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If you’re into fitness, you’ve heard of creatine at least once. It’s one of the most common supplements that’s available apart from protein powder.
You might have come across it if you have been looking for weight loss and muscle gain. However, it’s essential to understand what creatine does and if you can lose weight by using the supplement.
What is creatine?
It’s a supplement that's used to constantly pump energy into the muscles and enable the muscles to recover quicker. Furthermore, it protects the muscles from immense fatigue, cramping, and reduces the risk of injury.
How is creatine useful?
It’s useful in rapid recovery of muscles after a session. Ideally, it’s great for powerlifters and bodybuilders, as the accelerated recovery allows them to train the muscle group at a higher frequency.
Moreover, as it’s proven that creatine is a safe supplement, there’s no cycling with it the way bodybuilders do with steroids. However, it's not going to be useful if you’re trying to use it to lose weight. It’s not going to help in any way if the idea is to cut fat.
Nevertheless, if one was to go on a slight technicality, it can be said that creatine helps muscle recovery, and muscles burn calories. That in turn helps in cutting fat. However, as a supplement, creatine cannot help you lose weight.
How do I lose weight?
If you want to lose weight, the first step is to be on a calorie deficit diet. When you’re consuming less calories than your maintenance, the body will dip into the stored calories to make up for the deficit. That will kickstart the weight loss process.
Next, while dieting is key, you must focus on a form of exercise. It can be running, swimming, resistance training, HIIT, or anything else. Ideally, exercise should be enough to raise your heart rate and metabolism.
Many fitness coaches recommend a combination of cardio and resistance training for optimal weight loss, but you don’t need to use weights from the start. As a beginner, focus on bodyweight exercises first.
What supplements help with weight loss?
There isn’t any supplement that can help with weight loss. In fact, supplements are used for muscle recovery, but they can’t help with adding muscle mass either.
You need to have a good balance between diet (with all macronutrients) and a workout routine that can enable you to achieve your goals. Supplements such as creatine, protein powder, and anything else are used when you want to help your muscles, but they're not magical potions that can help you become leaner or more muscular without any training or diet.
Bottom Line
If you only want to consume the supplement for weight loss, it would be a waste of time. However, if your goal is to build lean muscles while you’re cutting fat, you will be able to benefit from creatine.
In such situations, you should consume five grams per day, and there’s no right time for it. You can consume it pre or post-workout, depending on what suits you the best. Finally, it’s important to stay consistent with it if you want to obtain the benefits from creatine.
