When should I cycle creatine?

DerickVonD

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I've been on it for weeks and have not cycled off at all. How should I cycle it?
 
skindog101

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Normally it's 8wk on 4wk off when I use to take it, but it should be stated on the container, it's good to do a liver clenser on the 4wks off to sum of them flog ur liver ha ha
 
DerickVonD

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Normally it's 8wk on 4wk off when I use to take it, but it should be stated on the container, it's good to do a liver clenser on the 4wks off to sum of them flog ur liver ha ha
I've checked it doesn't state. It is creatine monohydrate. I've been taking 5g a day. Liver cleanse huh? I have never done a liver cleanse and was that aware I'd need to do one.
 
JohnRock

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I take it every day I lift.
 
R1balla

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technically, there is no need for cycling creatine at all. some people do, some dont. i prefer to cycle it. i take it for about 12 weeks or so then take 4 weeks off. no need for a loading phase either.
 
ManBeast

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technically, there is no need for cycling creatine at all. some people do, some dont. i prefer to cycle it. i take it for about 12 weeks or so then take 4 weeks off. no need for a loading phase either.
This is how I'd cycle it if I was planning on cycling Creatine.

ManBeast
 
Sourdough

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Normally it's 8wk on 4wk off when I use to take it, but it should be stated on the container, it's good to do a liver clenser on the 4wks off to sum of them flog ur liver ha ha
except Creatine isnt tough on your liver, but your kidneys :rolleyes: and thats only if you dont drink enough water to help flush out the excess creatinine.


You can take Creatine for a LONG time... anyone can recommend anything but its still basically safe... I would go no more then 12 weeks though without taking about a 2 week break though, anymore I think is really unnecessary, its not toxic when consumed correctly
 
R1balla

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if you dont drink water, it can be dangerous. i have had friends who have experienced it with no pre existing renal conditions. but if you drink water, your fine. its 100% safe.

and i take it on OFF days because it keeps you saturated.
 
DerickVonD

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I drink alot of water. I drink water just out of habit throught out the day. Strange question, but can creatine have an effect on vitamin D? I went to the doctor today and she told me she saw my blood results and my vitamin D was low. I don't know why this would be. I've been taking 1g of fish oil consistently for about 2 years and I've started taking a multi-vitamin.
 
Sourdough

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I drink alot of water. I drink water just out of habit throught out the day. Strange question, but can creatine have an effect on vitamin D? I went to the doctor today and she told me she saw my blood results and my vitamin D was low. I don't know why this would be. I've been taking 1g of fish oil consistently for about 2 years and I've started taking a multi-vitamin.

Most multi vitamins don't contain d, its an oil typically. If you don't get enough sun, contemplate supplementing with d and its best to take it with calcium, milk will suffice.
 
Sourdough

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oh and I'm certain creatine doesn't deplete vitamin d, otherwise it would show in the stressor (markers for stress on the body) tests they've run it through.
 
DerickVonD

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Most multi vitamins don't contain d, its an oil typically. If you don't get enough sun, contemplate supplementing with d and its best to take it with calcium, milk will suffice.
Yeah the doctor just prescribe me vitamin D, a month supply, but I only take one pill per week. Here's what it says on the bottle.
VIT D2 1.25 MG (50,000 UNIT)
 
ManBeast

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I just take a Calcium + D suppliment.

ManBeast
 

Alpha Mind

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Yeah the doctor just prescribe me vitamin D, a month supply, but I only take one pill per week. Here's what it says on the bottle.
VIT D2 1.25 MG (50,000 UNIT)
You need to get off that rx. There are a LOT of medical professionals who think D2 is not good for you and may cause health problems. Take D3, it's what your body naturally produces when you're exposed to the sun. Check it out for yourself. D3 is much better for you. Any D3 supplement will be fine, just make sure it's in capsule form. Most tablets contain magnesium stearate, which may weaken your immune system

Natural > Prescription, all day

An
 
DerickVonD

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You need to get off that rx. There are a LOT of medical professionals who think D2 is not good for you and may cause health problems. Take D3, it's what your body naturally produces when you're exposed to the sun. Check it out for yourself. D3 is much better for you. Any D3 supplement will be fine, just make sure it's in capsule form. Most tablets contain magnesium stearate, which may weaken your immune system

Natural > Prescription, all day

An
hmm my multi has magnesium stearate. How bad is it?
 
