Few More Creatine Questions

[Heavy D]

Okay, so I'm out of shape, and am definately looking to get back into good shape/fighting shape. I'm about 5'9" tall, with a broad build. Back when I played soccer, I weighed about 160, then when i bulked up for football, i got to about 185 with some real good muscle. A few years later, I weigh about 205 (some muscle, not too fat, but definately some). This is down from about 230 a few months ago due to changes in dieting, plus biking and a new job that requires me to walk about 10 miles a night.

Now...my question is now that I'm really startng to workout again, would creatine be a good idea for me? I had trouble finding info. about it outside of the sticky topic. I'd like definately get back to a mixture of my football and soccer stages, and preferably a weight of about 170ish, but I'm not picky about that at all (I'll let my weight fall where it may and worry about fitness first). However, I've heard that creatine will add water weight, and I'd prefer not to gain weight. Judging my overall situation, yea or nay on the creatine? If you need more info, feel free to ask, and I'll do my best. Any other suggestions for supplements or anything else are more than welcome, as well.

Thanks in advance!

[Pitbull]

I never heard that creatine added water weight, but I did hear that even though alot of people in the weight lifting world take creatine, that it only actually works for a small percentage of people. I thought that it just made your muscles heal faster. If I were trying to loose weight I really wouldn't worry about taking creatine, I would just run alot, watch what I eat, and watch my portions.

[James]

Id recomend lots of cardio, shed off the excess weight,

creatine will add water retension and is a msucle building aid so your weight lossess will be smaller, but u should be building muscle 'under' the fat.

to me it sounds like you are primarly interested in cutting weight, thus creatine isnt really gonna help that, if you want to retian muscle there are muscle retaining products that stop your body gonig cartogenic and burning muscle, along with fat burners that when used well can aid fat loss with minimal muscle coroision.

Creatine wont do you any harm and used well will do you good, but thats the same for everyone! in your situation i wouldnt say its the most appropiate of suppliments out there.

hope that helps

[AdamGB]

Your body weight is not as important as your body fat level and fitness, if you gain weight it could just be from water in the muscles or gains in muscle mass, I have never relied on the scales to tell me how well my training is going.

What you are doing in terms of training is more important than wether you take creatine or not, so please tell us if you have a regime planned yet...

[Heavy D]

I've actually got a friend who's a personal instructor, so I'm doing full body workouts 3 times a week. I start with just a few minutes of shadowboxing to limber up, then about 10 minutes of biking to finish getting warmed up

My actual regime is a bunch of workin out that I don't knowthe names for

benchpress or some hammer strength machines that simulate three degrees of benchpress
something for shoulders with dumbells (lift straight to sides, then straight in front) or on some resistance machine
back with some sort of row machine or some weird machine kinda thing where you lie down and lift a plate weighted thing up to your body from the ground
biceps and triceps:weight exercises (curls/something where you bend over parallel to ground and lift forearm from about 135* to 180*, then lift whole arm up) or dips and chinups on alternating visits,
squats
some calf machine

then about 30 minutes of biking afterwards if I'm up for it(if not, I come on my off days for 45 or so minutes of biking). On off days, I'll try and stop by for a quick jog then some bagwork.

I'm not too concerned about my weight in all honesty. Ideally I'd like to lose weight, but as long as I'm in shape and get some my old strength and fitness back, I don't care if I weigh 300lbs (well...maybe a bit, but you get the idea)

Right now, I don't have too much muscle, so I'd like to work on my overall strength/fitness first, then worry about cutting, if I still feel the need to drop some weight.

p.s. I work 3rd shift security from 2200-0600 so I get to the gym at about 0630 on the way home from work, then go home to sleep immediately afterwards. Would I be better off going around 2000 rather than right before I go to bed? Also, I have trouble making it to the gym on off days because my fiancee and I are sharing one car, so any regime with more days would be very very very hard to incorporate.


Sorry for such a short post, full of so many technical terms :P

[AdamGB]

Sleeping right after, you don't want to do you work out and then carry out 8 hours of work on your feet, you'll get much better results doing your work, going to the gym then going to bed.

If I where you I'd encorparate the bag into a few of my 'on' days aswell as my off days You can really push yourself on a bag. Good for keeping you loose, working your technique and keeping your chest loose but equally as good for an intense all over work out.

[Poom]

Simple answers :

Do you want to gain muscle ? - if Yes take creatine

Do you want to cut fat ? - if Yes then don't.

You cant easily cut fat and build muscle at the same time so choose one of these options and stick to it.