If you want to have a good workout session, your body needs energy. Creatine is one of the most effective supplement for strength and energy. Many bodybuilders and professional athletes consume creatine supplements to enhance their gym performance and workouts.
Nowadays, people on social media are coming up with new ways to make workouts and supplements more effective. One such trend is dry scooping creatine supplements. In other words, people are consuming creatine without mixing it with water.
The ‘dry scooping’ trend is popular on social media as people claim that it’s more effective than dissolving the supplement in water. People believe that dry scooping will invoke a faster response from the creatine, allowing people to get instant energy for their workout sessions.
But such fitness-related trends, especially those that start on social media, are often associated with health and safety concerns. Dry scooping, for instance, may result in choking, tooth decay, and so on.
Thus, it’s vital for any fitness enthusiast to measure the pros and cons of consuming creatine without water. Is it effective for enhancing your workout performance, or is it harmful to your body in the long run? Let’s find out.
What Will I Learn?
What is Dry Scooping Creatine?
Dry scooping creatine is when bodybuilders take a scoop of creatine powder (supplement) and consume it directly without dissolving it in any liquid. Some people chug in a sip of water after they dry scoop creatine to make the process easier on their windpipes.
However, the traditionally accepted way of consuming creatine supplements is to dissolve them in water or juice. Mixing creatine powder in juice is beneficial as it’s a sugary drink, and your body absorbs creatine better when there’s a presence of insulin.
The trend of dry scooping creatine, however, eliminates the need for water, juice, and all other complimentary beverages. It became popular when some TikTok users experimented with dry scooping pre-workouts.
From there, the trend shifted its focus to creatine, and TikTok users began talking about the benefits of dry scooping creatine.
Unfortunately, taking fitness tips from social media stars might often lead to unhealthy outcomes. It’s important to verify if there are scientifically-proven benefits of taking a dry scoop of creatine.
Can You Dry Scoop Creatine?
When several fitness enthusiasts started taking creatine without water for their TikTok fame, it sent the world into a frenzy. After all, nobody wanted to discard a way of making their workouts more effective. But they’re also wondering – can they dry scoop creatine?
Put simply; you can take a dry scoop of protein without facing too many complications. However, it won’t provide you with any performance benefits to aid your workout sessions. The creatine will have the same effect on your body as it would have if you dissolved it in some suitable beverage.
In fact, some experts even hypothesize that dry scooping creatine might be less effective than mixing the supplement in water before consumption.
It’s also very clear that people will have a hard time taking in creatine directly. After all, the powdery substance may get stuck in your airways, causing choking and coughing. When you dissolve the same powder in water, consuming it is much simpler.
So, while you can dry scoop creatine, there is no reason why you should be doing that, as it won’t give you any additional benefits.
Is It Bad to Dry Scoop Creatine?
We have established that dry scooping creatine is ineffective, as there are no additional advantages to doing so. However, some people might still be willing to give it a try to satiate their curiosity.
But is taking creatine without water simply ineffective and innocuous, or is it also harmful to your health? There are several negative aspects of consuming creatine directly without mixing it with water.
Let’s talk about some of them:
It Causes Tooth Decay
Creatine supplements has a rich chemical composition, with a wide variety of additives like citric acid, malic acid, or hydrochloride for providing flavour and for enhanced effectiveness.
However, according to multiple studies, your tooth can get decayed if they are exposed to citric acid. After prolonged exposure to large quantities of citric acid, the enamel of your teeth will get eroded.
Now, if you are dry scooping creatine, you are subjecting your teeth to direct exposure to concentrated citric acid. That will make your enamel vulnerable and your teeth weaker over time. If you don’t get it treated by a professional, tooth decay is inevitable.
On the other hand, if you consume creatine mixed with water, there will be less exposure as the citric acid will be diluted. Thus, mixing creatine in a suitable beverage is the safest way to consume it.
It Leads to Choking
Directly chugging a scoop of creatine powder into your mouth can lead to intense coughing and choking.
The presence of any powdery substance in your throat is bad for your airways. The powder may get stuck in the airways, cause coughing, and then choking, depending on the intensity of the situation.
Moreover, when you dry scoop creatine, the powder might mix with your saliva, leading to the formation of a chalky-textured substance. Swallowing such a substance may also lead to coughing and choking.
It Leads to the Wastage of Supplements
If you’re a regular gym-goer, you would understand the value of supplements. Creatine powders can be pretty expensive. So, it’s your responsibility to use them well.
Dry scooping such powders can increase the probability of supplement wastage. For example, if the powdery substance is difficult to swallow, you might cough some of it out.
