Should Women Take Creatine? The Truth for Plant-Based Athletes

Creatine is having a major moment—but most of the advice out there isn’t designed for women… or plant-based athletes.

So should you be taking it?

In this episode, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about creatine from a female, plant-based perspective. 

In this episode, we cover:

•  What creatine is and how it supports energy production 
•  Why plant-based athletes may respond differently 
•  The real benefits for strength, performance, and recovery 
•  What the research says about women specifically 
•  Creatine and mood: is there actually a connection? 
•  How much to take and when 
•  Whether you actually need it based on your goals

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Check out Natalie's book 📕: Planted Performance

Transcript

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Creatine is everywhere right now. On social media, in your gym, maybe in your group chat. But most of what you're hearing, it's not actually made for you. Because here's the thing almost all the creatine research has been done on males. That's right, there's barely any creatine research done on females. Yet the recommendations apply to both male and female. So we're going to dig into this real question. Do plant-based female athletes actually need creatine? And we're going to cover everything from what creatine is, how you get it, what does the research actually say? Is it good for athletes? Does it affect your mood? If it boosts mood, like people claim, and whether it's worth you trying and what I as a sports dietitian recommend when it comes to creatine. Is it just another overhyped supplement? So let's start with what is creatine? Here are the key points. It's naturally occurring in the body, it's stored in the muscles as something called phosphocreatine, and it helps regenerate ATP, which is a chemical compound in your body that generates quick energy. So creatine is a naturally occurring compound that your body actually makes on its own. It makes it from amino acids, which are the building blocks for protein. It's stored primarily in your muscles, as I said, something called phosphocreatine. Without getting too sciencey, the main job of creatine is to help you regenerate ATP, which is basically your body's quick energy source for things like sprinting, jumping, doing really quick things, short high-intensity effort. So think things like lifting weights at a high intensity, finishing strong at the end of a run. That's where creatine comes into play, and that's where most of the research is. So where does creatine come from? We said it comes from within the body, but it also comes from certain food sources. The problem, if you're plant-based, is most of those food sources are actually meat. So let's kind of get into it. Plant-based athletes have a lower baseline level of creatine a lot of times, but that's why supplementation sometimes can help. So here's where this gets especially relevant for plant-based athletes. Creatine is only found in animal foods like red meat and fish. So if you're eating completely plant-based, you're not getting creatine from your diet. That doesn't mean you don't have any in your body because your body does make it. It makes it from certain amino acids, which you do get from the protein that you eat. But research shows that vegetarians and vegans tend to have lower baseline creatine in their body, which could mean they actually respond to supplementation a little better than people who actually eat meat and get it from their diet. So, what are the benefits of creatine? It's actually one of the most researched supplements on the market. The benefits are clear. They do show with science that it improves recovery, it improves endurance, there's potential lean body mass gains, and it consistently shows benefits for strength, power, and repeated high-intensity efforts. Think things like sprinting, your speed workouts. So if you're lifting, you're doing speed work, you're doing hit, anything that's kind of an explosive exercise, Vietnam can help you perform better and recover faster between sets or intervals, meaning that you could do more repeated work or you recover better after a workout so that tomorrow you could actually do as hard a workout as well. So if you want to get faster over a long distance, it can support things like sprit finishes, hill repeats, maintaining muscle mass during training. It may also help with building or preserving lean muscle, which becomes incredibly important, especially for women as they age, because as you probably know, we lose muscle every decade after the age of 30, something called sarcopenia. We tend to lose more muscle than men. So creatine is pretty beneficial in the athlete population, and it may be even more beneficial for women. So what does the research specifically say? Again, women are historically under-researched in terms of sports nutrition in general, meaning all of the supplements that are used on athletes, that the research tends to be done in men. But here's the nuance. Although women have been underrepresented in creatine research for a long time, the studies we do have suggest that women respond similarly to men in terms of strength and performance benefits when it comes to creatine. There's also research looking at creatine across creatine across different life stages, like during