Creatine for the ladies

Mummyadams

I've been doing some research on creatine and am very interested in trying it to prolong my endurance & assist my lifting. I Olympic lift & Crossfit.
I can't seem to find much info on females using it though.
Is anyone here using it?
What does it / has it done for you?
Is it worthwhile?
Thanks

xcalygrl

I took it for awhile. I didn't really notice anything different, except that I did retain a bit of water. I may not have taken it long enough to really see a difference. I've been flirting with the idea of taking it again now that my training is more on point than it was the first time I tried it. It is safe for men and women to take. USMCMP (on here) uses it. She talks about it in the second MFP link I've included below.

This is an article I have bookmarked: http://examine.com/supplements/Creatine/

Plus a few MFP links that discuss it:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/31732035#Comment_31732035
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/31726651#Comment_31726651

arabianhorselover

Apparently it does make you retain water, which I really don't need.

krokador

I've recently started taking it again. There IS a slight difference in performance, but it also has bloated me to the point I can barely wear my wedding ring anymore. Guess that's a trade of I'll have to deal with until I finish the tub. I paid for it, might as well make good use of it xD

canadianlbs

i was just standing in the grocery store tonight, holding a can of it in my hand and wondering if even thinking about it meant i was on my way down some kind of slippery slope.

i put it back because it said 'do not consume in combination with caffeinated beverages', and hell. if i have to adjust my coffee schedule around a substance, it isn't worth it.

krokador

canadianlbs wrote: »

i was just standing in the grocery store tonight, holding a can of it in my hand and wondering if even thinking about it meant i was on my way down some kind of slippery slope.

i put it back because it said 'do not consume in combination with caffeinated beverages', and hell. if i have to adjust my coffee schedule around a substance, it isn't worth it.

Are you sure that's what you were looking at wasn't a preworkout and not just creatine? Cuz then it would already have caffeine in it (It's kind of the reason i like preworkouts. The coffee taste is simply not kind to me.)

canadianlbs

label definitely just said "CREATINE!!!!"

krokador

wow... I mean, look at the ingredient of most preworkouts and they've got 100-200mg caffeine with usually 3-5g of that stuff for the most part. Take The C4 label, for example:


or ANS Ritual which is another one I use from time to time


Don't know which brand that was, but if caffeine + creatine is a bad mix, a LOT of people are screwed! Me included!

Funny enough, but i never noticed much bloating when using just the preworkouts on a semi-regular basis. So maybe I'm just fluffy right now

xcalygrl

@krokador - in my limited experience with pre-workouts, I never experienced bloating. I did have some water retention when I was taking just the creatine, which was part of the reason I didn't stick with taking it.

As for caffeine and creatine, here's a snippet from the first article I posted in my first response.

Co-ingesting creatine with Caffeine appears to partially negate the benefits of creatine supplementation (at 5mg/kg bodyweight) during the loading phase.[583] The exact mechanism is not known, but might be related to opposing actions on muscle contraction time.[584]

However, caffeine does not negate the benefits of creatine loading when not coingested, but just taken before exercise in the same dosage.[585] This result indicates that loading creatine without caffeine on a daily basis, but saving caffeine for select workouts, may be an effective strategy as creatine does not adversely affect Caffeine's ergogenic effects[585][586] and may enhance creatine's effectiveness in anaerobic exertion if the two compounds are alternated.

The effects of creatine and caffeine coingestion when it comes to human interventions on physical performance are not yet clear.

canadianlbs

krokador wrote: »

Don't know which brand that was, but if caffeine + creatine is a bad mix, a LOT of people are screwed! Me included!

i expect they just put that in because there's already so much of it in the powder that an espresso on top of it might have you chewing down trees.

Fittreelol

Creatine is one of the coolest things ever. It does make you retain a bit of water, but that's part of why it works. Your body produces ATP by 3 means: aerobic, anerobic, or ****drumroll please***** creatine. Not everyone is a responder (if you don't retain water you're not a responder), but if you are it's pretty freaking magnificent as it gives you extra ATP when your anaerobic stores are depleted. Actually I think it uses creatine first but whatever. The point is extra ATP which means your muscles have energy for more reps, you can recover faster between sets, and then you burn more calories and get stronger and life is better and the sun shines brighter. If you can't tell from my run on sentences it's fine to take with caffiene. I take 3.75g/day. I can tell if I take too much cause my boobs get tender. I prefer the caplets to the loose powder. It's a little more expensive, but the powder doesn't mix well and it's just a pain to take IMO. The capsules are still pretty cheap just not AS cheap.

canadianlbs

^^^ i rest my case :D

thanks, tree. i learned new stuff out of this, but even so it's a fact that your post made me laugh.

Fittreelol

I aim to please ma'am!

MissHolidayGolightly

This is probably TMI but that much caffeine + sucralose would land me in the toilet all day. My insides do not like the Splenda.