Many people say that creatine makes you appear bloated by increasing water retention. Is this true?
Whether or not creatine causes water retention is a matter of debate in the scientific literature. Some argue that the rapid increase in body weight is primarily due to increased protein synthesis, while others argue that it is due to increased water weight. The arguments for both sides will be presented here. synthesis base it on a number of observations. Most importantly, while Those who argue that the increase in body weight is due to proteincreatine leads to measurable increases in total body water (TBW), this is proportional to the increase in body weight. This observation is explained by Kilduff et al. in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism: “Supplementation with Cr [creatine] in the present study increased body mass, with the mean increase in the responder group greater than the placebo group after loading and maintenance. This increase in body mass cannot be explained by the increase in TBW, reflecting Cr-stimulated water retention, as there was
