Latest / Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast / 165. Will Creatine Help You Get Your Period Back
Transcript
- 0:00Hey girlies, just a quick reminder before we dive into
- 0:02today's episode. The information shared on this
- 0:04podcast is intended to be general sports nutrition advice
- 0:07and education related to period recovery for female athletes.
- 0:10This is not specific to anyone individual and it may or may not
- 0:13apply to your situation. If you are looking for
- 0:15personalized guidance, be sure to apply to our period recovery
- 0:18nutrition coaching program. Our four month period recovery
- 0:20program is designed to help you sustainably get your period back
- 0:23and keep it. You can apply now to get started
- 0:25in our program and we'll leave the link for the program below.
- 0:27This is the Eat more Carbs podcast.
- 0:34Hello and welcome back. This is the More Carbs podcast.
- 0:37We are a team of dietitians and we talk every Thursday about
- 0:40sports nutrition for the girlies.
- 0:42My name is Jenna and I host this podcast.
- 0:44And my name is Riley. You're also see me on this
- 0:46podcast. I am the owner and founder of
- 0:48Steady State Performance Nutrition.
- 0:50We specialize in helping female athletes recover from low energy
- 0:53availability and together along with Lily Rhymer, we are team
- 0:55steady state. Before we get into today's
- 0:57episode, we are going to share a high and low.
- 0:59So sharing just a little a little bit about our week, the
- 1:00good and the parts. We wish we've gone a little bit
- 1:02differently. As always.
- 1:03Riley, can you kick us off? Hello, everybody.
- 1:05Welcome back. My high has to do with what we
- 1:08talked about last week and I've been influenced by you, Jenna.
- 1:11I did the Whole Foods meal. Did you OK?
- 1:13What did you get? OK I got chicken like fingerling
- 1:16potatoes and Brussels sprouts which I felt like it was a great
- 1:20combination. I was really tempted to do the
- 1:23salmon but I didn't know how I was going to eat like 5 pieces
- 1:26of salmon. Like I didn't know how to do it.
- 1:29OK, a lot of foodie. I'm not a foodie.
- 1:31Did it work out OK? Did you like it?
- 1:32I did. I thought it was great and I
- 1:34thought it was so much food like.
- 1:36I thought it was a really good value.
- 1:38It's such a good deal. It's such a good deal,
- 1:40especially if you're like you're feeding a couple people or
- 1:42you're using it for meal prep. Such a great deal.
- 1:45Yeah. So thank you for that
- 1:45recommendation. Yeah, you're welcome.
- 1:47What about your low? I did yard work all weekend.
- 1:49I feel like everybody I'm talking to right now, and I knew
- 1:52you and I have had this conversation where like all
- 1:55we're doing is yard work. And so I did yard work last
- 1:58weekend and I have like 100 bags mulch coming for this weekend.
- 2:01So yeah. So your low next week will also
- 2:04be yard work. Yeah.
- 2:05Perfect. Are you guys still having an
- 2:07issue with all the pollen or is it been better recently?
- 2:10It's a bad. Pollen year.
- 2:11So we're still having problems, but it's nothing like it was a
- 2:15couple weeks ago. So, you know, we just go outside
- 2:17and like our noses start randomly running, but you can't
- 2:20see that. Like thick yellow.
- 2:22It almost looks like somebody took a yellow piece of chalk and
- 2:26like ground it up and like sprinkled it everywhere.
- 2:29Like, that's what it looks like and we're not having that right
- 2:31now, but there's definitely like, pollen on the leaves and
- 2:34all the, you know, nice coating everywhere, but not too bad.
- 2:37OK, how fast does it accumulate when it's the yellow dust
- 2:40everywhere it? Is so crazy because I feel like
- 2:43this happens. You like wake up and then
- 2:46everything has bloomed and then the pollen is everywhere.
- 2:48It was super apparent to us last year when we came back from
- 2:52Sedona where we saw y'all because we left and there's
- 2:54nothing on the trees. And then we came back a week
- 2:57later, everything was in bloom and like everything was yellow.
