Metabolism and Storage of Creatine

• - Between 1 - 2g of creatine can be consumed from the diet per day.  However, the body will use ~2g of creatine per
•   day to perform everyday activities.
• - The average adult stores 120g - 140g of creatine within their body (fig.1).
• 
• Figure 1 (Kreider, 1998)
• - Skeletal muscle contains approximately 95% of the body's creatine pool, and the brain, heart, liver, kidneys, lungs,
•   spleen, and testes store approximately 5%.
• - Between 60 - 70% of the creatine stored in muscle ends up binding to phosphate to become phosphocreatine and the
•   remaining 30 - 40% is free creatine.
• - Higher concentrations of creatine in skeletal muscle are stored in its type II fast-twitch muscle fibers.
• - Creatine supplementation can increase PCr levels between 6 - 16%, which aids in the turnover of ATP during high
•    intense activities allowing the ability to maintain high power output for longer durations.
• - Primary sources of food containing creatine are fish and red meats (table 1.).  Uncooked fish and red meat contains 3-
•   5g of creatine, however some of it is lost due to the cooking process.
•  
• Table 1

Food Type	Creatine Content (g/kg)
Shrimp	trace
Cod	3
Herring	6.5 - 10
Salmon	4.5
Tuna	4
Beef	4.5
Pork	5
Milk	0.1
Cranberries	0.02

• Balsom et al., Sports Med. 1994; 18: 268-280

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