Creatine Pros and Cons

[Lynchy]

I'm pretty rookie as you can see from my journal but I have been thinking about trying creatine to get some faster results. I've already gained 10kg since I started training in march and am starting to feel alil bigger. I've heard there are some side effects to creatine which is kind of putting me off and have also heard it doesn't work for everyone... So if anyone who has or is using some form of creatine could give me some much needed advice as to some pros and cons that soud be swell

[Monarchking]

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/search.ph ... =286680781

[decade]

wit mono

pros:

strength gains

energy

better recovery

cons:

bloating

water retention

having to pee during the night

[aaa]

pros for me are

-fuller muscles

-strength gain

-more endurance

cons

-stomach feels a bit yuck sometimes after taking it for like half an hour.

ive used a few different types and brands and have settled on eas phospagen costs roughly 50 dollars and lasts easily 2 months for me.

[roadie]

hey i would only start taking creatine once you have got to a plateau.....once you have got a solid diet and get a bit stuck at a weight/strength level

that way you will get a better result from the creatine itself but also a psychological one from the boost in strength and size which should happen quite quickly...hope that makes sense.

i have taken krealkalyn first and was happy with a result but it didnt seem to work as well after the first couple of containers......i switched to mono and got another good result and took that for a while....i am actually thinking about stopping taking it for a while

sometime when i purchase a new brand that is cheap my weight drops back and i am blaming the product for this at the moment.....i change back to old faithful and my weight comes back up

a major con is cost.....esp krealkalyn.......leppin is a good cheapish mono

since you are a big guy you need to make sure you take enough also......

not sure what side effects worry you.....get some blood tests done as a bench mark before you start....

just wondering also if you are training to help diving/hunting then carrying around extra weight might not be the best thing for endurance.......

[teamfatboy]

Um, it seems to me that creatine's a very subjective thing, but my thoughts.

Yes, it's worth using if you're training hard - and the consensus appears to me to be that it should be one of the first supps you try to add in, before trying any of the others.

Whether cheap creatine monohydrate, good monohydrate (look for brand that claim to be (German) Creapure - the others will be Chinese in origin and apparently of lesser quality), Krealkalyn, Creakic or some of the other alternatives - is down to can you tell the difference; can you afford the gucci products; and can you tolerate the side effects, if any?

[weener lad]

Kre-Alk isn't that expensive! Go to nutratech.co.nz you can get 120 caps for $39.

[Lynchy]

Cheers guys this is helping my out heaps. The cons I was worried about was someone told me you can get diarea from it, that didn't really sound too appealing!

Roadie thanks for the info mate, I'm thinking bout getting to 110kg before taking creatine. With the diving and hunting I think I sould be sweet to put on abit more size coz I'm pretty tall at 6'4" so I still haven't really filled out too much yet.

Also do you guys find once you've started taking it you feel you become dependant on it to gain wieght? or do you only do a cycle every so often?

Sounds like there is alot to think about also as to which brand or type to take, I better start google searching some of these!

[knock knock]

You should cycle monohydrate as per the instuctions to avoid build up of too much creatinine in your system. Even though kre-alk's say you don't need to, I would cycle any supp personally.

[Gym rat]

I cycle creatine having six weeks on it and three off.When I am off creatine for three weeks I have notice that my strengh levels very from time to time meaning being strong and average and con for creatine for me which I have notice are having a dry mouth which can be a pain in the ass at times and the other going to the loo lots as well.

[Lazarus]

I have stopped creatine just for now, got over the bloatedness and early hour in the mornings toilet breaks. Definately was a great help in getting things going for me strength wise, will use it again a bit further down the track when I find a plateau!