If you are looking for a safe yet highly powerful 'anabolic' sports nutrition supplement, whey protein is far superior to creatine. Characterized by high bioavailability, whey protein helps your body quickly and easily more protein than any other form of protein.
Creatine and protein are supplements that can help with health and physical fitness. Protein is best for muscle building and weight loss. Creatine can improve performance and help with recovery.
Increased Water Weight
You may gain anywhere from two to five pounds during your first week of creatine supplementation due to water retention. Creatine helps increase muscle mass by drawing extra water into the muscle cells, causing you to retain fluid.
After you start taking creatine, it takes time for its levels in your muscles to gradually increase and fully saturate. It doesn't happen overnight. And, in fact, it often takes a couple of weeks to significantly increase.
Many studies have demonstrated that creatine supplementation, in combination with various kinds of training, is effective at augmenting training workouts and increasing muscular strength and lean body mass [14,17].
Creatine makes your muscles look bigger, while actually making them bigger as well. First, creatine causes your muscle cells to store more water which causes your muscles to appear fuller and larger. You may notice the size increase a few days or weeks after starting creatine supplementation.
Creatine increases the amount of protein in your muscles, which helps stimulate muscle growth. Therefore, taking creatine on rest days can be a great way to give your muscles a boost and help you build muscle more quickly.
Taking creatine after working out seems to be more beneficial than taking it before exercise. Additionally, consuming protein after a workout can help recovery and muscle growth. Some experts suggest that people who exercise for more than 3 months eat more protein.
Without creatine supplements, your muscles may not be able to keep up with what you're doing. You'll lose muscle mass when you stop creatine supplements. However, you need to know that creatine neither directly adds to muscle mass nor its loss when stopped.
When stopping a creatine supplement, you may notice a change in your body weight or you may experience short periods of fatigue. You may also notice a difference in your abilities as far as exercise goes, especially if you do high-intensity workouts.
Creatine can be effective for both bulking and cutting, depending on how you use it and what your goals are. Creatine creates a water retention surrounding the muscle that not only preserves the muscle during a cutting phase but also provides immediate muscle recovery in order to continue intense workouts.
If you've started taking creatine, you should know if it works for you in about a week. If your training volume increases, it's working for you. If not, you're probably a non-responder, and taking the powder isn't going to help you. Diet is important.
When you don't drink enough water while taking creatine, the body will break down muscle tissue to get the water that it needs. That can lead to muscle cramps and a host of other issues like kidney problems.
Increased muscle mass
In fact, research has found that those taking creatine monohydrate long-term “typically gain about twice as much body mass and/or fat free mass” compared to those not taking creatine. This is an extra 2 to 4 pounds of muscle mass during a 4 to 12 week training cycle.
How much creatine do you need? Your body naturally creates about 1 to 2 g of creatine every day. To build muscle, take 20 g of creatine per day for a limited time, followed by a 3- to 5-g daily dose after that.
The most common Creatine Cycle
A loading phase of 5-7 days of 20-30g per day, split into separate doses. A maintenance phase of 3-5g per day, lasting for 4-6 weeks. This is followed by a time of phase, lasting from 2 – 4 weeks, before considering starting another whole new cycle again.
Answer: You should never miss a full day. If you do, then double up the next day. If you miss more than 3 days, reload otherwise taking the daily maintenance dose will require a couple of weeks to get you back where you should have been to maximize benefit.
How long does it take for the benefits of creatine to work? As with working out, results aren't immediate with creatine supplements. Consistency and dedication are key to seeing the benefits of supplemental creatine. It can take anywhere from seven to 28 days to see the effects of creatine on your energy levels.
Creatine and Water
Therefore, proper hydration is essential. As previously mentioned, 6-8 cups of water are the average drinking amount when out of training. However, when supplementing with creatine, you should drink an additional 8-10 cups of water daily, or slightly more, depending on your exercise regimen.
Caffeine does not influence creatine's ability to increase muscle phosphocreatine storage, which makes combined supplementation of creatine and caffeine an attractive prospect for athletes and recreational exercisers alike.