creatine and calories

siillyliilyy

I want the honest truth because I have been doing my research and I can't seem to find what I'm looking for!

Im recovering from an eating disorder and my calorie intake isn't a lot..maybe 1000-1200 cal a day with 400-450 cal burn a day..that's including strength training/lifting heavy.
I'm wanting to gain lean muscle. Ive come across creatine and wonder if I would benefit from it? I know you have to eat a lot to get bigger but honestly I just want to get toned and lean out.. Would it be worth a try to take creatine if I'm not willing to up my cal intake?

Michael190lbs

you can only gain weight in a calorie surplus- My creatine blend is 50 cal it would take 70 days for tat to equal one pound.

My advice would be to eat a heaping table spoon of peanut butter every night its about 200 calories of the best calories someone near 1000 calories could consume..

DopeItUp

I suppose it couldn't hurt but you're focusing on the minutiae. The top 20 things you should be worried about are all calorie intake related at this point.

rankinsect

The honest truth is that you need to up your caloric intake just to stay alive, let alone to build any muscle mass. 550-800 net calories is nowhere near enough for you. That's not enough for a toddler, let alone an adult.

You should be talking this over with your recovery team.

mostwhimsicalchap

It couldnt really hurt you but... In your situation I don't think turning to supplements will help. Concentrating on having a healthy well balanced, well proportioned diet is. In fact I'd argue that the results in a change of diet would far surpass any changes you would see with any dietary supplement, much less creatine, who's results are typically anecdotal at best.

amusedmonkey

If you are not ready for more calories then the last thing you need right now is to exercise. Focus on your recovery for now. You will not be getting any lean muscle at all with your current intake even if you train hard. On the contrary, all that exercise will do the exact opposite of what you are trying to do because your net calories (calories eaten minus exercise calories) are very low and the body will try to derive its energy by burning muscle. If you can, stop exercising for now and focus on gradually increasing your calories. Once you are at a safe level you can re-introduce it.

tillerstouch

Creatine isn't really for building lean muscle it's used for bulking. It makes your muscles retain more water.

I'm on 1200 Carolina also woth about 300 calorie burn. I'm trying to drop fat though.

You won't build much muscle at this low of calories unless you're a super small person.

If you want to build lean muscle you'll want probably around .8g of protien per lean body weight. And I'd bump up to at least 1500 calories.

ovidnine

Creatine pulls water into the muscles and helps your body recover faster (it helps your body make ATP).

Essentially, it helps you do more work and while it doesn't in and of itself make you stronger if you can do more work, you're probably going to get stronger.

That said, you're at such a low calorie amount I'm not sure how much benefit you'll get just because there's a limited amount of calories to go into muscle building no matter what.

Basically, I'd save your money.

slideaway1

It wont make you get fat as there are little to no calories in creatine. However, you will put on water weight (Some people can put on as much as 15lbs) which will obviously show on the scale. If you stop creatine this water weight will then go. Some people are "non responders" to creatine so its pretty much useless for this small percent of people. If you do choose to take it, it is very safe (One of the most researched supplements ever) and to take 5mg a day (Don't bother with the loading phase as this is a marketing gimmick). Drink loads of water throughout the day.

wilsoncl6

As mentioned above, creatine will not make you gain muscle, it would assist in muscle growth by pumping your muscles full of fluid to allow better processing of proteins for muscle repair. Once you stop taking it, and if you don't increase your sodium intake, the extra weight you gained through water retention will drop off. It will make you look more muscular as your muscles will look and feel pumped (because they are) but it is not, by itself, the key to muscle growth and definitely should not be a concern for caloric intake. I'm not exactly sure how you're surviving on a maximum 800 calorie diet. You will not gain lean muscle on that low of a caloric deficit, you will lose lean muscle mass because your body will start to break down proteins (muscle) for energy. In actuality, you need to drastically up your food intake (good healthy foods) if gaining lean muscle is your goal. Read up on healthy bulking, you'll learn a lot.

Upstate_Dunadan

To answer your question it helps to understand your body's 3 energy systems - Creatine can help with the first, Phosphagen, where it gets converted by your body into phosphocreatine which your muscles then store up. When you are doing high energy/explosive type exercises, having more phosphocreatine for your muscles to draw on can pro-long how long you can perform that type of exercise before exhausting that energy pathway. After you exhaust that pathway, your body moves on to the second pathway, Glycolysis. The byproduct of this phase is lactic acid building up in your muscles. The longer you can go before draining that pathway the better. Once that's gone, you're left with the Aerobic pathway (oxygen) which can run the longest, but provides the least output.

Also, creatine has no calories, unless you are taking it mixed with some type of flavoring. I add to water along with some Crystal Light drink mix for flavoring since it has none.

If you are doing weightlifting with heavier weights (especially olympic type movements) then you might benefit from it - assuming you first take advice above about making sure you're eating enough to support that type of exercise routine. If you're not eating enough, it's doubtful you'll notice any benefit from taking creatine.

kwtilbury

Creatine won't specifically help you to "tone up" or "lean out", although it will increase your capacity to do work. Creatine has also been demonstrated to make users retain water.