Does Creatine Break a Fast?

What Is Creatine, and Why Might You Use It?

Creatine is a supplement used to enhance physical performance during a workout or training regime. Creatine is a naturally occurring substance found in muscle cells and helps them create energy during heavy lifting workouts.

Creatine supplements are believed to help you to increase skeletal muscle mass, help you build strength, and improve overall exercise performance. It is one of the most popular pre-workout supplements used.

A creatine supplement can be a useful boost during fasting because it can give you the energy you need to work out without fueling yourself with food. It allows you to undergo high-intensity exercise without feeling fatigued.

The idea behind taking creatine is to increase the phosphocreatine stored in your muscles. These additional stores help energize the muscles for longer by helping to produce more ATP, the substance that powers our cells.

When you first start using creatine, many creatine supplements suggest a loading phase. This is where you take 20g of creatine a day, split into 5g portions, for 5–7 days to increase the levels in your body. You should take it alongside a high-carb meal to help your body to absorb it.

Once you have finished this phase, you should continue to take 3–5g per day to maintain the creatine levels in your system.

Does Creatine Break a Fast?

Technically, a fast is broken when you consume anything other than zero-calorie beverages, like black tea or coffee. In fact, though, a fast is considered actually broken when you fall out of ketosis.

Ketosis is the state in which the body uses stored fat for fuel rather than blood glucose. This state is the aim of both intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet as it promotes greater weight reduction.

Once you eat something that causes an insulin spike, this state is halted, and you’ll need another fasting period of around 12 hours before you can reach ketosis again.

The good news is creatine monohydrate is considered a good supplement to take during fasting periods. To break a fast, you have to eat something that elicits an insulin response. Pure creatine monohydrate will not do this, meaning that creatine supplements will not break your fast.

Nevertheless, some ingredients that may be present in supplements can disrupt ketosis and break your fast. Watch out for these ingredients in your creatine supplement since you risk disrupting your intermittent fasting regimen.

If you’re new to intermittent fasting and want a helping hand, why not take a look at the DoFasting app. This app offers tips and tricks for a variety of intermittent fasting styles and provides a space for you to track your calories and progress.

2 ingredients to watch out for

When choosing creatine supplements, we suggest finding the purest form to avoid breaking your fast. Before purchasing, check the label for the following ingredients, which will break your fast.

Sugar

Consuming added sugar will increase your blood sugar level, which, as a result, will increase insulin levels. This process breaks a fast and brings your body out of ketosis.

Many pre-workout supplements use sugar to sweeten their products. If your creatine product contains sugar, it is better to take it during your eating window to avoid breaking a fast.

Artificial sweetener

Artificial sweeteners are used in creatine supplementation to sweeten and enhance the flavor of your supplement. While artificial sweeteners will not initially break your fast, there is research to suggest that continuous consumption of artificial sweeteners may result in an increase in blood sugar overall and could affect insulin levels.

Artificial sweeteners have been linked to several issues, including digestive problems and some chronic illnesses, and may be best avoided when you can.

For the best way to build muscle, we would suggest finding a pure form of creatine supplementation that will not break your fast.

3 Benefits of Creatine

Creatine supplementation is so prevalent in the fitness community because of the way it benefits each of your weight-lifting exercise sessions. Below, we have listed some of the benefits that make creatine so popular.

1. Boosts exercise performance

Creatine is loved by the fitness industry for its ability to boost exercise performance. The supplement increases the amount of phosphocreatine in the muscle, which, in turn, increases the amount of ATP produced.

ATP is the energy muscles need to keep going. If you have more of it, you can work out for longer.

2. Faster muscle growth

Creatine is thought to enhance muscle growth, helping to alter your body composition and pushing you to become more toned. The supplement does this in a few ways.

Creatine reduces the breakdown of proteins which can help you build more muscle. In addition, scientific research has shown that creatine lowers levels of the protein myostatin, which is known to slow muscle growth.

Creatine is known to share similarities with amino acids. Amino acids help the body to build protein which aids in muscle growth and repair.

3. Faster muscle recovery

Faster muscle recovery leads to enhanced growth and the ability to train more. Creatine is thought to enhance recovery times. Creatine may improve cell signaling, which can speed up muscle recovery.

What Else Breaks a Fast?

When it comes to intermittent fasting, the fasting window is crucial for weight loss. Though technically speaking, breaking a fast is the consumption of any calories, a fast is actually considered broken when the metabolic state of ketosis is halted.

To disrupt ketosis, you need a spike in blood glucose and insulin levels, which occurs when you eat carbohydrates and sugars. While healthy fats technically break your fast, they allow you to curb hunger cravings while remaining in ketosis.

It is best to avoid all calories during a fasting window, but some experts agree that certain products, like bone broth, coffee, and MCT oil, are all okay to consume without breaking your fast.

Conclusion

So will creatine break your fast?

Creatine is one of the most popular supplements in the fitness world because of its ability to improve strength and help you gain more muscle. In its purest form, it is unlikely to break your fast, although you should be wary of some ingredients in supplement products that could cause an insulin increase.