Taking creatine supplements may help your muscles store more glycogen, which is like a sugar reservoir, and since glycogen holds onto water, your muscles end up holding more water too.

Taking creatine helps your muscle cells soak up more water, making them swell a bit—and this swelling tells your body to stop breaking down muscle as much.

Taking creatine powder for about a week—first a lot, then a little—can boost the amount of creatine in your muscles by over 13%, which helps your muscles store more energy.

Taking creatine supplements the way some athletes do—starting with a big dose, then switching to a smaller one—might temporarily boost the sugar stored in your muscles, but that boost fades once you switch to the smaller daily dose.

Adding creatine to muscle cells in a lab makes them live longer when they’re in a super-salty environment, just like other known protective substances such as betaine and taurine.

Even if creatine helps muscle cells survive under salty stress, it doesn’t do so by keeping their energy levels up—because the energy (ATP) still drops even when creatine is added.