Torobestia

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Yeah the doctor just prescribe me vitamin D, a month supply, but I only take one pill per week. Here's what it says on the bottle.
VIT D2 1.25 MG (50,000 UNIT)
As AlphaMind said, you should take VitD3 instead of VitD2. Just buy a container of D3 10,000 IUs at Sam's Club. It's over a year supply for under $20.
 
hugry4more

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I saw a really great video on cycling it. Pretty much use this rule for cycle all my supps to here's what you do.

Saying you train in 8-12 week cycles with 1-1.5 week break. This is how I like to cycle.

Week one no creatine
Week 2-3 mg once a day
Week 4-5 2-3 mg twice a day
Weeks 6-8 5 mg twice a day
Weeks 9-12 5 mg 3-4 times a day or the most u can handle before getting sides.

This is just so u can get the idea. I'm sure there are better ways to ramp it up but the idea is u increase each week of your training cycle n by the ending weeks of your training cycle where you see the most gains ur totally saturating yourself with as much creatine as u can uptake. I really dide do the best job of illustrating it Ill see if I can find the video.
 
DerickVonD

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As AlphaMind said, you should take VitD3 instead of VitD2. Just buy a container of D3 10,000 IUs at Sam's Club. It's over a year supply for under $20.
I saw a D-3, calcium supplement with boron in it? What's boron?
 
Sourdough

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I saw a D-3, calcium supplement with boron in it? What's boron?
a town about 20min away from where I live, lol...

Really its a very versatile element used in MANY different things, including borax, but not 100% sure on its roles in the body... all that I DO remember reading though was beneficial.


NOW makes a D3 that I take that has no calcium in it as well... look it up if your trying to avoid excess calcium intake....
 
AaronJP1

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I take at least 5g creatine a day.
Sometimes I have overkill though because my protein powder may gave some, my pwo may have some....
Somedays I might 8-10g in :/
I just try and drink plenty of water
 
Sourdough

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I take at least 5g creatine a day.
Sometimes I have overkill though because my protein powder may gave some, my pwo may have some....
Somedays I might 8-10g in :/
I just try and drink plenty of water
Thats the key... and the only reason why 5g is usually enough is its tough for your body to absorb any more and it gets turned to waste that your kidneys have to flush out... drinking more water helps with this.
 
DerickVonD

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a town about 20min away from where I live, lol...

Really its a very versatile element used in MANY different things, including borax, but not 100% sure on its roles in the body... all that I DO remember reading though was beneficial.


NOW makes a D3 that I take that has no calcium in it as well... look it up if your trying to avoid excess calcium intake....
I take prilosac for acid reflux, so thats why I was looking at getting a D supp with some calcium.
 
TheDarkHalf

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I honestly never cycle off...5-10g per day every day
 

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hmm my multi has magnesium stearate. How bad is it?
It's not going to kill you, but if you're taking a multi or numerous tablets with that in it, it may weaken your immune system and cause other problems. Magnesium stearate helps speed-hungry encapsulation machines work faster and there's no reason for it to be in your multi.

If I were you, I'd be more concerned about taking D2 than magnesium stearate, but that's just me.
 
DerickVonD

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Hey the doc has me on 600 mg of Ibuprofen again, because of inflammation in my leg above my knee. Is it okay to take creatine at the same time I'm on high levels of ibuprofen? Also the D3 supp I was looking at had Magnesium sulfate in it, it was a D-3 calcium plus mineral supp.
 
