Creatine weight gains. How much is water?

[Deadendgeneration]

Started taking creatine again 2 weeks ago, coinciding with trying to bulk up a bit. My diet is pretty good, eating pretty much the same things as I was when trying to cut but more of them. Anyway, I'm trying to put on about 1kg ever 2 weeks or so, as this seems about the maximum amount of muscle a beginner can add with proper diet and training, from what I've read.

Anyway during these 2 weeks I've put on about 3kg's. Should I be worrying about my diet/adding some cardio? Or is it possible that I've put on about a kg or more of water weight per week?

[EddieShredder]

Most of it will be water, i believe... although theres undoubtedly a few on here who'll know more than me about it. When I started taking creatine properly, my weight went up quite quickly, although settled down in the end. I think it differs depending on what type and quality of creatine you take too, although again... there's other posters who'll probably be able to offer you a more scientific opinion.

[Marlin]

1kg of muscle per week my arse!

[Deadendgeneration]

1kg of muscle per week my arse!

I said per 2 weeks, and that was a maximum for a beginner from reading around. It may well be less than that, I've read from at low as 2 pounds per month, to as high as 5 pounds per month. Which would equate to approx 1kg per 2 weeks.

If you have more knowledge then please share it, I know there are people on here with a lot more knowledge and experience.

[Marlin]

Sorry mate that came across the wrong way, didn't mean to be negative.

I reckon a kilo of lean muscle a month and you'd be cheering! You have to work extremely hard to put on lean muscle, it really is full on.

[Deadendgeneration]

Sorry mate that came across the wrong way, didn't mean to be negative.

I reckon a kilo of lean muscle a month and you'd be cheering! You have to work extremely hard to put on lean muscle, it really is full on.

No, no, don't worry I didn't take it that way. I try to read as much as I can on T-Nation and bodybuilding.com but come across so much conflicting information out there that it's hard to know what to believe. Either way, I could deal with 2kg's a month if that was 1kg of lean muscle, a bit of water or whatever else in said muscle, and a bit of fat if needs be. Just worried about how much weight I've put on in the last 2 weeks whilst eating pretty clean.

[TempleSlave]

Started taking creatine again 2 weeks ago, coinciding with trying to bulk up a bit. My diet is pretty good, eating pretty much the same things as I was when trying to cut but more of them. Anyway, I'm trying to put on about 1kg ever 2 weeks or so, as this seems about the maximum amount of muscle a beginner can add with proper diet and training, from what I've read.

Anyway during these 2 weeks I've put on about 3kg's. Should I be worrying about my diet/adding some cardio? Or is it possible that I've put on about a kg or more of water weight per week?

What kind of creatine are you taking?

[Deadendgeneration]

It's made by a Chinese company called CPT. Seem to be the most popular brand for supplements out here. It's the only thing I can get my hands on without using the internet.



I'm not using that whey, I just couldn't find an imagine of just the creatine.

[TempleSlave]

If it's a monohydrate then it causes some water retention. Actually I'm on it right now and what I personally always notice when on c.m. is the gain not so much in weight but size. There is some strength increase as well, which in itself is benefit because of muscle memory phenomenon - even if the gains go after you finish the cycle, it's always easier to get back to poundage once achieved. As long as that wasn't on juice that is

[Deadendgeneration]

Couldn't afford the juice in honesty haha. I had always wondered that though. If you cycled do you have to keep taking just to maintain? Would you go right back to where you started if you stopped? Or would you lose some of the size but not all?

Anyway, perhaps I was just retaining water in general, I just weighed myself this evening, and I'm about 1.5kg's down from the same time 2 days ago. Same diet, same cardio (lack there of).

[TempleSlave]

Couldn't afford the juice in honesty haha. I had always wondered that though. If you cycled do you have to keep taking just to maintain? Would you go right back to where you started if you stopped? Or would you lose some of the size but not all?

You mean roids or creatine?

[Deadendgeneration]

I meant roids, I can just about afford creatine haha.

I was thinking specifically about Brock Lesnar and Mariuz Pudzianowski. They both dropped serious size when they started in MMA. Could that have been simply because they came off, and the weight just fell off?

[EddieShredder]

I meant roids, I can just about afford creatine haha.

I was thinking specifically about Brock Lesnar and Mariuz Pudzianowski. They both dropped serious size when they started in MMA. Could that have been simply because they came off, and the weight just fell off?

They both had to.

Firstly, the upper limit of the HW division is 265. Both those guys were well over 300lbs.

Secondly, size for the sake of size is fairly useless, even limiting, when you're fighting other big guys who know what they're doing.

[TempleSlave]

I meant roids, I can just about afford creatine haha.

I was thinking specifically about Brock Lesnar and Mariuz Pudzianowski. They both dropped serious size when they started in MMA. Could that have been simply because they came off, and the weight just fell off?

I'm pretty sure the MMA guys often have their own thing going on (Overeem, Sapp anyone?) so those 2 may not have been completely off.
As for the maintenance issue, I'm sure a lot depends how early in the career the guy starts juicing. If he's already big and strong and uses roids to overcome platteau then probably he will maintain quite a lot when off.
However, I'm not quite sure how it looks with HGH which I believe is the drug of choice for most nowadays.

[Deadendgeneration]

I meant roids, I can just about afford creatine haha.

I was thinking specifically about Brock Lesnar and Mariuz Pudzianowski. They both dropped serious size when they started in MMA. Could that have been simply because they came off, and the weight just fell off?

They both had to.

Firstly, the upper limit of the HW division is 265. Both those guys were well over 300lbs.

Secondly, size for the sake of size is fairly useless, even limiting, when you're fighting other big guys who know what they're doing.

Yeah, I'm aware they had to make 265, so presumably arounds 280 or so. However I was wondering if they'd have done that by very hard cardio or if the muscle would likely fall off anyway, once off the gear. Also Pudz comes in under 265 right?

[zojo]

Creatine weight gain is all water weight.

Your muscles are basically 76% water. When your muscle has it's fill, it stops taking in more water, it removes the water and you pee it out.

Creatine tells your muscles to simply take in more water than they are used to. In essence, they are simply more saturated with water than they usually are (let's say 80% water now).

I did notice weight gain and a bit of increased strength. However, I really noticed my muscle endurance was much higher when I supplemented with creatine. However, I believe those gains were due to my muscles simply being more hydrated.

When I stopped creatine, I lost all the weight I gained rather quickly.

[zojo]

I meant roids, I can just about afford creatine haha.

I was thinking specifically about Brock Lesnar and Mariuz Pudzianowski. They both dropped serious size when they started in MMA. Could that have been simply because they came off, and the weight just fell off?

They both had to.

Firstly, the upper limit of the HW division is 265. Both those guys were well over 300lbs.

Secondly, size for the sake of size is fairly useless, even limiting, when you're fighting other big guys who know what they're doing.

I think they should bump the weight limit to 285 to keep up with high school and college wrestling. Olympic wrestling has a limit of 265, so I assume that is where MMA got their ceiling.

Simple size is useless for a couple of reasons:

1. Muscles burn up oxygen very quickly. The muscle bound fighters gas out quickly.

2. Once a really big guy is down, he ain't getting up. Back when I was in high school, our team's heavyweight had to drink a bunch of water to even weigh more than 190 lbs. at weighins. However, he only lost one match that season (state finals) because he has good takedowns and always stated "If a heavyweight gets taken down, he'll stay down".