timing is key . Creatine is maximize and , best absorbed on an empty stomach around exercise . It is also highly available , but not as potent as the empty stomach scenario , when there are other complete proteins being processed simultaneously , so with a protein rich meal . This could be with a pre-training meal , for example .
You see , the exercising muscle improves creatine uptake by about 20 % research shows that creatine levels in the blood peak about two hours after ingestion . Ok so let ’ s say you had a rib eye steak . A 16 ounce rib eye steak , about two hours later would be your peak levels of creatine in the blood . Dare I say , not very digested for training , and still pretty heavy from the meal . But you have peak creatine levels available in your blood . Another key point of why we supplement . So in this particular paper we see exercising muscle absorbs creatine much better than non exercising muscle . So respectively , pre load with meal or drink intra workout to improve the uptake . The gospel on this , for as long as I can remember and what I find still , is most people that use creatine with a carbohydrate to spike insulin . Because the insulin to receptor transport is fast and efficient for creatine uptake . But where does this leave you if you ’ re on a responsible ketogenic program or you ’ re on low carbs , or have health issues that would be negatively impacted by having a whole bunch of simple sugars , like I mentioned above . Not in a very good place . Let ’ s talk a bit about that .
Does anyone remember many years back , all that stuff when creating was said to be poisonous bad for your kidneys or young people shouldn ’ t take it . Those two wrestlers apparently died from taking it . Well it ’ s important to recognize that there ’ s a lot of misrepresentation and fallacious rhetoric around creatine . When people say well this increase in damage the kidneys , or overall health . Quite the opposite . This rhetoric surrounding creating that has to do with the fact , that in the late 90s when creatine became commercially available , the creatine researched was was paired with dextrose . So there was a lot of simple refined sugar Co ingested , with high glycemic index sugar and lots of it . Some proclaiming mixtures that came with 100 g of dextrose per serving . When this was Co ingested with creatine it led to some of the issues with regards to water retention , hypoglycemia reactive , hyperglycemia , hyperglycaemia can put strain on the kidneys , this is sugars cause , not creatine . Clearly these symptoms are associated with consuming that much refined sugar . Moreover , it ’ s common knowledge that refined sugar ( dextrose , table , sugar , high fructose corn syrup , liquid fructose , mechanically processed wheat .) leads to vascular disease , kidney disease , high blood pressure , lipid disorder . Refined , processed , simple , sugar , lowers our bodies pH making our lymphatic system terribly acidic . This is a playground for potential h health problems . So by taking creatine in that manner , as eg . 100 g of dextrose to transport your creatine , for the vast majority if people , we almost completely obfuscate the health benefits linked with creatine .
Friends , carbohydrates are not created equal . They may all have 4 cal per gram , but they have a vastly different effect on the body depending on the origin source and form . The kind of carbohydrate used to properly enhance bioavailability and intracellular transport in resorption of creatine shouldn ’ t just be any old kind of sugar . Osmolarity rate , is highly important , critical actually and should be the premise for the kind of carbohydrate source , that you choose when using creatine this way .
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