the menstrual cycle or in menopause, where it may support muscle and even cognitive function. But we definitely need more female-specific data here to really drive home the point that creatine may be beneficial for women. Now I recently spoke with someone who was a post-menopausal woman, and the first thing she said to me was, I take creatine to reduce my anxiety levels. Is that actually beneficial? Does it actually work? And I wasn't sure. The majority of the research that I have seen has been about creatine for endurance, power, muscle mass, so I decided to look into the research. So you may have seen these claims too, that creatine helps with mood or even anxiety and depression. And interestingly, what I found is there is some early research on this. Now, a lot of times early research is not enough to conclude anything, but creatine plays a role in brain energy metabolism, not just muscle energy. So some very small studies, particularly actually in women, have shown potential benefits for mood when creatine is used alongside other treatments. The bottom line here is that this is still an emerging science. It's promising, but it's not a reason to start supplementing creatine on its own. A lot of times when we look at these studies, they are doing other things like cognitive behavioral therapy or giving another medication and supplementing with creatine on the side and seeing if that helps. So for that reason alone, I would not use creatine. It's more shown to be beneficial for those endurance and muscle activities, really for athletes. If you're thinking about it for in terms of your brain health, maybe not really why you want to start it. So how much creatine do you really need? This is where if you're going to supplement with creatine because you're plant-based and you're not getting it in your diet, what kind of dose should you be taking? The recommendation is pretty simple. It's about three to five grams per day. You when you get a bottle of creatine, you'll probably see that that's what they recommend as a serving size. You may hear about a loading phase. It's not really necessary. You could get the same benefits just by taking a consistent daily dose. The loading phase is maybe loading up with 20 grams per day, but it's not necessary. When you take the creatine, each day doesn't really matter. You could take it whenever it fits into your routine. Just focus on consistency. And it is safe for long-term use in healthy individuals. Personally, I have taken creatine after a workout because I tend to have a smoothie after workout and I use the creatine and I put it in there. I know some people just like to put it in water and sip on it. So whenever you think that it's going to be consistent and you could stick with it, that's when you would want to use the creatine if you decide you want to supplement with it. When we talk about supplementation, I think there's one thing that's really important to make sure that I that I say here. Supplements are not regulated. So not all supplements are exactly what they say in terms of what the ingredients is. You don't know exactly what you're getting. So when I use supplements, I make sure that I'm looking for things that are third-party certified, meaning that they have been tested by a third party so that you know what's on the label is what is in the bottle. So look for labels like NSF safe, sports certified. Those are the third-party testing that you want to look for to make sure that you're getting a healthy, good supplement for you and that you know that what is in the bottle is what is on the label. So now that you got the rundown of creatine, do you actually need it? Let's talk about it. It's not essential. It's absolutely not essential. A supplement should supplement the diet, meaning that you have to have a good diet in order for supplements to help. Here's the bottom line: creatine is not something that you absolutely need to be a plant-based athlete or increase your performance. You can absolutely perform well, build strength, and feel great without it. But it can be helpful, especially if you're doing a lot of strength training, doing a lot of high-intensity sport, you're plant-based and you're starting with lower creatine stores, you're looking to preserve muscle or improve recovery, think of it as a nice to have, but not a must-have. So your nutrition, your training, and your recovery, that's still the foundation of everything that you do. Creatine can help be a supplement and add a little boost, but it's not necessary. So if you've been seeing creatine all over your feed and wondering if it's right for you or if you're missing out if you're not taking it, the answer is maybe, but probably not in a major way. Personally, I've used it before. I don't use it all the time. I don't know that I noticed that much of a difference when I was using it. But if it's one of the few supplements that actually has solid research behind it, whether or not you want to take it depends on you, your lifestyle, and your goals. If you want help figuring out how supplements fit into your plant based diet, feel free to reach out to me at Greenleaks. DM me, let me know if you want to chat one on one. I always am open to taking out clients. This is what I help runners and other athletes do. So thanks so much for listening. Make sure you rate and subscribe if this was interesting to you, and I'll see you next time.