Another Creatine Question

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Jordan,

I apologize for yet another Creatine question which I am sure you get a lot of them, but I am not sure if this has been asked and answered. I’ve seen a couple places when I google suggest that creatine loses it’s effectiveness after 1-2 hours after it’s been mixed with water. Is this accurate? I’ve been mixing my creatine drink the night before (say 7pm) then bringing it with me to work and drinking it at 3:30pm before I get home to start training at 4:30pm.

Brian Hughes

2

No, this is not accurate at all for useful sources of supplemental creatine, e.g. creatine monohydrate. Other forms, notably creatine ethyl ester and similar, cyclize to creatinine and other intermediates in solution. We see this in human studies. By and large, creatine monohydrate does not have as high of a potential to cyclize in solution. That all being said, since it doesn’t matter when you take your creatine, I’d just take it mixed fresh vs. in any proximity to exercise.