Creatine
antthony14282
Posts: 126 Member
Is it wise to stop taking creatine during your cutting phase?
0
Replies
-
If you're going to take creatine, take it every day. Bulk or cut, doesn't matter. There is no benefit to cycling creatine.0
-
Is it wise to stop taking creatine during your cutting phase?
i take it year round with the exception of weekends when im not training, sometimes when i finish a tub and i havent bought the next tub otherwise i drink it most days
0 -
I only take it 10 minutes before a workout, any harm to that? or is it just wasting it if I'm not taking it every day?0
-
Jhagi. Creatine does not have acute effects. It only works when your cells r saturated with it.0
-
So, while I totally agree with the previous posters in that
1. No need to cycle creatine, although I think most people cycle creatine as they are concerned about possible negative health effects with long term, continuous use. There have been many studies done on creatine and none have found any negative health effects.
2. Creatine works best when you maintain a certain level consistently (that's why most creatine products recommend a "loading phase" to get you quickly to certain level and then fall back to a maintenance phase).
With that said, your post made me wonder about water. From what I've always read, one of the things that creatine does is increase water absorption in the muscle cells (causes that "swollen" look). If that's true and you are really trying to cut and not just shedding some subcutaneous fat, I'm talking about competition cutting where you're even limiting fluid intake, would you stop creatine in that situation?0 -
To me u should only cut water if u r trying to make a weight class in powerlifting and then rehydrate before the event. Cutting water in bodybuilding just means u r not lean enough. Cutting water will flatten out ur muscles.0
-
You need to take it every day to get the full benefit, it's not an immediate effect type supplement, it builds up in your system. When cutting you should stay on it, it will help you maintain your strength which is good for motivation. Having said that when your body-fat starts getting well under 10% you will want to stop it if you want the more dry shredded look - it makes you retain a lot of water which is noticeable at low body fat levels. Most competitors will stay on it until close to comp time then stop it to dump the excess water.0
-
Is it wise to stop taking creatine during your cutting phase?
If you are just cutting to drop your BF% then you might as well stay on it. If you are cutting for a fight or something like that, then I would stop it a couple of weeks before weigh in.0 -
You can take creatine anytime you remember to take your creatine. It's all good.0
