Thanks kev - today I ‘ve commenced my loading regime and shall see how it goes!
To be clear, water retention with creatine is intramuscular - you look “puffier” - not “bloating” necessarily. I have not personally experienced any issues with bloat, nor have I heard of anyone bloating due to creatine, but water retention is ubiquitous and can cause a couple kg of weight gain.
Since retiring from my own race career, I take creatine daily to support strength maintenance alongside strength and mobility training, longevity, and brain health.
Revisiting this thread, it still stands that you need to ask “why” you want to take creatine and then evaluate it through that lens.
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The possibility for concussion is too high for me in our sports for me to not protect my brain preemptively.
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Caffeine increases HR, primarily by increasing adrenaline. Doesn’t mean your effort was higher.
After several months, and more investigation, yes, the caffeine was the most likely contributor to the effect I feel. I have never drank coffee in the past, so having that ingredient on the preworkout gave me that focus/feeling. I just started loading with creatine 2 months ago, and unfortunately I cannot notice any change/improvement after 2 months religiously taking 5mg per day.
This has been my experience. I reach close to max hr with caffeine at lower power levels.
Is this on the bike or resistance training?
I dont find it directly helps my bike intervals at all but I certainly notice it in the gym.
I have started taking it due to the reported benefits in terms of brain health/mental fatigue/tiredness which seems to be quite well attested in studies (performance under lack of sleep etc.). As an expectant father I figured anything that might help with lack of sleep would be worth trying 
I have not noticed any particular performance benefits except that subjectively I feel less tired after a bad nights sleep which makes it easier to be motivated for a workout. I also changed mattress at about the same time so I am not sure that the creatine would be solely to credit for that!
The other benefit is the stuff I have is in nice tasty gummy sweets so I have an excuse to eat a few sweets of an evening, and because it’s a set dose I don’t just house the whole pack like I would with Haribo 
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There are anecdotal reports of creatine causing cramping but most studies I’ve seen show that creatine actually causes less cramping. In this case I’d be much more likely to attribute the cramping to the heat and humidity (along with the punchy efforts in a mtb race).
I don’t think this would be caused by creatine. IMO, it’s much much more likely that you started tracking your food, began under eating, and are now experiencing the low energy levels of a calorie deficit. Dead legs, soreness, etc are all common effects of low energy and not really of reducing creatine use.
But it’s another confounding variable and a reason that most coach recommend not to try to gain or lose weight (or even to begin tracking food) while starting or stopping creatine. The main outcome you’re using to evaluate your food intake is your weight but starting or stopping creatine will affect that to the point of making it useless to evaluate your calorie intake.
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Thanks! I do think it’s probably that I went out very hard on the first climb during that race and then the heat and humidity moreso than the creatine. Not long after I posted this, TR discussed cramping during the podcast and presented evidence that it’s primarily a response to going too hard and then I checked the power data for that first climb ….
I don’t think though that I was in a low energy state while tracking my food and stopping creatine. That would help explain it but I dropped three pounds when I stopped and that number has not budged in the couple of weeks since even though ive continued tracking. But tracking alone does reduce my intake… I think more likely that my body was just exhausted after a very long season. Perhaps just a combination of all things - long season, less food, no creatine.
I at least plan to cycle on and off creatine while tracking my diet next season so both measure weight gain and loss and to see how it feels to do a ride w creatine vs without at the same level of fitness. Last year I just took it the whole time so didn’t have a great appreciation for what it was doing.
This is super interesting, thanks. My weight varies so much with hormonal fluctuations now I guess I wouldnt notice the additional weight, if there is any, from creatine especially if it isn’t presenting as standard bloating.
I take it for general health, brain health and anaerobic power. Its so cheap I havent really found a good reason not to take it to be honest.
I’ve also just, this week, started taurine supplementation. I’m interested in the potential immune support it may provide. It’ll be an interesting N+1 experiment if nothing else. Again, it’s cheap as chips so nothing to really loose.
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N=1, but I was curious to review what the water weight gain according to InBody scans said since I’m currently trying to lose weight and the scale isn’t budging since restarting Creatine…
Started taking Creatine Mid November 2024, stopped Mid August 2025. 5g per day, no extra loading phase. Do the inbody scan pre-breakfast/drinking anything, post bathroom at same time each month.
11/5/24= 104.5 lbs body water
12/3/24=105.4 lbs body water
1/7/25-7/10/25 = average 108.18 (High 109.6, low 106.3)
10/29/25 = 104.3
Sounds right on with the 2kg claimed number.
While I’m committed to supplementing with creatine, notwithstanding the other reasons for maintaining dose, how long to drop the water weight if you have w/kg important race? When should you cycle off?
This. The gummys tend to have 0.5g creatine in them.
I bought a pack of 90 to help during my loading phase. I did 2x5g scoops and 20x gummies to get my daily 20g.
Altherwise i’d have to have 40 gummies a day 
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I did say notwithstanding the other reasons to carry on! But was thinking hill climbs as an example.
I hear 6 weeks banded about a lot?
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Iirc this was tested by James Smith and he’s made a few YouTube videos on this.
I just did this and it took 2 weeks. Although I would personally practice this during training and then use that inform whether to keep using it while racing or not. For me the benefits seem to outweigh the 3 lbs weight gain but I’d like get better data on that.
I would be wary of stopping before a race that is punchy because I would feel slow compared to my entire training leading up to the event and mentally that wouldn’t be fun. But I also think the power advantage outweighs the weight gain for me personally.
I was only taking 2.5 g a day.
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Are there any indications that the added water retention can actually be an aid during longer rides in warmer weather, where sweat losses might be higher then what is possible to restore via hydration on the bike?
Say I gain 2kg of water weight, is that used by the body to restore the water balance in the blood during heavy sweating?
ETA:
I did some quick research and it shows that basically no; creatine’s water retention is intracellular, not usable for maintaining hydration during long, intense endurance exercise in warm weather.
It’s not an effective hydration buffer.
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I think creatine made me thirstier.
PSA on beta alanine - I read somewhere to take it before bed so you get the pins and needles when you’re asleep. I started 1.5 weeks ago and suddenly was having trouble falling back asleep after my kids woke me up between 2-5 am. I woke up one night at 2:30 and did not fall back asleep again! I have never experienced that. The next day it was 4:30! It finally occurred to me to that maybe beta alanine is a stimulant! It’s in pre-workout after all. But then, no, the internet says it’s not. I switched to taking it in the morning though and I’m back to my normal sleep routine.
The pins and needles have decreased over the last week and they bother me much less when I take it and then do an activity versus sitting still.
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