Similarly, some of the powdery substance may also get stuck in your teeth and mouth. You won’t be able to consume all the powder directly. As such, the stuck creatine won’t be able to make it to your bloodstream and digestive system, leading to more wastage.
Either way, when dry scooping creatine, you’ll not be consuming the entire scoop that you fish out of the jar.
It Can Cause Gastric Issues
It’s also recommended that you break down creatine with water before consuming it because dry scooping creatine can lead to gastric powders.
In other words, if you chug a scoop of creatine powder directly into your mouth, you can face many health-related problems like diarrhea, stomach cramps, bloating, and so on.
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Now that you’ve read all about the negative effects of dry scooping creatine, we would hope that you stick to dissolving the powder in water before consumption.
But if there’s any situation where you are forced to take creatine without water, there are some precautionary steps that you can take to minimize such complications. For instance, if you have lost your shaker but still need to consume creatine timely, you can follow these steps:
- Take a sip of water before consuming creatine powder.
- Take a scoop of dry creatine powder and chug it in your mouth.
- Don’t breathe when you still have creatine in your mouth to avoid inhaling, choking, and coughing.
- Take a sip of water after consuming creatine powder.
Additionally, it’s also recommended that you consume pure creatine during dry scooping. If you mix it with additional supplements, the resultant mixture may be challenging to consume without water, leading to breathing problems and choking.
Can Dry Scooping Creatine Hurt Your Throat?
We’ve already established that dry scooping creatine without water will undoubtedly cause choking and coughing if you’re not careful enough.
The powdery substance may block your airways or get stuck in your throat, resulting in intense coughing. In some situations, the airway will be blocked to an extent where you cannot breathe, leading to choking.
The chalky texture of the powder also does not help in such situations, making creatine even more difficult to swallow without any beverage.
As a result, you might also face discomfort in your throat while taking creatine without water. In extreme cases, consumption of creatine powder directly can also cause irritation in your throat, resulting in pain.
Does It Matter If Creatine Is Not Dissolved?
One of the main reasons why people indulge in ‘dry scooping’ is because of the belief that doing so increases the effectiveness of creatine supplements.
The most common perceived benefit of dry scooping creatine is that doing so will cause the supplement to dissolve into your bloodstream quicker. As a result, you’ll get more hit from the creatine intake because your body is able to absorb it faster.
Unfortunately, the perceived benefit is not backed by any scientific research.
The claim that dry scooping creatine generates faster energy for your muscles to use is completely false. Creatine is distinct from other types of pre-workout supplements. People take pre-workouts to get an instant boost for optimum workouts.
Creatine is not responsible for providing any such boost. Instead, creatine is present in your cells as a source for your body whenever they need fast-acting energy.
So, it doesn’t matter if you dry scoop creatine or mix it with water; the results will be the same. In the end, your body will only detect the amount of creatine present, not how it got there.
Once creatine is detected, it will be stored in your cells for the body to use whenever needed. So, there is no instant ‘hit’ or energy boost after creatine consumption either.
Thus, it’s pretty evident that it doesn’t matter if creatine is dissolved or not. The effect will be the same. But the safer and more productive way is to consume creatine by mixing it with water to eliminate negative effects like choking, coughing, gastric problems, and so on.
Do You Have To Take Creatine With Water?
The most common way of taking creatine is to mix it with water or some other appropriate beverage. For example, many professional athletes mix creatine with grape juice (a high-sugar drink) to hike their insulin levels, making it easier for their bodies to absorb creatine for performance enhancement.
However, if you are following a no-sugar diet or don’t want to mix creatine with sugary drinks, using water or milk might be the best option for you.
Many people take creatine with whey protein, so there are no downsides to mixing creatine powder with milk if you don’t have underlying medical conditions. The presence of lactose, a natural sugar, might even enhance the absorption of creatine in your body.
Water, on the other hand, will provide no added benefits in terms of absorption of the supplement. However, it’s also the safest way to consume creatine as it won’t lead to any potential stomach problems.
If you do have any issues after taking creatine, you can try mixing the supplement with warm water, as it makes creatine monohydrate more soluble.
In the end, mixing water with creatine is not important. You can dissolve creatine powder in any appropriate beverage as long as it doesn’t lead to any harmful conditions for your body.
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Wrapping Up
Like all the other trends, dry scooping creatine also came after a failed social media experimentation. There are no benefits to chugging a scoop of creatine into your mouth without any water to wash it down.
Unfortunately, many people were influenced by the trend and had been taking creatine without water ever since. That may lead to several health-related problems like gastric issues, choking, and so on.
While finding ways to improve your performance at the gym is vital, it’s also your responsibility to ensure that you’re not doing anything wrong with your body in the process. Put simply; dry scooping creatine is just not worth it.
