If we’re sharing anecdata, Creatine has very noticeable positive impact on recovery time for me. Without it, I basically have to take an extra rest day between workouts.

I know caffeine is detrimental to my workouts because it dehydrates me and raises my heart rate. I have clear personal data on this. Creatine is well established as a substance that has a real measurable positive impact on people.

That's a somewhat expected result (in the sense that averaged over the whole population I'd expect results like yours more than half the time, and averaged over the subset prone to taking pre-workout supplements I'd still expect a 20+% rate of creatine doing almost nothing). Creatine has a gender bias, doesn't work for everyone, has effects that overlap non-cumulatively with extra red meat consumption (lessening the relative effect size), and is most helpful when taken 1-2 times daily rather than just pre-workout.

If it doesn't work for you, by all means don't waste your time and money.

Other people reading might still want to give it a shot. Proper size experimental design is a bit hard, especially if you start taking creatine as you also start working out more, so keep that in mind when evaluating results.

Creatine for responders slightly improves your leverages by increasing water in muscles, which translates to a few % more weight or few more reps. Guestimate, 5% for weight, 10% for reps on higher rep sets. Which is to say it gives a little more headroom for intermediate/advanced lifters who needs to start dialing in program /volumes/recovery/diet in to progress. A few % of intensity or reps per set across training block makes all the difference. Which makes creatine pretty good no shit supplement if you taking lifting remotely seriously as a hobby when it cost $30-60 per year when bought bulk. Ultimately it's deciding if you're willing to shell out $5 a month to look a bit more swole, have slightly more headroom programming/dietting, or if programming and diet on point, lift slightly more than you otherwise would with the extra water balloon leverages. It's like the cheapest pay to win, pay for slight boost in gym ego/self esteem supplement along with a caffeine, which for many is enough.

Keep in mind every body is different, and responds differently to inputs.

Creatine may not have done much for your body, but that absolutely does not mean it won't be very beneficial for others.

FWIW, coffee destroys me - I get the sweats, by heartbeat goes jittery and later in the day I crash HARD. It makes my stomach churn and grumble too. So for me, coffee is terrible advice.

Maybe because you have been working out since 14, that's why the effect has been negligible or minimal?

You are not alone in finding no benefit, and apparently about 1/3 of people are actually non responders.

What are positive effects you have noticed if not for strength?

The only downside with a normal intake is the weight water gain, especially when doing cardio like running or biking.

For the muscular benefits, yes, they are definitely there.

I've heard anecdotal reports that it can accelerate hair loss in males (male pattern baldness). I have no clue if this has been studied but enough people have reported it across the web that it has caused me to avoid creatine personally. Any experts here feel like weighing in?

Make sure to eat food before you take it, and start with 2.5g twice a day instead of 5g all at once to go easy on your stomach. The food helps slow down how quickly the creatine moves through your system. This prevents too much water from being pulled into your GI tract, avoiding undesirable symptoms (use your imagination).

This is likely a complete coincidence, so take my experience with a grain of salt. However… I am somewhat convinced that creatine caused me to develop appendicitis last summer about 5 days into a supplementation cycle. My best guess is that increased fluid retention (caused by creatine) caused vascular congestion at the verniform appendix.

On the (monkey’s paw) plus side, the perioperative IV fluids plumped up my muscles and gave a muscle man appearance that I was after for several days. I believe I was up 10-15 lbs in water weight when I came home.

Buy Thorne if you are really concerned about quality. Otherwise bulk supplements is fine. Creatine monohydrate is cheap and easy to produce

Be prepared to up your water intake significantly. In particular, I started sleeping near a full bottle of water.

I assume you're aware of the water weight gain. Otherwise, it's effects are fairly modest.

I like the crystalline stuff rather than the powdery stuff because when I mix creatine with a juice the powdery stuff tastes worse, probably because the crystals just float past your tongue and you barely taste it.

My fav way to take it is put a tablespoon of crystals in about 3 fingers of juice, swirl the cup with the wrist and sip, swirl and sip, swirl and sip, until its all gone.

