Creatine Conspiracy?

[Mr_Krabs]

Ok so this is something I’ve been wondering about for a while :-s :

Why don’t manufacturers of creatine supply a measuring scoop like all the protein powders come with?

This finally came to a head today after reading somewhere on here about someone realising they were “under-dosing” their creatine. I decided to finish this “wondering” and actually get some science into the ring.

Supplement companies (and the general word on the street) say is that 5g (apparantly a level teaspoon) post workout is probably the best way to take it (whether you’re loading first or not, completely different topic).

So I took a regulation spoon and took a scoop out of my monohydrate (label said a level scoop would = 5g). The scoop was a generous heaped one, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt in case my regulation spoon wasn’t so regulation after all.

Placed this generous scoop in a pre-weighed conical flask and reweighed.

The mass of the creatine mono delivered by the heaped spoon was a measly 3.46 g (well 3.4631 g according to the 4dp balance I used)

Now potentially this doesn’t matter at all and maybe 3.46 g is plenty for the body to handle, my issue is that all these labels seem to tell us that we are dosing 5 g per serve when infact its only 70% of this figure.

Theres the info NZBB users maybe you don’t care but now you are at least informed :shock:

[TGD]

I find that interesting.

Probably not such a big deal when you think you are getting 5g and its 3.4g.. but likely a larger issue when you think you are taking maintenance dosages @ 2g for example and you are getting less than that.

If anything, it means they are able to sell the product with more servings than it really has, right?

[Mr_Krabs]

Well most of them just quote the servings as 400g/5g= 80 serves but if you were only using a teaspoon you would get 400/3.5= 114 serves.

Maybe a good measure of how accurate your spoon is would be to count the number of serves you actually get and compare it to what is expected.

[Specter]

Some of those plastic scoops you find that come with protein powders you buy dont measure out as well....

[greyghost]

I got a 5g plastic spoon with a tub of Glutamine one day.

Bloody handy.

Glutamine tasted like shit - but the spoon is handy.

[Mr_Krabs]

Some of those plastic scoops you find that come with protein powders you buy dont measure out as well....

That was going to be my next experiment but I decided I didnt want to sacrifice a serving of protein and Im not going to eat anything that comes out of my lab...

[steak]

I use one of those bakers measuring spoon things..you know the ones? 5 different spoons that concertina in to each other. It has 1 teaspoon 5g etc on each of the different size spoons...interesting your measures though

[knock knock]

Good spotting! I'll have to get some scales.

[Dragon]

I have a set of red plastic bakers spoons. I will do a test and see if the teaspoon delivers 5 grams.

[Chillicat]

I might not be quite right here, but I think the confusion lies around the difference between 5mls and 5g - a teaspoon measures 5mls, not 5g (I just checked on the baking ones we've got), and 5mls of liquid in most cases is a fairly similar volume. But this isn't the case for powders - 100g of say sugar will take up a different amount of space than 100g of something else, so you can't use something that measures in mls to measure grams. My mum used to have a measuring jar that had different lines on it for the same weight (in grams) of different powders or other non-liquids.

[teamfatboy]

Hmmmm - good point. I noticed I was doing better when I upped the serve from two level teaspoons to two heaped teaspoons - and it may be as CC says, the diff between 5ml and 5g.... Off to test the theory on my scales now

[Mr_Krabs]

I might not be quite right here, but I think the confusion lies around the difference between 5mls and 5g - a teaspoon measures 5mls, not 5g (I just checked on the baking ones we've got), and 5mls of liquid in most cases is a fairly similar volume. But this isn't the case for powders - 100g of say sugar will take up a different amount of space than 100g of something else, so you can't use something that measures in mls to measure grams. My mum used to have a measuring jar that had different lines on it for the same weight (in grams) of different powders or other non-liquids.

Youre exactly right with this comment, only water will give 5ml=5g and most "kitchen liquids" will be similar but the density of a powder is much less than that of a liquid so 5ml should be expected to weigh anywhere from 2-5g depending on how crystalline the solid is.

The root of this thread is that the label is trying to say that 5ml does = 5g :^o

[teamfatboy]

Yep, weighed my creatine this morning - a heaped 'kitchen teaspoon' was around 5g, whereas a level baker's spoon was a lot less....

[Mr_Krabs]

Hmm nice one, I guess we all just need to find a trusty "creatine spoon" and use the same one each time :pfft:

[Chillicat]

Maybe a soup spoon might give the the right measurement?

[roadie]

i think a conspiracy would be more the other way around....manufacturer tries to make you consume more than required.

anyone else who find this to be a problem should also be measuring other foods they are taking to make sure the portion is correct.

an example of this is some pork which i buy (not any more) it is packaged from the supplier, with a weight then relabelled at the deli (in the plastic) so the weight on the final sitcker is 3-5% above what is supposed to be in the bag.

the real issue is that after i weigh the meat that actually goes into the pan it is 8-10% less than the original weight as a lot of liquid get sucked into the soaker pad thing under the meat.