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One of the most popular weight gain supplements, the best creatine for skinny guys has a lot of hype to live up to.
You can buy any cheap creatine, but are you going to get the best results – or will you miss out on some easy extra gains from a better product?
Today, we’re saving you the pain of missed gains with the best creatine for skinny guys, covering some of the stand-out products on the market, some of the best brands to go to, and a guide to buying creatine for bulking up. Let’s hit the basics first…
What is Creatine?
Creatine is a pseudovitamin used to build the high-energy ATP molecules that fuel your muscles (and other tissues). Creatine supplementation helps improve the energy status of important cells to keep them healthy, support strength-endurance, and protect cells from damage (1).
This means your energy turnaround is improved, which is a huge benefit since you rely on it for health in a range of cells, as well as consistent high-level performance in muscles.
You can use creatine for weight gain, for exercise performance, and/or for better health. These benefits are underrated while the glamorous exercise performance benefits are more well-known.
As a pseudovitamin, however, creatine has a pronounced role in health that you shouldn’t overlook!
Best Creatine for Skinny Guys
The best creatine for skinny guys is Transparent Labs Creatine HMB.That’s because it is the creatine supplement with the best value – benefit per dollar. It offers the normal benefits of creatine with extra muscle-protection and great absorption benefits.
In these reviews, we’ll look at some of the leading products on the market and rank them with an eye to:
- Their purity
- The type of creatine they use – and the dosage
- Secondary ingredients that make creatine supplements more effective
- Price and how that converts into value for money
- The brand and its reputation for purity and good manufacturing practices
- Any other important features that make a product better or worse
Let’s get started with our favorite creatine for skinny guys and hardgainers…
1. Transparent Labs Creatine HMB
Transparent Labs’ creatine is the best on the market because it’s simple, pure, available at a great price, and with all the assurances that Transparent Labs are known for. Third party testing, certificates of purity, and the knowledge that your supplement isn’t tainted.
This is a simple but perfectly powerful creatine with a clean label and the dosage you need to gain weight the healthy way.
The HMB is the second ingredient in this product and is there to support your muscle to prevent breakdown during exercise and low-feeding periods, making it perfect to maintain what you’ve got while you work on building more mass.
The simplicity of this product makes it a big winner – especially if you’re just looking for a creatine supplement without any bells or whistles.
The focus on doing the fundamentals well is what makes this such a great choice, and why it takes our top spot as the best creatine for skinny guys.
Pros
- Great brand with a reputation for clarity, honesty, and transparency
- 3rd party tested products ensure purity, safety, and quality
- Certified good manufacturing practices ensure you get what’s on the label
Cons
- Lacks some of the synergies seen in expensive blended products
Verdict
The synergy between hmb and creatine makes this a great choice to expand on the benefits of BCAAs with more specific and potent anti-breakdown compounds.
The balance of ingredients is perfect for general use, and the piperine even makes absorption better.
You can – and should – add this product to shakes or other weight gain staples to make the most of it, especially if you can combine it with carbohydrates and protein.
The effects of creatine stack with carbs to produce some of the best performance and weight gain support.
2. MuscleTech CellTech Elite
CellTech Elite is the best premium creatine supplement on the market – and much more besides.
CellTech Elite is a more expensive product that combines creatine with a range of synergists to improve health, performance, and weight gain quality. These add up to make it the best premium creatine product on the market with smart design and excellent ingredient interactions.
You’ll also get a boost of carnitine and alanine, directly supporting your creatine’s role in the muscles and further reinforcing the quality and performance of muscles under fatigue.
The BCAAs double up on this role and improve post-workout recovery, while DL-ALA prevents workout-induced damage to muscles and other cells (2).
These benefits are on top of those you’d expect from the normal MuscleTech creatine – including the powerful electrolyte blend, BCAAs, and vitamin complex.
Pros
- Excellent creatine quality and dosage
- Added BCAAs support Creatine’s major functions
- Good electrolyte content
- Added synergists provide more benefits than creatine alone
Cons
- Far more expensive than single- or dual-ingredient creatine supplements
- Some better synergies do exist, but aren’t often used
Our Verdict
This is a significant upgrade on the average creatine monohydrate supplement – expanding on the normal benefit. It’s the best premium creatine supplement on the market.
Overall, it’s one of the best total effect creatine supplements and punches well above weight.
The cost is why we haven’t put it at the top of our list: if you just want creatine, this is one of the most expensive ways to get it. However, if you’re looking for total performance support, this is the creatine source for you.
