Hello all, I was hoping for some advice on my creatine-relateed situation.
To start off, a little history. I'm 27 year old male, 5'11". I weighed 200lbs, 25% BF last February. I used HIIT to get down to around 168lbs by June/July. Now, my goal is to get back up to 200lbs, but at around 10% BF.
I spent 7 weeks on the Art of Waterbury, and then another 8 on the Waterbury TBT (been adapting, really like the compound lifts squats, deads, bench, pullups, etc.). Trying to eat 300-500 over. Made a ton of progress in the strength area, and slower progress in the size area.
Anyway, I got up to 175 with nothing but protein and decent diet, and I started taking 5g of GNC's mono creatine around 3 weeks ago. I add 5lbs in that time. My muscles do look a little more defined, but I feel quite a bit more bloated (belly, love-handle area, and face/chin). I've read that a few others have had this affect from mono creatine, and its a little discomforting. So either, I've gained 5lbs of fat back with the creatine, or indeed im bloating (adding water to more than just my muscles themselves).
I am reaping benefits though, I feel like I can do more in the gym, less drained, able to finish off sets sooner and faster. Definitely happy with gym performance.
My original plan was to stay in a bulk and keep on the creatine for 3 months (i.e. until around the beginning of February), and then cycle off the creatine and potentially cut off a few final lbs of fat. I'm trying to decide if I should just suck it up and stay in a bulk with this creatine bloat, switch to a different creatine (CEE or "micronized mono" - the stuff from biotest), or just stop with the creatine alltogether.
Any thoughts from anyone else who has experienced this mono creatine bloat? (unless I really did add fat, lol I doubt that's the case, although it is unsettling, I worked my butt off to drop 30lbs of fat and I really don't want to gain it back!!)
To start off, a little history. I'm 27 year old male, 5'11". I weighed 200lbs, 25% BF last February. I used HIIT to get down to around 168lbs by June/July. Now, my goal is to get back up to 200lbs, but at around 10% BF.
I spent 7 weeks on the Art of Waterbury, and then another 8 on the Waterbury TBT (been adapting, really like the compound lifts squats, deads, bench, pullups, etc.). Trying to eat 300-500 over. Made a ton of progress in the strength area, and slower progress in the size area.
Anyway, I got up to 175 with nothing but protein and decent diet, and I started taking 5g of GNC's mono creatine around 3 weeks ago. I add 5lbs in that time. My muscles do look a little more defined, but I feel quite a bit more bloated (belly, love-handle area, and face/chin). I've read that a few others have had this affect from mono creatine, and its a little discomforting. So either, I've gained 5lbs of fat back with the creatine, or indeed im bloating (adding water to more than just my muscles themselves).
I am reaping benefits though, I feel like I can do more in the gym, less drained, able to finish off sets sooner and faster. Definitely happy with gym performance.
My original plan was to stay in a bulk and keep on the creatine for 3 months (i.e. until around the beginning of February), and then cycle off the creatine and potentially cut off a few final lbs of fat. I'm trying to decide if I should just suck it up and stay in a bulk with this creatine bloat, switch to a different creatine (CEE or "micronized mono" - the stuff from biotest), or just stop with the creatine alltogether.
Any thoughts from anyone else who has experienced this mono creatine bloat? (unless I really did add fat, lol I doubt that's the case, although it is unsettling, I worked my butt off to drop 30lbs of fat and I really don't want to gain it back!!)