If you're a guy who lifts weights, taking creatine for 8 weeks can help you gain muscle and hold more water inside your muscle cells — but the water doesn't increase more than the muscle does, so...

If you're a guy who lifts weights, taking creatine might help you gain more muscle and hold onto more water inside your cells than just training alone.

When guys who lift weights gain muscle, their muscle cells also hold more water — and this happens whether or not they take creatine. It suggests that growing muscle might be linked to how much water the cells hold.

If you're a guy who lifts weights, taking creatine won't make you hold more water outside your cells compared to just training — the water increase seems to come from working out, not the supplement.

Taking 3–5 grams of creatine monohydrate daily for 8 to 12 weeks leads to small increases in muscle size in people who regularly lift weights, mainly because it allows them to train more intensely or for longer, not because it directly stimulates muscle growth at the cellular level.

Taking 3 to 5 grams of creatine every day can help your muscles store more energy, making you stronger, more powerful, and better at building muscle when you lift weights—without making you gain fat.