The Beautiful Jen Turnbull
I opened my inbox a few weeks ago and there was a question from this nice Finnish girl I have been chatting with over the past month or so. I am always happy to answer questions and love to meet new people. Thanks to the internet I now have friends on almost every continent. I still haven’t gotten an email from anyone in Antarctica yet(I have high hopes, though).
Beautiful Finnish Girl writes:
What’s your take on supplements like creatine? The big boys seem to be taking it and I wonder if it’s of any use for a little girl
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My Response:
This is a great question and yes, it is of use for a little girl like you. It’s really the only supplement I would ever approve someone to consume to aid their muscle building pursuits because it’s the only supplement that has been around long enough with research to back it up.
As for my response, creatine is safe and suitable for females as it is for males. There is no risk of ineffectiveness based on gender because our musculoskeletal profile is identical as I pointed out in this article. Creatine is perfectly fine to use regardless of what your goals may be. If you are performing intense workouts on a regular basis, it’s probably a good idea to be using it.
What is Creatine?
It’s made up of 3 amino acids(building blocks of protein), therefore it is a natural supplement. Our beautiful bodies make small amounts of creatine and if you consume red meat, fish and other animal protein sources you are getting some though your diet. However the amount we make and consume in food is very small and will not create a noticeable effect in strength levels. This is why you must supplement with a creatine product to reap the benefits. Our bodies and diet will just not provide enough.
Creatine is a very old supplement, is well researched and has been proven to work, unlike many of the newer supplements that are made purely to sell. The ever popular N.O. products come to mind right about now(cue a snarky laugh) and the supposed affects one may notice from these types of products are usually placebo(omg, I am getting such a pump BRO!).
What Makes It Work?
Without getting too technical, our bodies break down the three macro nutrients, carbs, fat and protein into an energy product known as ATP. Through a long chain of complicated processes, ingested creatine will allow one to store more ATP and creatine within the muscle cells. This in turn allows us to over reach a bit during our workouts and increase our performance slightly. This will allow you a bit faster sprint time or to squeeze out a few more reps on the bench press. Layne Norton does an awesome job explaining exactly how creatine works in the article he wrote for bodybuilding.com. Enjoy.
To Load or Not to Load
Many people will say that you must load creatine, taking 20g per day for a week to ensure your stores are maxed out for optimal progress. This is semi-true but not an absolute. If you are taking creatine, it’s going to build up in your system regardless of loading or not. I personally do not like to load as it would give me massive gastrointestinal discomfort. I have fond memories of the summer when I would decide to load up on creatine. The bathroom was a very familiar place during that first week on the stuff.
This is just my account and you may have a different experience with loading. You won’t know until you try. If you are adamant about loading, I say start small with 5g the first day and then build up by 5g each day to assess tolerance. By the time you get to the fourth day you will be at 20g and it’s only recommended to consume that much for five to seven days anyhow.
How Much, What Kind and Cycling?
If you were under my supervision I would tell you to take 5g per day and stay on the stuff. Do not worry about timing, just make sure you are ingesting the daily requirements. I like to mix mine in a protein shake. As popular as cycling creatine is, there is no need to. There are no benefits or special effects as a result of cycling creatine. Once your stores are full, the 5g daily will just keep them topped off. I also do not recommend going out and buying hyped up, overpriced creatine. Buy the inexpensive, generic creatine monohydrate powder. You can usually buy it in bulk for cheap.
For the Ladies
Here are some reminders before you begin ingesting this white, flavorless powder. You will gain weight. Your clothes are going to be tighter. You are not getting fat or growing gigantic muscles. Creatine is known for making one retain water. This is common in men and women alike. Enjoy the bloat.
There have been times where I gain a permanent 5-7 lbs after going on creatine but the initial gain is all water. Once I ditch the creatine, the water drops and I am back to normal. If you are one of those lovely females interested in strength training, I highly recommend the use of creatine. It can’t hurt and I am positive it will help you build that body you’re after.
