At the moment I am on a hypocoloric diet, steadily losing weight. At the rate I'm going I still have a couple months, maybe more, to go. I'm hitting the weights to try and make sure I minimize muscle loss, but as would be expected I'm not really increasing my numbers much. I currently supplement with whey protein and fish oil. My question is, would it be worth it for me to also get some creatine while I'm still losing weight? Or should I wait until I get down to the weight I'm aiming for, then take it as I start to try putting on muscle? As far as I know, creatine helps with your ability to perform more reps and sets, and helps you recover faster, which helps you to up your volume in the gym and thus improve your gains. However it seems to me a hypocaloric diet will possibly negate these effects. Perhaps there's something else about creatine I'm missing that will still make it useful for me while I'm losing weight? *EDIT* And if anyone knows of a good website from which I can order creatine in the US without $8 in shipping! (t-nation) I'd appreciate the info.
I read somewhere that creatine helps your muscles retain water(correct me if I'm wrong people), you might end up not losing weight as fast. I'm guessing that water in your muscles is a good thing so you'll have to see what's more important to you. IMO creatine won't hurt you but might put a dent in your steady weightloss. Creatine helps me get rid of soreness and keep up the training intensity, but if you're already struggling to keep/gain muscle mass you might not wanna overdo the conditioning part. Then again, more muscle=more calories burnt... Err I'm confusing myself now so I'll stop. How intense is your training atm? And what's your routine look like, and how many calories are you taking in? I dont think $8 shipping cost is to bad,
Weight loss will slow on creatine, though fat loss shouldn't. You're increasing your muscle size, which will mean your body needs more calories to sustain the extra muscle, and fat loss should increase. It will be a minimal difference to fat loss, so I shouldn't worry too much about it.
Yeah, I'm not so concerned with just losing weight, by weight loss I meant fat loss. I understand that I'll probably put on a couple lbs in water weight, which doesn't bother me, I just want to know if creatine will actually be of any use as I'm on a hypocaloric diet. If it's of no use, I'm not going to spend money on it, I'll wait until I start eating more to get a hold of it. So that's the question.
There have been studies which show that creatine supplementation can increase your resting metabolic rate, plus plenty of anecdotal evidence about increased fat loss while using creatine. It should also help maintain/improve strength and mass gains, which is obviously beneficial too. It's cheap too, so as far as cost per effect goes it's pretty good.
Creatine is a cell volumizing supplement. When Creatine is processed by the body, it helps to replenish ATP in the cell. Think of how small the cell is! If you can pack your cells with ATP, meaning more water too, then you may see some increase in muscle size. In most peoples experience Creatine will not make huge differences in muscle size. Since you are dieting/cutting right now, I would not add the Creatine. As has been stated above you will just be retaining water! Get to your goal weight but keep on lifting. You can save your muscle by feeding your body regularly with good protein and complex carbs!
I would use it. Don't fool yourself with water weight losses that you will put back on anyway and focus on fat loss, which creatine will aid.
