Josie Porter is always reassessing her supplement stack.<\/p>\n
The dietitian and author of “How Not To Take Supplements,” which promotes a food-first approach to health, takes them as needed.<\/p>\n
That’s why she stopped taking creatine<\/a> around three years, when she started going to the gym less around a year ago.<\/p>\n Creatine, once a secret weapon of athletes and bodybuilders, has gone mainstream in recent years as strength training has overtaken cardio as the workout du jour. The body naturally produces creatine, a building block of the molecule ATP that gives our cells energy. We can also get creatine from eating protein<\/a>, like red meat and seafood. Creatine is one of the most well-studied supplements, and research suggests that, if taken correctly, it can help the body find the energy needed to do an extra rep<\/a> or two in the gym, leading to bigger gains.<\/p>\n As a supplement, it typically comes in the form of a white powder. For it to work, research suggests you need to take 5mg a day for four weeks, and maintaining that daily dose to see the benefits.<\/p>\n “The idea is that you want to saturate your muscles if you’re taking it for gym-related benefits,” Porter told Business Insider. <\/p>\n Porter loves strength training, but is currently prioritizing flexibility in her workout schedule over optimization due to some mental health struggles. “I’m trying to remove pressure where I can,” she said.<\/p>\n “Often the benefits come from when people are really having big bursts of energy and hitting that one-rep max,” Porter said of creatine. “I’m not really doing so much of that lately, so I just figured there wasn’t really a need to take it.”<\/p>\n