anyone here ever used creatine dietary supplement?

[LastKnight]

ive been reading up on this bodybuilding stuff... i dont wanna be arnold or anything, but im looking to build a bit of muscle mass and tone my body all-around on my body... and this bowflex book im reading reccommends creatine as a dietary supplement... now, i know that its something the body produces naturally, and ive been searchin around the internet... but i cant find any consistant claims as to how well it works or if its safe, obviously i cant trust the companies that are tryin to sell stuff...

anyone got any info for me or any websites i can check this stuff out at?

thanks...

-LK

[democracyindanger]

1. More than one physical trainer I know

refers to it as "expensive pee."

[greenbriar]

2. My brother did for a little while

until he almost had a stroke and had to have his wife call an ambulance.

He wound up in the fetal position and had NO control of his body

[LastKnight]

3. woah, scary.

a website i was just lookin at said it really only caused minor weight gain. did his doc's say this reaction was due to the creatine?

[greenbriar]

7. one of the ingredients

said it was like speed and my brother basically overdosed.

[LastKnight]

9. scary...

was he following instructions? or was did the package instruct more than a safe ammount?

[Wetzelbill]

10. yeah you can't take a lot of it, it's not meant to work that way

You need to drink tons of water too. Or you should anyway.

[clu]

4. not yet

Creatine supplementation makes your body retain water so I intend to cut a bit more before I use the tub I've purchased already.

Creatine works by allowing muscles to pool more chemical substrates needed to regenerate ATP used to power chemical reactions in cells.

You have to drink a LOT of water when you take it, and there's loading phase (take more than normal), maintenence phases (take normal), and washout phase (stop taking for a period of time because there are no long-term studies re: effects on organ systems aka kidneys).

www.abcbodybuilding.com has a lot of info. Be aware that the website is heavily moderated by fundamentalist christians who cannot spell, but there is a lot of useful content on that site. The forums have tons of nutrition information but you have to register to read the forums (if you don't, they're practically unreadable due to color scheme on the site).

[Wetzelbill]

5. Yeah it's good stuff

What it does is your muscles use creatine phosphate to make Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) which powers your muscle to do an action. So say you are doing curls. When you are doing the curl ATP fuels the rep on the way up, but on the way down the used up ATP becomes Adenosine Diphosphate (ADP). Creatine Phosphate is then used to convert ADP back to ATP. You can continue doing this until you run out of creatine phosphate to convert the ADP back to ATP. That's what causes the fatigue and why you can't just lift the same weight indefinitely.

What added Creatine in your system does, is it fuels a few extra ADP to ATP conversions allowing you to lift a certain weight a few more reps than you otherwise could. It delays the fatigue and puts additional stress on the muscle, which when forced to rebuild itself becomes stronger than ever.

I have used EAS Creatine in the past. They are a reputable company and make good products.

I suggest that you follow the directions on the product, except the extra loading phase at the beginning. I think you just end up pissing it out and the effect is minimal at best. It doesn't work to take twice the amount that is reguired either. The more isn't better. I know guys who didn't know shit about working out who went in the gym and slugged themselves with creatine and it made them sick. Just pure stupidity. If you keep an adequate amount in your system for a 6 weeks to two months then you should be good. After that take a break from it for month or so then start back up.

Creatine comes in meat, eggs, milk. It is highest in Beef, however, you could never eat all that much of it. It would take an inhuman amount of eating to get into your system the equivalent of a small 5 gram dose in a protein shake. You just couldn't do it.

Now, you got me wanting to get back in the gym, dammit. I sorta like being lazy and fat. :) Good luck with it. It should work out fine for you.

[LastKnight]

12. thanks for the info...

im surprised how hard it is to find some info on this stuff... thanks.

[Kenneth ken]

6. DU has an exercise and fitness group

and a quick search shows there are several mentions of it in threads there, so that's another handy place to read up on Duers thoughts.

I myself have never used it, so that's all the help I can give you. :hi:

[LastKnight]

8. doh, completley forgot about the groups... sorry for the post...

and thanks for the reminder.

[Kenneth ken]

11. not everyone reads all the forums/groups

so you might get information here from people who don't post in the exercise/fitness group. No need for apologies. :pals: