i want to start creatine to put on some natural mass but all the different answers im getting on how to use it is making me not want to....when is the best time to take it? ive heard before or after your workout and even both, do i need to take it with juice or is water ok?
-
SIED Moderators: Genetic Freak | Serotonin101
confused as hell on how to take creatine
- Thread starter rubenr4g
- Start date
OverDone
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2008
- Messages
- 5,404
Post workout with glucose, don't bother loading...
AlmostFamous
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 28, 2003
- Messages
- 435
Looking back, I could find a ton of better stuff to spend money on than creatine.
Such as...?
AlmostFamous
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 28, 2003
- Messages
- 435
Here's a good guide on how to use creatine.
nolys
Bluelight Crew
Doesn't matter when you take it as long as its not right before a workout. If you work out in the evening there is no harm in taking creatine in the morning.
Agree with not loading, loading (for me) just causes the shits and nothing else
nolys
Bluelight Crew
£20 spent on 1kg of creatine is easily more useful than the same amount of money spent on food. £20 spent on food over the course of 6 months is utterly useless compared to 5g creatine every day. Diet comes first, but 1kg of creatine easily beats 1 days worth of food....
cornerstone430
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2012
- Messages
- 59
I found just taking one gram of creatine worked well. Meat contains a lot of the amino acid creatine. They say take 3.5g day or something like that. been a while since i used creatine but that amount made me blow up with water retention like a MF
SirTophamHat
Bluelighter
If you're taking it every day, it doesn't matter really when you dose.
If you're taking it sporadically, before particularly intense workouts, you're going to want to take it before working out. It's not going to help you if you take it after your workout...
If you're taking it sporadically, before particularly intense workouts, you're going to want to take it before working out. It's not going to help you if you take it after your workout...
nolys
Bluelight Crew
Wrong. Creatine needs to stay at a stable level in the body to have any effect. Taking it before a workout once, will have no effect.
I'm liking creatine ethyl ester moreso now. I got mine for a decent price so price wasn't an issue. monohydrate messed with my stomach and gave me bloating issues (talking like 5-10 lbs of water). I still take 5g a day though. tastes fucking awful, so damn bitter. mixed with glucosamine makes it more tolerable.
I have the Creatine Monohydrate chewable tablets that are orange flavored that don't taste too bad actually. They are 2.5mg tablets and since everything Ive read on here says loading is useless i can get away with only chewing 2 of them. Too bad there is sorbital in the damn things instead of real sugar! If i want a laxative I'll buy one thank you very much.
I also have these Creatine Monohydrate double buffered capsules and I'm wondering would the capsules effect absorption in a negative way? It says on the bottle that the double buffered capsules help protect the Creatine to get more where it needs to go but i never trust these marketing gimmicks. Normally id just get the powder as i don't mind the taste of it too much but since i got these for free I'm hardly going to throw them out.
I also have these Creatine Monohydrate double buffered capsules and I'm wondering would the capsules effect absorption in a negative way? It says on the bottle that the double buffered capsules help protect the Creatine to get more where it needs to go but i never trust these marketing gimmicks. Normally id just get the powder as i don't mind the taste of it too much but since i got these for free I'm hardly going to throw them out.
regular mono tastes fine. actually lacks taste. can you bust the capsules for the contents?
nolys
Bluelight Crew
Micronised creatine monohydrate is tasteless. And does not dissolve in water. Best method of taking the powder is either to swirl it in some juice then drink it quick as its suspended in the liquid OR take a spoonfull and chase it with your juice
SirTophamHat
Bluelighter
Blood plasma levels of creatine peak 1-2 hours after oral administration. Its brief half life means that if you really wanted "stable levels" you would need to take it a few times a day. Beyond the fact that loading creatine is a waste of money, it certainly is possible to get a training effect out of acute dosing. Taking creatine before a workout DOES have an appreciable effect; I've found that as using little as 3 grams before workout can cause a great improvement in my recovery between sets.
Creatine helps draw water into your muscles. This increased retention helps the tearing of the myofibrils among other things of course. Why would you want to take a supplement that does this AFTER working out? It makes no sense at all. Taking something that is designed to help your muscles with a particular function, after you have already performed said function? I believe this comes from the particular intuition that one is aiming to "replace" creatine that has been lost in the workout, however that's avoiding the main argument here. The point of supplementation is to bolster already existing resources so that more may be available when it's needed. Creatine isn't a recovery drink.
A long time ago GNC used to have instruction labels on their products that would say to use creatine post-workout. I haven't been in a GNC for a while so I don't know if that sort of hogwash is still going around, but I assume it's at least partially responsible for the misunderstanding.