THE CREATINE DILEMMA
By: Chris Hintz
I believe creatine has to be one of the most polarizing supplements on the market today. Half of the people I talk to on a daily basis believe that creatine is bad for your health and will make you “bloated” or retain water underneath the skin, while the other half think it is one of the most important supplements that you can take for muscular performance enhancement. So which of these 2 groups of people is right? Can they both be correct? Which group do you find yourself in?
What I would like to do is review some of the most prevalent MYTHS about creatine and provide you with actual facts to help you decide if creatine is right for you in your supplementation program.
Myth 1: Creatine makes you bloated and hold water.
FACT: Creatine does not cause bloating nor does it cause you to hold subcutaneous (underneath the skin) water. What users of creatine were experiencing with this “bloated” feeling was the effects of taking in too much sugar with their creatine. Some of the original creatine products (cell mass) contained almost 35-40 grams of pure sugar with each serving to spike insulin and thus shuttle the creatine quicker into the muscle cells. In theory this sounds good, but when you consume 3-4 servings of creatine a day during your loading phase and simultaneously consume over 100gms of pure sugar a day you will definitely get bloated! Sugar bloats you, not creatine! As far as the water retention underneath the skin, this also is not a side effect of creatine; this has more to do with high levels of sodium in the diet because sodium sits outside of the cell. Creatine on the other hand draws water into the muscle cell making it more anabolic. If you already know that your muscle tissue is comprised of roughly 70% water, then you can see why drawing more water into the cell can have great benefits in terms of energy output and performance. On the flip side, this is also why even being mildly dehydrated is a killer for workout performance.
Myth 2: Creatine is hard on your kidneys and liver.
FACT: There is zero empirical evidence to support this claim. The truth is that if you have two healthy working kidneys then your body will tolerate a high level of creatine just fine. If you have a pre-existing kidney or liver condition then maybe creatine isn’t a safe choice, but then again neither is a high protein diet or a variety of other things. Then how did this nasty myth get started? Well it began when “the medical community assumed the increased plasma creatinine levels were a sign of kidney dysfunction (creatinine is a marker used to measure kidney function; it is a mixture of two creatine molecules). Creatinine is also the by-product of creatine.” Needless to say, this myth was squashed when researchers discovered a proportional amount of creatinine in the urine of creatine users (meaning that the kidneys were processing the creatine just fine).
Myth 3: Our bodies make creatine naturally and therefore it is not necessary to take it in supplement form.
FACT: This flawed line of reasoning always makes me laugh. Just because our bodies naturally produce creatine (about 1 gram per day) and the fact that we can consume an additional 1-2 grams per day through a high meat diet, does not mean that we shouldn’t supplement with a higher dose. The fact is that our bodies rely on creatine for muscular contractions and the more creatine there is in the body the more ATP (energy) our bodies can produce. When I hear this from people I ask them if their bodies produce testosterone naturally and if so, do they think taking extra testosterone would be beneficial to building muscle? Obviously the answer is yes. That is why supplements can be very effective when used properly in a complete nutrition and training program. But in the end, they are just that, supplements; and they will not do the hard work for you.
Conclusion: Is creatine right for you?
Let’s face it, creatine is one of the most studied, tested, and widely used supplements in sports for a reason. Since 1992, this stuff has been helping athletes perform significantly better with quite a bit of scientific studies to back it up. In the 2000 Olympics it was estimated that over 95% of the athletes were using creatine. Why only 95% and not 100%? Well creatine is not beneficial to long distance runners or marathoners because it only helps contract the explosive fast twitch (type II) muscle fibers used in sprinting or lifting. Some people ask me if they should take creatine when they are trying to get cut and I guess that depends on if you are trying to cut weight or just trying to get cut in terms of leaning out. Creatine definitely will make you gain weight (so it might not be ideal for wrestlers trying to drop weight), but not in a bad way. Yes, creatine causes your body to hold water, but that is a good thing! The fact that your muscles are super hydrated even on a cutting cycle is fantastic. I see absolutely no correlation between taking creatine and our body storing fat. If anything, creatine will assist us in maintaining more lean mass while dieting. In my mind there is no point to discontinuing the use of creatine while trying to burn fat. Unfortunately, I could ramble on about creatine for quite some time so I will just end it with this; if there was something that I did not cover and I am sure I didn’t, than feel free to ask about it in our XBC forum. Until then, I strongly recommend giving creatine a try if you haven’t already. You won’t be disappointed!
Source:
http://fivestarsac.com/uncategorized/the-creatine-dilemma/
