The TRUTH About Creatine Shedding Belly Fat!

You probably heard the rumors. Take creatine and you build muscle, boost performance, maybe even burn belly fat. But most people still think creatine is a bodybuilder's supplement. Some chemical powder that makes your muscles look puffy or bloated. But what if I told you that your own body already makes creatine every day? And that your brain, your muscles and even your mitochondria depend on it? And what if I told you that taking just a little bit more, just a few grams, could change how your body uses energy, even if you never set foot in the gym? Hello, health champions. Today we're going to talk about this thing, creatine. What it is, what it does, and if it's a good idea to take some extra. First of all, creatine is a completely natural substance. And it's made up of three amino acids called glycine, arginine and methionine. So it's a type of a protein and very, very tiny proteins. The ones that are made up of just a few amino acids are also called peptides. And the liver, kidney and pancreas makes about one gram a day of creatine. And the liver is, of course, the main producer of this. Then it gets distributed into the body and 95% of it is stored in the muscles. And 5% of it is stored in the brain and other tissues. And the reason so much of it is in the muscles is that the muscles have the largest bulk in terms of energy usage. And creatine is all about fast energy. So the main purpose of creatine is to help recycle ATP. And we need to understand them what ATP is. And it's the adenosine triphosphate, which is the energy currency in the body. It's the only thing that the body actually uses for energy. And it's a molecule that looks like this. So it has an adenosine group, which is a type of sugar. And then to that we have hooked up phosphate groups. And we can have three phosphate groups. If we have one, then it's called adenosine monophosphate, AMP. If we have two groups hooked up, now it's called ADP, adenosine, diphosphate. And the full-blown high energy molecule, ATP, is adenosine triphosphate. When we have three of these hooked up. So each of these things, you can think of as a little spring. It's the chemical bond. It's not an actual spring. But it's a high energy chemical bond. That when we compress it, when we hook it up that way, now it contains energy. And we store energy, so to speak. And it's just waiting there to release and pop off and release a huge amount of concentrated energy. So when it's time, we put the right molecules together and enzyme comes in and cuts this bond off. And we release the spring and we release the energy. And we go through an absolutely astounding amount of these ATP molecules for using up energy. A single muscle cell can contain billions of these ATP molecules. And yet, with a maximum effort, we only have enough energy for about two to three seconds. So in other words, in two to three seconds, we use up every single one of these ATP molecules. And that brings us to the whole idea behind this video and creatine, is that if we use it up that fast, then we'd better be really good at recycling and replenishing this ATP. So even though we use it up, we recycle this ATP every 60 to 90 seconds throughout our lifetime. And that is at rest that we take 60 to 90 seconds. During a maximum effort, when we use it up almost instantaneously, we also replenish it much faster. So it can be hundreds of times faster to replenish during a high intensity effort. And all in all, we replenish the entire pool of ATP molecules, about 500 to 750 times per day. And this brings us to the whole idea and the genius behind creatine and in how quickly we can replenish this energy. This creatine can also bind with the same phosphate group that ATP does. And we now call it phosphocreatine, which is also a high energy bond. So now we can create another reservoir inside the cells. We can have a bunch of creatine floating around. And now that becomes a parallel reservoir of energy. So now we have, instead of ATP, we have creatine and we hook it up with a phosphate group. And now we have phosphocreatine, which again, it's another high energy bond, high energy storage device. And now every time that we use up some ATP and that turns into ADP, now there's already a phosphate group, a high energy phosphate that energy has already been created. Now we can just pop that on and get back to ATP to recycle that ATP. And we can do it much, much faster, which is critical in a high intensity situation. Now the basic level of creatine is that we make about one gram per day. And creatine normally breaks down slowly and we'll talk more about that in a bit. So we need to make a little bit more every day to maintain that pool of creatine inside the cell. So one gram a day will do that. And one gram will maintain approximately a 60 to 80 percent saturation level. So 100 percent would be the absolute top amount that a cell could hold and contain. How much is soluble in that cell? And 60 to 80 percent of that is what we normally walk around with. However, with supplementation, if we were to take a product that gave us about three to five grams per day, in addition to the one gram that your body makes, now we would reach a saturation level that would be very, very close. It would virtually be 100 percent saturation. It would be as much as the cells can hold. And we could build up to that saturation a couple of different ways. We could take a daily dose of about three to five grams per day for three to four weeks and we would have built up those levels. Or we could try to speed it up a little bit and we would start with loading, front loading, 20 grams per day for about five to seven days and then we would build up the levels faster. But we don't need to