Dr. Stacy Sims on Creatine Supplementation for Women
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Dr. Stacy Sims is a renowned exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist who has dedicated much of her career to understanding the unique health and fitness needs of active women, particularly how they differ from men's.
She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, and written two books—ROAR, which examines the unique needs of female nutrition and exercise, and Next Level, which focuses on perimenopause and menopause. She also offers a variety of courses aimed at educating women across their lifespan.
Dr. Sims has recently brought increased attention to the importance of creatine supplementation for women through her appearances on prominent health and wellness podcasts. In these conversations, she has highlighted how creatine can provide a multitude of health benefits specifically for women, from cognitive function and mood to muscle strength and gut health.
This article includes a curated collection of her most compelling insights on creatine.
Benefits of Creatine for Women
“The number one supplement for women is creatine. Creatine for women, it doesn’t matter what age, it’s really important. We’re seeing a lot [of benefits] for brain, mood, and actually gut health.
"You want 3-5 grams a day of CreapureⓇ because of the way it’s processed. Creapure comes from a German company that uses a water-based wash to process the creatine, whereas others use an acid-based wash.
"We see a lot of side effects from those acid-based wash creatine powders, such as nausea and bloating. So if you’re going to take creatine it needs to be Creapure.”
—Dr. Stacy Sims on the Huberman Lab Podcast: Female-Specific Exercise & Nutrition for Health, Performance & Longevity
“If we [women] supplement with it [creatine] then everything improves—our brain health improves, our gut health improves, our cardiovascular problems start to dissipate, and we have better muscle function.
"There’s an increasing body of research that is being done on creatine for health for women. We see it’s beneficial in pregnancy. We see it’s really important for mood and cognitive function in women who are peri- and postmenopausal.
"And then for skeletal muscle health and bone health, we see that it’s beneficial, just a small dose—3 to 5 grams—that you might put in your water once a day, and it doesn’t matter about timing. It takes about three weeks to saturate the body…and after that you’re going to be like ‘Wow! Why have I not been taking this?!’”
—Dr. Stacy Sims on the Mel Robbins Podcast:The Body Reset: How Women Should Eat & Exercise for Health, Fat Loss, & Energy
Creatine for Brain, Mood, and Cognitive Health
“Creatine is really important for neurotransmitter and brain health...We've seen some randomized control trials where women who have really bad depressive episodes or anxious episodes...when they're using creatine with a very, very low dose of SSRI, they get out of the symptomology a lot faster and stay out of it.”
—Dr. Stacy Sims on the Betty Rocker Show: Fat Loss, Gut Health and Hormone Imbalance
Creatine for Muscle, Heart, and Gut Health
“Creatine is involved in all the fast energetics of the body. So we think about our brain and brain function. We think about gut, gut health, gut integrity, muscle performance...
"[Creatine] improves mood, it improves muscle function, it improves gut health, it improves heart function because it saturates all the tissues in the body.”
—Dr. Stacy Sims on the Training Beta podcast
Creatine for Hormonal Cycles and Menopause
In this article on her website, Dr. Sims writes:
“Women naturally have 70 to 80% lower creatine stores than men and we typically consume significantly lower amounts of dietary creatine, which comes primarily from animal foods like beef, compared to men.
"A 2021 review of the literature published in Nutrients reported that ‘creatine supplementation may be of particular importance during menses, pregnancy, post-partum, during and post-menopause’ (which is essentially a woman’s whole life!) and that ‘females with varying levels of training and fitness may experience improvements in both anaerobic and aerobic exercise performance from both short-term and long-term creatine supplementation.’”
—From Dr. Stacy Sims article, Why Active Women Need Creatine
“For women, it's [creatine] really important, especially in peri and post-menopause when we're looking at brain energetics and brain metabolism, because creatine is used heavily there as well.”
—Dr. Stacy Sims on the Designs for Health podcast
“So women have about 70 to 80% less creatine storage and availability than men. And we start losing it. And there’s also a menstrual cycle effect. So we know that in the low-hormone phase, follicular phase, we use a lot of creatine…But in the high-hormone phase, our body is using it not for muscle and brain energetics but to build that endometrial lining.
