Hey Guys, Sean Nalewanyj here of SeanNal.com and BodyTransformationTruth.com and in this
video I want to answer the question of what happens when you stop taking creatine.
So will you lose all of the positive benefits that you achieved during creatine supplementation
and are there any possible side effects associated with suddenly discontinuing creatine use.
So let’s go over it.
The first thing to keep in mind here is that everybody responds to creatine supplementation
differently.
Some lifters see significant gains from it, while others, as high as up to 30% of the
population are known as “creatine non-responders” and they don’t see any noticeable results
whatsoever.
The effects that you personally experience once you discontinue creatine supplementation
are largely going to depend on how well you responded to it in the first place.
So the more significantly you responded, the more noticeable the change will be once you
stop, and vice versa.
Creatine benefits your muscle building program in two major ways.
The first is by increasing intra-cellular water retention, and the second is by increasing
your strength and power in the gym.
So let’s take a look at these two factors.
The first are the changes In intra-cellular water retention.
So creatine requires additional water in order to be stored in your muscle tissue.
And after your muscles have become completely saturated with creatine, and this usually
happens around about 3 weeks after supplementing with 5 grams daily, your muscles should take
on a slightly fuller appearance as a result of the increased fluid.
So once you discontinue creatine supplementation and those extra creatine stores have left
your body after a few weeks, this additional water retention will no longer be necessary
and will be cleared out as well.
For some lifters, this might mean a fairly quick drop of several pounds of water weight
once the creatine levels leave their system, and for others the effects may hardly even
be noticeable.
Again, this really depends on how well you responded at the very start.
One thing is for sure though, and that is that whatever additional water weight you
gained from your creatine supplementation when you began will mostly be lost once you
discontinue.
And the second issue are the changes in strength and power.
Now this is much harder to accurately pinpoint, and again, it's going to vary quite a bit
from person to person.
By increasing the efficiency of your body’s use of ATP (which is the usable energy molecule
within your muscles), creatine improves your gym performance and increases your overall
strength and power output.
Now when you stop using creatine, the additional phosphate groups it was previously providing
to your muscle cells for enhanced strength will also be diminished.
So, assuming that you are someone who does respond well to creatine supplementation,
you may notice a small reduction in your overall strength after a few weeks of stopping.
However, it likely won’t be to a very significant degree as long as you continue with your regular
training program.
As far as your actual lean muscle gains are concerned, it’s highly unlikely that you’re
going to notice any decrease there, again, assuming that you continue with your training
and eating plan in the same way that you were previously.
Now are there any side effects to suddenly stopping creatine use?
Well creatine is the most widely researched sports supplement in the world and it's never
been shown to be harmful in any way when used within the recommended daily dosage of about
5 grams.
And this includes periods of cycling on and off.
Your body does adjust its own natural production of creatine in response to external supplementation,
but this system is extremely sensitive and it adapts virtually instantly, so once you
stop taking creatine, your natural production will fall back into the proper range.
The real question here though is why stop at all?
Sure, if you don’t see any real results from using creatine in the first place, then
obviously there’s no need for you to continue.
Or perhaps you’re just tired of having to worry about taking it every day, maybe you
really dislike the taste or the texture, though in that case you could just use creatine pills,
or maybe you’re travelling and you don’t want to take it with you everywhere you go,
in those cases, the choice is yours, but assuming you’ve been using creatine consistently
and you have seen positive benefits, I can't see any real good reason to stop.
First off, as I covered in detail in a previous video, which I'll link here as well as the
description box below, there's really no benefit at all to cycling on and off of creatine.
For optimal creatine results you should simply continue with a 5 gram per day dosage on an
ongoing basis.
Secondly, there is no evidence to suggest that continual creatine supplementation over
the long term is dangerous to your health in any way.
And thirdly, creatine is very inexpensive, and if you purchase it in bulk it's really
only going to cost you somewhere around 2 cents per gram which on a monthly basis works
out to about 3 dollars.
And if cost really is an issue, keep in mind that most people can probably get away with
as little as 3 grams of creatine daily, in which case it drops to about 2 bucks a month.
So to wrap this all up if you’ve been supplementing with creatine to the point of full saturation,
and then you decide to discontinue, this is what's going to happen after a few weeks.
Number 1, you will lose the additional water retention that your body was using to store
the creatine.
Number 2, you may notice a slight reduction in your overall strength levels, but likely
not to a significant degree.
Number 3, you will likely retain all of your gains in actual lean muscle mass.
And number 4, you're not going to experience any unfavorable side effects.
Once again though, this all depends on the individual and on how well they responded
to the creatine in the first place.
If you’re considering stopping creatine use but you're not quite sure, your best bet
is to simply discontinue for 2-3 weeks and then see what happens.
If you do experience a drop in your overall muscle fullness and your strength that you
aren’t happy with, then you can always go right back on.
Or, if you don’t notice any real changes at all then of course you can just stop altogether.
So thanks for watching this video lesson.
I hope you found the information useful here today.
If you did enjoy the video, as always, please make sure to hit the LIKE button, leave a
comment and subscribe to stay up-to-date on future videos.
Also make sure to check out my complete step-by-step muscle building and fat loss programs over
at BodyTransformationTruth.com.
The link for that is in the description box below, and make sure to join the Facebook
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The link for that is also in the description box.
Talk to you again soon.