maintain that high level. After we have loaded, we can go back to the normal maintenance level of three to five grams per day. So let me give you an example from real life, what could happen in a sports scene. So if we use a hundred meter race in track and field, that takes about ten seconds for the world elite and I'm using my example here as 10.9, which was my best time. And in the very beginning, the gun goes off and we take off and the first three seconds were barely getting moving in three seconds and we're using up our stored ATP already. We're only because the start is slow. We're only about 20 meters into the race when that stored ATP is gone. And now for the next part of the race, we need to replenish. So for three to ten seconds, which is basically the rest of the race, now we're relying on this creatine, this reservoir of phosphocreatine that can replenish the ATP. And it actually starts even a little sooner because as soon as we start using up some of the stored ATP, we're already in a start replenishing because they're swimming together there inside the cell. But what's happening here is that we're using up energy at a much, much faster rate than the body can actually produce it. Now this is sort of pre-stored, but the body also have to make energy from fat and carbohydrates. So when using up energy is so much faster than we can make it and we're falling behind. So between eight and ten seconds into the race, we're starting with something called an aerobic glycolysis, meaning we're trying to make energy without oxygen because again, we're falling behind. We're using it so much faster than we can make it or provide oxygen. So we're using glycolysis, we're breaking glucose molecules and producing lactic acid. And this is why your muscles burn when you do something high intensity. But 100 meter race is so short, so fast that you're not going to feel the burn of the lactic acid until after the race, but you're still starting to make it toward the end of the race. And then after you cross the finish line after the race, now what's happening is that for several minutes afterwards, you are trying to recapture oxygen. So now you're still breaking down carbohydrates, you still have a muscle burn, and you're going to have a very high breath rate and a heart rate very close to maximum heart rate. Even though you just ran for 10 seconds, you're going to max out your heart rate or very close to it. And you're going to breathe very, very hard to try to capture all that oxygen that you were falling behind on during the race. And you do that for several minutes so that you can break down all the lactic acid, you can get back balance and you can replenish all your phosphocreatine and your ATP stores. And I'm sure even if you haven't ran, you can probably relate to this if you've seen a sporting event where they finished the race. And then the reporter runs straight up to the winner within a few seconds after finishing the race. And it's impossible to get a coherent sentence out of that lucky winner because he is breathing very, very hard. He can't think straight. He is breathing hard and he can't string together a complete sentence. So it's pretty much gibberish that you get out of these poor athletes right after the finish line. Wouldn't it be much better if they just gave them two minutes to recover and compose themselves and then maybe they can get a reasonable answer. So let's talk about some of the benefits to try to understand what this can do. So during heavy exercise, when you're stressing the body, when you're using up a lot of ATP very, very quickly, now we can speed up with creatine. We can speed up the ATP regeneration. And if we have more creatine, now we can recycle faster. And what that could do, let's say that you're doing squats or you're doing bench press, then if you're going close to max, if you're really loading up heavy, and if you could go one additional heavy rep, like if you can have that extra energy and go manage six reps instead of five, that makes a big difference because it allows you to train at a different level. It allows harder training sessions, which will yield better training results. Now another benefit, that's actually a benefit, is water retention. But this is intracelular water retention. And the reason this happens is because of osmotic pull. When you're increasing the amount of particles inside the cell, because you're basically saturating the cell with more creatine, these are particles that have an osmotic pull. They it's like a sponge that will pull water to it. And therefore you end up with a little bit more water inside the cell. Now what that does is it's sort of increases the activity inside the cell. It's a little more intense inside the cell. So you're going to increase the signaling for protein synthesis. So you're actually going to improve some of the protein synthesis pathways. And as a little side benefit, if you're after that, like a body builder, is that the muscles can look a little bit fuller. They can look a little bit more defined, because realize that usually we talk about water retention, it's like women on their menstrual period, and it's not a pleasant experience. But this water retention is intracelular. This is not bloating. It's not fat. It is inside the cells. And it can make the muscles look a little fuller and more defined. Now for the people watching the scale, this can be a little bit misleading, because you will probably gain about 1 to 2 percent in weight from this additional water. But let's make a few more distinctions to really drive this home between exercising and not exercising. So if we first look at someone who works out an active person like a body builder or a track athlete, the benefits are very direct. You