What Happens If You Miss Taking Your Daily Creatine Dose?
Do you use creatine, or have you been thinking about adding it to your supplement regimen? Professional athletes and avid gym-goers alike have used it for years. Creatine has been deemed safe to use and is the most researched supplement on the planet. But have you ever wondered what happens if you forget to take your daily creatine dose? Well, you’re not alone.
In this article, we are going to take a deeper dive into the use of creatine and whether or not you should freak out if you miss a daily creatine dose.
What is Creatine?
Creatine is one of the most widely used and effective supplements for building quality lean muscle mass and strength. It is a substance produced by the human body that is created with the help of three amino acids — methionine, glycine, and arginine.
Creatine basically helps to build muscle and strength in two ways. Firstly, by enhancing the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and, secondly, by increasing cellular hydration (how much fluid is found in the cell). Together, they help you train longer and without prematurely fatiguing and hitting the wall. In doing so, it helps increase the growth potential of muscle tissue and thereby getting you that much closer to achieving your training session goals.
What is a Loading and Maintenance Phase? Are They Necessary?
Creatine loading is a phase (5-7 days) when the level of creatine dosed is high. It is basically to supersaturate the muscles, and many people take upwards of 20g per day. It takes around 2-3 weeks for creatine to reach the serum level and unleash its true potential.
Initially, for 5-6 days, the creatine serving size is around 5 grams four times a day. Now you might be wondering, why just 5 grams? Why not more than that? According to research, if you consume more than 5 grams of creatine, your body will not be able to fully absorb it all and may end up excreting it. In short, anything more than 5 grams can be flushed down the toilet — literally.
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When setting up the doses for the loading phase, make sure to include a dose in the morning, at night, and before and after your workout. Consuming creatine before a workout helps to improve hydration levels and enhance performance during training sessions. And consuming creatine post-workout helps the muscles quickly absorb the creatine and replenish ATP levels while boosting recovery.
After the loading phase comes the maintenance phase, where you need to consume around 3-5 grams of creatine per day. You would continue this for as long as you wish to stay on creatine. Some people will cycle creatine, but research has shown that it’s not necessary to cycle creatine.
Now, what if you skip the loading phase and jump directly into the maintenance phase? The truth is you don’t need to load your creatine. In a matter of around 20-30 days, your muscle saturation will be the same as if you loaded for an entire week. It really comes down to personal preference whether you want to load with 20 grams of creatine for a week or just take the maintenance 3-5 grams per day, and your muscles will become fully saturated after around a month.
Some people may wonder why the loading phase is important?
The goal of the creatine loading phase is to reach the optimum level of creatine content and saturation faster by increasing the quantity of consumption. Here are some reasons why the loading phase may be a better option for you:
- It helps to prevent injuries
- It provides energy to muscles quickly
- It helps to maximize training sessions
- It boosts hormones and supports muscle growth
But again, over time, you’ll have the same overall saturation in the muscle by starting with maintenance doses rather than loading. It’s entirely up to you which path you choose to take. Both will get you there, just one faster than the other.
What Happens If You Miss Your Daily Creatine Dose?
Now, let’s say you are taking creatine for an extended period of time (several months without ever missing a single dose), and then one day, you suddenly forget to take your daily creatine dose. Or another example would be you went on vacation and forgot to pack your creatine. Now what? The question then arises, “What will happen if you forget to take your daily creatine dose?” Can you kiss your gains goodbye? Will you lose all the fluid in your cells that help you look fuller, and within 24 hours, you won’t even look like you lift?
Don’t laugh. Some people go crazy thinking all the months of taking creatine are ruined, and you’ll have to start all over from the beginning if you miss your daily creatine dose.
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Well, relax! A missed dose of creatine isn’t the end of the world — don’t get all worked up and send your cortisol levels into orbit. Let’s get into the details of what will actually happen if you miss your daily creatine dose.
So, what if you miss a daily creatine dose?
Well, don’t worry! Just like it takes time to store creatine in the body, it takes time to get rid of it or completely use it up. And once you reach the optimum level, you can quite easily manage it. Even if you stop taking creatine, the serum level remains high for around the next 4-6 weeks. Missing a dose won’t cause issues, won’t be the end of the world, and won’t make as much of an impact as you’d think.
As per a study, people who went through the loading phase and increased their creatine saturation by 20% and then stopped, witnessed only a drop of 5% in their creatine muscle saturation. That means, even after a week of NO CREATINE, they were up by 15%. And after a month of not using any creatine at all, they were back to their baseline.
What Happens If You Completely Stop Taking Creatine?
Once you stop taking creatine, you will obviously notice a slight change in terms of performance, stamina, and strength. But you will not lose muscle or your gains as long as you have a proper diet and training protocol in place. However, due to a potential loss of some fluid in the cells, you may look a little smaller in the mirror, but again, it’s not actual muscle loss.
Unfortunately, many people believe that creatine is directly responsible for putting on lean gains, and when you stop, those gains *poof* and disappear. That’s not accurate. Creatine doesn’t directly build muscle. It helps improve performance during training sessions, which can help build new lean muscle tissue.
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So, even if you stop taking creatine, the muscle gains your achieved would still remain, so long as you’re not screwing up your diet or dropping your calories into a crazy deficit. All you need to do is continue training hard and maintaining a properly balanced diet.
Let’s Put a Bow on This All
Creatine is one of the best and most affordable supplements that you’ll find on the market.
Do you need to buy all of those fancy creatine supplements out there? You can. But good old, tried, and true, creatine monohydrate is still the best option for most people.
Related Article: Creatine Monohydrate — The Most Researched Supplement on Earth
If you find you’re a non-responder to creatine monohydrate, try one of the others. But you should first start with creatine monohydrate and see how your body responds. Creatine monohydrate can do wonders for your physique. All you need is to stay consistent and have patience.
To wrap all of this up, don’t freak out if you miss your daily creatine dose, as you can always get back on track without noticing much of a difference at all.
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