Look at any pure creatine monohydrate (not the ethyl ester or hydrochloride forms) from a reputable supplier. It can cause stomach upsets in some people, but 5 grams once/day is generally well-tolerated and a sufficient dose for almost everyone. Don't expect miracles, but there is good-quality evidence for a marginal increase in sports performance in many situations, for many participants.

Creatine and caffeine possibly have a negative interaction - search PubMed for papers - eg

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26219105/

I’m very slow and stiff in the mornings and I drink a lot of black coffee to mitigate that.

Then, late afternoon, perhaps 6 to hours later, I take my creatine monohydrate for the day just before my ocean swim.

Drink water when taking creatine and maybe while eating something, or it can lead to mild stomach discomfort.

Start now, don't overthink it. It's one of (if not the most) studied supplements on the market.

just buy any monohydrate. if youre paranoid, look for a brand with cgmp certification thats batch tested.

other than that, dont expect a large effect. many people dont respond, and the rest get a small benefit plus a bunch of placebo effect.

Is hair loss alleged to be a creatine side-effect?

I am assuming mg is a typo? 5mg would be a dose you'd almost need lab equipment to correctly measure ^^

Wonder if these were related or just happened to occur at the same time.

If creatine helps you lift more, which increases testosterone levels, which speeds up balding, then it could be (at least part) causal.

Replying to signal boost this. I too get hair loss from DHT-boosters such as creatine or the herb tribulus terrestris. I should note that I have a higher than average amount of body and facial hair, so likely have naturally elevated DHT levels.

When I stopped taking creatine, I did lose a few reps in all my lifts; it does work.

If you were losing hair, it probably wasn't the creatine causing it: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/creatine-hair-loss/

I'm always harping back to this study: https://biolayne.com/reps/issue-5/creatine-so-effective-all-...

I think a lot of people jump straight to "placebo!" to explain this, but I am growing to think it is more that your body can also prime itself in ways that mimic creatine. That is, that it is akin to how your body will change hormone profiles on just the knowledge that you have an alarm that will wake you up in the morning.

Regardless of the reason, I'm interested in reading more on this.

Years ago I started lifting weights quite a bit. And my hairline started receeding sort of in the corners of my forehead. Stopped lifting and it stopped.

I suspect the testosterone boost from strength training.

I only use it when training hard, otherwise, you might as well flush it. Anecdotally, I feel I can squeeze out a bit more and I am not as fuzzy during the activity. I can't speak too much about how I feel during recovery or muscle growth. I do body weight, boxing, and range of motion and coordination drills with kettle bells and medicine balls.

People keep posting studies dating it doesn't cause hair loss. But it absolutely causes hair loss.

I think you can add supps that lower T to DHT conversion. I have just started on this journey.

Im losing it without the creatine so why not get the benefits.

Just be sure to cycle your creatine and be aware you need to have more water when you're taking it.

Small improvements in balance and strength is valuable to the older population. One fall can significantly reduce their movements, and that becomes a slippery slope to being sedentary and then death.

I mean, I think it makes sense and deserves funding. Creatine has a mountain of evidence in sports nutrition, as you are likely aware, so much that it’s kinda mind boggling to me that there hasn’t been more research into treating it more like a Vitamin for the general population. The evidence is clear that your body simply can’t produce as much creatine as it can utilize. As an adamant vegetarian I admit that this is extremely good evidence that being vegetarian is unideal for our species.

In athletics, creatine is basically the first thing after protein that gets recommended to supplement. As you get older muscle mass and strength become very critical indicators of vitality and independence. It also becomes harder to build and maintain muscle as you get older. The data is clear on this. During this stage of life, giving your body everything it needs is a no brainer.

Yes absolutely: any supp. should only be reached for after an intervention to lifestyle through physical activity and diet.

I mean yeah, pretty much every meta-analysis says this, even when they produce high quality comprehensive evidence.

The reality is that labs employ people who have families to feed, and the PI's primary job is to keep money rolling in so people can keep being paid. We are now generations removed from scientists being largely upper-class hobbyists who seek to advance humanity or make a mark on the world.

Modern science is an industrial complex that produces research papers as a product.