Just Take Your Creatine

Creatine monohydrate has more gym folklore around it than almost any other legal supplement. Take it only after training. Never take it with coffee. It only works if you load. It only works if you train. A 2025 follow-up review in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition by Antonio and a large international creatine research group went back through those claims. The short version: consistency beats timing, and several of the popular warnings do not hold up.

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1. What this paper is

In 2021 the same group published a narrative review of common creatine misconceptions (water retention, fat gain, steroids, hair loss, cramping, kidney and liver worries, use in kids, women and older adults). The 2025 paper is the sequel. It asks sixteen more questions that still show up in social media and clinics, including timing, caffeine, muscle protein building, urine output, blood pressure, fertility, sleep deprivation and brain dosing.

It is a narrative review by creatine researchers, not a new randomized trial. Some sections rest on a small number of studies. Where the authors say the evidence is thin, that limit is noted below.