Different Types of Creatine

In this article we will go over the different types of creatine supplements. Everyone should read The Beginners Guide To Creatine before starting this article.

• What types of creatine are there?

There are three basic types of creatine supplements - creatine monohydrate, creatine phosphate and creatine citrate. Let's take a quick look at each one:

Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine Monohydrate is basically creatine bound with water. Each molecule of creatine monohydrate is made up of 88% creatine and 12% water. Or to put it another way - 1 gram of creatine monohydrate has 880 milligrams of creatine. This means that if you take 5 grams of creatine monohydrate you will really be putting 4.40 grams (5 * .88) of creatine in your body. Creatine Monohydrate is by far the most common form for a creatine supplement. The majority of studies and research have been conducted using creatine monohydrate.

Creatine Phosphate

Remember that in order for creatine to be effective it needs to bond with a phosphate group and become Creatine Phosphate. For this reason, you may think that directly taking Creatine Phosphate would be better than just taking Creatine Monohydrate. The fact is - taking a creatine phosphate supplement has never been shown to be more effective than just taking creatine monohydrate. Creatine Phosphate has only 62.3% creatine and 37.7% phosphate. This means that 1 gram only produces 623 milligrams of creatine. In addition, creatine phosphate is more expensive than creatine monohydrate.

Creatine Citrate

Creatine Citrate became popular because it is more water soluble than other forms of creatine. Simply put, it dissolves better when you mix it up. The problem is that Creatine Citrate has only 400 milligrams of creatine per gram of creatine citrate. In addition, it is more expensive than Creatine Monohydrate.

Quick review - here is the yield of "free" creatine if you take 5 grams of each creatine supplement

Creatine Monohydrate yields 4.40 grams of creatine
Creatine Phosphate yields 3.12 grams of creatine
Creatine Citrate yields 2 grams of creatine

• Great, so everyone agrees Creatine Monohydrate is the best?

Of course not - nobody ever really agrees on anything (except hating taxes). The problem comes from the fact that just getting the most creatine into your body is not the end of the story. How the creatine is absorbed plays a key rule. People who defend Creatine Citrate claim that it has a 90% absorption rate while Creatine Monohydrate has only a 40% rate. This means that while Creatine Citrate delivers less creatine per gram - a much higher percentage is absorbed by the muscles.

This debate could go on forever. Our feeling is that since almost every major study has been done with Creatine Monohydrate - it would be our choice for a creatine supplement. We believe a lot of the marketing claims that some new form of creatine is superior - are often just that - marketing claims. When you look at the science it is not there to back up the claims.

Now that you understand the different types of creatine, you are ready for our next article which discusses different ways to take creatine.

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3. Different ways to take creatine	4. The safety of Creatine
5. Creatine Dosage recommendations and Cycling	6. Creatine and Teenagers
7. Women and Creatine	8. How to buy creatine
9. When to take Creatine	10. Creatine and Legal Issue