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You’re Taking Creatine WRONG… This Shrinks Fat Cells by 30% — Transcript

by Ben Azadi · 3,667 words · 556 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00If you're over 40 and you're taking
0:02creatine, I have some bad news. You're
0:04probably wasting most of it. Not because
0:07creatine doesn't work, it works. It's
0:10one of the most studied compounds on the
0:12planet. Over 700 human trials and it
0:16keeps showing the same thing. It builds
0:18muscle, it protects your brain and new
0:21research even shows it can actually
0:23shrink fat cells and rev up your
0:25metabolism after 40. But there's a
0:27catch. Nobody's telling you about this.
0:30If you're taking creatine the way 90% of
0:32people take it, most of it never reaches
0:35your muscle. It just floats around in
0:37your blood, gets filtered by your
0:39kidneys and you pee it out. Gone,
0:42wasted. Yeah, expensive urine. And the
0:44symptoms of this looks like stubborn
0:46belly fat that just won't budge, energy
0:49that crashes by 2:00 p.m., brain fog
0:51where you walk into a room and forget
0:53why you walked in there, weak workouts
0:56and recovery that takes 3 days instead
0:58of 1. And that slow creeping muscle loss
1:02after 40 that you could almost feel
1:04happening. If any of that sounds like
1:06you, stay with me because by the end of
1:09this lesson, you're going to know
1:10exactly what's blocking your results and
1:13the simple fix that researchers say can
1:16boost creatine retention by up to 60%.
1:20Look, this isn't a creatine lesson, this
1:22is a metabolism lesson. Let me show you.
1:24Okay, first I need to fix something in
1:26your head because the way creatine got
1:28marketed the last 30 years,
1:30bodybuilders, big arms, gym bros, that's
1:33actually done a huge disservice to
1:35people over 40, especially women.
1:38Creatine is not a muscle supplement, not
1:40really. Creatine is a cellular energy
1:43compound. It's literally the recharge
1:46for your ATP levels, which is the energy
1:49currency that your mitochondria, those
1:51little battery packs within your cells,
1:53produce. You see, your heart runs on
1:56ATP. Your brain runs on ATP. Your immune
1:59system runs on ATP. Your fat cells, when
2:02they're burning fat, run on ATP. But,
2:04you may not know this, about 95%
2:07of the creatine in your body is stored
2:09in muscle. What about the rest? It's in
2:11your brain, your heart, your nervous
2:13system, the places that age the fastest.
2:16When you hit 40, like I'm 41, your
2:18natural creatine levels begin to
2:21decline. Your muscles start to shrink.
2:23That's called sarcopenia. And your
2:25mitochondria, as I mentioned, those
2:27little factories, energy factories
2:29inside your cells, they start producing
2:31less ATP. This slows your metabolic
2:34rate. Then recovery takes longer, and
2:37brain fog eventually shows up. This is
2:39not a coincidence or happening because
2:42you're just getting older. This is a
2:44cellular energy crisis. A 2024 narrative
2:48review in the longevity literature
2:51called creatine one of the most
2:52underused compounds for the muscle-brain
2:55axis in aging adults. Not for
2:58bodybuilders, for aging adults. There's
3:01even a major Canadian university running
3:04a 26-week
3:06trial right now,
3:08testing creatine in older adults with
3:11mild cognitive impairment. So, when I
3:13say you may be wasting creatine, I don't
3:16mean you're wasting a gym supplement.
3:18What I do mean is that you're probably
3:20wasting one of the most powerful
3:22anti-aging molecules that we know about.
3:25And I'm going to show you exactly why
3:27this happens and what to do about it.
3:29You see, creatine doesn't just walk into
3:31your muscle cell. It can't. The cell
3:33wall doesn't let it in for free. There's
3:36a specific transporter, basically like a
3:39doorway, that has to physically pull
3:41creatine inside the cell. And that
3:43doorway needs one thing to work, sodium.
3:47Yeah, plain sodium, salt, the thing
3:49every doctor told you to avoid for the
3:51last 20 years. The transporter that
3:54carries creatine into your muscle is
3:56sodium dependent, and that's not my
3:58opinion. That's basic cell biology that
4:01has been established for many years.
4:03Without enough sodium pulling against
4:05the cell membrane, that doorway barely
4:08opens, and then your creatine just sits
4:10outside the cell. And if that creatine
4:12doesn't get into the cell, you're not
4:14going to feel well. What's really
4:16fascinating is that most adults right
4:18now, chances are you watching and
4:20listening are walking around being
4:23chronically in a low sodium state. Low
4:25electrolytes, mildly even dehydrated.
