Precision Engineered Creatine and Whey Protein - Need Advice

V3nd3tta

Hi,

I am just a beginner in bodybuilding and I just bought Precision Engineered Creatine http://www.hollandandbarrett.ie/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=574&prodid=562and Whey Proteinhttp://www.hollandandbarrett.ie/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=100&prodid=564 so I need a bit of advice. I weigh 205 lbs (93kg) and my questions are as follows:

On the the box for creatine it says to take one scoop which is apparently 43 grams by 4 times daily for the maintenance phase. The creatine is grape flavored as you can see in the above link. Is this not a bit too much ? Does this mean that in the 43 grams of the actual product there is 5 grams creatine and the rest 38g is just flavor? Anyone use this product before ?

Also for whey protein how much should I be drinking ?


Any advice would be helpful I do not want to overdose.

Cheers

gavtron

As far as I understand it your body will only absorb around 5-10g of creatine in a day, the rest is just waste and you excrete it. Maintainence and loading phases were just made up to sell more creatine.
From reading what you've bought it looks more like a post workout shake to my untrained eyes..has dextrose and taurine in it...dextrose can be useful for replenishing your glycogen levels i think, don't use it myself. The mix you bought has a lot of carbs in it, if it was just creatine that's all you'd see in the ingredients list.

I'm open to correction on this but that's just my view.

V3nd3tta

Cheers for the reply.

Yeah that is what I thought myself aswell, I was just told to take the 43 gram scoop a day because in that 43 grams only 5.25 gram is actually creatine. Should have just bought pure creatine...

Hanley

gavtron wrote: »

As far as I understand it your body will only absorb around 5-10g of creatine in a day, the rest is just waste and you excrete it. Maintainence and loading phases were just made up to sell more creatine.

Anyone who's high dosed creatine would probably tell you differently.

V3nd3tta

Well Hanley what is your opinion should I take more or what? Do you take it ?

Hanley

V3nd3tta wrote: »

Well Hanley what is your opinion should I take more or what? Do you take it ?

My opinion is it probably doesn't matter how much creatine your taking.

5g of creatine is fine, which is probably about what's in one of your scoops.

V3nd3tta

Thank You

gavtron

Hanley wrote: »

Anyone who's high dosed creatine would probably tell you differently.

Ok cool, is it effective to take it in a loading/maintenance phase? Or is there a right or wrong way to take it?

I always see conflicting views on it really, would like to hear your opinion.

Hanley

gavtron wrote: »

Ok cool, is it effective to take it in a loading/maintenance phase? Or is there a right or wrong way to take it?

I always see conflicting views on it really, would like to hear your opinion.

If your stomach can handle it, take 20g per day for 3 weeks and tell me what happens!!

I always get better results with 20-30g daily.

gavtron

Hanley wrote: »

If your stomach can handle it, take 20g per day for 3 weeks and tell me what happens!!

I always get better results with 20-30g daily.

Cheers, I'll let you know how i get on!

Mellor

As mentioned, the mix is mostly sugar, with some vreatine.
It's basically 33g carbs with 5-6g creatine per 43g

finish it off and get pure mono nect time. Even flavoured stuff will have 5g creatine per 6g powder

V3nd3tta

Mellor wrote: »

As mentioned, the mix is mostly sugar, with some vreatine.
It's basically 33g carbs with 5-6g creatine per 43g

finish it off and get pure mono nect time. Even flavoured stuff will have 5g creatine per 6g powder

Already got one this morning when I was heading into work. No point drinking the rest of the thing I guess...

Mellor

tbh its fine pre-workout as an energy drink imo

DARCHA22

V3nd3tta wrote: »

Hi,

I am just a beginner in bodybuilding and I just bought Precision Engineered Creatine http://www.hollandandbarrett.ie/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=574&prodid=562and Whey Proteinhttp://www.hollandandbarrett.ie/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=100&prodid=564 so I need a bit of advice. I weigh 205 lbs (93kg) and my questions are as follows:

On the the box for creatine it says to take one scoop which is apparently 43 grams by 4 times daily for the maintenance phase. The creatine is grape flavored as you can see in the above link. Is this not a bit too much ? Does this mean that in the 43 grams of the actual product there is 5 grams creatine and the rest 38g is just flavor? Anyone use this product before ?

Also for whey protein how much should I be drinking ?


Any advice would be helpful I do not want to overdose.

Cheers

€38.99 for 908g of protein :eek: , one bit of advice shop elsewhere

HP NUTRITION do 2.5kg of whey for the same price
reflex-nutrition.ie

Even go to a normal supplement shop(not H&B) and you will get a 5lb tub of whey for €50, that still saving you money, but online is cheaper.

UK bulk suppliers do 2.5kg of whey for less that 30euro
(bulkpowders, bulksupplementsdirect, myprotein)

Shop around so it saves you money, same applies to the creatine.

One bit of advice dont follow the directions on most products, suppliers usually have crazy dosing etc, always do your research on everything.

DARCHA22

V3nd3tta wrote: »

Hi,


Also for whey protein how much should I be drinking ?



Cheers

Depends on your diet and how much protein you need.

Calc your daily proetin requirements and if you are short in your diet add a shake or two.

bossdon

Id recommend ON 100% whey gold standard 5lbs tub for €47.99 I take one scoop when I wake up and one after workout. 1 tub will last about a month. Also you should checkout this youtube video and other videos he posted. It gives good advice for beginners.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BodyByBrendan#p/u/26/O11-baazoFQ

V3nd3tta

Ah well I made a mistake, I was just told to get it in the beginning since I am a beginner. Next time I will know ... Thx for the reply`s

theKramer

As regards creatine loading.
The only benefit of loading, i.e. taking 15 - 20g of creatine a day for the first 5 days or whatever, is that you see results faster. If you take 5g/day you will see the same results over a fixed 10 week period, its just that with the loading you have more creatine in your body initially.

