Is there an optimal window to load creatine..........in other words.............is there a period of time where my gains will be substantially better depending on when I start loading. I have been taking creatine for two weeks now and I want to make sure Im getting the most out of it. I also mix in the creatine w. whey protein theres no harm in doin dat ryt its all goin to the tummy :D

Thx

This is a matter of opinion. I have trusted sources who say loading is not necessary. I also have trusted sources who think it is.

I personally have never loaded creatine. I believe it to be a waste of product. Look up creatine... I know I've posted this diatribe before along with a seemingly effective recipe for mixing creatine and when to take it.

-R

I too have read, from sources I trust, that loading is a waste of money, however I'm paranoid so I have always done it just in case. :)

I too have read, from sources I trust, that loading is a waste of money, however I'm paranoid so I have always done it just in case. :)
Same here. I just stick to 5 grams PWO.

Same here. I just stick to 5 grams PWO.

in every pwo shake or do you have to stop after awhile? i have no idea how creatine works really.

in every pwo shake or do you have to stop after awhile? i have no idea how creatine works really.

Something I posted before... just a real quick thing...

Creatine is naturally occuring. You have some in your body right. Its highest natural source is red meat if I am not mistaken. However, you body does not have anywhere near the amount it can store in it. Thus supplementing with it gives your body more to use. In a nutshell and without going into the chem, it allows you to generate more energy in anerobic conditions. It is essentially an energy buffer. We generally store it as phosophocreatine. Incase you junkies out there want to know.... it made from glycine, then in the systhesis you use arginine, and methionine and then a molecule of ATP to phosphorylate to phosphocreatine and save it like that till we need energy badly.

A little more indepth:

So we store phosphocreatine at concentrations of 10-30mM in our skeletal muscles. When you have plenty of ATP around, you make your creatine into phosphocreatine. When you are ATP starved (say toward the end of your set) due to exhaustive anerobic labor, your phosphocreatine will react with ADP due to increased ADP concentration and make ATP. Now you rest again and let your body more or less dissapate the anerobic conditions. Thus you can make some creatine back into phosophocreatine. This is why creatine doesn't really make you lift more... it helps you sustain anerobic conditions longer and thus typically add another rep or two. This will let you progress faster obviously since you can work the muscles fibers more and in the end lift more. Cheers!

As for loading, I think it has some validity but most people go a little nuts. I think a brief loading phase then 2-3 grams a day is plenty for most people from what I've read.

in every pwo shake or do you have to stop after awhile? i have no idea how creatine works really.

Yes. Creatine can be taken in cycles. I used to take it three months on, one month off... now I cycle it three weeks on, one week off. Any way you look at it, you need to take approximately 25% of the time you spend on creatine, off of it. It's worked for me.

How much are you guys taking? The directions on mine said I should take 20grams per day for 5 days and then 5grams every day there after. I have been doing as it says but it feels like too much because it is upsetting my bowels pretty badly. Infact you can probably smell it from there :).

How much are you guys taking? The directions on mine said I should take 20grams per day for 5 days and then 5grams every day there after. I have been doing as it says but it feels like too much because it is upsetting my bowels pretty badly. Infact you can probably smell it from there :).

I think that's too much. I am currently not taking any but I was doing about 12-15g/day I believe. My creatine had 4g/serving and I was doing 3 a day (4x3=12, but sometimes I added a little more than 1 scoop, like a "heaping scoop").

I think that's too much. I am currently not taking any but I was doing about 12-15g/day I believe. My creatine had 4g/serving and I was doing 3 a day (4x3=12, but sometimes I added a little more than 1 scoop, like a "heaping scoop").

So how many grams a day for maintainance? My measurement is simply a teaspoon. My scales only go up in increments of 5grams, so I am slightly lost....

Evaluated by Darryn Willoughby, Ph.D.


Creatine is a nitrogenous compound that is synthesized in the liver, pancreas, and kidneys from the amino acids arginine, methionine, and glycine. Once synthesized or consumed in the diet, creatine is transported to skeletal muscle via the blood circulation and enters the muscle cell by a sodium-dependent co-transporter (5). Creatine is stored as free Cr and phosphocreatine (PCr) which provides the explosive energy needed for strength and power sports. The reaction is such that when energy demand is high (e.g. sprinting) PCr donates its phosphate to ADP to yield ATP (energy). This energy is needed for muscle contraction and relaxation.

What does it do?

Creatine is used to form PCr, thereby playing a major role in energy metabolism, specifically as a donor of phosphate to ADP for energy production controlled by creatine kinase. As a result, Cr seems to enhance muscular strength, power, and high-intensity exercise performance by increasing the total intramuscular Cr pool (6). Additionally, Cr is also thought to aid in energy transfer from the mitochondria (aerobic energy production) to the contractile proteins by the PCr shuttle (1), thereby stimulating myofibrillar protein synthesis, promoting muscle growth (12), and increasing muscle strength. In conjunction with heavy resistance training, creatine has been shown to facilitate muscle growth by increasing myosin heavy chain gene and protein expression (16), the expression of the transcription factors myogenin and MRF-4, and the expression of the creatine kinase gene (17).