DerickVonD

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Hey the doc has me on 600 mg of Ibuprofen again, because of inflammation in my leg above my knee. Is it okay to take creatine at the same time I'm on high levels of ibuprofen? Also the D3 supp I was looking at had Magnesium sulfate in it, it was a D-3 calcium plus mineral supp.
^any input? I'm a little concerned about this.
 
bigdavid

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since when is vit d2 an RX? I think you mean he told you what vit D product to buy? D2 and D3 is widely available OTC... if we are talking vitamin D that is in the ACTIVE form after being hydroxylated twice (calcitriol)..then ok that is an RX and needs to be monitored closely with blood work.
 
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Never go by what your doctor tells you. Always take the advice of someone on an internet message board over your doctor. Besides the stranger on the internet message board has the best intentions for you and your health.
 
bigdavid

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Never go by what your doctor tells you. Always take the advice of someone on an internet message board over your doctor. Besides the stranger on the internet message board has the best intentions for you and your health.
Everyone on this site seems to hate MD's
 
DerickVonD

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The D2 vitamins, it says VIT D2 on the bottle, they are gel caps. She told me to take one once per week.
 

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I've been on it for weeks and have not cycled off at all. How should I cycle it?
Cycle creatine in between steroid cycles. But if your drug free then 2 months then take a break. You going to drop all the water weight when you come off. Just make sure you eating to gain while taking it. You might try a test booster with it
 
bodious

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No real need to cycle creatine, just drink plenty of water. And if you're like me and want to be cautious every few weeks take a week off the creatine and any other supplements you're taking and take milk thistle for the liver.
 
Sourdough

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Cycle creatine in between steroid cycles. But if your drug free then 2 months then take a break. You going to drop all the water weight when you come off. Just make sure you eating to gain while taking it. You might try a test booster with it
Bad advice. You should run creatine right through a cycle and pct. No reason to take it out.
 

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Bad advice. You should run creatine right through a cycle and pct. No reason to take it out.
You dont need creatine on juice. Unless you have fake juice your gains should be substantial on juice. The only time I even recommend creatine is between cycles. If your cycles are so ineffective that creatine makes or breaks it find a new supplier.
 
T-Bone

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Creatine has more benefits than just strength and mass. If your using it for only that than your really missing the point and are mis-guided. It is the studied supplement there is and if you have questions you should really do some reading on it. There is this thing called "Google" it is wonderful. I typed in the word "Creatine" and got About 21,000,000 results (0.19 seconds).
 
JohnRock

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That made no sense at all. You can have a good cycle without creatine, but you'll have a better one with it. There's absolutely no reason it has to be either or. Creatine is totally safe.

*edit* -re: joblow1
 

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That made no sense at all. You can have a good cycle without creatine, but you'll have a better one with it. There's absolutely no reason it has to be either or. Creatine is totally safe.

*edit* -re: joblow1
Use all the creatine you want Ill stick with test and dbol etc. Its your preference too use it or not.
 
AaronJP1

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I take about 10g creatine a day.
About 3G from my pwo, another 5 after and sometimes my protein powder has a gram or 3 in it.
 
Sourdough

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Lol.... I run into this response all the time... There's NO reason NOT to take it, its not going to harm you at all, you can only benefit from it. Its cheap as dirt, cheaper actually, and it performs in a way in which steroids do not, in fact it has incredible synergy with many steroids, supercharging them if you will.

Go ahead and "save" it, all your doing is shortchanging yourself... Its something that takes a long time to load and requires saturation, you don't grow tolerant to it either, so its not stronger by refraining to use it then bringing it out in a clinch for pct... In fact you fail to get its full effects for even a couple of weeks in pct doing that.

Read up on it, what it does, how it does it and how steroids not only don't replace it, but work better with it.... Then come back and apologize for sounding like an idiot.
 
Sourdough

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I take about 10g creatine a day.
About 3G from my pwo, another 5 after and sometimes my protein powder has a gram or 3 in it.
Bro, I swear you are getting alzheimer's... You posted this already... Lol... You do this all the time.
 
AaronJP1

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Bro, I swear you are getting alzheimer's... You posted this already... Lol... You do this all the time.
It's that AndroMass man!!!