3. NAKED Creatine Monohydrate
NAKED are – like transparent labs – a brand built around transparency in their products. Their creatine is just creatine. It’s a product that does what you want, without adding any unnecessary ingredients or asking for more money based on flashy inclusions.
As a creatine monohydrate powder, it’s a simple and hyper-soluble choice that offers a simple but concentrated format.
This is a perfect choice for general purpose creatine and comes in an enormous 2.2lb tub = which is enough for 400 2.5g (recommended) servings.
This makes it a great product for the honesty of the label, the reputation and quality of the brand, and the sheer value for money it offers.
You can get even more from this product by combining it with carbs and electrolytes (from pink Himalayan salt, for example). These are the best way to get the most from a simple one-ingredient supplement and offer a great, cheap source of the most important things that improve the performance.
Pros
- Great brand with honesty and transparency at the core
- Excellent quality creatine product
- Outstanding price for the sheer quantity of powder in a tub
- True single-ingredient creatine with 100% of powder being effective creatine monohydrate
Cons
- Lacks the synergistic effects of some other competitors
Our Verdict
At a competitive price for more than most products provide, NAKED creatine monohydrate is one of the best choices for getting a lot of results at a good price and without any of the complications of a less-dependable supplement brand.
It’s a simple but powerful choice with a clean label and honest brand behind it. This makes it a great choice for just about any goal.
There’s only so much we can say about NAKED’s creatine since there’s only one ingredient.
4. MuscleTech Creatine Monohydrate
MuscleTech’s Creatine Monohydrate is another simple but effective supplement built around the purity and quality of creatine. It’s a premium option with a dependable manufacturing process and added BCAAs.
The combination of these two ingredients is perfect for supporting workouts, where the creatine improves performance and the BCAAs buffer against muscle damage.
There’s also research that shows that both creatine and BCAAs can noticeably improve endurance across the whole range of exercise: from high-intensity to high-duration (3).
With an added electrolyte blend, this product has another dimension that doesn’t detract from the creatine content but offers a more holistic approach.
It offers small doses of the most important electrolytes – sodium, potassium, and magnesium – to keep muscles hydrated and ready to perform at their best.
Pros
- A high-purity creatine supplement
- Good total dosage and value for money
- Includes BCAAs to support muscular endurance and protect against damage
- Good electrolyte content to support muscle hydration and recovery
Cons
- Smaller tub size does reduce value per money compared to others
- Not as powerful as CellTech Elite for synergies alone
Our Verdict
This is a simple but pure product that offers some of the best creatine and BCAA convenience in a single, inexpensive powder.
It also provides electrolytes to bring you some of the best benefits of CellTech Elite, but trading off the premium benefits for a better price.
It’s a good choice that comes in at the mid-range of the market: more than just creatine, but without the higher asking price of super-premium creatine supplements!
5. Dymatize Creatine Monohydrate Powder
Dymatize creatine monohydrate is another single-ingredient product that offers a pure source. It’s 100% creatine, as with other high quality choices on this list, meaning that 3g is a perfect 3g dose.
This smaller size per purchase is why this product doesn’t place as well as products like the NAKED creatine, which saves you money by size.
The 300g tub for Dymatize means ordering more often and you’re paying more for things like packaging and sealing, rather than just getting more powder for your money.
You’ll get roughly 2 months’ worth of supply off this product while the NAKED version offers 6-months’ worth for the average user’s needs.
This means that Dymatize comes to the bottom of our list on value for money, while the actual results are comparable to NAKED.
Pros
- 100% pure creatine
- Good price and value for money
- Can be perfect for homemade mass gainer shakes and other uses
Cons
- Smaller tub than others
- 1-ingredient does mean it lacks synergies out of the container
Our verdict
This is a good product but it’s at the bottom of our list because it fails to stand out. It’s not the best creatine on the market, nor the cheapest. It’s not packed with a ton of synergistic compounds, but it’s not a simple bag of pure creatine.
The smaller tub could definitely be upsized to compete with NAKED.
In the meantime, it’s a great place to start if you’re trying to get good quality creatine but aren’t sure if you need a kilogram (or 2.2lbs) to get started.
It’s good, and dependable, but doesn’t blow us away.
What Type of Creatine is Best for Skinny Guys?
The best creatine for skinny guys is whatever you can get cheapest – or the one with the best secondary ingredients. Creatine types don’t make much difference to weight gain in the long-term.
Some people prefer monohydrate creatine for a reduced bloating, but this is down to personal preference and experience with different types of creatine. In terms of results, there’s no real difference between creatine in a monohydrate or HMB format.