- 3:00And I do feel like this year because we've been here, it like
- 3:03slowly has built every single day.
- 3:06So it's not been as drastic of a change.
- 3:08That's crazy. That's so.
- 3:09Crazy. It's pretty crazy.
- 3:11How about you? How's your week?
- 3:12My week is great, I'm going to share the same thing for my high
- 3:15and my low, but I fear that I have entered my sourdough era
- 3:19because I needed another hobby. I guess I'm.
- 3:21Speechless. This is something I said that I
- 3:24would never do because I like to make to make homemade bread.
- 3:28I like that and I have like a breadstone, but I like do easy
- 3:32bread, not sourdough bread where all you have to do is like make
- 3:34the dough ahead of time, put it in the fridge for a day and then
- 3:37you can bake it the next day. Like there's it's not a
- 3:39complicated process. It's the easiest thing ever, but
- 3:42I was gifted sourdough starter and I was like, well, I'm not
- 3:45just going to let this go to waste.
- 3:46So now I've been making sourdough rolls, which are much
- 3:51easier than like baking the loaves of bread where you have
- 3:53to like do like the stretch and fold and all that sort of stuff
- 3:55comes together a lot easier than the full on sourdough
- 3:58experience. And I probably won't go past
- 4:01that. But still, it's like it's a lot
- 4:04of work to like keep it all alive to like do the whole
- 4:07thing. And I swore up and down I would
- 4:09never do this because I knew I would be like way too invested
- 4:12in it and now here I am. She's converted to the dark
- 4:14side. She's I know girl.
- 4:16I actually love this though for you.
- 4:18I'm not gonna do it, but I'm gonna cheer you on.
- 4:20And if you want to get me any bread, please send it to North
- 4:24Carolina. OK.
- 4:25Yeah, because like it makes a lot like all of the recipes,
- 4:28like you have to like weigh out all the ingredients and all that
- 4:30sort of stuff. There's a lot like we have a lot
- 4:31of rolls in our house right now. So I'm like breakfast, lunch and
- 4:33dinner. Our carb is rolls.
- 4:35Like here we go. Rolls and citrus, right?
- 4:37Do you still have all the like oranges and lemons?
- 4:40No, we gave a lot of our lemons away this year.
- 4:43We had a lot of family, like come into town during the time.
- 4:46We were able to gift a lot away this year, which turned out good
- 4:49because it's just too much. Like there's just so much and
- 4:51you don't want to go bad. So Nolan took several things
- 4:54with him to work. We gifted a lot away and I think
- 4:57we'll probably do that from now on because I felt bad last year,
- 5:00like getting rid of it. We just couldn't use it all.
- 5:02Is that your high at Angelo? Yeah, my high and my lowest.
- 5:05My high is that like the sourdough is delicious.
- 5:06My low is that like it is something I swore I would never
- 5:09do and it is a lot of work. It is so good though, like
- 5:12homemade bread is so good. It's so good.
- 5:14It's so much better than store bought bread.
- 5:17So follow along for all of the sour, all of the sourdough
- 5:20recipes that are going to come from this.
- 5:23Ever since we did our episode talking about supplements in
- 5:25period recovery, we've been getting an increased amount of
- 5:27questions about specific supplements, 1 supplement in
- 5:30particular. So we are going to talk today a
- 5:33little bit more about the supplement that is creatine
- 5:36because that is one that we get asked a lot about from not only
- 5:39athletes that are working with us, but also just all of you,
- 5:42which we love. All of the questions keep
- 5:43sending them our way, but we want to talk about the
- 5:45supplement, creatine, what it is, how it relates to period
- 5:48recovery and all of that good stuff.
- 5:50Today I am joined by both Riley and Lily to kick us off.
- 5:54Riley, can you you just like explain like what creatine is?
- 5:57Yes, for the purpose of this podcast, I'm just going to do a
- 5:59quick brief overview. I'm not going to go into the
- 6:02entire phosphor creatine system or breakdown the nitty gritty.
