Is creatine THAT important?

S

skinnyman

New Member
I've read the article in this website saying taking creatine is a critical step in achieving hypertrophy. I was wondering if creatine is THAT important that it makes a lot of difference when you take it in versus when you don't.

Is it necessary? (considering IT IS A SUPPLEMENT)...

If i am to go natural, does anyone know how much beef is enough to give me adequate creatine levels?

thanks
 
It's not necessary or critical in the end, as in not more important than food, sleep and a good workout. But of all the supplements out there other than steroids it's one of the most universally safe and effective ones. Specific for weight training and not general wellness (for which I'd say a multi and fish oil), it's the first thing you should buy once your diet and training are taken care of and if you're thinking of supplementing.
 
I might add that it helps with performance as well- not just hypertrophy. You'll find those benches and squats get easier in terms of endurance, plus if you're doing cardio, you'll definitely see it there too. I've noticed that mountain biking is definitely easier for me, for example.
 
I might add that it helps with performance as well- not just hypertrophy. You'll find those benches and squats get easier in terms of endurance, plus if you're doing cardio, you'll definitely see it there too. I've noticed that mountain biking is definitely easier for me, for example.
 
I like creatine and what it does but it gives me the runs unless I eat some kind of complex carb with it. I try to take it about 30min before workout and drink a bunch of water, but it just makes me feel full and subsequently sick when I start working out. I used to not have a problem with it. Then just in the past few weeks its tearing me up. I am only using about 3g a day maybe less.

As far as I understand beef has only a few mg per 4oz. So to get about 3g of it you would have to eat atleast 4000oz of beef. Good luck! I hope you have a big appetite!
 
Try taking it in the morning. As far as I'm aware you dont need to take it at specific times as the idea is for your body to be saturated. Also, are you using the monohydrate? I've heard people complain of upset stomach etc when taking other creatine products which have extras added.
 
Its optimum nutrition creatine monohydrate. According to the ingredients it doesnt have anything else in it. I thought it was best to take creatine just before workout so you could take advantage of the bloodflow to the muscles. I beleive it mentions something to that effect in the FAQ. However, I may try that out simply becuase it makes my workouts even more painful and I would rather have areduced saturation level than no increased creatine level at all.
 
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(skinnyman @ May 23 2006,19:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">does anyone know how much beef is enough to give me adequate creatine levels?

thanks</div>
About 2 gm/Lb in uncooked beef. The average human turns over about 1-2% of their Cr stores daily, in a average size person this would be about 2-3 gm/day. So just to replace this directly through beef you would need about 1lb/day of raw beef. That's a lot of beef, the good news is creatine is also synthesized from the amino acids glycine, arginine, and methionine so most people adequately replace the used stores of creatine without much problem.

The reason Cr supplementation may be good is most humans do not have completely full Cr stores and the difference can be quite large. Supplementing with creatine mono has shown to increase both PCr and free creatine stores by as much as 40%, a good thing since PCr is the primary ATP buffering metabolite during working out.
 
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(bgates1654 @ Jun. 01 2006,23:33)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I thought it was best to take creatine just before workout so you could take advantage of the bloodflow to the muscles.  </div>
Think of it this way, if the PCr levels are full, then PCr and Cr will be available anyway, whether taken before workout or not. Secondly, the peak plasma concentration depends on amount (among other things), so if loading 15-20gm then it may be better to take it several hours before working out, if using a maintenance amount 2-5 grams then about 1 or 2 hours before or not worry about it at all and just take it when you can.
 
I have took creatine off and on for many years.

Dan or any of you other guys ever took it in the pill?

I have always taken the powder type..yummie..lol
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I'll ask the wife if she's taken creatine with the pill
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I find the powder cheaper - and since theres no difference who cares?

On a side note : just got some phD micronised monohydrate and man is that stuff powdered. You could probably rub it into your hands and it would be absorbed - its that fine! The All The Whey stuff I bought last time just settled at the bottom of the glass and tasted like I was drinking sand.
 
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(Joe.Muscle @ Jun. 02 2006,08:49)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Dan  or any of you other guys ever took it in the pill?</div>
I have never taken anything other than Powered Monohydrate.
 
Same here.. just bought the micronized Creatine.. but its way too fine...

I usually take a spoon of creatine monohydrate... and put it in my mouth and only then wash it down with water.. cause if I try to mix it in the wated it doesn't disolve and at the end i have to drink waaay to much water to wash it all out.... but Micronized when i do it that way tunds into disguisting ball of guu.. phew.. pheee.  

so i'm trying to figure out what's better now.. disguisting guu or crunchy monohydrate.  
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(skinnyman @ Jun. 09 2006,08:17)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">can I still grow without creatine supplementation ?
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No. If you don't take creatine, you will remain perpetually small.

Seriously though, people have been getting big for decades without creatine supplementation, so I wouldn't worry about it that much.
Creatine doesn't really do much for me, personally.
 
Yes, you will grow if you eat enough and train with some decent a$$ consistency.

As Totentanz points out there are some responders and non responders (generally this is the case if you are eating enough foods that have adequate creatine).

Some new research is bringing up the question if creatine helps with satellite cells, IE helps growth through this mechanism, earlier research showed it didn't do much for PS directly so the newer research may bring something more to the list of creatine benefits. Well have to wait and see
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