4:29They're drinking coffee in the morning.
4:31They're sweating during their workout.
4:32They're eating clean, which usually
4:34means low salt for a lot of people. Then
4:36they pop their creatine in plain water
4:39on an empty stomach while their cells
4:41are basically like a desert, and they
4:44wonder why creatine doesn't work for
4:45them. Take a look at this. There's a
4:471996 study published in Acta
4:50Physiologica Scandinavia. 24 healthy
4:54men. A classic protocol. Half got 5 g of
4:57creatine in plain water. The other half
5:00got 5 g of creatine as well, plus
5:03carbohydrates. Same dose, same 5 days,
5:06same everything. The group that got the
5:08carbs with the creatine, they had the
5:10carbs that spiked their insulin, which
5:12actually boosted sodium pumping, which
5:16fired up that transporter. That group
5:18absorbed about 60% more creatine into
5:21the muscle than the plain water group.
5:24Same supplement, same dose, but 60% more
5:27creatine getting into the muscle just
5:30because of how they took it. That study,
5:32by the way, has been replicated. A
5:34follow-up study in the same lab in 1998,
5:37then again in 2000, all confirmed it.
5:41Insulin signaling and sodium together
5:44are what gets creatine into the cell.
5:46Not the powder, not the brand, the
5:48conditions inside your body when you
5:50take it. So, if you're taking creatine
5:51first thing in the morning, dehydrated
5:54on an empty stomach with one glass of
5:56water, you might be one of those people
5:58losing up to 30 to 60% of the dose that
6:01you paid for every single day. Okay, so
6:03you're losing creatine. How does this
6:05matter for fat loss? Well, creatine is
6:07not a fat burner the way like something
6:09like caffeine is a fat burner. It
6:11doesn't speed up your heart. It doesn't
6:13make you sweat. So, for years people
6:15assumed that creatine had nothing to do
6:16with body composition. Well, it turns
6:18out that was wrong. A 2020 meta-analysis
6:22published in Nutrients looked at adults
6:2450 and older doing resistance training.
6:27The people on creatine lost
6:29significantly more fat mass than the
6:32people on placebo. Both groups did the
6:34same workouts, the same diet, but the
6:37creatine group, they lost more fat. A
6:39bigger 2024 meta-analysis in the Journal
6:42of Strength and Conditioning Research
6:45looking at 12 randomized trials in
6:47adults under 50 found the creatine group
6:50on average lost about 0.7 kg more fat
6:55and dropped their body fat percentage by
6:57almost a full point compared to the
7:00people doing the same training without
7:03creatine. So, how is this muscle
7:05supplement doing that? Three main
7:07reasons. Reason one, ATP. When your
7:10cells make more energy efficiently, your
7:13metabolism actually works. You see,
7:15tired cells store fat. Energized cells
7:18burn it. The more energy your cells
7:21produce, the more ATP, the higher your
7:23metabolic rate, meaning the more
7:25calories your metabolism burns when
7:27you're just sitting on the couch
7:29watching Netflix. Creatine is literally
7:31feeding the system that does the
7:33burning. Reason two, and this is pretty
7:35wild. There's a paper from 2015 in the
7:38journal Cell by a group at Harvard that
7:41discovered something that they called
7:43futile creatine cycle in fat tissue. In
7:46your beige and brown fat, which is the
7:49healthy metabolically active fat that
7:52burns more calories for heat, creatine
7:54drives a cycle that makes the
7:56mitochondria run hotter and burn more
7:59energy. They followed this up with mouse
8:01studies where they knocked out creatine
8:04in fat cells, and those mice
8:06gained weight. They actually became
8:08insulin-resistant
8:10because they couldn't regulate body
8:11temperature properly. The translation?
8:14Creatine doesn't just live in muscle, it
8:16lives in fat tissue. And when it's there
8:18in the right amount, fat cells burn more
8:20energy. When it's missing, they don't.
8:23Reason number three is glucose. There's
8:25a study in the journal Diabetes. They
8:27put healthy people in a leg cast for two
8:30weeks. Would've sucked to be one of
8:32those people, but here's what they
8:34found. As you'd expect, something called
8:36the GLUT4, which is the protein that
8:38pulls glucose into muscle, dropped by
8:40about 20%
8:43in the immobilized leg. Then they had
8:46everyone do rehab and split them into a
8:49creatine versus placebo group. The
8:51creatine group ended up with GLUT4
8:54levels around 40% higher than baseline.
