Q & A: Are creatine gummies the best way to get my creatine monohydrate on a daily basis?
A: Gummies will be the most expensive and highest calorie manner to consume creatine monohydrate. If you like gummy candy, you will enjoy creatine gummies, however, you will probably be better off if you did not try and multi-task. In other words, creatine gummies are less tasty that regular gummy candy, and creatine gummies are the highest calorie way to get creatine, so you would be better off using a low calorie and decent tasting creatine and then enjoying some gummies separately.
Why take creatine?
Creatine is trendy, useful and safe, which is an uncommon combination when it comes to supplements. It was originally marketed to young men in the 90’s looking to get “jacked,” but it turns out that it’s a lot more useful for peri and postmenopausal women because it helps with the most common issues: sleep quality, brain fog, joint pain, and bone density. There’s more on creatine for women here.
High cost and high calorie
I went to Amazon and used the first result that was not sponsored as my comparison. (Just in case you are wondering, the number of calories of the next 2 supplements were identical per unit of active ingredient.)
Generally speaking you need 5+ grams of creatine per day for it to help with sleep, cognition, joints, muscles, bones, etc. So the comparison will be based on 5 grams of the active ingredient, creatine monohydrate.
OMNI Creatine Gummies
- $2.80 per serving ($835 more than the DotFit per year)
- 50 calories per 5g serving
- Taste: pretty good
- Bottom line: probably the best tasting version, but also highest calorie and highest price. Also, this brand of gummy doesn’t have any sugar alcohols in it, so it is unlikely to make you gassy, bloated or worse.
DotFit Creatine Monohydrate (mix with water, and tastes pretty good)
- $0.51 per serving (if you use this link for 20% off), and $0.63 per serving otherwise
- 5 calories per 5g serving
- Taste: pretty good
- Bottom line: pretty good tasting, reasonably priced and minimal calories
Bulk Supplements plain creatine monohydrate powder
- $0.21 per serving
- 0 calories per 5g serving because it is nothing but powdered creatine
- Taste: awful, it tastes like eating aspirin because it is just plain creatine powder
- Bottom line: if you mix it with something (low calorie) that will hide the taste of this, then it is the cheapest option and the calories will depend on what you mix it with
Bottom Line
On the upside for gummy creatine is that creatine monohydrate is very heat stable. Meaning the process of incorporating creatine into a gummy form will not degrade or destroy the creatine. This is as opposed to something delicate and heat sensitive like fish oil, which will almost certainly go rancid in the process of becoming a gummy or a “chew.”
50 calories a day is 350 calories a week (1500 a month) and most people would rather spend those calories on something else.