- 6:05And if you have questions about that, definitely reach out to
- 6:08any one of us through social media.
- 6:10Creatine, right? We are talking all about
- 6:13creatine right now as society. So many people are talking about
- 6:16creatine monohydrate, creatine supplements, creatine gummies.
- 6:19What most people are not talking about is we actually produce
- 6:22creatine naturally already in our body.
- 6:24We produce about 3G per day and it's stored in our muscle
- 6:28tissue. So when we look at, again, quick
- 6:30brief overview, our body is going to use ATP for every
- 6:34single movement that you are going to make.
- 6:37However, though, your muscles have only about two to three
- 6:40seconds of ATP at any given time.
- 6:42And once that's gone, your body is going to have to make more.
- 6:46And creatine is essential in this process.
- 6:48It's going to use a little bit of itself to help you rebuild
- 6:53that energy or that ATP meat that you just used and it's
- 6:56going to allow you to continue to keep going chemically.
- 6:59It's not like a vitamin or a mineral.
- 7:01It's actually made-up of three amino acids.
- 7:04Like I mentioned earlier, it's naturally found in muscle
- 7:07tissue. So for those individuals who
- 7:10like to eat animal products or animal meat, creatine is going
- 7:13to naturally be found in animal products.
- 7:17It's actually most bioavailable and readily available in pork.
- 7:20And like I just said, it's only available in animal products.
- 7:23So if you are somebody who avoids or does not eat any type
- 7:27of animal product, creatine is going to be especially
- 7:30beneficial for you. So we're hearing a lot about
- 7:32supplementation of creatine right now.
- 7:35Can we talk a little bit about like the types of different
- 7:37supplements of creatine? Because like there's obviously
- 7:39more than one or more than one option.
- 7:41What is there to know about like supplementation of creatine?
- 7:43Yeah, I mean, when you go to the store, the supplement aisle is
- 7:46so overwhelming. There's literally so many
- 7:49different options. So it can be really hard to
- 7:51decide which version is the right version for you.
- 7:53When we're talking creatine though, you might see versions
- 7:57like creatine HCL, which is another version, nitrate or
- 8:01ethyl Ester, and they might have these fancy claims of being like
- 8:05stronger, faster or better. But when we look at the
- 8:08research, pretty much the research type of creatine that
- 8:11we see is creatine monohydrate. So when you're at the store
- 8:15picking out a creatine supplement, we are wanting to
- 8:18make sure that you're looking out for the creatine
- 8:20monohydrate. And the monohydrate just means
- 8:23that it's bonded to a single molecule of water.
- 8:27That's what monohydrate stands for.
- 8:29So we're. Recommending creatine
- 8:30monohydrate if we're recommending it as a supplement
- 8:32to use because that's the one that there's the most research
- 8:35around. Yes, for sure, and that's just
- 8:37because it's shown to be easiest for our body to absorb.
- 8:40What are the benefits of maybe taking creatine monohydrate?
- 8:44What are the benefits like? Why is this something that we
- 8:46are getting asked about all the time from the standpoint of like
- 8:48performance benefits and things along those lines, especially as
- 8:51it relates to athletes? Excitingly, new research is
- 8:54coming now. It is showing that female
- 8:56athletes actually respond better to creatine supplementation
- 9:00because we have lower natural stores of creatine and our
- 9:03muscles. So this is really exciting.
- 9:06Some of the benefits that we're seeing in both males and females
- 9:09is going to be increased endurance, increased power
- 9:11output, increased strength and speed, all really, really
- 9:15important for athletic performance.
- 9:17We're also seeing an increase in recovery outcomes as well as a
- 9:21lot of research right now is looking at cognitive
- 9:24functioning. I'm so glad you brought up the
- 9:26cognitive functioning piece of this because I feel like that's
- 9:28what I've been seeing a lot of. Do we know anything specifically
- 9:31about like what that benefit can bring from like a long term
- 9:34perspective? Yeah.
- 9:35So creatine has a great protective mechanism of our
- 9:39brain. And so that can really help with
- 9:40like mental sharpness under fatigue and things like that.
