Creatine/Supplement help.

Creatine is cheap and it works.

Buy creatine monohydrate, all of this other "buffered-superduper-HCL-creatine" nonsense is just marketing to make you pay more money.

Try to get something which is 'creapure' brand if you can, this is better quality, but still super cheap.

Creatine works and its really cheap (even the creapure brand ones are like 10 dollars for a 2 month supply), so definitely try it if you want to.
As for other supplements you kind of just have to look at your diet and see if you're deficient in anything and go from there, most people would benefit from fish oil supplementation (again, its cheap and it helps).

Hope I helped happy lifting!

Get the basics in place, are you consistently getting the full complement of vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and antioxidant phytonutrients from your diet? Looking at your diary you could do with upping your intake of fruits and veggies in the full rainbow of colours, oily fish and mineral rich foods - when you are training intensively your needs can double, antioxidants can speed recovery so your workouts are better quality.

Creatine is effective but generally should not be taken consistently but in short courses, so IMO it;'s best to reserve for when you feel you are hitting a plateau with your gains (strength or size). If you load quickly you will waste a lot in your pee and may gain water weight, this is less likely if you load over the course of a few weeks. HMB is an interesting stack with creatine, less research tho.

Thanks for the advice everyone,

Fitness social- currently I eat about 2200 all up lifting days, a little less on non lift days. I'm still experimenting to see what intake I gain at, keep in mind I'm 128 so don't torch cals like ya'll do!

Think I'll definitely invest in the creatine, fish oil and a good multi.

When do you normally take the creatine, does it make a difference?

I just take it post-workout to keep it simple and so I don't forget to, I'm pretty sure it doesn't really matter when you take it though.

Creatine is cheap and it works.

Buy creatine monohydrate, all of this other "buffered-superduper-HCL-creatine" nonsense is just marketing to make you pay more money.

Try to get something which is 'creapure' brand if you can, this is better quality, but still super cheap.

This ^^

Thanks for the advice everyone,

Fitness social- currently I eat about 2200 all up lifting days, a little less on non lift days. I'm still experimenting to see what intake I gain at, keep in mind I'm 128 so don't torch cals like ya'll do!

Think I'll definitely invest in the creatine, fish oil and a good multi.

When do you normally take the creatine, does it make a difference?

I take it whenever. Sometimes I forget to take it.

2200 calories is good. Just SLOWLY increase calories. I would probably increase your carb intake 15-25g per week, depending on the movement of the scale. You want to try and push the limit in regards to how much you can eat. Slow and steady wins the race.

Thanks, that's helpful. I do want to avoid as much fat gain as I can, and I think being a little scared of packing on fat has held back my gains so far. I know a little bit of fat is unavoidable, bit doing it slowly should help, yeah?

Yes, you're going to have to balance fat vs muscle gains. If you add calories slowly you will put on very little fat. The benefit is that your metabolism will be racing (which is good). Also, when you do decide to cut down again, you will have more calories to play with.

I've heard differing tales of creatine.
On the down side, it is considered to be a muscle inflater not a muscle builder. Once you stop taking it, the muscles return to the natural state.
I have also read that is helpful at muscle recovery because it helps reduce lactic acid muscle pain.

Found this info useful.
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-873-CREATINE.aspx?activeIngredientId=873&activeIngredientName=CREATINE

I've heard differing tales of creatine.
On the down side, it is considered to be a muscle inflater not a muscle builder. Once you stop taking it, the muscles return to the natural state.

Well creatine does not directly build muscle, it simply allows you to product slightly more force. So that's more of a moot point than a downside.

It's cheap and I feel like I recover better while taking it.
Pick up some plain creatine mono and see how you like it.


You should probably be taking the shakes every day as opposed to only on training days. Recovery happens around the clock, not just immediately after lifting.

There are lots of studies devoted to creatine and its one of the supplements that has solid science behind its use. Just stick with creatine monohydrate as that's the one that's been studied. The other stuff is also way more expensive.

There seem to be two crowds on creatine: (1) creatine loading and (2) daily steady intake. From what I've seen loading seems unnecessary but there doesn't seem to be any harm in mildly "overdosing" so there's no harm either. The risk seems to be the wasted creatine and associated cost. You will also see the cycling discussions that say you should come off creatine on regular intervals. There's lots of creatine in beef so if you're eating lots of beef then you may not respond to creatine as there seems to be a maximum load. Most of the work I've seen says take between 3-6 mg per day. Maybe try taking a heaping teaspoon (5 mg) of your creatine monohydrate 30 minutes before your workout, maybe split it so that its before and after your workouts. Then play with your dosage. Since you're a woman and smaller, you may need less? I take 10 mg every day (split between right before and after my workouts) which probably means I'm wasting some but what I buy is cheap and I don't seem the harm in slightly too much.

There are plenty of bodybuilders on MFP with the degrees to back it up so I'll defer to those guys on the details of the studies.

Most of the work I've seen says take between 3-6 mg per day. Maybe try taking a heaping teaspoon (5 mg) of your creatine monohydrate 30 minutes before your workout, maybe split it so that its before and after your workouts.

mg? I just read at the Mayo clinic that 5 grams per day for anaerobic work, 2-5 grams for maintenance were used in studies. Of course, I didn't see the studies - or their results - so I don't know what the results were.

eta: the "url" tag doesn't work on MFP.... The link is http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/creatine/NS_patient-creatine/DSECTION=dosing

Thanks for the typo correction: "grams" not "mg"

Thanks for the typo correction: "grams" not "mg"

Ah, OK. I hope I didn't come off as argumentative, because I really don't know much other than what I read there and here. I just figured I'd ask, because I - well, like I mentioned - really don't know. In fact, this thread "made" me look up some more info on creatine, as I had always heard that creatine caused kidney problems. Based on the Mayo clinic and a couple of other places I deem trustworthy, that's been basically debunked, unless you already have kidney issues.

I'll probably pick some up some time and see if I notice any changes.

Thanks all for the input - and Mutant for asking!

Thanks for the typo correction: "grams" not "mg"

Ah, OK. I hope I didn't come off as argumentative, because I really don't know much other than what I read there and here. I just figured I'd ask, because I - well, like I mentioned - really don't know. In fact, this thread "made" me look up some more info on creatine, as I had always heard that creatine caused kidney problems. Based on the Mayo clinic and a couple of other places I deem trustworthy, that's been basically debunked, unless you already have kidney issues.

I'll probably pick some up some time and see if I notice any changes.

Thanks all for the input - and Mutant for asking!

Not at all and apologies for the confusion. I meant to fix this but for some reason it won't allow me edit the original. I'm just another guy working on self improvement. I read a bit but I'm no expert.