@selinafzr---any updates?

For me--I am going on 3 weeks of creatine. I did NOT load. I take in 5g a day. Twice I had 10g a day but that made me feel nauseous, so that was a good indicator that loading isn't for me anyway.

I only started to notice the bloat a couple of days ago. I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me at all. I have an excel spreadsheet that tracks my progress with the SL 5X5 program (with some added lifts). I have consistent gains (which might not necessarily be the creatine, BUT...)

....I noticed a real difference a couple of days ago! This also happens to match the timing of the visible bloat. For instance, I doubled my dips, even though I left it for last. Usually if I leave dips for last, my arms are pretty shot, but I blew past my previous numbers where I did NOT leave it for last.

Overall, I am happy with continuing. I would love more input. I have a cruise to go on in January so I was thinking of going off of it by December...when do you stop taking creatine (aside from cycling it)?

You do not need to cycle creatine. It usually takes a couple weeks after stopping for the water weight to subside.

Kre-alkyln has no benefit over CM, CM is actually better
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22971354

You do not need to load it. Just take 5g a day.

Lyle has talked about this, you dont have to load, but it will certainly saturate your body much faster than if you didnt.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/supplements-part-2.html
20g for 5 days
10g for 10 days
or 5g and it will take a month to saturate

Creatine Monohydrate is the gold standard. To be exact Creapure is the creatine that is made in Germany that many of the early testing was done on.

@selinafzr---any updates?

Hi Mandeenicoleb, pleased to hear it's working out well for you :drinker: sorry for the delayed response.

I'm still in a (seemingly eternal...) calorie deficit trying to rid myself of my spare tyre, so didn't expect a big benefit from the Creatine, but hoped a small edge would help me and then see more benefit when I can start eating at maintenance or even entertain a bulking phase perhaps.

First week I took 10mg/day then have continued on around 4mg.

Somewhere around 10-14 days I started to feel the difference it made. A little sceptical these were just 'good days' at first, but it continued.

As mentioned I'm in deficit, however having been stalled at certain weight limits for a few months I have begun increasing load once more, and added in some additional exercises.

As a cardio hater I only go on the step / eliptical / treadmill (walking) etc for 5 minutes here and there to rest between resistance sets, wait for something to become available or because I think I should. So it's with some amazement I have found myself jumping on the treadmill and RUNNING for a few minutes at the end of my session. My shaky comprehension of creatine is that it is of not beneficial for CV, so not sure why this would be.

Side effects:

Weighed myself daily for the first couple of weeks and saw the lbs go up 3/4 with horror. Then got a grip as the effects kicked in and stopped worrying about it. Suspect things have settled and I may be carrying a couple extra pounds of water weight as the scale hasn't gone down for quite some time. But I've shifted my focus onto waist measurement so not worrying about this.

My wee smells funny :ohwell: Most noticeable in the morning as you'd expect, it's pale and clear so don't think it's a problem, and yes I do drink loads.

Overall verdict:
Makes most days good days :happy:

Do you take less on non-workout days?

I am still debating whether or not I want to do the loading phase, but do you do 5g on non-workout days?

I'm getting my creatine Wed and I was thinking 5g on workout days and 2-3g on non-workout days. Or should I just do 5g everyday, especially if I opt not to do the loading?

Same dose every day.