*Creatine users: do you believe in the loading stage?*

[Lifterforlife]

I use creatine monohydrate and load at 20g per day for 5 days then down to 5g per day for four weeks and then stop. Some here have said that's a waste of creatine and they can just run 10g per day for 30 days and be saturated. A quick calculation:

Not loading: 30 x 10 = 300g
With loading: 20 x 5 + 5 x 25 = 100 + 125 = 225g

Over 30 days, loading is cheaper than running 10g per day.

Anthrax mentions running 5g per day throughout. When do you feel it's making a difference to your workouts, assuming no Dbol? I find that it's kicking in at about the end of my loading phase.

Nice post....you took the proverbial "words right out of my mouth!"

 

[anabolic highlord25]

Yes, I usually load 25g for 5 days then do a 3 week 5g ed maintenance phase and on my last cycle I gained 15lbs in less than 2 weeks, ofcourse I lost about 10 of it due to it being just water but the strength was through the roof as well!

 

[hyper_piper45]

OK, you can also "load creatine" with 25mg of dianabol for better results

That made me LOL for real.

 

[Jayhawk21]

I have noticed absolutely ZERO difference from loading to not loading creatine. I also have noticed absolutely ZERO difference in using a cranberry juice or a sports drink when taking creatine. IMO, this is just bunk, and a way for the company to make more money off of you. Within two weeks of using creatine, not loading btw, I have all of the strength and weight gain I will receive from creatine. When I was a newb to lifting, I got that muscletech crap, and loaded creatine, used juice. Now I just use a little once a day at night with water and it works EXACTLY the same.

 

[cheeseball]

Loading is a proven thing. It doesn't give added benefits, it just saturates the muscles quicker. The whole idea is to not have to wait a month before complete saturation. If you up the doses it will theoretically saturate the muscles quicker. It all depends on how quickly you want to see the results. Also, what your natural creatine stores are. That is why there is so much grey area when it comes to this. Everyone experiences things differently.

Look up creatine studies at pubmed. I believe there is an article that shows exactly that.

 

[Graphite]

waste of time.