creatine gains

[casualbb]

Just buy the straight powder. You don't really need to take it with sugar, just dump it into your preworkout shake.

Don't buy pills either. They use it as an excuse to jack up up the price. 1200 g of optimum pure creatine monohydrate (my favorite!) is like 25 bucks. That should last you literally 8 months.

 

[sk*]

In response to your original question, yes and no.

The water weight you gain you will lose, but the net weight gained AFTER loading will be kept.

For instance, you weigh
180. After loading you weigh
185 (+5 water lbs). Then you bulk up to
195 (+5 water, +10 tissue lbs). You go off creatine, and normalize to
190 (+10 tissue lbs.)

creatine is definitely underrated, esp. considering how cheap it is.

Argh, where do you come up with these theories? How would you even know which 5lbs you lost, the one from the begining or the end???

This is complete and utter nonsence, spatts had it right:

"Well, the "gain" from creatine is IM water and other fluids. So yeah, you lose it. Creatine doesn't put muscle on you, it just helps you do more work so that you may put on more muscle through training. It's not like a steroid."

-sk

 

[muscledog95]

thanks for all the replies everyone

 

[bigguns15]

Just buy the straight powder. You don't really need to take it with sugar, just dump it into your preworkout shake.

Don't buy pills either. They use it as an excuse to jack up up the price. 1200 g of optimum pure creatine monohydrate (my favorite!) is like 25 bucks. That should last you literally 8 months.

It's actually more effective to be taken with sugar, particularly dextrose, due to the elevated insulin levels it produces. Also, if you use a creatine mix in your post workout shake, your muscles are glycogen depleted and much more likely to take up the creatine.

 

[Backlash]

Wait, is it better to take it before or after your workout? Assuming you only want 5g a day so you only take it once a day.

 

[spatts]

I used to split my dose, AM and post workout PM. I never felt like I got anything out of it, except a ton of bloat, so I dropped it.

 

[slinky]

I also mix my creatine in with my dextrose/maltodextrin post workout shake; however haven't done this in awhile.

Since creatine can also cause dehydration I've discontinued using it. You know, dehydration can also be catabolic. I know, I know, the "but it causes that famous bloat".

Heh, funny: I believe creatine is overrated. I'm much more concerned with my protein intake than I am with my creatine intake.

 

[ffknight84]

i take it purely for the strength gain...

 

[pwr_machine]

I think Bigguns15 hit the nail on the head.

 

[casualbb]

Yes insulin makes it more effective, but the amount of spike you get from the sugar does in one of those creatine formulas doesn't really give you that big a spike. So a homemade formula would be a better option.

Also studies have shown that creatine is taken up more effectively when ingested pre-workout, same with protein.

Argh, where do you come up with these theories? How would you even know which 5lbs you lost, the one from the begining or the end???

Huh? Okay I'll spell it out for you. Creatine causes an uptake of water and PCr into the muscles. This causes weight gain. This weight gain and thus the water and PCr will remain as long as you stay on it. They go away when you go off. But any muscle you grew while on stays. Is that simple enough?