Is Creatine Appropriate for my Goals?

So I am trying to get lean while maintinging muslce and strength. Is creatine a supplement that would aid me? The only problem i can think of, is will it put body fat on? I already eat in a deficit and would if I started taking creatine. Would there be any problems there?

well my boss has been using creatine with glutamine for the past 5 months and lost 40 pounds.

Well thats pretty impressive.

ive read posts about people who took it while cutting just to maintain strength.  Water weight accompanies certain forms of creatine though.

I'm worried about the water weight making me look bloated, and losing definition.

Well, creatine pulls water into the muscle cells, making the muscles look larger and harder, so in that sense it actually increases definition.

Creatine helps by making it possible to work harder. Breifly, creatine works by regenerating ATP much faster than glycolosis can. ATP is the energy "currency" that muscles use to contract and move weight. By supplementing with creatine, you can get say 8 reps of a weight that you could only get 7 times without it. It's not a whole lot, but it's more stimulation for growth.

Creatine as no direct effect on body fat, so you should have no worries there.

You WILL gain weight on creatine DEPENDING on your diet and the type of creatine you buy.  From experience taking creatine 3 different occasions, buy the expensive stuff.  The cheaper stuff still works; I gained a ton of muscle but I also gained about 5 lbs of water.  If you buy the nice, expensive stuff and you maintain a calorie deficit, you will probably not gain/lose any weight.

I have to disagree with dcycounts, go ahead for the cheap stuff, you will proably gain some water weight, but 1) It's not "bad" weight (i.e. not fat) and 2) It is not water stored in a way that makes you look fat.

Just get the standard powdered micronized creatine (under no circumstances should you buy creatine in a liquid form, as creatine begins to breakdown in solution)

Also, in all honesty, if you are not looking to build muscle, it's probably not really worth the cost, but that's up to you.

Do you take creatine post or pre workout?  Just curious.  There are several opinions which just makes it confusing to me.

Original Post by daniski:

Do you take creatine post or pre workout? Just curious. There are several opinions which just makes it confusing to me.

It makes no difference. You are typically instructed to just do it the same time every day.  Eventually, your body will become saturated with it so whether you do it right before or after your workout doesn't matter.

Although you can get results from creatine monohydrate (I took it and gained a lot of muscle on it), I echo my advice on getting the more expensive stuff because you will get better results with the top of the line creatines.  I've used them both and there is a distinct difference.