could get more reps into a set, and therefore you get more gains. But you can also get better recovery, because you're better at managing energy, at restoring and utilizing energy. But here's a very interesting one. You could even improve your motor unit recruitment. There are neuromuscular benefits here as well. And here's how that works. If you can increase your ATP, you get more ATP, because it recycles faster. Now there is less fatigue, both in the muscles and in the brain, because the brain has to send the signals to the muscles, and both brain and muscles can run out of ATP. So if we have more ATP, now the muscles perform better, but the brain and the signals also perform better, which means you're less clumsy. And one interesting example about clumsy is like the 400 meter race in track and field. And you always end up with an enormous amount of lactic acid toward the end, and then all of a sudden your body isn't working the same anymore. One of my coaches used to joke and said that, "Well, you know, the first 300 meters were no problem, but then I came out on the straightaway, and some dude handed me a refrigerator." And that's actually exactly what it feels like. You're doing fine, you come out on the final straightaway, and your lactic acid level hits so high that you're trying to do things. You're trying to pump your arms, you're trying to move your legs, but nothing happens. You're very, very clumsy. So by improving your ATP, by improving that recycling, and the energy delivery, you could be practicing and competing with better precision. You could have neuromuscular benefits in that you have better timing with everything that you do. Now, what if you're a couch potato? Is there any benefit to taking creatine? Yes, because you will still benefit from having a faster ATP delivery, a faster turnover. One thing they noticed is that it will improve your lean mass retention, your lean body mass, which is mostly muscle, it won't deteriorate, it won't atrophy as fast, simply by taking some creatine, whether you exercise or not. Some limited studies have suggested that there's a possibility even of muscle gain in elderly or immobilized by taking creatine. Creatine also supports brain health and brain energy, because the brain uses a lot of ATP, and if you can provide more ATP in terms of energy, you also resist fatigue better. And also the mitochondria, which make all the ATP in the first place, it supports the integrity of the mitochondria. So not only can creatine recycle ATP better, but it could even help the mitochondria produce it better. There's also some cognitive and metabolic benefits, because by improving the ATP buffering in the brain, we also support cognition, our ability to think and execute mentally, especially under stress and sleep deprivation. So if we've had some things that kind of drained our batteries, now we can still function better with some creatine buffers. And like we mentioned, it supports mitochondrial function, and it does this by reducing oxidative stress. Everything works a little better when you can supply the energy a little faster. And it also stabilizes the membranes of the cells and the mitochondria. So everything in the body operates on ATP. And the integrity of the cell membranes have to do with how well we can shuttle minerals, electrolytes and fluids back and forth through the cell membranes. And this is also driven by ATP. There are little ATP-driven pumps that regulate these minerals that maintain electrolyte balances. And in doing that, they stabilize membranes. But we also want to talk about some common myths and misconceptions. And this has to do with kidney damage, the primary one. And this has a lot to do with that fact that creatine sounds a lot like something you get on your lab report called creatinine. And this is because creatine spontaneously breaks down over time and becomes creatinine. And this happens about 1 to 2. percent of your creatinine is going to break down per day. And this is again why you have to replenish it. That's why the body normally makes it. And if you take it as a supplement, then there is a certain level that you have to take to keep up your levels because some of it breaks down. But here's the thing we need to understand about creatinine, that this is a non-enzymatic breakdown, meaning it's not a poison. Creatine is not something the body is trying to get rid of. Like it has enzymes for alcohol and it has enzymes for all sorts of different things that it tries to break down to get rid of. This is non-enzymatic. It just kind of wears out. And now once it's worn out and becomes creatinine, it's inert, meaning it doesn't interact with anything. It's not abrasive, it's not harmful, it doesn't really do anything. And the reason that we measure creatinine on blood tests is that it's very simple for the kidneys to remove it. About 100% of the creatinine is removed in a single pass through in the kidney. So the only creatinine we have in the bloodstream is what we have released, what has broken down since the last time it flowed through the kidney. And because the production and the excretion are very, very constant and the removal is close to 100% in a single pass through, that makes the levels very, very stable and it makes it very simple. It makes it very practical to calculate your filtration rate in the kidney based on creatinine. So it's called estimated glomerular filtration rate. Now it's not the only thing we could use, but it's one of the simplest. Now here's what's really important that we understand and that's the cause of a lot of this confusion. The EDFR is estimated and it can be affected by muscle mass and age, and gender, and diet, and supplementation because all of those can change how much creatinine