Creatine and fat loss

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by SHAD0W, Apr 19, 2014.

  1. SHAD0W

    SHAD0W Valued Member

    Hey guys.

    My training goal is to get as big n ripped as possible.
    I'm 3 weeks into a creatine cycle, eating clean and have put on about half a stone, I'm Not sure how much of it is muscle rather than fat, though.

    I've been doing 20mins cardio on every non gym day and not seen much of a difference around the middle. I've thought about taking green tea and acai berries to shift the fat but I was wondering if there was any point, or if the two supplements (creatine and acai) would cancel each other out as one is a weight gainer and one is a weight loss supplement?

    I've still got a lot to learn!
     
  2. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    Nutrition and fitness goals do not work that way, lol. The ability to balance gaining muscle with minimal fat is extremely difficult to do and isn't really a practical pursuit. You just have to accept that while you are trying to get muscle on your frame, you're going to get a little fat too.

    It would be helpful if you posted a picture of yourself. If you don't want to do that, how tall are you and how much do you weigh? Also, what type of weightlifting routine are you doing? And how many calories are you eating a day (rough estimate)?
     
  3. Van Zandt

    Van Zandt Mr. High Kick

    This guy's got it right.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Mangosteen

    Mangosteen Hold strong not

    Acai is a fad.
    Creatine is good for many things but I haven't read many studies looking at fat loss.
     
  5. 8limbs38112

    8limbs38112 Valued Member

    From what I heard creatine is good for building bulk muscle but not getting ripped. Most people I know only use creatine in the summer time, but lift without it the rest of the year. Of course, I am not a body building expert so take what I say with a grain of salt.
     
  6. Mangosteen

    Mangosteen Hold strong not

    Well creating is supposed to help in power production meaning you can lift harder and therefore maintain or build lean muscle mass (greater stimulus if you can lift heavier) despite the season.
    My bodybuilding friends and collegiate athlete friends use creating year round.

    I haven't used creating since my first year of uni but I eat a lot a lot of meat and my lifts are pretty crap.
     
  7. SHAD0W

    SHAD0W Valued Member

    I'm not using creatine for weight loss. I'm using that to gain muscle and power, I want the weight loss supplement to work at the same time to burn off the mid-rift fat that's left round the middle. I just don't want them to work against each other and cancel each other out - if that's possible?

    I don't fancy putting up a pic. I'm 164cm tall and currently weigh 85kg.
    The widest part around my middle is 96cm around.

    Let's take today as an example:
    Food: porridge with banana and peanut butter, coffee no sugar with 1 scoop of creatine. 3 fried eggs and seeded toast. roast chicken breast with sweet potato and broccoli. Greek yoghurt and blueberries. Water and green tea to drink throughout the day.

    Just realised that's only about 1500 calories. Off to make more chicken!

    Gym:
    Squats - 110kg for 8 reps. 3 sets
    Leg extensions - 105kg for 12 reps. 3 sets
    Leg curl - 68kg for 12 reps. 3 sets
    calf raises - 178kg for 10 reps. 3 sets.
    sit ups holding 20kg kettlebell - 3 sets to fail.
    plank to fail
    20mins on step mill.
     
  8. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    So you're 5'4" and around 185lbs (I'm 'merikuhn, I have to put this in measurements I'm comfortable with :p).

    Are you more body fat or muscular? I assume from some of your numbers in the lifts that you have some strength, but I'm suspicious that it's all done on fitness machines. If that is the routine you follow every time it is quite limited, although I am personally happy that the major lift is squats and not bench press. :p

    You seem like a beginner, and until you tell me otherwise I assume you have a high percentage of body fat given your height/weight and your workout routine. Your goals and approach to them are in line with what people who are starting to workout tend to be, showing an interest in getting lean and strong at the same time. These two goals cannot go together without extremely strict discipline, extensive knowledge, and usually a good amount of money for diet, training facilities, and sometimes a trainer. In other words, cutting body fat and gaining muscle is not practical. I recommend that you pick one goal, either losing body fat or gaining strength (not building muscle yet, your numbers aren't big enough to do it effectively) and myself and others can give you some advice on how to go about it. Which is more important to you right now?

    Edit: Feel free to correct me if any of my assumptions are wrong here.
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2014
  9. pseudo

    pseudo Padawan

    This is the stack I used when I trained power lifting trying to make the move over to strong man training.

    http://m.bsnonline.net/stack/themassstack2.html

    I caution anyone who enters into the world performance supplements(not just creatine), it's extremely hard on your organs, kidneys, and what not, cycle and flush your system. Get informed! I trained cycling different stack for about a year, there is positive and negative to using supplements. My honest opinion, if your not competing in the semi or pro circuit, you dont need it. Creatine will not be directly responsible for weight loss, however you will work harder and longer (at least you should be) which will result in more energy required which means more fat will burn up.

    http://healthresearchfunding.org/pros-cons-creatine/

    Lots of contradicting information out there, consult a physician if your serious about supplements, I personally have addopted a no supplements policy.
     
