Glossary · Creatine
Abbreviations on creatine packaging
Creatine is the easiest category to compare and at the same time the one in which it is easiest to overpay for a form that differs from monohydrate mainly by name.
Creatine appears in supplements combined with something else: water, malic acid or hydrochloric acid. Each of these combinations has a different mass, so the same gram of powder contains a different amount of creatine itself.
The second issue is measuring. A scoop included with the package measures volume, not mass, and powders differ in density — the declared “5 g per scoop” can therefore be an approximate value.
The terms one by one
- Monohydratecreatine monohydrate
- Creatine bound to one water molecule. 100 g of monohydrate contains about 88 g of pure creatine; the rest is water. This is the cheapest and best described form, so we use it as the reference point.
- Malatecreatine with malic acid
- Sold as TCM, meaning tricreatine malate, or as dicreatine malate. Tricreatine is about 75% creatine, dicreatine about 66%; in both cases less than monohydrate. The same number of grams therefore means a different amount of creatine, which must be considered when comparing price.
- HClcreatine hydrochloride
- Creatine bound to hydrochloric acid, about 78% creatine in a gram of powder. It dissolves in water noticeably better than monohydrate, and label servings can therefore be smaller.
- Creapureraw-material trade name
- A brand of monohydrate made in Germany, indicating the origin of the raw material. It does not change the creatine content; it affects the price.
- Scoopmeasuring unit
- The included spoon measures volume, not mass. With different powder granulation, the actual serving content can differ from the declared one, so package mass divided by the number of servings is a more reliable reference point.
- Micronizedground powder
- Monohydrate with smaller particles, which mixes with water better. The composition remains the same.
Other groups of terms
Omega-3 Vitamin D Magnesium, zinc, iron Vitamin C B vitamins Collagen Probiotics Label and calculations
How the numbers from a label turn into the cost of a day is shown in the omega-3 calculator — for now this is the only finished category. The rules by which we build the ranking are described in the How we rank section.