Why Every Person Should Take Creatine w/ Dr. Scott Forbes

Okay, so Dr. Forbes, walk me through why creatine is so beneficial and like what it does, how it makes somebody more athletic, how it can help them with their muscle mass and recovery and sleep and everything along those lines from like a bare bones perspective, almost like an intro slash defense of creatine.

Okay, so yeah, creatine is basically a molecule that can give you energy.

So anything that requires the use of energy, such as athletic performance, going to the gym, lifting weights, can benefit from creatine itself.

So in a muscle cell, you're at about 80% saturated.

But if you take creatine supplement, you can just make that energy system about 20% bigger, which seems like a lot actually, but it's such a small energy system.

But the usefulness of this energy system is that it's good for high intensity type activities.

And yeah, we've done numerous studies to look at combining creatine with exercise.

to make your, I would say your muscles bigger, but there's actually never been a study that's directly measured muscle mass with creatine supplementation.

They always estimate it.

So they measure what's known as lean mass.

And lean mass includes things like water, obviously muscle as well.

So about 50% of lean mass is muscle.

And it also includes other proteins or connective tissue.

And lean mass often increases with creatine supplementation.

So if your muscles are getting bigger, you can also make them stronger as well.

And we've tried to quantify kind of those effects as well.

So how much stronger do you actually get with creatine supplementation or how much more powerful do you get as well?

So when you mentioned there, you said it's a small energy system.

Can you clarify what that would mean? And I know this might be a little bit in the weeds, but from like a physiological perspective.

Yeah.

Yeah, so basically we have this molecule called ATP, and that's the energy currency within any cell.

And we can only store very limited amounts of it.

And so when we use it, when we use up energy, we have to replace it.

And our bodies are pretty cool because we have so many different ways to make ATP.

But those different energy systems, we call them, they function at different speeds, right? And they also have different capacities to them.

Okay, so Dr. Forbes, walk me through why creatine is so beneficial and like what it does, how it makes somebody more athletic, how it can help them with their muscle mass and recovery and sleep and everything along those lines from like a bare bones perspective, almost like an intro slash defense of creatine.

Okay, so yeah, creatine is basically a molecule that can give you energy.

So anything that requires the use of energy, such as athletic performance, going to the gym, lifting weights, can benefit from creatine itself.

So in a muscle cell, you're at about 80% saturated.

But if you take creatine supplement, you can just make that energy system about 20% bigger, which seems like a lot actually, but it's such a small energy system.

But the usefulness of this energy system is that it's good for high intensity type activities.

And yeah, we've done numerous studies to look at combining creatine with exercise.

to make your, I would say your muscles bigger, but there's actually never been a study that's directly measured muscle mass with creatine supplementation.

They always estimate it.

So they measure what's known as lean mass.

And lean mass includes things like water, obviously muscle as well.

So about 50% of lean mass is muscle.

And it also includes other proteins or connective tissue.

And lean mass often increases with creatine supplementation.

So if your muscles are getting bigger, you can also make them stronger as well.

And we've tried to quantify kind of those effects as well.

So how much stronger do you actually get with creatine supplementation or how much more powerful do you get as well?

So when you mentioned there, you said it's a small energy system.

Can you clarify what that would mean? And I know this might be a little bit in the weeds, but from like a physiological perspective.

Yeah.

Yeah, so basically we have this molecule called ATP, and that's the energy currency within any cell.

And we can only store very limited amounts of it.

And so when we use it, when we use up energy, we have to replace it.

And our bodies are pretty cool because we have so many different ways to make ATP.

But those different energy systems, we call them, they function at different speeds, right? And they also have different capacities to them.