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What's the difference between creatine and whey? - function-wise and nutrition-wise and in other aspects of muslce building?

Which one would be better if you only had enough money for one?

Thanks

Take the whey before and after your workout. Don't take the creatine.

At the basic level, creatine will provide you with energy for short burst power type movements while whey protein will provide protein & amino acids to serve as building blocks for cells (muscle & otherwise).

I agree with all of that
ironman i usually agree with you but not in this case
creatine should be the staple in every body duilders diet
creatine is a muscle volumizer along with the short bursts of energy
your muscle cells will actually get bigger in a week or two this will be all water weight, but what are muscles mainly compsed of?????
water---roughly 70%
take creatine before your workout and after along with whey protien and after put in some simple carbs
a good creatine is phospagen by eas and that has the carbs already mixed in

While I agree that for body builders creatine may be a necessity, I would guess that 'charlie' isn't looking to just build size. Assuming he's looking to lift for fun/to get stronger/for fitness then I think whey protein is the way (no pun intended) to go.

i agree whey cannot be replaced but why not use both
they do different things but with the same goal in mind.
size strength.....
if i had to chose only one it would be whey...but together they can induce some serious stretch marks from all the muscles you build!!!!!

Well Kevin, I sort of disagree, but I think you misunderstood. Look at Charlie's question. He has got to be a beginner. Someone at that stage of things doesn't need creatine.

I think creatine is good for a competative bodybuilder. It makes your muscle retain water so you look a little bigger then you are temporarily. So taking this for a while before a contest to get your muscles as big and bloated as they can get is a good idea.

It does not help you gain actual muscle tissue though. So for me it is useless because I do not compete.

With all the products that have been out over the years, there has never been anything that was a safe steroid-like suppliment. Everything promises to be safe yet build muscle almost as fast as with steroids. It's just not so.

To get big, it just boils down to stimulating the muscle to make it grow and giving it protein to make the new tissue. Then you have to do that for years. Steroids and growth hormone are the only things that have been proven to really work on speeding this up. They have never found any that are truely safe.

iron man

agin i disagree, in part
true creatines initial effect is only because of the water retention, but because of that (enlarger of the muscles) and its effect on strength and endurance you are able to train harder and heavier than without---hence more actual muscle fiber hypertrophy!!!!
so when you get off creatine it goes back to normal water content, but your fivers are actually larger!!!!!

but i do agree with the fact that IF he is a beginner take you r your body to its natural potential then introduce creatine

Some people say creatine works like that, some people say it does nothing. There isn't really any proof to support any claims other then water retention. I haven't actually tried it because of that. I suppose I could try it out and post a review here. Of course there is a lot of contraversy about which kind is better, how much to take and weather to load or not. So it wouldn't really prove anything. If anyone can post any proof about creatine, glutamine or other suppliment, I will take it. Until then I am very skeptical.

Ironman. I can underfstand your skepticism. I have used it with decent results, and a buddy of mine used it with no results. I happen to be in the camp of the school of thought that Kevin posted, i.e. IF it works for you, you can train harder, longer, which will have an effect. Now, what I have read is that some people cannot get it into their systems easily, dissolved or not, which may explain why it works for some and not for others. Don't know, I just know that it has worked for me.
Tim

So absorbtion varies? Well that brings up the monohydrate/citrate argument. Where monohydrate is more pure but citrate has much better absorbtion. Then the question is to load or not to load. Is loading a waste that is likely to cause bad cramps and other problems, or is a must do? If you do load are the directions right, or do they exagerate to increase sales?

Then there is also the question of weather or not a person is already producing as much testosterone as they can. That might have something to do with why it works for one person and not another. Or is that not a correct assumtion?

Hi Ironman, I've never heard anything about creatine being related to test production, however, it might be linked in a round about way.If you are lifting a bit heavier and longer, it just might up the test (and gh ) production . Never really thought about it before you brought it up.
As to loading, well, I've read that it doesn't really matter. The non-loading method will saturate you just the same, it just takes a little longer (think 2 weeks, give or take vice 5 days). From personal experience, I've done it both ways, and saw no appreciable difference.
As to monhydrate vs citrate, hadn't really thought about that either. Guess I'll have to jump onto a search engine and look up some studies.
Tim

creatine and test have no corrilation whatso ever other than the fact that they both make you bigger and stronger

if you have low or high test levels creatine will effect you the same
now on to the sceptisim supplements work well in some and not so well in others

as for loading.......there remains the debate.... one theory is that if you load you saturate your muscle will creatine...rather its effects saturate your muscles.....everyone has a point were they can absorns no more.... in that case you piss it out.
i loaded creatine about 2 years ago and loved it creatine works well for me
iron man
i highly recommend that you do research on it, learn all the different opinions, then try it yourself


for all the non-believers creatine is recognized as a tried and true supplement DONT TAKE IT FROM ME OR A MUSCLETECH AD try it yourself!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting discussion with studies about creatine on t-nation.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do;js ... id=1085045

BTW how would I highlight t-nation and link the website to that word.

This code

{url=http://www.t-nation.com/}ABCDEFG{/url}

produces this: ABCDEFG

Just change the red part to the address you want and change the blue part to the text you want displayed for the link. (You don't need the colors. I just used them for clarity.)

Oh, and change the "{" and "}" to a"[" and "]". I used the squiggly brackets so you could see the code. Otherwise it would have created the link.