Creatine is an increasingly popular dietary supplement in the US. It's used to improve exercise performance and muscle appearance.
But do creatine gummies provide a high enough dose of creatine to be effective? Do they contain unhealthy additives? What's the best creatine gummy brand? And are creatine gummies inferior to creatine powder from a health perspective?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we explain what are the most important factors consumers should look out for when choosing a creatine gummy brand.
We'll then give our pick for the top creatine gummy supplement, and explain why creatine powder may be a better choice from both a health and cost perspective.
Does Creatine Even Work?
Before purchasing a supplement, it's important to check if it's even effective based on existing clinical studies.
Creatine has been studied in hundreds of clinical trials for its effects on exercise performance and strength.
A 2021 meta-study analyzed data from a number of clinical trials on creatine and workout performance and concluded the following:
“studies have consistently shown increased lean muscle mass and exercise capacity when used with short-duration, high-intensity exercise.”
Creatine not only improves muscle size and exercise endurance, but is also clinically shown to increase power during weight training, as we documented in our Six Star Creatine reviews article.
This means that using creatine before a workout can increase the maximum amount an individual can lift.
Based on the available research, creatine is an effective supplement for enhancing athletic performance and aesthetic appearance.
What Makes a Good Creatine Gummy?
There are three criteria we recommend consumers look out for when shopping for a creatine gummy supplement: effective dose, clean formulation and price.
Effective dose means a supplement that provides enough creatine per serving to have the intended effects.
The effective daily dosing range for creatine is 3 grams (g) to 5 g according to a medical review published in the Journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry.
Clean formulation means a supplement that's free of unhealthy additives.
Unfortunately, many gummy supplements contain unhealthy additives like refined sugar and artificial flavors, because they're formulated to taste and feel like candy.
Price is an obvious consideration for any consumer.
If the two criteria above are equal, we'll recommend the cheapest product.
Unfortunately, as we'll detail in the next section of this article, we haven't come across any creatine gummy brands that meet all three criteria.
Our Top Creatine Gummy
Bear Balanced Creatine Gummies is our top creatine gummy pick.
We don't recommend this supplement overall, we just consider it to be the best in its category.
Bear Balanced Creatine Gummies provide 3 g of creatine per dose, which meets the effective dosing range as outlined in the first section of this article.
Price is decent for a gummy supplement (which tend to be more expensive), at $1.67 per serving.
While this supplement is free of refined sugar and highly processed additive ingredients like artificial flavors, it still contains some inactive ingredients like citric acid (which is clinically shown to be inflammatory in some individuals) that we recommend avoiding.
Basically, we think this supplement is likely to be effective and to be the healthiest option in its category, but we consider creatine powder to be vastly superior to creatine gummies due to the lack of unhealthy additives.
We Tried Creatine Gummies Ourselves
One of our product testers named Aly Goldstein tried creatine gummies for a month. Here's her experience:
The product experience was easy and straightforward; it arrived in a standard package that was easy to open and reseal.
The taste was acceptable, but definitely not my favorite. As someone who doesn't usually enjoy sweet treats, the candy-like flavor of the gummies wasn't ideal for me. Additionally, the texture was slightly grainy, as if you could tell they had just taken powdered creatine and compressed into gummy form.
I definitely felt that the gummies had the intended effect, which probably also helped me tolerate the taste and texture of the gummies each day.
I am someone who works out consistently, but without changing anything about my workout or eating habits, I could tell that I was building muscle a little quicker and that I was able to workout a little harder.
I did not experience any side effects from taking Bear Balanced Creatine Gummies.
One aspect worth noting is that the gummies closely resemble candy, both in appearance and taste. Parents should be mindful of this if they have children around.
Overall, I rate this product 6/10 and I don't plan to purchase it again.
Our Clean Creatine Pick
MBG Creatine+ is our top creatine pick.
Beyond an effective creatine dose, this supplement contains an effective dose of taurine, an amino acid which was shown to improve power and time-to-exhaustion in a 2021 medical review.
This supplement is entirely free of ingredients we consider to be unhealthy.
Beginner Tries Creatine for a Month
A YouTube creator named Jeremy Ethier has a video with over 1.7 million views that features someone new to working out trying creatine for a month straight and reporting on his results:
