Creatine

bek48

I recently started looking into supplementing with creatine because of it's purported cognitive benefits (running a little self-experiment); would love to get some extra strength increases while I'm at it, of course! I research into it a bit and found that there are only rare cases of negative side-effects, but most of the studies I found were geared toward men. I was just curious if anyone has experience with it, or any recommendations (any effects from loading, is 5g enough, or any other personal anecdotes). Seems like it should work best with heavier lifting.

Thanks!

Leadfoot_Lewis

First, Creatine isn't geared towards men. Creatine is naturally made in your body, regardless of your sex, and is also in a lot of foods we eat e.g. red meats.

I'm lazy so I'll cut & paste my response from this thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1110619-any-lifting-ladies-use-creatine

I've taken Creatine forever. 5 grams/day, drink 2-3 liters of water a day. I've never had any side effects from it. Creatine is one of the most if not the most studied supplement, with a lot of science to back it's effectiveness. Taking Creatine increases your Creatine Phosphate levels in your muscle tissue. Creatine Phospate is used in the ATP Cycle, which is basically the first 15-20 seconds of energy your body uses when it's doing an activity - be it a set of 8 reps, or the beginning of a run. I think a lot of people are clueless what it does, thinking it directly builds muscle, being that it does increase water retention at the muscle cellular level, making you look "more pumped". Helping you get through/have the energy for that 15-20 second of reps is how it indirectly helps you build muscle.

lwoodroff

I'm about 2 weeks in, definitely noticing a change in lifting, thirsty though! A colleague does mma and tried it, but felt queasy.. haven't heard of other issues. It isn't expensive so have a go!

bek48

Thanks for the link Leadfoot_Lewis - I wish I'd come across that thread during my extensive googling!

I started with 5g this morning (monohydrate, no fillers). Lifting went pretty well, but I've gotten some high quality sleep this week too so I'm sure that helped - I understand it might take a few days for it to start having a noticeable effect.

Looks like on that thread some people experienced a lot of water retention, and some not at all. Interesting, I guess everyone's different.

Thank you both for the responses, I appreciate it!

bek48

One more kind of weird note, I mentioned in the first post that I had initially started researching creatine for cognitive benefits. I'm a nerd and I like to do Lumosity in the mornings, and today I did WAY better on all of the memory games than usual. Might be correlated, probably is not, but it's interesting at least! I'd stumbled across a few studies suggesting creatine improved working memory and overall intelligence (ex: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14561278, although this particular study was over a 6 week period and for vegetarians, but there are some more out there).

Just food for thought, if anyone else is curious or a dork like me. Creatine is good for your brains and your brawn!

lwoodroff

it'll take a while for it to get into your system, you shouldn't be noticing a change for a good week or two lol! *googles placebo effect*

bek48

Lol I'm sure you're right! I actually just found another study that showed no cognitive improvement at all in non-vegetarian women supplementing with creatine. Oh well - maybe there's something to be said for the placebo effect!

AABru

I supplement with creatine. I notice that I put muscle on faster than I did before creatine. I noticed that I can get queasy after I lift if I take it before I lift. I have not noticed that I am smarter.