Our body works like a machine. It needs fuel that burns in the engines to produce energy and move the body. The concept seems very simple, but it is not. The human body is much more complex, and the nutrients it should consume in the form of a fuel need to be beneficial to the body. Today, we’ll look into a nice idea of how Creatine works as a supplement or a nutrient for the body.
Creatine is a wonder compound found naturally in our body’s muscles. It functions more like amino acids because it is produced from glycine and arginine, the two amino acids. It helps the muscle to gain energy and make the body in a more working state. It is found in red meat, fish, shrimps, milk, cheese, and many other healthy foods.
Why is Creatine Necessary?
Talking biologically, Creatine is the energy storage itself in the form of Phosphocreatine in the muscles. This compound further plays a significant role in the development of Adenosine Tri Phosphate (ATP) molecule, which is known as the most significant energy supplier of the body. The ATP molecule further breaks down in multiple processes to release the energy, but let’s not go into this much detail.
The point is, Creatine is not a nutrient that should be missing in any person’s diet. And when it comes to those who are into bodybuilding or working out, the need for Creatine is increased to a much higher level as such vigorous activities consume a lot of energy.
The research has proved that Creatine also plays a significant role in increasing muscle strength, mass, and recovery.
Creatine is Good for Workouts:
Bodybuilders take pre-workout energy boosters for many reasons, one of them being able to cross their workout boundaries like never before. This goal demands them to increase the intake of multiple vitamins, nutrients, and minerals, including Creatine in the body, so their body doesn’t give up too soon. It also helps them recover from post-workout stress and breakdown by lowering the energy levels that are cope-able by the workout freak.
Creatine is the main ingredient of many good quality pre-workouts available in the market.
Variations of Creatine:
At this point, if you think you know everything about Creatine, you’re wrong. What we were discussing before was all-natural Creatine, but the Creatine added in the pre-workouts is synthetic. Most of the pre-workouts use a very common type of Creatine called Creatine Monohydrate, which is very easily accessible. Most of the people confuse every Creatine with Creatine Monohydrate, but the fact is there is another very useful form of synthetic Creatine, called Creatine Hydro-Chloride (Creatine HCL). We’ll discuss these two in detail, but here we want to mention some other variants of Creatine as well that you can look out for.
- Creatine Magnesium chelate: this compound is formed by combining the Creatine with the magnesium group. This variant has proven to increase the strength before the workout and also helps to restore the body after the workout.
- Creatine Ethyl Ester: This compound increases the bioavailability of Creatine. It benefits in almost similar ways like Creatine Monohydrate, yet Creatine Monohydrate easily surpasses this variant.
- Buffered Creatine (Kre-Alkalyn): This variant is alkaline in nature. It is thought of being more soluble, but in fact, it doesn’t work a lot this way either. Creatine HCL and Creatine Monohydrate are still better versions than this one.
- Liquid Creatine: This is simply a pre-dissolved Creatine in the water. It is not much effective if taken in average quantity. It requires higher doses to work well.
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Creatine Monohydrate:
Multiple research and studies show that Creatine Monohydrate is extremely safe to consume in smaller doses. However, it is not so harmful, even in excessive doses. Consider the fact that it is okay for an average person to consume 3-5 g of Creatine Monohydrate in a day, but a dose of up to 30 g in a day also does no harm to the body, but any amount more than this would be bad for health.
It is also beneficial for those looking to gain weight, which is not entirely bad. It pumps the muscles and water in the body, not fats that give the effect of slight weight gain. And such weight is easily lost if anyone wants to. Moreover, this kind of weight gain is always recommended because it promotes a healthy lifestyle.
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Creatine HCL:
This is also another synthetic form of Creatine attached to the Hydrochloride group that increases the stability of the compound. The pH of Creatine HCL is lower than Creatine Monohydrate and better than creatine monohydrate, which makes it more acidic and hence increasing the water solubility. When you mix some fraction of Creatine HCL with water, the water doesn’t get chalky, nor does the particles settle at the bottom of the glass. Creatine HCL is also very effective in providing energy to the muscles and increasing the stamina.
A Comparison of Creatine Monohydrate and Creatine HCL:
Both compounds serve as a supplement to the body as there are only slight changes in their structure. More than a thousand researches have been done on Creatine Monohydrate, and there are about very few studies done on the latter. This makes us believe that Creatine.
Monohydrate is the one we should include in our diets or the pre-workouts. But the data recorded by the consumers have different things to reveal.
Consumers find an issue with the Creatine Monohydrate that it is not much soluble in water. Studies have also proved that Creatine Monohydrate dissolves only 3% of the actual intake in the intestinal cells and the tissue fibers that, too, in more than 90 minutes. It usually causes diarrhea, intestinal contractions, and abdominal pains due to the particles settling down in the intestinal walls. Thus, it requires more water than necessary to make the particles moving, which further increases the blood pressure to an undesirable rate. Comparatively, Creatine HCL being more acidic dissolve unexceptionally in the intestinal cells and causes almost no stomach aches.
Visible dizziness is experienced by the consumers of Creatine Monohydrate that is negligible in the Creatine HCL.
An experiment shows that if the equal amounts of Creatine Monohydrate and Creatine HCL are consumed at the very same time, the latter absorbs at the rate 60% better than the former.
Creatine Monohydrate is very easily available at every random drugstore, pharmaceutical, or anywhere online. But Creatine HCL is not easily available in the market, not only this, but it is also much expensive than a regular Creatine Monohydrate.
Side effects:
Creatine causes dizziness overall and helps gain weight even to those people who do not want to. High doses of Creatine make a person feel nauseated for a long time. GI distress is also experienced after the intake of Creatine.
Myth Buster:
There are very random myths created about the Creatine and its intake. Let’s bust a few of them here:
Myth 1: Creatine is a steroid.
No, Creatine is not a steroid at all. It is found naturally in our body and the food we eat too. The synthetic Creatine is also not a steroid.
Myth 2: Creatine is not for women.
Women can also intake Creatine equally as men, however they like because every human body needs to produce ATP molecules, which indeed needs Creatine. However, it is better for pregnant or women who are breastfeeding not to consume too much of externally produced Creatine.
Creatine hcl vs. creatine monohydrate Conclusion:
The performance of both Creatine Monohydrate and Creatine HCl is exceptional. Both give a push to the muscles and strength to the body needed for workout and even daily. Both react positively to generate the ATP molecules, and no such difference is seen there. However, the difference in how both react to the human body and the distress caused by them, after the intake of them makes us decide against Creatine Monohydrate and makes Creatine HCl a clear winner.
