when and how much Creatine?

[Buddy_Christ]

the instructions on it say to take upwards of 15g of it daily, and somewhere around 20 or 30 in the "loading" phase. guys at the store said 5g a day would suffice. they also couldn't seem to agree on when to take it (pre or post workout).

i've heard grape juice is good to mix it in because it helps in the transport to cells. i could very well be wrong. i've also heard that anywhere from 5-10g a day is a maintenance level.

can someone clear this up for me? g per day, pre/post workout, servings per day, and best thing to mix it in.

help appreciated. thanks!

 

[the guy on the couch]

when I bulk:

1 serving with my post-workout meal
1 serving at night
~3g each serving

both with 6-8 oz. grape juice.

you can take it with water but it tastes HORRIBLE. grape juice does a good job of killing the flavor.

 

[ColdCut]

I have pure creatine monohydrate and it has no taste!

 

[Buddy_Christ]

i have creatine monohydrate and it makes the grape juice REALLY sweet.

would drinking it during my workout work as well as afterwards?

serving before bed i can handle, or close to bed time anyway.

 

[SoreArms]

I have pure creatine monohydrate and it has no taste!

Correct, pure monohydrate creatine has not taste. Stay away from the flavored creatines as they are loaded with sugars and junk.

When i take creatine I take 5g pre and 5g post WO. The first time I took creatine, I did the laoding phase thing, but the second cycle I found that I didn't have to load.

I read somewhere the the liver cannot process more than 5g of creatine a day and more than that will cause liver damamge and kidney stones. Not sure how true that is though.

BTW
I assume you know that you have to cycle it right?

 

[the guy on the couch]

Correct, pure monohydrate creatine has not taste. Stay away from the flavored creatines as they are loaded with sugars and junk.

When i take creatine I take 5g pre and 5g post WO. The first time I took creatine, I did the laoding phase thing, but the second cycle I found that I didn't have to load.

I read somewhere the the liver cannot process more than 5g of creatine a day and more than that will cause liver damamge and kidney stones. Not sure how true that is though.

BTW
I assume you know that you have to cycle it right?

Agreed. I don't think anything over 5g helps. Of course, stay VERY WELL hydrated during your cycle of creatine.

I doubt it would help during a workout, unless you're taking liquid creatine. It takes time to travel through your GI tract to be transported all the way to the muscles. Liquid by passes the GI tract (for the most part) so it starts working faster. However, if you're keeping your dosages up (3-5g/day) then your muscles are most likely saturated with creatine anyway.

 

[desman]

to the people who took creatine, how did your body look with respect to water retention and did it really bloat up your face?

 

[SoreArms]

to the people who took creatine, how did your body look with respect to water retention and did it really bloat up your face?

Didn't notice any bloating in my face, but my muscles felt full while taking it, a constant "pump" if you will. You must drink lots of water when taking creatine, so the downside is that you are constantly pissing.

 

[Buddy_Christ]

ok, i don't know how to cycle it. i guess i should've done some research on this before i started taking it. for the past few days i've been taking 5g twice a day, usually morning and at night or evening. my water intake sucks (as in, i know i'm not taking in enough) but the past few days i've bumped it up because of the creatine.

this one says there's no other ingredients except 100% pure creatine powder. also says vegetarian formula. if it's supposed to have no taste, that's kind of odd that this seems to sweeten up grape juice.

as far as kidney and liver problems - my pharmacist let me read some info he had on sports suppliments that was done by an independant group of doctors, not sponsored or endorsed in any way by any manufacturer. as far as any damage to the body, in their studies, they had 2 people develop reversible kidney problems, one of which had a pre-existing condition (it did not say how many people were used in the study, but if they did it correctly, they had a good sample size). it did also not go into detail about what cause the damage and what else the athletes were doing/taking.

since anything takes time to reach your cells, would taking creatine 3 hours pre-workout be helpful? i leave the house every day about 2-3 hours before my workout. that's also when i have my pre-workout meal/breakfast.

 

[juve]

people still using creatine?
I'm out of loop