Hi, i wanna ask a couple questions. i wanna start taking this. i lost ALOT of wait in these last few months. Its started to bother me..Im always weak and lazy. And i was not like that before…And it was because of smoking.However i AM STOPPING.I wanna exercise and take this and be like how i was before.WHat to you think i should do? Is there anyside effects?I am willing to gain weight and be energetic. Also if you stop after a while. Will there be changes? etc..
^^^^ also im only 16. is that safe?
yea buddy!
it’s hard to say “what you should do” or what I think without knowing much more than what you’ve told me. sorry.
however, if you’re wanting to take creatine, it’s perfectly fine. No need to worry about side effects or anything. some people report stomach discomfort or diarrhea but it’s not common.
if you stop taking it, there won’t be much in the terms of changes in strength if that’s what you’re asking…
i found you on google. and im sayin like does it make you gain weight? and thanks
You retain some water weight. so it’s not actual muscle or fat.
thank you so much! sorry to bother you but i have a couple more questions… so i just brought creatine this morning. i am going to start taking it tommorow. i heard that it makes your breast smaller.. is that true? also your voice changes.and etc. i dont wanna look like a man. lol .. just need a little advice. sorry
haha, I think you have creatine confused with steroids.
none of these side effects will come with taking creatine. What you will probably notice is some water weight gain and eventually strength gains. other than that, good luck!
ok thats all i needed to know. Thanks again for your help!
ok im sosososososo sorry to bother you again. but i just needed to no.i started drinking it and whutever. and today i put it in my vitamin water. i think i put a lil to much. i statted having pains in my stomach but then i just took a nap and it went away. i wanna no in a cup. how many spoon fuls should i put in it? and today if i put alot is that bad? i threw the rest of the vitamin water out cause it was alot. so suggestions?
no bother. this is what I get
paid for, satisfaction from.5g daily is enough. do you have a kitchen scale? a tbsp would be enough I believe.
5g daily should not give you any issues.
Hey JC,
So what happens after youve been takin creatine for say 6 months but all of a sudden stop taking it. Will all the strength and muscle that you got from creatine disappear over time or will you retain all the muscle and strength? Basically, do you have to permanently take creatine for the rest of your life if you want its benefits forever? THanks
you won’t lose the strength. if you do, it won’t be much. You’ll likely just drop some water and that’s it.
you don’t have tot take it forever
Hi,
Im wandering about taking creatine, my aim though is to stay petite but just to be really toned…much like the photo above. Im not keen on building real big muscles.
Would creatine be good for me to acheive this?
sure. you needn’t worry about getting “big” because it’s hard enough for females to build appreciable muscle mass anyhow.
I tried creatine mono a while back but it did nothing for me: no increase in performance and no water retention whatsover. In your experience, is it worth trying a different brand before deciding I’m a non-responder?
what kind did you try? how long did you use it for?
Ultimate Nutrition’s creatine monohydrate. I had the 300 g jar and used it until it was gone. I did a 5 day loading phase with 20 g/day, then did 3 grams per day in the morning with my carb-heavy breakfast.
Interesting. I do know that there are non-responders out there. You might be one. However there is no harm in trying again if you want. Its cheap stuff. it’s not like you are dropping a ton of cheese on the stuff.
True.
I don’t really use any supplements at all (except for protein powder and fish oil). It figures that one of the few things that’ve been proven to work doesn’t work for me :p.
After starting to take creatine I have to say that, it really works. For beautiful Finnish girls too
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I can lift heavier, I’ve lost fat (as I can lift more I probably use more energy during my gym sessions, read: not saying that creatine itself helps you to loose weight), the boys at the gym seem to like a girl who lifts with them (added benefit and nowadays I always have someone to spot for me) and so on…
My weight has stayed pretty much the same but as said, I’ve leaned out. For the first week or so my trousers did feel a bit tighter but I chould really be imagining that as I was expecting some bloating. It’ll be interesting to see though if there’s a drop in weight if I some point stop taking it.
And I did buy the cheapest stuff in the store.
and the Finnish girl showed up
good call on buying the cheapest stuff. I imagine you will drop some water when you go off of it. If you had a shoot or anything of the likes I would say to definitely drop it a few days before.