:lol: :laughing: :lol:

I'm always on something when it happens....

I'm subbed to over 50 threads, box full PMs and being a rep/board sponsor, & being on =hard 2 keep up! haha
 
DerickVonD

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So creatine will still be effective even if I take a few days off, say now more than like a week when I take a week of from lifting every 3 or 4 months. Also if I take it just 4 days a week will it have the same effectiveness? I've noticed if I take it and I don't lift I piss alot like every 20 minutes for like 3 hours, but if I'm active on it, I only piss every 20 minutes for about an hour to 1.5 hours. Even if I drink alot of water.
 

mattsams89

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So creatine will still be effective even if I take a few days off, say now more than like a week when I take a week of from lifting every 3 or 4 months. Also if I take it just 4 days a week will it have the same effectiveness? I've noticed if I take it and I don't lift I piss alot like every 20 minutes for like 3 hours, but if I'm active on it, I only piss every 20 minutes for about an hour to 1.5 hours. Even if I drink alot of water.
There's a good chance that if you're an omnivore and take any modern supplements, four days a week should be fine for maintenance. You reach a saturation point (see, genetic limit) that is maintained by lower doses than your typical loading phase. If you're eating meat, you'll receive some from there, and most every supplement contains creatine nowadays. I would wager that you would be fine taking it every other day.

What cracks me up is how studied creatine is, yet how misunderstood it is. Creatine is present in your muscles regardless of what you're doing (it wouldn't be a fun few seconds between ATP depletion and glycolysis ramp up without it) mostly as phosphocreatine, but also in free form. PCr is broken to provide quick re-energizing of ADP to ATP so a maximally saturated creatine pool is nothing less than beneficial. And like i said, that level has a hard genetic limit, which you may or may not reach without supps (non-responders). Cycling it won't supercompensate; only increased muscle mass will lead to greater levels in your creatine pool.

To address other issues raised, it's also safe as it is naturally occurring in the body. I don't advocate spamming 40 grams a day with minimal fluid intake, but sensible loading and adequate hydration are perfectly safe for ALMOST everyone. Scientists are also looking at its effectiveness at treating a variety of brain ailments, so there's that too.

Finally, creatine is very specific in how it aids performance. Distance runners won't see performance gains, but you will likely see slightly more left in the tank during weight training and short, explosive movements such as sprinting (correct me on the last bit if needed, haven't read studies in a while).

Hope that helps.
 
DerickVonD

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There's a good chance that if you're an omnivore and take any modern supplements, four days a week should be fine for maintenance. You reach a saturation point (see, genetic limit) that is maintained by lower doses than your typical loading phase. If you're eating meat, you'll receive some from there, and most every supplement contains creatine nowadays. I would wager that you would be fine taking it every other day.

What cracks me up is how studied creatine is, yet how misunderstood it is. Creatine is present in your muscles regardless of what you're doing (it wouldn't be a fun few seconds between ATP depletion and glycolysis ramp up without it) mostly as phosphocreatine, but also in free form. PCr is broken to provide quick re-energizing of ADP to ATP so a maximally saturated creatine pool is nothing less than beneficial. And like i said, that level has a hard genetic limit, which you may or may not reach without supps (non-responders). Cycling it won't supercompensate; only increased muscle mass will lead to greater levels in your creatine pool.

To address other issues raised, it's also safe as it is naturally occurring in the body. I don't advocate spamming 40 grams a day with minimal fluid intake, but sensible loading and adequate hydration are perfectly safe for ALMOST everyone. Scientists are also looking at its effectiveness at treating a variety of brain ailments, so there's that too.

Finally, creatine is very specific in how it aids performance. Distance runners won't see performance gains, but you will likely see slightly more left in the tank during weight training and short, explosive movements such as sprinting (correct me on the last bit if needed, haven't read studies in a while).

Hope that helps.
I read somewhere that creatine malate, might be better than monohydrate, because it brings more of the creatine to your muscles and you waste less of it, which I would assume if that is true, that I would piss less when taking malate, but idk how true this is.
 

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