How Long Does Creatine Stay In Your System?

To answer this question effectively, it must be broken down into 2 parts. First, how long does creatine last in your system after taking a single dose? Next, how long will your creatine stores remain elevated once supplementation is completely ceased? Let’s find out!

When you take a single dose of creatine, it enters your bloodstream to be transported to skeletal muscle cells. It appears that creatine levels are at their peak in the blood around 2 hours after supplementation. These levels then remain elevated for another 2 hours, meaning blood plasma creatine levels return to normal after 4 hours total. 

Therefore, the creatine half-life after reaching peak concentration in your blood will be around 1 hour, with levels returning to normal after another hour. This tells us that it takes around 4 hours for our bodies to fully transport a serving of creatine to our muscle cells. However, most of this creatine will still be in our system as it is being stored by our muscle cells. 

The second part to this question is how long creatine levels will remain elevated once you completely stop supplementation. For reference, most people have creatine stores that stay ¾ full without supplementation. Consistent supplementation of 3-5g a day will fully saturate these stores to 100% after 2-4 weeks. Once the body stops receiving this extra dose of creatine everyday, it will take around 6-8 weeks for creatine stores to return to their baseline levels pre-supplementation.

When you take a single dose of creatine, there are several factors that may go into how much is actually retained in your muscles. Before getting into it, it’s worth noting that optimizing creatine retention is not nearly as important as simply taking the supplement regularly. 

Creatine retention is mostly affected by how much creatine is already being stored in your muscles. You’ll naturally retain more creatine when your muscles aren’t fully saturated, and retain less once they are. If you haven’t taken creatine in a while, or if you’ve never taken creatine before, you’ll likely retain more of each dose in your muscles. If your muscles are fully saturated with creatine, there’s less room for additional creatine to be stored. 

Our bodies store around 120g of creatine on average without supplementation, and we use around 2-3g of creatine a day. So, if you add 3-5g in through supplementation, more creatine will be stored than what’s being used up. However, your body can only store so much creatine, likely around 160g for the average person. This means if you supplement with 3-5g of creatine every day, eventually your body will only be able to store enough to maintain fully saturated creatine levels, excreting the rest through urine. 

Therefore, creatine retention after a single dose will likely be highest when you first start supplementation, and eventually level out to a slightly lower rate of retention once your muscles are fully saturated. 

Similar to if you’ve never supplemented before, if you take creatine irregularly, you will probably store more creatine per serving than if you’re taking it everyday. However, this is not a good thing because it means you’re not maintaining fully saturated creatine stores. Ideally, you want creatine supplementation to keep your stores fully saturated in order to experience all the benefits of this supplement. This is why taking creatine consistently is so important.

If you’re looking to start taking creatine, you may be wondering which supplement to take. If you’re looking for a high-quality, deluxe form of creatine, we recommend Transparent Labs’ Creatine HMB. 

With 5g of creatine monohydrate per serving, you can be sure you’re getting an optimal dose in each scoop. If you’re new to creatine supplementation, taking this dose every day should fully saturate your muscles within 2-4 weeks. At this point you can continue taking the same dose to ensure your creatine stores remain fully saturated.

This product is unique because it contains several additional ingredients on top of creatine. One of which is HMB, which doesn’t appear to add much value to the supplement because of its negligible effects. However, the inclusion of Vitamin D will likely have a solid impact on your training and overall health as it has been shown to improve muscular strength, bone health, and disease prevention. Each serving of Creatine HMB has 63% of your daily recommended Vitamin D.

While most creatine supplements only come in unflavored varieties, Transparent Labs stands out from the rest by offering this creatine in 11 flavors! Like all of Transparent Labs products, it’s also made with 100% natural ingredients.

Overall, this is a more deluxe creatine supplement than most others on the market. The price reflects this, being around $1.50 per serving. While you can certainly find cheaper options, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a higher quality supplement. Although HMB likely won’t have a major impact, the inclusion of Vitamin D and the different flavor options still give this product great value for the money. 

Overall, creatine is one of the most widely used sports supplements available. Unlike many other supplements, it does not have any acute effects, meaning it doesn’t really matter when you take it, or how long it takes for your body to process. Because it is a saturation-based supplement, the length and consistency you take it is what’s truly important. Once your muscles are fully saturated, it would take around 6-8 weeks with no supplementation for creatine levels to return to their baseline. 

If you’re interested in taking creatine, our recommendation for a high-quality supplement is Transparent Labs Creatine HMB.

Do you take creatine already, or are you considering trying this supplement out? Let us know in the comments below!

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