creatine dosage

pwd

I used creatine monohydrate before. At the time any literature about it I saw recommended a dosage of 5g twice a day. It definitely had a positive effect.

I recently bought a tub of it, which recommends 5g a day during the maintenance phase.

I've been taking 5g twice a day. I've found myself waking in the middle of the night needing to urinate - might that be a side effect or is it just coincidental?

Not sure how much to use a day. I weigh about 92kg.

mack1

Probably is from the Creatine.
I'm no creatine expert or anything, but I know it is difficult for the stomach to digest, hence it causes the stomach to product more fluid to try break down, leaving you with excess fluid in your stomach afterwards - small amounts result in you needing a pee - for larger doses of creatine it results in diarrhea.

Hanley

If it's the only variable you've introduced then it could be the case alright. Usually it's recommended to drink more water with creatine because it draws water into the cells and leaves less "free" water available. So if anything you might expect to pee less.

What colour is your pee? If it's bright yellow and smelly you definately need more water.

I've had the best results with mono taking 10-12g immediately postworkout with my shake and about 3g of CEE in my preworkout shake. And I only do that 4x a week.

I don't use creatine on non-training days. My theory (and I'm not sure how scientifically sound it is...) is that I get some before the workout to fuel my session, and I get loads after to replenish the stores I've just depleted.

pwd

I've read that creatine that makes it to the bowel without being absorbed causes bad diarrhea alright, and I agree its probably unabsorbed creatine causing the waking.
I'm using regular creatine monohydrate, which doesn't dissolve easily. When I've finished the tub I have, I'll certainly switch to micronized creatine which I've used before and dissolves much more easily.

The pee is pale yellow at night and non-smelly, and usually clear during the day. I generally drink lots, though I have been trying to drink less at night time since this started happening.

I think I'll reduce my creatine intake - I'll probably only take in the PWO drink as you describe. I did that before with just 5g in the drink and got good results.
Also, aside from the waking in the night issue, I find creatine seems to suppress my appetite, and it would be no harm to eliminate the two sugary drinks I've been putting it in each day.

Thanks

snapplejacks

i was recently enquiring about creatine and some guy informed the kre-alkalyn was now the better stuff to use.....as i'm new to this can anyone confirm ?

also...as i only train 2/3 times per week...can anyone recommend proper dosage and do i need to eat something afte taking the capsules...?

Hanley

snapplejacks wrote:

i was recently enquiring about creatine and some guy informed the kre-alkalyn was now the better stuff to use.....as i'm new to this can anyone confirm ?

It REALLY REALLY doesn't matter. The guy was probably trying to sell you someting anyway.

There's a reason monohydrate is around so long, and is so popular. It's because it works really bloody well.

EDIT: Besides, if you don't know the answers to those question, it's probably too soon to start thnking about it.