Aside from obvious reasons like not using it if you’re trying to cut weight for a sport (due to the water retention) is there any reason that you should NOT take creatine? Should it just become a staple of any lifter’s diet? Can the effects diminish if overused?
I only ask because I recall in the endomorph PC, Christian Thibaudeau didn’t put USCTrojan on it. He didn’t give any rationale other than “we might want something to add later”.
Sidenote: Is there any realistic superiority of Biotest’s Creatine over cheaper stuff I can find elsewhere?
Yes, the creatine monohydrate Biotest sells is micronized very fine. This allows for easier dissolution and absorption in the stomach.
Many of the negative effects of creatine are due to poorly micronized stuff (that is how they can sell it cheaper) or the user not diluting it properly - too often I have seen people trying to get too much powder into a bottle of water (when mixed with other supps or workout drinks).
At 13 cents for a 5g dose, it is hard to justify saving a nickel a day. If your budget is that tight, creatine is not in it period.
As for use during fat loss, it is excellent, however, if you are making weight for sport and want to use it, you may want to keep dosing low and in split doses, say 3-4 times 1.5-2g per day and take a few days off before weigh in, followed by a moderate loading phase coupled with a nutritional strategy that supports your competition environment.
To add to what the others have said, from what I have gathered there is not much reason to cycle on and off creatine. While you will become habituated to its effects after a while, its still there doing its thing during exercises which use the creatine phopshate system.
In addition, creatine is showing promise in a host of other applications not related to exercise, such as cognitive functioning.
There is some theory out there relating to potential creatine transporter downregulation, so that, when intracellular creatine levels are very high, these transporters are downregulated, and absorption of more creatine is next to impossible.
It would make sense that, when intracellular levels drop, these transporters would appear again. I don’t know if this is something that happens relatively quickly (say, after a workout) or if intracellular levels have to be low for an extended period of time (such as when cycling off creatine.)
I’ve only seen blurbs of this, however, and I think from what studies are out there, none show this to be the case for the amount of time of the study.
But if anyone has any links to new research, please post 'em.
So, personally, until some clear and convincing evidence comes along that demonstrates greater increases in performance while following a specific cycling guideline, I just take it year round.
Sometimes it simply doesn’t work for people (I’m one of those people). I couldn’t tell you the science behind it, but I don’t get any effects from creatine at all. Maybe I get enough in my diet? I’m not sure…
Something I forgot to consider, is that there is obviously something beyond creatine monohydrate that’s worth pursuing, because Biotest is working on a creatine pyruvate product.
I don’t know the extra benefits of such a product, but it might be an option for non-responders, such as you, Lanky.
Those who don’t respond usually either eat a lot of beef and/or likely have better transport efficiency.
Better transport efficiency could be explained simply by the protein having some differing amino acid residues at non-critical locations.
The transport protein can have activity regulated simply by concentration. Once again, amino acid changes can influence this ability.
Between the ability to transport efficiently regardless of concentration and the ability to transport at high concentrations, many of the differences in responses to supplementation may be covered that are not explained by dietary creatine intake.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Sometimes it simply doesn’t work for people (I’m one of those people). I couldn’t tell you the science behind it, but I don’t get any effects from creatine at all. Maybe I get enough in my diet? I’m not sure…[/quote]
Same here. Non-responder and always have been. I first started using it in 1994 when EAS was making one of the highest-quality creatine monohydrate powders available.
It has never worked for me even if I took it with grape juice or with a post-workout shake or tried different brands.
But I still use it off and on in the hopes that maybe it is doing something I just can’t see, feel or notice.
I figure that creatine has other benefits beyond just what most people use it for. So I hope that I’m at least getting that out of it.
I also think that if I keep it saturated in the body, then maybe, one of these days I may actually “feel” or “see” some sort of difference during my workouts or in the mirror.
Since I’m on a strength and speed training phase (started four weeks ago), I’m hoping that there will be some benefits in the long run.
I do eat a lot of beef, so that may be one of the reasons why I don’t “feel” it like others who respond better.
But I am going to do something I haven’t done in a very long time, and that’s the loading phase for a week.
I’ve done it many years ago, but after that I just used maintenance levels.
So next week, I’m going to load up for a week and then go to maintenance and see if that does anything.
