One Week Off Creatine: Muscle Meltdown or Minor Hiccup?

If you stop taking creatine for a week, you won’t notice a big difference. Typically, after about three weeks of supplementing with about 5g per day, your body and muscles become saturated with creatine. Also, it can take up to three weeks for your body to run out of creatine after you stop using it. So, realistically, if you stop taking creatine for a week, your muscles will still have plenty left. Plus, don’t forget that creatine is naturally produced in muscle cells and is also found in many foods.

A week isn’t that long

I can assure you that if you stop taking creatine for a week, you will see no change.

In fact, if you “feel” your energy levels or training drop during your week off, this could be a placebo effect.

The main purpose of taking this is to provide a large amount of creatine to your muscles to help them produce energy.

Of course, this will also increase your strength and build muscle mass.

However, it usually takes about three weeks of supplementation with 5g per day for creatine to penetrate into the muscles.

This also explains why the loading phase exists: it basically allows you to get to your destination faster.

So the goal is to get a big infusion of creatine into your muscles and then go back to taking a maintenance dose of 3-5g per day.

Now, your Your muscles have plenty of creatine, so it won’t be depleted overnight..

In fact, creatine stores don’t start to deplete until at least two weeks after you stop taking it.

For most lifters taking the recommended dosage, it takes up to three weeks for creatine to be completely removed from the body.

That being said, it may take up to 4-6 weeks depending on the amount taken.

In other words, going without creatine for a week will make little to no difference.

It’s also important to keep in mind that muscles naturally produce 1-2g of creatine per day.

Additionally, many foods are high in creatine, especially red meat and fish, so you can “top up” it naturally through your nutrition.

Don’t believe the creatine hype

We often hear about the side effects of stopping creatine for a day or two, let alone a week.

Some say that as your muscles become desaturated, you lose a little bit of weight, which is mostly water weight.

Some people also claim to experience a loss of muscle strength within a few days of stopping creatine.

And some even claim to have lost size and muscle mass over the course of a week.

As already mentioned, once muscles have been saturated with creatine supplementation, it will take at least two weeks before they begin to be depleted of creatine in any way.

So if someone notices an immediate difference, this is either again a placebo effect or their muscles simply were not saturated with creatine to begin with.

That being said, it’s completely ridiculous to claim that you lose size or strength within a few days.

In fact, as you probably already know, muscle growth is achieved outside the gym during recovery.

This means that even when you’re not exercising, your muscles are repairing themselves and growing bigger and stronger.

“Holiday effect”

This also explains why when we return from a holiday we often feel better than when we went away.

You knew you were going on vacation, and your level of training spiked in anticipation.

In fact, I was close to overtraining.

After that, you’ll spend a week or two eating, drinking and relaxing, probably hitting the hotel gym a couple of times a week.

And yet, somehow, you look amazing.

So anyone who tells you that stopping creatine for a few days or a week will severely affect your muscle size and strength is talking nonsense.

It’s safe to say that companies that manufacture and sell creatine specifically instruct people not to miss a single day of taking it.

To me, this is just marketing hype to get you to keep buying and taking creatine.

Don’t believe the hype.

Should I cycle creatine?

There is so much confusing and conflicting information about creatine that it can discourage some from taking it altogether.

I’m sorry if I have caused you further suffering.

Again, there will be people who swear Cycling Creatineand people who believe there is nothing wrong with taking it permanently.

Really, I think this comes down to personal choice and how well your body responds to creatine.

People often say you should take creatine for one week, then take it as a maintenance dose for 7-10 weeks, then take a week or two off.

The reason is that your body usually adapts to supplements, so it’s good to reset everything in your body before you start taking creatine again.

Some people say that there is no need to cycle creatine.

In fact, you don’t have to stop taking creatine completely (you’ll still be cycling it in some form).

This involves taking a higher dose, say 10g, for four to five days and then going back down to a maintenance level.

In reality, your body is adapting, so you’re literally increasing the levels to confuse your body.

I have always preferred to employ creatine cycles, but that’s just me.

What would happen if you stopped taking creatine altogether?

When you stop taking creatine supplementation, a series of physiological changes occur, especially if your body was previously responding favorably to creatine supplementation.

It’s estimated that up to 30% of people are “creatine non-responders,” meaning creatine has no effect on them at all.

So, if you are one of the 30% of people, stopping creatine supplementation will not make any difference.

One of the first and most noticeable effects is the reduction in water retention within muscle cells.

Creatine has the ability to increase muscle water absorption, contributing to muscle fullness and slight weight gain.

When you stop taking the supplements, this effect is reversed and there is no loss of muscle mass or Slight decrease in total body weight due to water loss.

Stopping creatine supplementation can not only cause immediate changes in appearance and weight, but it can also affect performance, especially in activities that require rapid energy bursts or high intensity efforts.

Creatine plays a key role in rapidly replenishing ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the main energy carrier within cells, which is especially important during short, intense physical activity.

Without the added boost that supplements provide, your ability to maintain peak performance levels is slightly reduced, which can impact your strength, power output and recovery rates between workouts.

Your body will eventually adapt

But the human body is amazingly adaptable.

It usually takes 3-6 weeks for your body to adjust to the lack of creatine supplementation.

The body’s natural synthesis of creatine combined with dietary sources begins to compensate, if not to the levels achievable with supplements.

This adjustment phase will vary from person to person, but eventually your performance metrics and physical capacity will stabilize at pre-supplement levels.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the effects of stopping creatine supplementation are not permanent.

If you choose to take creatine again, you will again reap the previous benefits, including improved muscle hydration, improved high intensity performance, and faster recovery.

This reversible nature highlights both creatine’s effectiveness as a supplement and the body’s ability to adapt to dietary changes.

Therefore, when you stop supplementing with creatine, you will likely see noticeable changes, especially if you responded well to creatine initially, but these adjustments are part of the body’s natural process as it returns to its baseline state.

Understanding these changes can help you manage expectations and maintain a balanced approach to your fitness and supplementation strategy.

lastly

So, I hope you now have a better understanding of what happens when you stop taking creatine for a week.

In fact, very few.

It takes at least two weeks for creatine stores to start to deplete, and up to three weeks (and sometimes four to six weeks) for creatine to be completely eliminated from the body.

There are many claims out there that claim you should never miss a day of creatine supplementation.

But once your muscles are saturated, you won’t have to worry about anything for a while.

I recently discussed another common question regarding supplements. Can I take creatine without protein?.

Hi, I’m Partha, the owner and founder of My Bodyweight Exercises. I’m a Level 3 Personal Trainer with the British Register of Exercise Professionals and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. I’ve been going to the gym regularly since 2000 and training clients since 2012. My goal is to help you achieve your body composition goals.