Creatine and Water retention

imedi01
imedi01 Posts: 22 Member
edited November 8 in Health and Weight Loss
I have a general question regarding water retention and creatine, I've been doing intermittent fasting for about six months and went from 242 down to 187 ( a month ago) Im 5'11 as well. I decided to start taking creatine 3-4 weeks ago and I know you retain water however, I recently weighed in at 197 (which would be a 10 pound gain) is it possible to retain up to 10 pounds of water?? I usually weigh in every day but this past month has been hectic with work and school wrapping up. Thanks in advance

Replies

  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    If you are noticeably puffier, possibly. I gained 25lbs water weight once. But... that was due to being in the ER. I lost it within 1-2 weeks.

    Otherwise you've been eating at asurplus if you've been slack with logging and you've gained some weight.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Creatine + water + glycogen could easily be a 10 pound gain.
  • redfisher1974
    redfisher1974 Posts: 614 Member
    When I was training hard I would cycle creatine for 6 weeks and would gain around 8 lbs each time. When I stopped I would lose all but 1 or 2 lbs...
  • imedi01
    imedi01 Posts: 22 Member
    ana3067 wrote: »
    If you are noticeably puffier, possibly. I gained 25lbs water weight once. But... that was due to being in the ER. I lost it within 1-2 weeks.

    Otherwise you've been eating at asurplus if you've been slack with logging and you've gained some weight.

    Yeah ive noticed that im puffier, less defined. Im kinda thinking of getting off the stuff just cause its hard to differentiate whether this is due to the creatine or weight gain
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    imedi01 wrote: »
    ana3067 wrote: »
    If you are noticeably puffier, possibly. I gained 25lbs water weight once. But... that was due to being in the ER. I lost it within 1-2 weeks.

    Otherwise you've been eating at asurplus if you've been slack with logging and you've gained some weight.

    Yeah ive noticed that im puffier, less defined. Im kinda thinking of getting off the stuff just cause its hard to differentiate whether this is due to the creatine or weight gain

    Have you been accurately logging your intake? If not, then keep taking creatine and start accurately logging. If your weight goes down again, you know it was true weight gain more than just water. If logging accurately changes nothing then it's the creatine and it's probably temporary.
  • 100andOnward
    100andOnward Posts: 145 Member
    Give it a week or two. I had something very similar happen recently, and then I weighed in and my weight was back to where it had been.
  • SuperSleepySchro
    SuperSleepySchro Posts: 13 Member
    When I started creatine I stalled on weight loss for almost 3 weeks without changing diet or exercise. Before I was losing approx 2lbs a week and around week 4 I started losing ~2lbs a week again so I estimate that in reality I gained about 6 lbs of water weight from creatine.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
    Did you do a loading phase? From what I've read, that can make the puffiness worse.

    Give it a few more weeks. The puffiness goes down in my experience and the benefits for weight training are worth it.

    Also, just throwing extra info out there: creatine doesn't make you retain water in the same way salt would. The extra water is in the muscle fibers themselves rather than floating under the skin.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Yep
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