- 9:44And just that brain fog type feeling, it can help with that
- 9:47in some populations. When we talked about supplements
- 9:50in the past we talked a lot about them in the frame of
- 9:53taking a supplement with out fueling properly is like not
- 9:56doing your homework but still asking for extra credit.
- 9:59Does creatine monohydrate work the same way, or is there any
- 10:01benefit to taking it when you're maybe in an underfueled state?
- 10:04I always struggle with this because I feel like creatine and
- 10:08also tart cherry juice are almost like diamonds in the
- 10:11rough. Because you do see amazing
- 10:14benefits of these two items, of these two supplements.
- 10:18You are going to see better outcomes of them when you're
- 10:21fueling properly. But I do feel like oftentimes
- 10:24they're used as band aids because you will possibly see
- 10:28benefit of these items or these supplements when you're under
- 10:32fueling and people look there first when they're not solving
- 10:36the root cause of the problem and therefore the actual problem
- 10:40goes unsolved for an extended period of time.
- 10:43I kind of view that a little bit like caffeine.
- 10:45We've talked a lot about caffeine on this podcast as
- 10:47well. Caffeine is a stimulant.
- 10:48It doesn't actually give us energy, but it often can feel
- 10:51like it's giving us energy. So if we're masking under
- 10:54fueling by having a cup of coffee because we feel energized
- 10:57when we get it or when we have it, that's not really replacing
- 11:00the energy. It's not really giving our body
- 11:01energy. It's just giving us something
- 11:02that feels like energy. So there is potential for
- 11:06benefit perhaps, but it will work best when you are
- 11:09adequately fueled. We hear a lot about like when to
- 11:11take it, what's the best time to take it, how to take it, a
- 11:14loading phase. What is like the average
- 11:18recommendation about like how an athlete should actually take
- 11:20creatine because there's a lot out there.
- 11:23Everybody has their own opinion about like how to take it, So
- 11:25what are what is it actually showing as far as there being
- 11:28benefit to taking it? When we're talking about
- 11:30creatine supplementation, consistency is the big thing.
- 11:34You want to be taking it every single day and that can be
- 11:38whenever it works best in your schedule.
- 11:41So if it means that at breakfast that works best for you, then
- 11:44that works best for you to be doing it at breakfast every day.
- 11:47The dose amount we're looking at around 3 to 5 grams daily.
- 11:50Usually when we get those creatine supplement powders, the
- 11:54serving size is usually 5 grams. Is there a loading phase there?
- 11:58Is a loading phase when it comes to creatine, there's two common
- 12:02protocols that you can do to load the muscle.
- 12:04The first one is 5g, which Lily just talked about.
- 12:07You should be taking about 5 grams every day anyways for four
- 12:11weeks. And we have seen in the research
- 12:13that 5 grams a day for four weeks is going to completely
- 12:17load or saturate the creatine stores in the muscle.
- 12:20Another way to do that if you're looking for faster results, is
- 12:24doing a 20G per day protocol for five to seven days.
- 12:28One of the things that we hear a lot or we get a lot of questions
- 12:30about is water retention with taking creatine.
- 12:33Is that something that can happen?
- 12:34Is it something that lasts the whole time?
- 12:36Does it go away after a while? What are we looking at from that
- 12:39perspective? There is some water retention
- 12:42oftentimes with creatine. If you remember what Lily said,
- 12:45creatine monohydrate, right? So it's going to be bound to
- 12:47some water weight has shown to stabilize though after the
- 12:51loading phase or after a prolonged period of time.
- 12:53I do. I also think that a lot of
- 12:55athletes are probably taking their creatine incorrectly, and
- 12:59oftentimes if you're bloated or you're feeling kind of puffy
- 13:02from creatine intake, it's because it's not properly
- 13:05absorbed and digested. What is improper taking of
- 13:08creatine? Let's just say proper intake of
- 13:10creatine would be completely mixing the creatine into a
- 13:14product or a beverage. If you are putting it into a
- 13:18beverage and there's a white kind of film or powder at the
- 13:21bottom of the beverage when you're done, that shows me that
- 13:23it's not completely dissolved. So that would be the first thing
- 13:26that I look at. I also always recommend creatine
- 13:29with about 15 grams of carbohydrates because we do see
- 13:33better absorption with a little bit of an insulin spike.