  10. SHAD0W

    SHAD0W Valued Member

    I'm more muscular than fat for sure, just really tubby around the middle which I can't seem to shift. I am relatively new to lifting, will be my second year in August. I used to be 97kg - all fat. I only use machines for leg ext, curls and calf raisers, except for seated rows on back day now and again. On last chest day I benched 80kg for 8 reps, 3 sets. Last back day I topped my personal best on deadlifts - 140kg for 6 reps, 3 sets.

    I guess gaining muscle would be the goal right now. What numbers aren't big enough? Calories?
     
  11. pseudo

    pseudo Padawan

    Lifts, your not lifting enough yet
     
  12. SHAD0W

    SHAD0W Valued Member

    I'm not sure what any of my one rep max lifts are now, but it feels like I'm absolutely pushing to the limits in the exercises that I do.
     
  13. pseudo

    pseudo Padawan

    Oh im sure man, that wasn't ment as a notch against you. Where supplements really excel is when you start hitting numbers that are pushing that natural limits for your body, you haven't reached that yet. Supplements are there to get the absolute max out of your work outs and allow you to push further then you would normally be able to and recover quicker.. I would actually be a little surprised if you have hit a plateau yet.

    Thing is, like Ero said, you sound new and before you start using supplements you should try and get a really good understanding of what your limits are before you start trying to push past them, just my opinion.
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2014
  14. Mangosteen

    Mangosteen Hold strong not

    This ^

    It's probably not worth investing in creatine yet.
    And yeah, fundamentally, gaining muscle and losing fat are two opposing processes.
     
  15. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    You're not more muscle than fat if you're tubby around the center, especially with the numbers on the lifts you've given. Every person puts on body fat in a different way. I tend to gain weight in the midsection and chest. I jumped from 200 lbs to 260lbs over the last year due to injury and not giving a crap about my diet, and I don't look as big as I am because of the way I put fat on. You can still see my shoulder/arm muscles, and my chest just looks big instead of the slabs of fat it is made up of currently. :p

    To put this in a better perspective, when I was 240lbs and deadlifting 500lbs + for reps, bench pressing 285lbs, and squatting 400 lbs I still had a high body fat percentage even though I didn't look it at all. I wish I had some photos to post but I've always kept away from the camera, I'm kind of regretting it right now because I can't drive home my point :p.

    I'm not trying to discourage you here. It's beneficial to understand your body in order to set goals and know where you place on the timeline of achieving those goals. If you want to put on muscle you have to build a certain amount of strength to do it efficiently. Strength is not synonymous with size, it's two different methods of lifting for each goal. That said, building strength will build muscle, just not as quickly as you might hope. It's still essential that you get stronger though, as the potential to grow muscle is more when you can lift heavier things.

    In general, all your lifts are pretty low. Everything you posted is weight an adept weight lifter would use warming up. The numbers I gave from my past were numbers in the "upper level of mediocre" (in my opinion) class of strength, which gives you a bit of an idea of where you need to get at. This website will give you a list on the weights you should be able to do in your 1RM lifts and what level of strength you are at. You need to get to at least intermediate, which generally comes after a good years worth of hard training (maybe even sooner) once you get the basics down:http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.html

    From there it would be a lot easier to build some good muscle, but you might not even feel like you need to because you'll grow from just getting to that level of strength. Hopefully this thread catches the eye of some of the more program oriented members of MAP. I tend to stick to compound lifts, go heavy, and just go at it and have success. When I was lifting regularly I used to deadlift for an hour straight. :p
     
  16. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    I wouldn't say it's not worth investing in. I had my first experience with creatine when I was 14 or 15 and my bench press jumped up pretty quickly off of it with reduced soreness the day after. I got up to a whole 155lbs from 115lbs off it. It was Orange flavored, and carbonated, and I couldn't drink anything orange flavored for years afterwards. :p

    Who am I kidding? I probably just gained that strength from actually training, lol.
     
  17. SHAD0W

    SHAD0W Valued Member

    I've taken notes of what the calculator says my targets should be. I'll crack on with that and let you know how I get on. In the mean time should
    I keep taking the creatine?
     
  18. pseudo

    pseudo Padawan

    That's up to you, it wont hurt but you might not be getting out of it what you could.
     
  19. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    I would, at least until you run out of your current supply. It's not going to hurt you. What's your rep range right now? You should be in the 2-6 rep range, at least 5-7 sets in order to really build up to those levels of strength, with most of your focus on compound lifts (let me know if you don't know what that is). A lot of people on MAP recommend a 5 rep 5 set program from some guy, which is good but I've never been really formatted in my weight training. I'm more of a "go in and lift and stick to the general rules" type of guy.
     
  20. SHAD0W

    SHAD0W Valued Member

    Right now I'm on a 6 - 8 rep range for most exercises, doing about 3 sets.
    From tomorrow it will be 7 sets of 5 reps! Or as many reps as I can get on those heavy weights!
     

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