With creatine, dont take it for more than 3 months at a time, and take at least 4 - 6 weeks off it. Also, make sure to drink at least 3ltrs of water extra per day.

And if you can lay off the beer, it would help as well, as you get worse hangovers when on creatine. Beer dehydrates you and means less water for creatine.

V3nd3tta

Yeah will do, u should have told me that last night... big hangover

theKramer

Thats why Im waiting til the new year before I go back on it. Wanna make sure I will have no major drinking going on while Im on it

This is what I use.

- The Superpump250 is preworkout, and gets you really focused (lots of caffeine & other stuff). You ONLY take it just before a workout, never on a non-training day!!
- The Sizeon is during/post workout.

The only downside with those is that you have to be really disciplined with the timing of taking them, but I have used a good few different creatine products and find that those two work the best for me.

I suppose everyone has their own preference, but once I tried the Gaspari stuff, I have never used anything else...

As regards protein intake, I usually take a protein shake after my workout, as obviously your muscles need it most then. I also take it at night just before bed, as your body rebuilds during your sleep, and usually in the morning when I wake up, as the body is low on protein after 8 hours of sleep and no food :-) That is on top of my brekkie and two main meals a day. Dont look on protein as a meal replacement. Its a supplement, so its in addition to your normal food intake. Also, you can take protein continuously, i.e. no need to go off it like you have to with creatine. There is no issue with that.

You would need to be exercising 4 or 5 days a week to justify that amount of protein intake. I play rugby and go to the gym, so thats why I take that much protein.

P.S. That website charges £10 for shipping no matter how big the order

Creatine is not bad for you per se, but you just need to know the basic rules:
Take on empty stomach to speed up absorption
Drink lots of water
Cut down on the beer
Cycle off every 10 - 12 weeks. Creatine occurs naturally in our bodies, and we get a small bit from meat, but in tiny doses. If you take it for something like 6 months or more, your body could become dependent on it. Kind of like why you dont take antibiotics continuously, as your body will favour the stronger source. Why make its own when it can get a better source somewhere else.

ray jay

theKramer wrote: »

Also, make sure to drink at least 3ltrs of water extra per day.

what happens if you don't do this?

Hanley

ray jay wrote: »

what happens if you don't do this?

Syphilis.

One of the lesser known side effects of creatine.

DARCHA22

theKramer wrote: »

Creatine is not bad for you per se, but you just need to know the basic rules:
Take on empty stomach to speed up absorption
Drink lots of water
Cut down on the beer
Cycle off every 10 - 12 weeks. Creatine occurs naturally in our bodies, and we get a small bit from meat, but in tiny doses. If you take it for something like 6 months or more, your body could become dependent on it. Kind of like why you dont take antibiotics continuously, as your body will favour the stronger source. Why make its own when it can get a better source somewhere else.

There is absolutly no need to cycle creatine at all.
There is no proof that cycling it is better for your body.
You can take creatine every day and it will have zero effect on yuor health.

Taking creatine on an empty stomach or a full stomach, dosent matter really.

And you can take creatine any time of the day, with or without carbs.

Just wanted to clear all that up.

DARCHA22

ray jay wrote: »

what happens if you don't do this?

Your willy falls off and you get man boobs :eek:

theKramer

ray jay wrote: »

what happens if you don't do this?

Creatine works in parts by absorbing water into your muscles, so you need to take in more water to counteract this.

theKramer

DARCHA22 wrote: »

There is absolutly no need to cycle creatine at all.
There is no proof that cycling it is better for your body.
You can take creatine every day and it will have zero effect on yuor health.

Taking creatine on an empty stomach or a full stomach, dosent matter really.

And you can take creatine any time of the day, with or without carbs.

Just wanted to clear all that up.

Its better to take it on an empty stomach, as then it will go into your bloodstream quicker.

Degsy

Creatine doesnt work..Working out works!

What i mean is its not a miracle supplement..you can take all the creatine in the world but without proper training,diet and rest nothing will happen...

DARCHA22

theKramer wrote: »

Its better to take it on an empty stomach, as then it will go into your bloodstream quicker.

Thats not true at all.

Its actually recommended that you take creatine ona partial or full stomach to avoid stomach discomfort.

It make no difference either way.

DARCHA22

theKramer wrote: »

Also, make sure to drink at least 3ltrs of water extra per day.
.

Nope, depends on the person and how much water they already take in.

So if i drink 1 gallon of water a day(4.5 LITRES), which is loads, your saying i shud drink 3 litres more per day. LOL

Hanley

DARCHA22 wrote: »

Thats not true at all.

Its actually recommended that you take creatine ona partial or full stomach to avoid stomach discomfort.

It make no difference either way.

Speaking the truth here.

And if you're worried about absorption rate, just take it earlier!!

theKramer

DARCHA22 wrote: »

Thats not true at all.

Its actually recommended that you take creatine ona partial or full stomach to avoid stomach discomfort.

It make no difference either way.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I have seen as many that say not to eat anything, but to start off on a light dose.

And I did state that Gaspari does not play well with a full stomach. They also recommend to start off on a lower dosage to assess tolerance. I have used it a number of times, but I still always start off on a third of the standard dosage and work my way up...

DARCHA22 wrote: »

Nope, depends on the person and how much water they already take in.

So if i drink 1 gallon of water a day(4.5 LITRES), which is loads, your saying i shud drink 3 litres more per day. LOL

I would agree with that. If someone is drinking 4.5 litres of water a day already they are fine, but Id venture not many are. I should have been more specific....