Creatine monohydride
 

I've been trying to read up on this and have come to the standpoint that no one really knows if this stuff is completely healthy for you. I've been taking it for the past week and have gained about 10 lbs in probobly water weight, but I'd like to know if the rumors about it being bad for your liver or kidneys are true. If you've taken creatine, please tell us your experience with it.

I took it before but I always drank a ton of water with it, but like you said all of the weight that you put on is water. What really worked for me was taking HMB. The only thing with HMB is that you have to take 4 capsules three times a day. That's a bit much, but I swear by the stuff.

:1orglaugh please if you plan on taking supplements do a little research before stuffing yourself with just anything.

Go read the forum @ BulkNutrition.com and wise up yourself a little bit :thumbsup

Creatine is good shit, Ive used it a few times when I feel im stuck on the same weight for weeks, always works :thumbsup

When I've taken it, I've never had any issues or problems with it. That is as far as pain or something bad going on. Of course, I was drinking water like a champ while I was on it though.

Take 5 grams of creatine and glutamine and mix it with dextrose in water, dont use anything else, only clear water. Do it 4-5 times a day in the first week, then only twice a day for 2-3 weeks.

But why are you using creatine? If you are trying to lose fat, wrong supplement. If you want to bulk up, it can help.

I know it gave me big time muscle cramps... And thats not good when you're working out.

it works.. if you are hitting the gym regularly and hard, and have a good diet. I would only suggest using it if you aren't gaining muscle naturally, and have hit a peak. It will help you get past those peaks, but so can mixing up your excersizes and hitting different muscles.

Creatine exists naturally in our body already, synthetic creatine (monohydrate) intends to increase the amount of creatine inside the muscles and therefore increase our capacity for excersise. There is no solid scientific evidence that it actually works in humans, but many people swear by it.

monohydrate creatine is good but Citrate creatine is the shit :thumbsup

Creatine is natually in red meat, so if you eat alot of beef your not going to see the same results as someone who doesn't eat much red meat. I've read that about a pound of red meat contains about a gram of creatine. I've tried the loading phase then maintenance dose compared to just taking the maintenance dose right off the bat and I'm not sure if I noticed much difference. You'll go through a whole container of the stuff in the first few days if you do the loading phase first, so make sure you buy two containers.

Go for Creatine Ethyl Ester. It's a bit more expensive, but it's much better.

Here's the rundown:

Creatine Ethyl Ester is a brand new type of supplement that does not really compare to any creatine you may have tried. Its rapid absorption and nearly 100% utilization makes Creatine Ethyl Ester 30-40 times more potent than regular creatine. Its absorption is so potent, it will improve the performance and delivery of other supplements. Due to its advanced structure, no bloating, cramping, dehydration, fat gain or water retention is experienced. What is experienced is insane pumps, dramatically increased endurance and of course, strength gains. Due to its inability to break down, Creatine Ethyl Ester is stable in various liquids. For lack of a better phrase, its "creatine on steroids." Not one of our beta testers reported short of "very impressed" as the compound proves to be very effective among a variety of athletes.

Creatine is taken as it's an arginine metabolite - arginine is an essential amino acid which must be obtained through the diet, since it cannot be made by the body. In some clinical circumstances (e.g., burn injury, sepsis) in which the demand for arginine cannot be fully met by de novo synthesis and normal dietary intake, exogenous arginine has been shown to facilitate the maintenance of lean body mass and functional capacity. For the case of creatine, there have been reports
that taking it as a supplement facilitates an increase in anaerobic work capacity and muscle mass BUT ONLY when accompanied by resistance training programs. Taking it alone and sitting on your fat (or skinny) arse has had no effects whatsoever.

Still, even that data in clinical trials has been contentious.

If any of you are interested in *real science* data and not just shite fed to you by the TV, go and search the scientific archives:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

I believe it's creatine monohyDRATE, unless you're talking about something completely different.