Creatine Loading

[Madmick]

I've recently undertaken to read every article at T-Nation, author by author. I'm into Poliquin now. It took me back a bit when he said this about creatine loading:

A: Personally, I think the loading phase is crucial. There is however, some evidence that taking a small dosage for a longer time will be effective, but those studies were done on subjects whose activity levels were equivalent to that of full-time stamp collectors. It's my personal opinion, based on research studies and personal experience, that in hard-training athletes, the loading phase is of paramount importance. I recommend 0.45 g of creatine per kg of bodyweight for a 5 day period. After that, a "maintenance phase" of about 5 to 10 grams a day should suffice.

Keep in mind he wrote this in 1998. The war was still waging, then, I remember. I loaded in high school.

I'm curious if he's changed his position or not as of today. I was under the impression this had been settled, and everything I've read recently indicates loading is bogus, but after what Entropy said of Poliquin in S&P, reading something like this is unsettling to me. I never want to become settled or inured in a wrong way of thinking.

It's just: his loading scheme is crazy! Even when I was in high school, the ceiling anybody loaded was around 30g per day. His recommendations would have me taking ~50g a day during the loading period. Given, I'm huge, but I want to know material he's reviewing to make those recommendations.

 

[Madmick]

Goddamnit, I did it again.

My apologies all around.

 

[Grady]

I had some irritating side effects from attempting to load with 30g a day. So I personally went to the 5g a day scheme without loading.

 

[Rjkd12]

That seems like a lot overall. I have read that you need 3-5 grams for maintenence. 5-10 seems like too much. Granted, I havent read any creatine literature for 5 years or so. I"m sure someone who cared and had some scientific knowelge could search pubmed and see whats going on in the scientific community. See if anybody has tested loading vs not loading, or what they are giving subjects that get a gain etc...

 

[Madmick]

That seems like a lot overall. I have read that you need 3-5 grams for maintenence. 5-10 seems like too much. Granted, I havent read any creatine literature for 5 years or so. I"m sure someone who cared and had some scientific knowelge could search pubmed and see whats going on in the scientific community. See if anybody has tested loading vs not loading, or what they are giving subjects that get a gain etc...

Tap seems like he's got a lot of energy...

(Notice how I passed that one along, RJ? Haha, your jedi mind tricks don't work on me. I'm sith!)

 

[Tap112]

Tap seems like he's got a lot of energy...

hey, you started this shit. ahaha. maybe later. I just got back from some intense bjj.

Honestly though, I hope that isnt right because that means my tub of creapure is not going to last as long.

50 g just seems like way more than neccessary. With my current knowledge on this, I would advise against loading more than 20 g. Definitely not more than 30 g. Most loading schemes Ive looked at are a lot lower than those even. I actually just read an article at T-Nation (by David Barr) that advises against loading altogheter, claiming it is just a waste of money.

Interesting topic.

Goddamnit, I did it again.

My apologies all around.

yea, bad you..starting a thread that actually requires some thinking. what are you doing?