I’m planning on doing a water fast for a 3-4 weeks and was curious if taking Creatine after working out would help me keep more muscle mass. Thoughts?
The way creatine works if that it allows your muscles to hold more glycogen, and glycogen holds onto water. So basically the muscles can retain more water. But when your fasting, you lose all your glycogen from liver and muscles, and are unable to retain water. That’s why you need electrolytes and increased water intake to compensate for this. If you take creatinine, your making your muscles have the ability to retain more water for energy - but they can’t because your fasting. So I don’t see the point.
long story short, no, but it doesn’t stop everyone doing it anyway. it’s a bit pointless tbh, as unless you trying to push through muscle fatigue it doesn’t do much, and on a fast, fatigue is a bit nebulous. plus it’s super good at making you shit your pants on the bench press.