- 13:35Before we talk about one of the biggest questions that I get,
- 13:38which is around creatine gummies, do either of you take
- 13:41creatine? I take creatine.
- 13:42I also take creatine. I'm not the best consistent wise
- 13:45but I do take creatine. How do you take it?
- 13:47What's your favorite way to take it?
- 13:48What's your favorite way to mix it in things?
- 13:50Because some of the things that we hear a lot of people say is
- 13:53that they don't like mixing it in something or they feel like
- 13:56it can be gritty or sandy textured.
- 13:57So what are your recommendations for how to take it?
- 14:00Or maybe how do you take it? Hot beverages I think are the
- 14:03way to go. It just dissolves so much
- 14:05easier. So I do it in coffee.
- 14:07If I do tea at night, sometimes I'll do it in tea, but usually
- 14:10coffee is where I take it and that's just because consistency
- 14:13wise, that's when I take it. The best is when I remember to
- 14:16put it in my coffee. I also struggle sometimes with
- 14:19consistency and I know that I have athletes that struggle with
- 14:22consistency. So when we look at creatine,
- 14:25when the muscle is actually completely loaded, you will see
- 14:29the benefits of creatine for about 6 weeks afterwards.
- 14:33So for athletes that might have something coming up or like if I
- 14:37have a race or some type of competition coming up, I might
- 14:41load because I know I'm going to get benefits for at least six
- 14:44weeks after that. Because again, as a busy mom or
- 14:47as an athlete that's traveling all the time, like consistency
- 14:50can be. Really hard.
- 14:51Do you have a favorite way to take it, Riley?
- 14:53I also do it in the beverage or I'll put it in a smoothie or a
- 14:56yogurt bowl. I will incorporate it into some
- 14:59sort of food and make sure that it properly blends in.
- 15:02What about you though? Do you take it?
- 15:04I know that you don't love this food product, but I think mixing
- 15:08it in applesauce works really well because then I get a little
- 15:10bit of carbs with it too. And I personally love an
- 15:13applesauce. It's not Riley's favorite, but I
- 15:15love applesauce. So if you've worked with me,
- 15:17you've probably heard me recommend Applesauce, so I'm
- 15:19sorry. Recommend applesauce all the
- 15:20time. I just personally don't like it.
- 15:22Like I have it all. Like it's all over my house,
- 15:25it's all over my Instagram feed. All of my athletes are taking
- 15:27it. Just not my thing.
- 15:29And that's the best part about nutrition is that if there's
- 15:32something that doesn't feel aligned with you, your
- 15:34preference is there's usually something else we can find that
- 15:37is and that you enjoy a little bit more.
- 15:39And if it's applesauce, great. And if it's not applesauce,
- 15:41that's great too. I do want to talk about creatine
- 15:43gummies because I feel like I get so many ads on social media
- 15:47for creatine gummies for like these are these fun way to take
- 15:51creatine, they taste really good and all of that.
- 15:54So what about creatine gummies? What are our thoughts on
- 15:57creatine gummies? So creatine gummies, yes, are
- 16:00the big fad right now. The big thing with really any
- 16:03supplement when we're changing our form of what we're taking it
- 16:07with is how the manufacturing is going to affect the supplement
- 16:10that we are taking with gummies. Of course, we are making
- 16:14creatine into something else. And so you are going to be
- 16:18adding heat and you're going to be adding water to the creatine
- 16:21and that could cause the creatine to breakdown, which
- 16:24means that we aren't even getting the creatine that we're
- 16:27hoping to get from these gummies.
