscle has weight, the more muscle you have the more the scale is going to go up. But the more muscle you build, the lower your body fat percentage is going to get. This is a positive, a lot of people have fear of gaining weight from creatine usage which prevents them from doing a lot of activities that are going to get them a toned physique.

Does creatine make you stronger

Creatine is a very well well research supplement that’s really well known for its ability to boost muscle mass as well as strength and performance. Creatine is an amino acid and amino acids are building blocks of proteins. Creatine .specifically helps your muscles sustain energy longer by replenishing ATP.

What does ATP mean and why it’s important ?

ATP is basically like the energy source in a cell. It’s the organic compound that provides energy to drive many processes in living cells including muscular contraction nerve impulse propagation and chemical synthesis. When it comes to fitness specifically, ATP is what is used to power the contraction of muscles when you are working out. As the work of the muscle increases you need more ATP to continue to fuel that amount of work.

Basically like the harder or more intense your workout the more ATP you need to fuel. This is where creatine comes in. When muscles contract ATP is used to fuel that contraction and it’s broken down into ADP. Your body has a limited store of ATP, if you don’t replenish the ATP you will run out of energy fairly quickly.  To replenish ATP you need another phosphate molecule to stick it back on and make it ATP again.

Creatine increases the body stores of phosphate.  In this way creatine is able to contribute that phosphate molecule to turn ADP back into ATP to replenish your energy so you can keep going and get stronger. Meaning, the more creatine you have stored in your body the faster the broken down ATP is going to be able to turn into ATP again.

We will be sure to keep our readers updated on any new exciting research on creatine.

Still unsure about creatine? Read it’s possible side effects here.

References:

Creatine for women: a review of the relationship between creatine
and the reproductive cycle and female-specific benefits of creatine therapy. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26898548/

Open-label adjunctive creatine for female adolescents with SSRI-resistant major depressive disorder: A 31-phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4641570/

Creatine Supplementation in Women’s Health: A Lifespan Perspective https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33800439/

Long-term creatine intake is beneficial to muscle performance during resistance training https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jappl.1997.83.6.2055