Hey guys, Sean Nalewanyj here, BodyTransformationTruth.com, and in this Q&A video I want to answer a question
that has been around for a very long time and that I still get asked on a regular basis,
which is, does caffeine block creatine absorption, and is it okay for you to consume creatine
and caffeine mixed together.
So although this is a fairly common guideline that you’ll hear being tossed around quite
a bit, most people don’t realize that this particular piece of advice really comes from
nothing more than one single study that was performed back in 1996 which I’ll link in
the description box below, that study used two groups, one consuming creatine and caffeine
mixed together, and one consuming creatine on its own, and the study showed that there
was an improvement in overall training performance in the group who was consuming creatine only,
and there was no improvement in the group consuming the creatine and the caffeine mixed
together.
Now there’s two important things to take into account here.
First of all, this particular study only looked at the overall training performance of the
groups but it didn't examine actual creatine uptake into the muscles.
Always remember that correlation doesn't equal causation, and just because one group removed
the caffeine and happened to perform better, that doesn’t automatically mean that it
was because the caffeine was “blocking” the absorption of the creatine in the other
group.
Removing caffeine from anyone’s diet is obiviously going to have noticeable physical
effects, and it’s possible that a short-term reduction improved their performance in some
other way, like improved sleep quality or reduced stress and anxiety, these are just
two possible answers out of many.
And secondly, this one study is exactly that, it’s one study.
No research is perfect, and to truly find out whether creatine and caffeine do interact
with eachother in a negative way, this effect would need to be repeated across multiple
studies over time.
And in fact, several follow up studies were performed on this that tried to duplicate
this effect and they showed no difference between consuming a creatine and caffeine
combination versus consuming creatine on its own.
So, based on the fact that the entire “caffeine blocks creatine” idea comes from nothing
more than one single study, that that study did not examine actual creatine absorption
or utilization by the body, and that multiple follow-up studies couldn’t replicate the
effect, I really can’t see any good reason to take this particular guideline seriously
at this point.
Some people do point out that caffeine is a diuretic, and that since creatine requires
additional water in order to be stored in the muscles, that these two things might conflict.
A couple things on that, first off, it’s never actually been confirmed that caffeine
is in fact a diuretic that causes your body to lose water, and in 2003 there was an analysis
done of all the main studies back to the 1960’s that examined caffeine and fluid balance,
and it basically concluded that caffeine does not actuallycause fluid loss in excess of
the volume of liquid that you consume, and I’ll link that in the description box below
if you want to check it out.
So, in other words, even if caffeine does have a diuretic effect in the body, the amount
of liquid in your coffee, or your tea or your pre-workout drink still contains enough water
to offset it and to still produce a net gain in your body’s overall levels of water.
So, bottom line, based on the available evidence (or the lack of evidence) I really wouldn’t
lose any sleep over the creatine and caffeine issue.
If you typically consume your creatine in the morning along with your coffee, or if
you use a pre-workout formula that includes both caffeine and creatine mixed together,
then just go ahead with it and I really wouldn't worry about it at all.
So thanks for watching this video lesson, I hope you found the information useful here
today.
If you want to learn a ton of other no B.S, science-based training, nutrition and supplementation
tips to maximize your muscle building and your fat burning progress along with concrete
step by step plans that you can follow along with, make sure to head over to BodyTransformationTruth.com
and grab my complete “Body Transformation Blueprint” System and you can do that by
clicking the icon at the top of the video or using the link in the description box below.
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Talk to you again soon.