Creatine... Big Boy S#!T?

Cheeky Burns

Currently im losing weight in order to be fit for next years football season, i broke my leg at the start of the year resulting in a gain of two stone..... sitting around playing xbox and eating pizzas didnt help either. However i have started over the last few weeks to get back in action and am currently on 1300 cals a day and dropping weight but also gaining muscle as i am getting a lot of protein in my diet. Lost over 6 KGs in 3 weeks doing a lot of weight work and cardio etc have helped me acheive this. So while i was ordering some of the regular protein online i also ordered 'Reflex one stop' which has creatine in it ,i didnt realise this at the time and am wondering should i bother taking it now as i hear a lot of negitive stories about it, and i read that when you take it your muscles get full of water and you look bloated? Thats the trouble for me i want to lose weight and gain lean muscle will taking creatine make me plumped up looking or could someone explain how i should take it etc all i get on websites is fecking people selling it etc with no real answers, i dont want to undo any of the good progress i have done.!

Bottle_of_Smoke

Most importantly: If you stay on 1300kcal you will continue to lose weight but will not continue to gain muscle. You need excess energy as well as protein to build msucle.

Whilst it is possible when you start weight training to both lose fat and gain muscle, it doesn't go on forever. will come a point where to gain muscle you'll have to eat more in terms of calories than your body uses for everyday functions.

Otherwise where can the new muscle come from?

this is the wiki article on creatinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatine_supplements

Haven't used it myself but gonna start soon to see if it helps.

It doesn't bloat you in the traditional poor digestion or carb inducing bloat sense. Causes the muscles to retain some water. This may help you lift heavier meaning your muscles end up growing more. As soon as you stop taking the stuff the water retention stops.

It will certainly not undo any of the work you've done anyway!

Cheeky Burns

Cheers for that information good stuff, one thing so i will take the water in my muscles and will look bigger then when i stop taking it i will lose that water so the muscles will look smaller again? im just confused about that it seems like a waste of time then ? thanks for your time though and good article you linked

Cilldara11

Here's some good objective info on creatine:

http://www.absolute-creatine.com/

Creatine is mostly a form of energy for your muscles, which in turn allows you to workout for longer (hence allowing you to build more muscle). This is the major benefit of creatine. I take it for a few months each year and then cycle off it and have found very good results, as have many others.

Here's a great post from someone on another forum explaining the benefits:

''Creatine is just a form of energy production. Like carbs or fat. Creatine is the fastest available source of energy and is purely anaerobic.

The first 5-10secs or so of exercise uses mainly Creatine, then you use mainly anaerobic glycolysis (lactic acid sysstem - burning muscle stored carbs without oxygen), then you use mainly aerobic glycolysis (burning muscle stored carbs with oxygen) and then you burn fat (if enough Oxygen is available).

Having more Creatine means you can use that system for longer. So for example if you can bench X weight 4 times in normal circumstances (what stops you lifting any more is that Creatine has ran out and so Anaerobic glycolysis is needed and lactic acid stops the muscle function) with extra creatine you can lift that same weight 5 or 6 times.

Over the life of your training being able to complete 20% more reps or extra weight will make you bigger or stronger.

The Creatine doesn't in itself make you bigger/stronger it's the fact you can use that powerful energy system for longer and get the benefits that come from using that system i.e. train at high intensity for longer.''

Cheeky Burns

Thanks for that great info there and cleared up a lot for me, when you use it do you look more pumped up because of water retention and then when you stop using it you lose this water and look less pumped up? or is that not true?

Cheeky Burns

Just seen all of the links for more infor on creatine on the bottom of that website you posted and it clears up everything for me so thanks for that!