you have in yourselves. Larger muscles will have more creatine. Younger people will have more than older people. Men will have more than women. So, and also if you have a lot of meat in your diet, then that provides some creatinine as well. And of course, if you supplement with creatinine, that's going to bring up the levels dramatically. And when they run your test, they're going to know your age and your gender because you tell them it's in the requisition. So when they do this estimate, it's a formula, and they take those things into account. And if you're an elderly lady, they assume that you have less muscles, but they don't really know it's an assumption and an estimate. So the formula is going to be a little different, but there could still be huge variations. And basically, if you have more creatinine in your body, then you're going to have more creatinine in your bloodstream, and it's going to look like your kidneys aren't filtering as efficiently. So it's going to look like your EGFR is going down. And if your doctor doesn't understand this whole scenario, and if you don't tell him or her, then the doctor is going to suspect that you have some kidney damage. You're going to come up with an artificially depressed filtration value. And this is where a lot of people get confused. But we need to understand that the creatinine and the estimated filtration rate based on creatinine, it's just a proxy for the actual filtration rate. It's just an estimate. It's a calculation. They're not really measuring anything about the filtration rate. But nevertheless, people see these names on their tests. They know creatine gives rise to more creatinine, and that's a bad thing. They think because that means kidney damage. So now they associate to and they think creatine creates kidney damage, but it has nothing to do with each other. So what you can do to clear this up is you order a separate test. You could order something called size statin C, which is another metabolite that's very much like creatinine except it's not affected by these variables. So if you're taking a supplement or if you have big muscle mass and that's throwing your results around, then you could order the size statin C, and it's going to cut through all that confusion. The problem is that creatinine is super cheap. It is part of a panel called metabolic 14. So you're basically paying something like a dollar for it, whereas if you order the size statin separately, it's probably going to run you between 75 and $100. And what if you already have kidney damage? Well, between stages 1 and 3 of chronic kidney disease, meaning your filtration rate is all the way from normal of 90, all the way down to about 30, which would be stage 3B. Then there are some limited studies and they have shown that with 3 grams per day, there are no adverse side effects. And in fact, it's probably a good thing because if you can give the kidney some more energy through that ATP replenishment is probably working better. And when it comes to chronic kidney disease stage 4 and 5, which means you're filtering less than 30 milliliters per minute, now they don't really know if it's good or bad. But it is not recommended that you take creatinine. And this is simply because overall your kidney is so severely limited in its function that they just don't want to confuse any of the issues. And taking creatinine, you're going to confuse the measurements. It's going to be harder to figure out what's going on. Now, it's not necessarily bad to take creatine, but it's not recommended because there's very little data. And because of the confusion of the labs, they just feel like adding it would make it a more high risk scenario. And this is that creatinine makes you fat and this comes back to the intracellular water retention. The weight gain that you probably will have a slight amount of weight gain is going to be pure water inside the cells. It is going to help you preserve lean muscle mass. And this has nothing in common with bloating or a dima. And like we mentioned for bodybuilders, they probably appreciate this weight gain because it adds to the muscle size and definition. A lot of people think that you also need to cycle the intake. But there are thousands of studies done. This is one of the best studied compounds ever. And they have established that taking five grams a day ongoing forever is perfectly safe if you choose to do that. Also, they have found that 20 grams a day short term as a loading is also safe to haven't found any drawbacks with that. However, this is clearly one of the cases where more isn't necessarily better because this is about building up a cellular level, a cellular reservoir. And by taking three to five grams a day, you will build up to close to 100% saturation and anything that you take beyond that is not going to add any value because you can't saturate the cell beyond that level. So the bottom line by creatinine is that it will not magically burn fat all by itself. However, it will help your exercise work better. So if you take it and exercise, now it will help you in so many different ways. It will create better training results. You will get stronger, build more muscles. You can improve your recovery and the overall transformation will probably work better. And if you take it without working out, then you are missing the greatest benefits that creatinine can provide. But you will still get some benefit in terms of supporting your energy metabolism, your muscle preservation and your brain. If you enjoyed this video, you're going to love that one. And if you truly want to master health by understanding how the body really works, make sure you subscribe, hit that bell and turn on all the notifications so you never miss a life-saving video.