Does creatine cause water retention or weight gain?

Creatine can cause a small amount of intramuscular water retention (1–2kg at loading doses of 20g/day). At the maintenance dose of 5g/day used in Muscle Guard, this effect is minimal. Any increase in intracellular water is in muscle tissue — not subcutaneous fluid — and supports muscle function rather than masking weight loss progress.

Is creatine monohydrate safe for long-term use?

Creatine monohydrate is the most extensively studied sports supplement in existence. Decades of research, including long-term studies in healthy adults, consistently show it to be safe at standard doses (3–5g/day). No credible evidence links it to kidney or liver harm in healthy individuals.

Creatine Monohydrate | Anchor Nutrition

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What it is

Creatine monohydrate is a naturally occurring compound found in muscle tissue and synthesized by the body from amino acids. It functions as a rapid energy reservoir — muscles store creatine as phosphocreatine, which is used to regenerate ATP (the cell's primary energy currency) during high-intensity effort. Supplementation increases the total phosphocreatine pool available to muscle cells.

Creatine monohydrate is the form used in the overwhelming majority of research — over 500 peer-reviewed studies — and remains the gold standard against which all other creatine forms are compared. No other form has demonstrated superior efficacy.

5gDose per stick

500+Peer-reviewed studies

Muscle GuardFound in

Why it's in Anchor

During the caloric deficit created by GLP-1 therapy, muscles face two simultaneous challenges: reduced amino acid availability (less protein from food) and reduced energy availability (fewer total calories). Creatine addresses the energy side of that equation. By expanding the phosphocreatine pool, it helps muscles sustain output during exercise — which is critical for maintaining the training stimulus that prevents muscle loss.

Beyond acute performance, creatine has been shown in multiple trials to reduce markers of muscle breakdown during caloric restriction. It also supports satellite cell activity — the cellular mechanism behind muscle repair and maintenance. This is not a performance-enhancement play; it is a preservation play for people whose food volume has been significantly reduced.

Creatine is one of the few supplements where the evidence for muscle preservation — not just performance enhancement — is robust enough to justify inclusion in a clinical nutrition protocol. At 5g/day, the benefit accumulates over weeks without requiring a loading phase.

The dose and why

5g/day is the established maintenance dose for creatine saturation in muscle tissue. Studies show that 3–5g/day achieves the same steady-state muscle creatine levels as the traditional loading protocol (20g/day for 5–7 days), just over a longer time frame (approximately 4 weeks). For a daily supplement protocol on GLP-1 therapy, the slow-ramp approach is preferable — no GI stress, no acute water retention spike, and sustainable as a daily habit.

What product it's in

Creatine Monohydrate is part of Muscle Guard, working alongside Whey Protein Isolate (EAA supply) and Leucine (mTOR activation) to address muscle preservation from the energy, signaling, and substrate angles simultaneously.

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The muscle-preservation stack

Three ingredients. Three mechanisms. One formula for keeping lean mass during weight loss.

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