Other products that combine creatine with other options – like CellTech Elite – are great for the things they combine creatine with. This is why CellTech is the most effective creatine supplement for skinny guys despite the fact that the creatine itself is the same as any other product.
Take a step back and look at the whole product and how it works together to help you gain more – and better quality – weight.
If you’re not going for a mixture, then simply getting the purest and cheapest option is a legitimate strategy for better results and the best value for money.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Does Creatine Help If You’re Skinny?
Yes – creatine can be a helpful supplement if you’re skinny and trying to improve weight gain – both in quality and quantity.
Creatine boosts exercise performance to improve weight training and muscle gain. It also supports better storage of glycogen in muscles which increases body weight in the short term.
Creatine won’t help you gain permanent weight by itself, but it’s one of the best ways to take care of your body and prepare it for exercise.
It gives you more energy to put into workouts and recovery, which can help growth indirectly. Plus it’s super cheap and healthy, which makes it a perfect supplement.
2. How Much Creatine Should Skinny Guys Take?
Skinny guys typically need 1.5g per day minimum, but more like 3-4g total. This can be achieved with around 2.5g of creatine supplementation per day to hit the levels required for the best muscle gains and cellular health.
You can take slightly more than this – some products offer around 3-5g per serving – but anywhere in the range of 4-5g per day total (including food) is healthy and sustainable.
3. Can An Underweight Person Take Creatine?
Yes – underweight people can benefit from creatine, as it reduces the wastage of muscle. This is also a great way to improve energy balance in muscles and associated tissues by improving glycogen uptake and maintaining ATP level, which can be at-risk in underweight people.
Creatine supplementation shouldn’t be your top priority, but does offer a way to improve total energy status.
This is a great choice for anyone, and the protective effects of creatine are more pronounced in vulnerable people, like the underweight, where it does the most effective work to protect muscle mass.
4. Which Supplement Is Best For Skinny Guys?
The best supplement for skinny guys is probably a mass gainer – either a mass gainer supplement or homemade mass gainer shake.
Creatine is another competitor for the best supplement for skinny guys, where it protects muscle mass and supports better exercise performance to boost weight gain quality.
Eating more is the most important priority, but is shortly followed by maintaining proper energy balance – with supplements like creatine and magnesium playing the most important role in this process.
5. Is Creatine Good For Bulking Up?
Creatine is one of the best supplements for bulking, where it can support all the most important processes associated with weight gain. It boosts performance in the gym, allowing for more effective training.
After exercise, creatine protects muscles from muscle damage and helps establish energy status balance. It also produces better hydration of muscle cells, which can be one of the most important secondary factors in supporting muscle growth and supporting healthy recovery – key to growth.
Creatine is also great for its positive interactions with carbohydrates and other forms of supplementation.
It’s also incredibly cheap and well-researched, which is why creatine is one of the most popular supplements on the market, with around 400 million dollars worth of worldwide sales per year.
6. Should You Load Creatine?
No – most people don’t need to load creatine. It can be an effective way to quickly boost the benefits of creatine but – across use for more than a few weeks – there are no lasting benefits.
On the other hand, front-loading creatine with super high doses does increase the risk of side-effects for the first few weeks.
So, there are no unique benefits but you do put yourself at risk of more side-effects. On balance, it just isn’t worthwhile.
You can use creatine loading if you’re amazingly sore and tired right now, but the results will take a while to kick in and become persistent no matter what your doses are.
Loading is fine, but more risky, and not more beneficial. As a result, most people should avoid it and just take a regular daily 2-5g of creatine consistently.
Conclusion
The best creatine for skinny guys is Transparent Labs creatine monohydrate, which offers the most dependable form of affordable, value-for-money creatine on the market. CellTech Elite is the best premium choice, but comes with a serious premium on the cost.
Creatine is a great choice for skinny guys because it improves workout performance and recovery together – two of the keystones of high quality muscle gains and weight gain.
This makes it a great choice for just about everyone, with the health benefits making it a great choice whatever your goals.
You can opt for a premium choice but you will be paying for more than just creatine. Get a good, dependable creatine source and you’ll be able to get great results off the simple fundamentals – and at a great price.
References:
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14636102/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6212987/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4241904/
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Rohan Arora is a Certified Personal Trainer and Sports Nutritionist and has been actively involved in sports and fitness for over 8 years. He now leads the team of fitness specialists and personal trainers who help people around the world with personalized workout and nutrition plans, along with providing the right information on sports supplements.