8:58The placebo group just got back to
9:00normal. What that means is that your
9:01muscles on creatine become better at
9:04pulling sugar out of your blood and
9:07using it. Better blood sugar means
9:09better insulin sensitivity, which
9:11translates to more fat being burned,
9:14less mid-afternoon crashes, and you
9:16having more stable energy. But this is
9:19the whole point of this lesson. None of
9:20that happens if the creatine never made
9:22it into the cell in the first place.
9:25This is the part that makes me angry on
9:27behalf of every person over 40 who's
9:30been told to just eat less and move
9:32more. Look, your metabolism after 40
9:34isn't broken, it's just underpowered.
9:37Every system in your body, burning fat,
9:40building muscle, thinking clearly,
9:42recovering from a workout, regulating
9:45blood sugar, every single one of those
9:47systems runs on ATP. And after 40, your
9:51ability to make ATP starts dropping.
9:54Your mitochondria
9:55get sluggish and tired. Your muscle
9:58cells hold less creatine. Your brain
10:00holds less creatine. So, when I hear
10:02somebody say, I I just can't lose this
10:05belly fat anymore, even though I'm doing
10:07what worked when I was 30. That's not
10:09laziness, lack of discipline, lack of
10:11willpower. That's a cell that doesn't
10:13have enough fuel to burn fat. Let me say
10:15this one more time cuz it's very
10:16important for you to get this. You need
10:19cellular energy to burn body fat. If
10:22your cells are running on fumes, your
10:24body will refuse to let go of stored
10:26fat. This is a survival mechanism. The
10:29body says, "We're already low in energy.
10:31We're not going to start spending fat
10:33reserves right now." Creatine, when it
10:35actually gets into the cell, flips the
10:38switch. Your muscle cells go from
10:40undercharged to fully charged. Glucose
10:43moves more efficiently. ATP comes
10:46online, and your mitochondria fire
10:48harder. Your beige fat starts running
10:51that thermogenic cycle that the Harvard
10:54paper found. Your workouts feel better,
10:56your recovery from those workouts
10:58shorten, and quietly in the background,
11:00your body composition starts to shift.
11:03Now, look, I'm not telling you creatine
11:04is a magic fat burner. It's not. Nobody
11:06who reads those studies is going to tell
11:09you that. Well, I hope not. The fat loss
11:11benefits show up alongside training and
11:14eating real food. But, this might be the
11:16missing piece, especially after 40.
11:19Especially if you feel like you've been
11:20doing everything right, but you're
11:22getting nothing back in return. The
11:23question is,
11:25is your creatine actually getting into
11:27your cells? Okay, let's get real
11:28specific because here are the mistakes
11:30that I see. Tell me how many of these
11:33you're making, you might be making.
11:35Mistake number one, you take it first
11:36thing in the morning fasted with plain
11:39water. No food, no electrolytes. See,
11:41your body has been dehydrated overnight
11:43for 8 hours. Your sodium is at its
11:46lowest point of the day first thing in
11:48the morning. Your muscle cell
11:49transporters are basically they're
11:51asleep. So, you just dropped creatine
11:54into the worst possible window for
11:56absorption. Mistake number two, you take
11:59it right after a hot sweaty workout or
12:01worse after the sauna. I've personally
12:04made that mistake in the past. Look, you
12:05just sweated out a chunk of sodium and
12:08fluid volume. You're depleted. You shake
12:10your creatine into water and you chug
12:12it. Then you wonder why you feel bloated
12:14and your stomach hurts. The bloat isn't
12:15the creatine. That's creatine sitting in
12:17your gut because your cells can't pull
12:19it in. Mistake number three, which is
12:21probably the most common mistake I see
12:23is cheap creatine. Okay, for some of you
12:26this is going to sound like a sales
12:27pitch, but it's not. We'll get there,
12:30but here here's the point. Cheap
12:31creatine is often poorly micronized,
12:35meaning the particles are huge and
12:37frequently contaminated with byproducts
12:40from manufacturing. The majority of the
12:42creatine out there comes from China and
12:44a lot of those creatines are
12:46contaminated with heavy metals. The
12:49problem with this as well is that those
12:50big particles don't dissolve well. They
12:52irritate the gut and they pass through
12:55you. Remember I talked about the
12:56expensive urine? That's where most
12:57creatine side effects come from. People
13:00blame the creatine, they should blame
13:02the powder. Okay, mistake number four,
13:05no carbs and or no electrolytes anywhere
13:08near your creatine dose. We just spent 5
13:11minutes covering this. Insulin and
13:13sodium are what open the door. Without
13:15them, you're knocking on a locked door.
13:18So, I know many of you do low carb,
13:19keto, or even carnivore. You don't
13:21necessarily have to have carbs with your
13:23creatine, but you can have the
13:25electrolytes and the sodium.
13:27That will help tremendously. Mistake
13:30number five, inconsistent dosing.
13:32Creatine is not caffeine. It doesn't
13:34work in 20 minutes. It saturates your
13:37cells over a span of a couple weeks. If
13:40you take it 3 days in a row and then
13:42forget day four, you're never actually
13:44filling the tank. So you've got wrong
13:46timing, wrong fluid state, wrong food
13:49pairing, wrong product, and wrong
13:51consistency. And then we tell ourselves
13:53creatine doesn't work for me. Of course
13:55it doesn't. We've been using it wrong
13:56the whole time. There is a better way.
13:58Look, if you know anything about me, if
14:00you've been watching my YouTube videos,
14:01listening to the podcast, you know that
14:03I'm very picky about what I associate
14:06with, what I put my name on, especially
14:08in the supplement category. There's a
14:09lot of garbage products out there and a
14:11lot of garbage creatine out there. And
14:13you can do your research, find a clean
14:15creatine product. There are a few out
14:16there. I've done my research. The one
14:18I've been using for years is the
14:20MyoScience micronized creatine. And I'll
14:23drop a link in the first description
14:25down below and you can scan the QR code.
14:27You'll get a nice discount, too. But
14:28this is the one I actually take. This is
14:30the one I tell my mom to take, my wife
14:32to take. And here's why. I mean, first
14:34of all, it's properly micronized. Okay,
14:36you may or may not have heard that word
14:38before. I think sometimes that word gets
14:39thrown around. What it actually means is
14:41that the creatine particles are ground
14:44down small enough to dissolve cleanly in
14:46water and absorb cleanly in your gut. So
14:49if you're looking for a creatine
14:50product, maybe it's this one, maybe it's
14:51another one, make sure it is micronized.
14:54That means there's no grit at the bottom
14:55of the cup. You could notice a
14:57difference when you stir it in. This
14:58means no bloating. You can pour it into
15:00cold water or room temperature water and
15:02it kind of just disappears. Second, and
15:04this is the part that nobody else talks
15:05about or does, you want to make sure
15:07your creatine that you're using is
15:09third-party tested. The one I use is
15:12third-party tested. I looked the report.
15:14This is important so you're actually
15:15getting creatine monohydrate, not
15:18creatine cut with fillers, not creatine
15:21with manufacturing residue. The label
15:23needs to match the bottle. Third, it's
15:26designed to be paired with electrolytes.
15:28The team behind this product over at
15:30Myoscience actually understands the
15:32absorption science we just talked about.
15:35They know that creatine without sodium
15:37and fluid support is creatine you're
15:39flushing down the toilet. So, if you've
15:41tried creatine before and you got
15:43bloated or your stomach felt off or it
15:45felt like nothing was happening, might
15:47have not been the creatine's fault. It
15:49might have been the powder, the timing,
15:51and the pairing all working against you.
15:53Look, you could try the one that I use
15:55for 30 days. It's called Myoscience
15:56micronized creatine monohydrate. Just
15:59click the link down below or scan the QR
16:01code. It'll take you to this page right
16:02here. You could see the reviews, you
16:04could subscribe and save, do a one-time
16:05purchase, add it to the cart. One scoop
16:08of this is 5 g and it also pairs
16:11perfectly with their vitamin D and K2,
16:13which I've made a lot of videos about.
16:15So, I'm going to add that to the cart.
16:16Coupon code is automatically applied, by
16:18the way. You just hit checkout. And they
16:20also have it in electrolyte sticks. I
16:22talked about the electrolytes and
16:23sodium. They actually have the creatine
16:25with that. If you choose that, you could
16:26just type in electrolyte sticks. You
16:28could see they've got a ton of reviews,
16:29different flavors.
16:31And you could add the sticks, the jar,
16:34different flavors. You could add that to
16:36your cart. That coupon code is also
16:38automatically applied to the electrolyte
16:40sticks with the creatine. Okay, back to
16:42your protocol. Once you find that clean
16:43source of creatine, here's how to take
16:45the creatine so it actually gets into
16:47the cell. Save this part or rewind it.
