The Creatine Royal Rumble: Monohydrate, HCL, Buffered... which wins?

Will LA writer & research lead

Creatine comparison guide: monohydrate vs creatine HCL vs buffered creatine for performance, digestion, and daily use.   Shop creatine supplement here.

Creatine, But Without the Broscience

Creatine is one of the most studied supplements on earth, and somehow it still gets treated like a shady “gym-only” powder you should be afraid of. That’s mostly internet noise.

Think of creatine like a battery pack for short-burst energy. Not a magic potion. Not a steroid. Not a shortcut. Just a basic support tool that helps your body recycle energy faster when you’re doing something demanding—lifting, sprinting, hard intervals, or even just trying to stay sharp through a long day.

This series is going to compare the main “types” (monohydrate, HCL, buffered). But first, we need the clean foundation.

What creatine is (and isn’t)

Creatine is a compound your body already uses to help make quick energy available—especially during high-effort moments. The “quick energy” system matters when you need power now: a heavy set, a sprint, a hard push up stairs, a fast change of direction, a strong carry, a HIIT round.

Creatine is not:

• a steroid
• a hormone
• a stimulant
• a fat burner
• a PED in the way people imply online

A simple analogy:

• Food is your gas tank.
• Creatine is like upgrading the battery/boost system that helps you accelerate when you stomp the pedal.

Your body already makes it (and you can eat it)

Your body naturally makes creatine from amino acids, and you also get creatine from food—mainly animal-based foods like meat and fish.

So if you’ve ever eaten a steak, you’ve already “supplemented” creatine in the most traditional way possible. Supplementing is just a way to top off the tank more consistently than food alone—especially if you don’t eat much red meat, you eat lighter, or you’re not trying to build your entire day around hitting creatine through diet.

Why creatine isn’t a steroid (and why that rumor won’t die)

People confuse creatine with steroids because:

1. it’s popular in gyms
2. it works (which makes people suspicious)
3. beginners sometimes gain a little scale weight and panic

Creatine doesn’t change your hormones. It doesn’t “force” muscle growth. It supports performance so you can do better work over time.

If creatine was a steroid, it wouldn’t be sold at grocery stores and studied this heavily for decades. The only thing “aggressive” about creatine is how many people talk about it like it’s a controlled substance when it’s basically a well-researched performance nutrient.

Who benefits from creatine (it’s not just lifters)

Creatine has a “gym reputation,” but it’s bigger than gym culture.

1) Strength athletes (the obvious one)

If you lift weights, do explosive training, or chase strength, creatine can help you squeeze out:

• slightly more reps
• slightly better output
• better repeat efforts

That adds up over weeks.

2) Endurance athletes (the sneaky one)

Endurance isn’t just “steady pace.” Most sports have bursts:

• hills
• surges
• sprint finishes
• intervals
• repeated accelerations

Creatine can support those “burst moments” inside endurance training.

3) Older adults (quietly one of the best use cases)

As people age, maintaining strength and muscle becomes less about vanity and more about:

• stability
• fall prevention
• independence
• quality of life

Creatine is often discussed in that context because it supports training capacity and muscle retention when paired with resistance work.

4) Cognitive / neurological support (where the conversation gets interesting)

Your brain uses a ton of energy. Creatine’s role in energy support is why it keeps showing up in conversations about:

• mental fatigue
• sleep deprivation resilience
• high-demand cognitive days

It’s not a “limitless pill,” but it’s also not just a biceps supplement.


The real reason people think creatine is “bad”

Creatine’s biggest “PR problem” is this: scale weight.

Some people take creatine, see the scale go up a little, and assume it’s fat or something dangerous. What’s usually happening is water balance inside muscle, which can be normal. If you’re chasing a lean-out goal, that scale jump can mess with your head even if your performance improves.

The other reason is internet storytelling:

• “It hurt my kidneys” gets repeated without context
• one bad experience becomes a universal rule
• people confuse creatine with pre-workout and stimulants supplements

Creatine is boring. And boring doesn’t trend.

Myths vs Reality (Myths 1–5)

Myth 1: “Creatine is basically a steroid / PED.”
Reality: Creatine is a natural compound your body already uses for quick energy, and you can also get it from food (meat/fish). The “long-term risk” stigma doesn’t match the evidence: position stands and multi-year safety data repeatedly show recommended creatine use is safe and well-tolerated in healthy people.

Myth 2: “Creatine is only for bodybuilders.”
Reality: Creatine shows up everywhere performance matters: strength athletes, endurance athletes (repeat bursts), and high-level athletes across sports. It’s also studied in older adults for strength/function, and there’s growing discussion around cognitive/neurological contexts. For children/adolescents, it’s not a casual free-for-all—but reviews and position stands note no evidence of harm in studied youth populations when used responsibly and with appropriate supervision.

Myth 3: “Creatine makes you fat.”
Reality: Creatine doesn’t add body fat. Some people see scale weight changes early—usually from shifts in body water, especially with higher-dose loading. This is a “scale optics” issue, not fat gain. Also: different creatine forms are often chosen for lifestyle/tolerance reasons—some people feel less bloated on HCL because dosing is smaller, but the big water-retention story is mainly tied to classic monohydrate loading narratives.

Myth 4: “You have to cycle creatine or it stops working.”
Reality: Creatine doesn’t “shut off.” Cycling is mostly internet tradition. Most evidence-based protocols are simple daily use—commonly 3–5 g/day (or equivalent), and long-term data supports daily supplementation in healthy individuals.

Myth 5: “Creatine will destroy your kidneys.”
Reality: In healthy people, creatine has a strong safety record. One common confusion: creatine can raise serum creatinine (a lab marker) without harming kidney function—studies show no meaningful change in measures like GFR (glomerular filtration rate — it’s a standard measure doctors use to estimate how well your kidneys are filtering blood.) in healthy users. If someone has kidney disease or is under medical management, that’s a clinician conversation—but the blanket “creatine ruins kidneys” claim isn’t supported by the overall research.