“So if we’re looking at supplementing with creatine to help with fast energetics and brain health, we want to supplement in the high-hormone phase so that our body will actually be able to put it to use…But if that’s too complicated, just take 3 to 5 grams every day, not loading up, just that really small dose because it goes and helps every tissue of the body that has fast energetics. You’re thinking brain, gut, heart, muscle, all that kind of stuff.”
—Dr. Stacy Sims on The Ready State Podcast
Misconceptions Around Creatine Use for Women
Although many people, especially women, have previously believed creatine is solely a supplement for male bodybuilders, Dr. Sims' insights underscore that creatine is actually a highly valuable supplement for women. By addressing many of these myths, she encourages women to consider creatine as the top supplement to add to their health regimen. We explore some of the most popular myths below:
Myth 1: Creatine Causes Bulking in Women
Many women avoid creatine fearing it will make them bulky. Dr. Sims clarifies that this is a misconception:
"You can get strong without being 'bulky,' and you can take creatine and get the benefits without the bloat."
—Why Active Women Need Creatine
On the Diary of a CEO podcast, host Steven Bartlett asked Dr. Sims why there are myths around creatine use leading to bulkiness, to which she replied:
“That is the prevailing myth around creatine, but what’s the phrase? The poison’s in the dose? If you look at the bodybuilding set and how creatine helps increase muscle capacity and training, they are using 5 grams four times a day…but if we are looking at creatine use for health and for women the dose is only 3-5 grams once a day…If we are taking that dosage it does not have the same side effects as with the bodybuilding set.”
Myth 2: Creatine Leads to Bloating
Concerns about bloating are common, but Dr. Sims explains that proper dosing mitigates this issue:
“It's not a given. There are some women on the lower dose of three [grams] that don't experience the water gain…We see a lot of side effects from those acid-based wash creatine powders, such as nausea and bloating. So if you’re going to take creatine it needs to be Creapure.”
Myth 3: Creatine Is Only for Muscle Building
Beyond muscle health, creatine supports brain function, mood, and gut health:
“Creatine is really important for women, for maintaining gut health. So it's 3 grams a day and…We see better mood. We see better heart responses, better vascular responses, better gut motility, gut responses.”
Myth 4: Creatine Isn't Necessary for Women
Dr. Sims emphasizes that creatine is one of the most important supplements for women, especially during perimenopause and menopause. When asked which supplement is the most beneficial for women during perimenopause and menopause, she said:
“Creatine is the good one for all of us. [It’s] so important because women who are eating less and/or following vegetarian, vegan-type diet don't get enough creatine anyway. And we also have less stores than men. We also see that creatine is so important for the fast energetics of our body. So we're talking about gut health, heart health, but in particular brain and brain metabolism. So we really want to push creatine for health.
"We also can see a benefit for muscle performance. It's only 3 g to 5 g, it’s not a lot. And when we start seeing women who start using creatine, not only do they mentally feel better, they're also seeing better muscle performance. It takes about three weeks to fully saturate though. So it's not something that you just take a one off before training. It's something that you actually want to take on a daily basis.”
—Cynthia Thurlow podcast: Protein, Creatine, and Training for Menopause and Beyond
Myth 5: Creatine Gummies Are Better Than Powder
Dr. Sims advises choosing creatine powder over gummies, largely due to processing and bioavailability issues. You can learn more in this short reel from her Instagram.
Dr. Stacy Sims Chooses Momentous Creatine
Momentous is proud to partner with Dr. Stacy Sims.
Together, we are working to help close the gender gap in health and performance science because women deserve better data, better tools, and better outcomes.
It’s about more than equity—it’s about unlocking what’s truly possible. Momentous Creatine is Dr. Sims’ creatine of choice.
Emma-Kate Lidbury
Emma-Kate Lidbury is a freelance writer and editor with 20 years of experience working in the health and fitness world.
