Creatine Monohydrate + What? + To Load or Not to Load?

[ucimigrate]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to get back into shape.

1. Is creatine monohydrate just as good as anything else? Any research to back up answer?

2. Will it make a difference if I load or not?

3. I do not have access to dextrose, maltodextrin, etc. What can I mix it with? (Grape Fruit Juice, Cranberry Juice, Soda, etc.?)

Thanks

 

[LeanEngineer]

Yep creatine is one of the most researched supps out there. For creatine monohydrate no need to load. Just take 3-5g daily.

 

[Young Gotti]

no need to load creatine....also no need to use anything other than monohyrdrate

I mix mine with my amino drink intraworkout but when you take it doesn't matter

 

[john.patterson]

These guys got you covered ^

No loading required, and no need to take it with sugar. Consistency is the biggest key with creatine - take 3-5g every day.

There are some great daily staple supps available that include creatine. If you're looking to combine creatine with other good daily staples, I would recommend checking out Intramax. It includes a full serving of creatine along with a bunch of other great staples including taurine, potassium, and amino acids.

 

[booneman77]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to get back into shape.

1. Is creatine monohydrate just as good as anything else? Any research to back up answer?

2. Will it make a difference if I load or not?

3. I do not have access to dextrose, maltodextrin, etc. What can I mix it with? (Grape Fruit Juice, Cranberry Juice, Soda, etc.?)

Thanks

Creatine mono is the only tried, true, studied and proven form with years of backing both scientifically and anecdotally.

Loading is really not necessary.

Mix it with anythign... even watr is fine as it has basically no flavor (and there are more expensive brands/versions that are pre falvored). SNS creatine mono is like $12 for a year's supply. Bes investment you can make

 

[mw1]

Creatine mono is the only tried, true, studied and proven form with years of backing both scientifically and anecdotally.

Loading is really not necessary.

Mix it with anythign... even watr is fine as it has basically no flavor (and there are more expensive brands/versions that are pre falvored). SNS creatine mono is like $12 for a year's supply. Bes investment you can make

THIS^
Our creatine mono is the best value out there and with all the research on it you would be foolish not to add

 

[mbonheur]

Do you guys really feel that the other forms of Creatine do not make a difference? I know that Mono is the most studied one, but I could swear that I get better effects with Creatine HCL, Creatine AKG or Creatine Gluconate. Could be Placebo but I am clearly more bloated and less pumped when I am using Creapure compared to the other forms that I quoted.

 

[booneman77]

Do you guys really feel that the other forms of Creatine do not make a difference? I know that Mono is the most studied one, but I could swear that I get better effects with Creatine HCL, Creatine AKG or Creatine Gluconate. Could be Placebo but I am clearly more bloated and less pumped when I am using Creapure compared to the other forms that I quoted.

better effects in terms of just bloating are always personal/debatable... in terms of actual muscle gain and benefits of that ilk, there is literally nothing out there that has been proven to be better than mono.

SNS also has hcl if you are concerned about/ experience bloating, but in terms of cost:effect (focused on muscle building) theres no way to beat mono.

 

[Young Gotti]

Do you guys really feel that the other forms of Creatine do not make a difference? I know that Mono is the most studied one, but I could swear that I get better effects with Creatine HCL, Creatine AKG or Creatine Gluconate. Could be Placebo but I am clearly more bloated and less pumped when I am using Creapure compared to the other forms that I quoted.

nope...you can reach 100% saturation using monohydrate, so for the price theres no other reason to use "fancy" creatine

creatine bloat is also a myth....unless you have less than pure creatine, if you are using creapure then the bloat is placebo

 

[mbonheur]

nope...you can reach 100% saturation using monohydrate, so for the price theres no other reason to use "fancy" creatine

creatine bloat is also a myth....unless you have less than pure creatine, if you are using creapure then the bloat is placebo

OK

But the price argument is not really a constraint for me. It is still less than 40$ a year for the other forms, so might as well pay the extra for my placebo.

 

[muscleupcrohn]

Do you guys really feel that the other forms of Creatine do not make a difference? I know that Mono is the most studied one, but I could swear that I get better effects with Creatine HCL, Creatine AKG or Creatine Gluconate. Could be Placebo but I am clearly more bloated and less pumped when I am using Creapure compared to the other forms that I quoted.

How do you dose them all? Loading or no loading? I find that some people will, for whatever reason, only load with monohydrate but not other forms, which means they think they bloat worse with monohydrate, but it's really the loading that's causing the bloating, not the monohydrate. Or people who just dose monohydrate too high, but use a more reasonable dose of the other forms, so, again, it's the dose causing the bloating, not the form of creatine. The only form of creatine that we know we shouldn't use, as it doesn't work is CEE. Anything else is just personal preference really, assuming proper dosing.

 

[mbonheur]

How do you dose them all? Loading or no loading? I find that some people will, for whatever reason, only load with monohydrate but not other forms, which means they think they bloat worse with monohydrate, but it's really the loading that's causing the bloating, not the monohydrate. Or people who just dose monohydrate too high, but use a more reasonable dose of the other forms, so, again, it's the dose causing the bloating, not the form of creatine. The only form of creatine that we know we shouldn't use, as it doesn't work is CEE. Anything else is just personal preference really, assuming proper dosing.

No, I am not loading and I played around with several forms of creatine for over ten years. As I said, maybe it is placebo, but for me it is not a big deal as those types of creatine are also cheap as chips. And I am also aware that mono contains like 88% creatine, creatine Anhydrous 100%, creatine hcl 70%, creatine akg about 56%,etc.