16:50This is the whole game here. This is the
16:51whole point of this lesson. Okay, number
16:53one, 5 g a day,
16:56every day at the bare minimum. Don't
16:58skip days. Don't cycle days on and off.
17:01Do it every day cuz saturation matters.
17:03Number two, take it with food. Ideally
17:06with the food that has some carbs and
17:08some protein. Not a sugar bomb. You're
17:10not taking it chugging Gatorade. Just
17:12the real meal. Eggs and avocado, Greek
17:14yogurt and maybe some blueberries,
17:16chicken and vegetables. This small
17:18insulin response from a normal healthy
17:20meal is enough to fire up that sodium
17:22potassium pump and pull creatine into
17:24the cell. The Steenage data from 2000
17:28confirmed that protein plus healthy
17:30carbs hits the same insulin window as
17:32the old high sugar protocols without the
17:35crash. Now, sometimes I do put creatine
17:38in my coffee. I've made previous videos
17:40about this. So, what I do is I'll make
17:42sure I drink plenty of water with
17:44electrolytes right before the coffee and
17:47or I'll add some healthy fats to the
17:49coffee like a tablespoon of butter,
17:52maybe a tablespoon of heavy cream. That
17:54will help the absorption as well. Okay,
17:56number three, hydrate first not after
17:59the creatine. Drink high quality spring
18:01water 12 to 16 oz about 30 minutes
18:04before you have your creatine. Number
18:06four,
18:07consider adding electrolytes. A pinch of
18:09real salt, some potassium, maybe some
18:11magnesium at night. You don't really
18:13need a whole bunch of fancy different
18:15products. But if you already have one,
18:16use it. Simply get high quality salt and
18:18just season your food with that. Number
18:20five, if you've worked out hard or use a
18:22sauna like I do, rehydrate first, then
18:26take creatine. Not the other way around.
18:28Don't shove creatine into a depleted
18:30body. You'll just get the bloat and lose
18:32the dose. That's it. 5 g a day with
18:35food, hydrated, electrolytes, every day.
18:39Boring but effective. If you do that for
18:4114 days, you'll start to feel it. 3 to 4
18:44weeks in, you'll start to see it. Look,
18:46this isn't about getting jacked. This
18:48isn't a vanity supplement. The same
18:51compound that gets your muscles a little
18:53fuller is also the same compound that's
18:55keeping your brain energized when you're
18:58sleep deprived or when you're traveling.
19:00There's a 2024 study in Scientific
19:02Reports that showed where a single dose,
19:05a single high dose of creatine
19:07measurably restored brain energy and
19:10cognition during a sleepless night. The
19:13same compound that's protecting your
19:15muscle from sarcopenia that takes about
19:188% of your strength every decade after
19:2140. The same compound that's running
19:23that thermogenic cycle in your fat
19:25tissue. The same compound your heart
19:27cells use. The same compound your immune
19:29system pulls from when you're fighting
19:32off something. After 40, this is one of
19:35the most important things you can do for
19:36your metabolism, your independence, your
19:39energy, and your longevity.
19:39[clears throat]
19:40Keep your cells charged. Creatine is the
19:43cheapest, most studied, proven ways to
19:46do that. And it works really well, but
19:48only if it gets into the cell. And hey,
19:50I put together a free resource for you
19:53to pair what you just learned and take
19:55it to another level. I put together a
19:56free guide that walks you through
19:58exactly how to use creatine the way I
20:00just described. Plus the food pairings
20:02and some of the simplest routines you
20:04can do to fire back your metabolism.
20:06I'll put a link in the description down
20:08below. It's free, take it. If this
20:10lesson has helped, hit the subscribe
20:12button. Drop a comment down below on
20:14YouTube telling me how long you've been
20:15taking creatine and whether you knew any
20:17of this. And I'll see you in the next
20:19one. Thanks for watching. Thanks for
20:20listening. And if you enjoyed this
20:22lesson, I just published a video on one
20:24scoop of this specific protein can build
20:27twice as much muscle than three eggs.
20:31And this is especially important if
20:32you're over the age of 45. Here's a clip
20:35from that lesson, then click the video
20:37on the screen coming up in a few seconds
20:38and I'll see you in the next lesson.
20:40>> In this lesson, I'm going to break it
20:41all down. Why most high protein meals
20:44fail to build muscle, especially if
20:46you're over 45. What actually [music]
20:48flips your body from breaking down to
20:51rebuilding and reversing aging. And how
20:53one simple shift can start changing your
20:56energy, fat loss, and strength within
20:59weeks.

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