Where does it come from?

Creatine (n[aminoiminomethyl]-N-methyl glycine) is synthesized in the liver by methylation of guanidoacetate using S-adenosyl methionine as the methyl donor. Guanidoacetate itself is formed in the kidney from the amino acids arginine and glycine. Creatine is found naturally in skeletal and cardiac muscle, brain, and other tissues (14) and in skeletal muscle, approximately 25% exists as free creatine and 75% as PCr (13, 15). Creatine is synthesized primarily by the liver, kidneys, and pancreas at a rate of 1 to 2 g/day (9, 13,15). An additional 1 to 2 g/day is obtained in the diet, mainly from fish and meats (1, 13). In skeletal muscle, creatine is converted to creatinine and excreted by the kidneys at a rate of 1 to 2 g/day (13).

How do I use it?

Creatine supplementation is typically initiated with a loading dose of 20 g/day (or 0.3 g/kg) for 5 days, followed by a maintenance dose of 3-5 g/day (or 0.03 g/kg) (me). Although a 5-day loading period is typical, 2 days of loading has been shown to yield similar muscle creatine concentrations (11). Without loading, however, 3 g/day for 28 days results in muscle creatine concentrations similar to 5 days of loading (10). Skeletal muscle has a storage capacity for creatine of 150 to 160 g (normal is 120 g) (2, 6), which makes over-supplementation unnecessary. Even though the maintenance dose is often unnecessarily exceeded (8), any creatine ingestion in excess will not further increase muscle creatine but will simply increase urinary creatinine excretion. Upon discontinuing supplementation, muscle creatine and PCr concentrations return to pre-supplementation levels in approximately 28 days (3, 10).

Just do five grams per day. Loading, again, IMO is a waste. You only waste what you don't absorb. My personal belief (pursuant to my research) is that it likely takes very little time for creatine to reach the saturation in the body. Five grams seems to be a universally agreed dose according to those who don't do loading phases. I've seen great results using it in this manner.

-R

Just do five grams per day. Loading, again, IMO is a waste. You only waste what you don't absorb. My personal belief (pursuant to my research) is that it likely takes very little time for creatine to reach the saturation in the body. Five grams seems to be a universally agreed dose according to those who don't do loading phases. I've seen great results using it in this manner.
-R

Agree 100% :)

Just do five grams per day. Loading, again, IMO is a waste. You only waste what you don't absorb. My personal belief (pursuant to my research) is that it likely takes very little time for creatine to reach the saturation in the body. Five grams seems to be a universally agreed dose according to those who don't do loading phases. I've seen great results using it in this manner.

-R
Check this site out: http://www.creatinefacts.com/creatine_monohydrate1.htm

5 x 5 Rule

Unabsorbed creatine is cleared from the blood by the kidneys and subsequently excreted in the urine. The clearance rate of creatine varies depending on the dose size and frequency. For example, blood creatine levels return to normal within a few hours after ingesting a single dose of five grams of creatine monohydrate. On the other hand, taking 5 grams of creatine every 3-4 hour sustains blood creatine levels well above normal levels for as long as dosing continues at this rate. Furthermore, the amount of creatine discarded in the urine steadily increases under these dosing conditions. For example, the Harris study (3) found that on the first day of loading only 40% of the ingested creatine could be recovered in the urine. Just two days later, by contrast, nearly 70% of the creatine ingested in present in the urine. This is the expensive urine some of you might have heard about. This means that our muscles gain less and our kidneys work more as loading progresses.

There is thus no benefit to LOADING for more than 5 days straight with more than 5 grams of creatine monohydrate at a shot, even if you repeat your 5 gram shots every 3 to 4 hours; My 5 by 5 rule.

I'm not taking creatine right now but I definitely will when I start bulking.

Edit: I just looked at kentnutrition.com, and damn, creatine is cheap for being such a popular supplement.

does it matter what time of day u take it?

I take mine in the morning before I go to work so obviously im not working out till 7-8.......im worried dat the creatine i take in the morning jus sits in my tummy and becomes expensive piss because there is a huge time delay b.t when i take creatine and when i work out..............is there ne correlation here or am i being paranoid

loading creatine dramaticaly reduces the time it takes for you to feel its results, after only a week of 20g a day you should feel it kick in

at 5g a day it can be as long as 3 weeks before you feel any difference


dont use creatine for more than 6 weeks at a time or it will temporarly slow your own bodys production of it

you should cycles off for at least 2/3 of the time you were on to let your body get its production back to normal

when i go on creatine ill do 25 g a day for a week and then 15 g for the next 5 weeks

6 weeks on, 6 weeks off