Question from the Fiance re: Creatine and a W30

[MelliebuStacey]

Hello lovelies,

As I've mentioned in other posts, my fiance wants to do a W30 with me in a couple of months.

He is wondering if a creatine monohydrate supplement (he is a lifter of heavy things hahaha) would be considered a no-go during a W-30. I checked the label, and that is in fact the only ingredient. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance

[Tom Denham]

It would be best to stop creatine supplementation so that your fiance can evaluate his performance in the gym based upon his real, whole foods, meat and veggie diet. Many people experience strength gains during their Whole30 - I did - and if he is taking a supplement, he may credit the supplement for his gains when it actually had nothing to do with it. Besides, the evidence in support of creatine supplementation is weak. There are a lot of enthusiastic testimonies about the value of creatine, but actual studies have difficulty finding measurable benefits for anyone except vegetarians and people on low meat diets.

[MelliebuStacey]

Thanks Tom I'm passing it along to the man!

[Renee Lee]

I personally feel like for 90% of people doing the W30, it really should be supplement free. I feel like it goes against what I feel the whole point of the W30 is...but that's my (and Tom's) opinion. M&D are fine with supps that folks deem necessary, as long as they're clean. (The 10% are folks that are either serious athletes or already working with a doc/naturopath to deal with their baggage and have a big stack already)

But, for what it's worth, Robb Wolf's a big fan of creatine as a supplement for athletes, given the cost vs. potential benefit.

"I REALLY like Creatine.... Beyond its performance enhancing characteristics (of which ~25% of the populations are non-responders) Creatine has some interesting properties like decreasing oxidative damage (both from exercise and eschemia/reperfusion injury) and it decreases circulating cortisol levels and may increase growth hormone release if taken before bed. Not bad stuff when you consider it is nearly cheap as dirt!

Regarding dosages I would stick with an inexpensive monohydrate and go anywhere form 5-10g per day. As I mentioned above taking it prior to bed may be good with regards to enhancing growth hormone release. I do not see a need to load or take it with some kind of insulin spikker. When you run out of a bottle maybe wait a week before starting the next one. Buy your Creatine in ½ kilo sizes if possible to ensure freshness as it will hydrolyze if exposed to air for too long."

That being said, I still agree with Tom's advice to lay off it during the W30.

[MelliebuStacey]

Renee, thanks for the wicked and informative reply. My fiancé is happy to lay off for the W30--in fact, I'm excited to see what benefits laying off of whey is going to have for him (and hopefully, he won't reintroduce the whey afterwards, too )

[wallyuwl]

Just found this site and had to weigh in on this.

There have been hundreds of studies (including dozens of review articles and meta-analyses) done on/with creatine monohydrate (and other forms, mono is the most common by far) and it is both safe and effective. For anyone to say otherwise is to ignore or misunderstand the vast amount of science out there. To start, here is the International Society of Sports Nutrition's (ISSN) position statement regarding creatine: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1550-2783-4-6.pdf

If your fiance wants to stop taking creatine it is unlikely to hurt his maximum strength. It will effect his work capacity once his creatine levels return to pre-supplementation levels (so instead of getting 10 reps at a given weight he might get 8). Changing from a typical Western diet to more of a Paleo diet will have strength benefits over time because of preferential hypertrophy, decreased inflammation, better recovery from workouts, etc., but there is nothing special about the change that will influence how the muscle contracts nor its acute ability to contract during actual resistance training. Adding more meat (presumed when grains are taken out as part of a Paleo plan) will increase creatine content of the diet, but not nearly to the extent that supplementation provides.

[MelliebuStacey]

Fantastic reply, Wally. Thanks for weighing in