Creatine is good – just one more tip for the girls – you dont hav to pay more money for a girls creatine, use the “normal” one.
There’s girl’s creatine? I’ve never seen that! Does it come in a pink cannister?
lol, I heard if you take German creatine made specifically for women, it’s extra anabolic…
Does Creatine have calories? What brand do you recommend? The hubby may be interested. A guy at his job who does P90X keeps telling him to take Creatine, but never with any sense of informative background information.
Creatine does not contain calories unless its some special blend that contains carbohydrates. any brand will suffice. Just make sure it’s plain creatine monohydrate.
here is a result from a quick google search
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/hp/creatine.html
Hey JC,
Wanted to chime in for Creatine Mono. It is the most researched type and in AARR (Alan Aragon Research Review) Alan breaks down some research between Creatine Ethyl Ester and Kre-Alkaline and basically all break down in the stomach but the cheap ole Mono performed superior. So its most researched as well as most effective! Save a few bucks and tell the GNC guy to push his expensive junk on someone else!
Great article, sending this to all the female lifters I know! Thanks!
Absolutely right Pete. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for sharing!
How many beautiful Finnish girls do you know?
Nice article, maybe I should finally start taking it too…
actually, I am not sure about how many I know. It could be many as I live in the land of mix breeds. I read they are all beautiful though.
try it out for a while… see how you like it.
hmmms.. does your creatine gain come the same day you start, or does it sneak up a bit later? I was about to say I didn’t bloat at all and that I thought it was mostly men who bloated on creatine (revenge!), but… I did go up a pants size recently..
I suppose it can be an individual thing. I only notice it at the end of the week(when I weigh myself) being about 5lbs heavier.
up a pants size? good or bad?
Good (glutes getting into gear) and bad (girl fat ass anxiety, loss of wardrobe). I’ll jump off the creatine and see what happens, then jump on again. And then stop overthinking
BWAHAHA reading
was a great way to start my morning! Thanx
teehee
Cool article, though I’ve never had any benefit from creatine.. Most of them make me feel really sick. Can you recommend a creatine product that will most likely definitely work?
The most powerful supplements I’ve taken are Scivation Vasocharge (a nitric oxide with added creatine monohydrate) and Body Ripped Androbolin (tribulus testosterone booster)
The Vasocharge really DID give me the biggest pumps. But only for about 22 days.. On the 30th day it had completely warn off. It was not a placebo effect, it was real. But NO Xplode, Nanovapour, Vassive NO, Full Throttle NOZ, and a few other nitric oxides have not worked for me at all. The Androbolin certainly worked and made me stronger, but of the 5 or so testosterone boosters I’ve had since then, none have worked…
It’s amazing how everyone responds differently to supplements..
So anyway, what creatine product should I buy?
Of course you will see a difference after taking pro-hormone.
In my opinion all N.O. products are garbage. If you have to hype a product up like so for it to sell, good chance it’s probably useless. You never see hyped up ads for your basic creatine monohydrate. I think this is for two reasons – First, it’s been around forever and two, it simply works and they no longer need to convince people to buy the stuff.
if you want a creatine product just do a google search for the cheap monohydrate. here I will save you time.
Crea Mono
Actually when Creatine first came out, there were tons of hyped up ads for it… EAS’s Phosphagen was highly advertised and way over priced. There were several other Creatine products out there that were massively overhyped “variations” on it. Just a quibble with that statement
I would suggest a micronized creatine monohydrate, it’s basically the same as the normal creatine, it’s just a much finer grain and it mixes better so you don’t have to swallow a big wad of sandy tasting drink.
Oh sure. I didn’t mean to say that wasn’t the case. It’s just now that is has proven to be worthy, hype is unnecessary to make the sales. However I have seen some “fancy” creatines out there lately, due to new formulations, blah blah, blah. I bet they will fade out in time, just like every other dumb supplement.
I’ve already used that one and all it did was make me sick.
I’ll see if I can find another monohydrate and give it a go.