- 16:28And it also a lot of the time these gummy products are not
- 16:33third party tested. And what that means is that
- 16:36there is an outside party that is testing the product to make
- 16:40sure that what is on their supplement fact label is in the
- 16:43actual product. A lot of the gummies did not
- 16:46have what they said they had and that is mostly because of the
- 16:50manufacturing of these gummies. You're breaking down the
- 16:52creatine that you say is in the product before it even is on our
- 16:56shelves. I think one of the other
- 16:57problems is the amount that you have to consume of these gummies
- 17:01to get 3 to 5g per day is a significant amount, which means
- 17:06that we're consuming quite a bit of the product.
- 17:09Which means you might have to buy more of the product if it's
- 17:12truly able to contain that amount of creatine in the 1st
- 17:15place. If manufacturing didn't
- 17:16interfere with the total amount that you might get from a
- 17:19singular gummies, that means we might not actually be getting
- 17:21the benefit of it and you might just be consuming like not
- 17:24nearly enough to get the full benefit of creatine.
- 17:27And a lot of these gummies don't use creatine monohydrate, which
- 17:31is like we've talked about the supplement that has the most
- 17:33research supporting it. And a lot of people are trying
- 17:36to find like, how can we maximize or sell creatine more?
- 17:40Because, you know, creatine monohydrate is the most widely
- 17:43available product, and it's also the cheapest product out there.
- 17:46So people are always looking at ways to repackage and resell
- 17:49things. And make it more expensive for
- 17:51you. The form of creatine that I take
- 17:53or the brand of creatine I take it is actually Now Foods
- 17:56Creatine Monohydrate. Riley does have a discount code
- 18:00correct with Now Foods. I do.
- 18:02You can use my name Riley Reilly on the Now Foods website and you
- 18:07can get 20% off. They have a creatine powder and
- 18:11they also have a micronized creatine powder.
- 18:13We are going to actually link those in the podcast show notes.
- 18:16That way you can easily get them.
- 18:17I'll also leave Riley's discount code as well.
- 18:20There are plenty of other creatine monohydrate options out
- 18:22there and available on the market too that are third party
- 18:25tested that are safe to take as an athlete and ones that maybe
- 18:28we would recommend as far as a supplement to take for athletic
- 18:32performance. Is it something that we
- 18:35recommend for HA recovery? Do we recommend it for HA
- 18:38recovery? No.
- 18:39Do we recommend it for athletic performance?
- 18:41Yes. There is new literature coming
- 18:43out to that maybe supports creatine and a normal cycle, but
- 18:49I'm really hesitant because I think there's some other 10
- 18:53founding factors there. 18 is not going to help you overcome
- 18:56your energy deficit. We talk about this all the time.
- 18:58To come out of a low energy availability state, you have to
- 19:01reverse your energy deficit. You have to come in a positive
- 19:03energy balance and creatine is not going to help you accomplish
- 19:07that. Yes, if you're not watching the
- 19:09video feed, both Lily and I are nodding our heads in agreement.
- 19:11It's not going to help push you into a positive energy balance,
- 19:14but it is something that we do recommend for our athletes
- 19:17perhaps that are working on athletic performance.
- 19:20Do you have anything else like final tips about creatine?
- 19:22Anything else that you want to say before closeout today's
- 19:25episode? The last thing I'm going to say
- 19:27about creatine, and I feel like the story around it has changed
- 19:30because it has become so popular, but creatine is not a
- 19:33steroid. I think there's a lot of
- 19:35misconception at least 10 years ago about creatine.
- 19:39Creatine is not a steroid. If you do have questions about a
- 19:42specific supplement or more questions about creatine, please
- 19:45reach out to us or leave your questions in the comments of
- 19:47this podcast. You can always find us online
- 19:49for questions too. You can find Riley on Instagram
- 19:52at Riley dot Beatty dot nutrition, you can find at Lily
- 19:55Rhymer nutrition, and you can find me at Jenna dot Fisher dot
- 19:58nutrition. Thank you so much for listening
- 20:00to this episode of the Eat More Carbs podcast.
- 20:02Please make sure you rate, subscribe and review.
- 20:04And as always, remember to eat more carbs.