Anyways, truth is also that the other forms of Creatine have mostly not been studied enough and many monohydrate studies concern people which do not have the same features as "bodybuilders"

 

[muscleupcrohn]

No, I am not loading and I played around with several forms of creatine for over ten years. As I said, maybe it is placebo, but for me it is not a big deal as those types of creatine are also cheap as chips. And I am also aware that mono contains like 88% creatine, creatine Anhydrous 100%, creatine hcl 70%, creatine akg about 56%,etc.

Anyways, truth is also that the other forms of Creatine have mostly not been studied enough and many monohydrate studies concern people which do not have the same features as "bodybuilders"

There’s logically no reason why any creatine should work much “better” than monohydrate once saturation is reached, as its saturation in either case. Perhaps some forms could reach saturation faster, with a lower dose, or with less bloat or stomach upset, so if you think one does this, then use it if you can justify the price. The results on strength and whatnot should be pretty similar though. You do you though, there’s not really a”wrong” answer except CEE.

 

[mbonheur]

There’s logically no reason why any creatine should work much “better” than monohydrate once saturation is reached, as its saturation in either case. Perhaps some forms could reach saturation faster, with a lower dose, or with less bloat or stomach upset, so if you think one does this, then use it if you can justify the price. The results on strength and whatnot should be pretty similar though. You do you though, there’s not really a”wrong” answer except CEE.

Jep, you are completely right.

 

[Young Gotti]

OK

But the price argument is not really a constraint for me. It is still less than 40$ a year for the other forms, so might as well pay the extra for my placebo.

$40 for a year vs $20 for a year is still a 50% savings

 

[mbonheur]

$40 for a year vs $20 for a year is still a 50% savings

In relative terms, yes, in absolute terms not that important, at least for me.

 

[Young Gotti]

In relative terms, yes, in absolute terms not that important, at least for me.

hey do you.....i'll save money when I can especially when results are exactly the same

 

[mbonheur]

hey do you.....i'll save money when I can especially when results are exactly the same

Yes, of course, but as I said the results are not the same for me, be it placebo or not, so I am willing to take a 20$/year risk.

But I think that we can agree to disagree

 

[thebigt]

sns creatine is what I use....but years ago APS had creatine nitrate and that stuff rocked!!!

a few months ago I decided to splurge and try it again--nope, not the same...I will just stick with sns mono.

 

[muscleupcrohn]

sns creatine is what I use....but years ago APS had creatine nitrate and that stuff rocked!!!

a few months ago I decided to splurge and try it again--nope, not the same...I will just stick with sns mono.

Wouldn't any benefits of creatine nitrate over another "normal" source of creatine be due to the nitrates? Buy some creatine monohydrate and buy some cheap potassium nitrate caps (they can be found very cheap if you know where to look).

 

[thebigt]

Wouldn't any benefits of creatine nitrate over another "normal" source of creatine be due to the nitrates? Buy some creatine monohydrate and buy some cheap potassium nitrate caps (they can be found very cheap if you know where to look).

the sales pitch at the time was that creatine when bonded with nitrates absorbed at a much higher rate. there was a big write up explaining why bonded together was a lot better than each taken separately. I am going by memory here but i'm pretty sure that is the jist of it!!!

 

[muscleupcrohn]

the sales pitch at the time was that creatine when bonded with nitrates absorbed at a much higher rate. there was a big write up explaining why bonded together was a lot better than each taken separately. I am going by memory here but i'm pretty sure that is the jist of it!!!

Haha. But wouldn't that just mean a lower dose would be needed to reach saturation and/or saturation could be reached more quickly? How can creatine provide benefits beyond saturation? I think the most logical explanation would be that nitrates are solid for pumps and endurance because they're nitrates haha. I'll check some of the actual studies though.

 

[muscleupcrohn]

It definitely looks like a full dose of creatine nitrate would provide an effective dose of nitrates, with 3g of creatine nitrate providing a solid 1g dose of nitrates.

However, any benefits of creatine nitrate over creatine monohydrate do indeed seem to be related to the effects of nitates themselves, as:

acute ingestion of 1.5 g and 3 g of creatine nitrate did not increase muscle creatine content as much as creatine monohydrate or affect acute heart rate, blood pressure, or hematological responses [52]. Additionally, 28 days of creatine nitrate supplementation during training (i.e., 6 or 12 g/day for 7 days and 1.5 g or 3 g/day for 21 days) did not increase muscle creatine levels to the same degree as creatine monohydrate. However, some performance advantages were seen in comparison to creatine monohydrate, apparently due to increased nitrate availability.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5748809/

So it seems you'd be best off using creatine monohydrate to reach creatine saturation, and then just adding nitrates for the benefits they provide.

 

[thebigt]

It definitely looks like a full dose of creatine nitrate would provide an effective dose of nitrates, with 3g of creatine nitrate providing a solid 1g dose of nitrates.

However, any benefits of creatine nitrate over creatine monohydrate do indeed seem to be related to the effects of nitates themselves, as:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5748809/

So it seems you'd be best off using creatine monohydrate to reach creatine saturation, and then just adding nitrates for the benefits they provide.

not going to argue science with you, lol....but that original creatine nitrate was badass, the more recent one not so much....I remember stacking creatine nitrate with mesomorph-wow, ridiculous pumps!!!

 

[R1balla]

No need to load. Cheapest option is creatine mono bulk. Right now I’m using cremax with intramax and cremax on my off days.