Creatine loading bad experience - did I do it wrong?

[Kilvy94]

So I started including creatine in my supplements 2 days ago. I read so much about how safe it is, recommended dosage (loading and maintanenace) and so on. It went as follows:

note: 25, male, 80 kg
day 1: Took 20g creatine spread out through the day. Followed the recommended 250ml of water per 3 gram as on my packaging. Started feeling DOMS-like pain in most of my body during the night. Wasn't too bad.

day 2: Took 5g in the morning. Then 15g in the evening (at once again 250ml water/ 3g , didn't think it was a big deal). During the night, I couldn't sleep because my deltoid and muscles around armpit cramped so hard they were painful even to touch. Couldn't move my left arm because of it. Was feeling cold shivers during the night, diahrreha.
Next day, I was feeling super fatigued, entire body crampy and painful, couldn't even go to college, headaches. Only started to get better in the next evening, but felt like I was dying for around 18 hours.

Now is this common with creatine? I think not. And just after taking two loading doses, could it be something completely unrelated?
Now today I'm totally scared to even touch it or take any more of it.

[colontos]

No idea if creatine caused it. Seems possible.

Good news: you don't need to load. Just take 5g/day, any time of day, in any beverage. You will reach saturation in 30 days at most.

[OT2000]

Stop taking 20g. Take a few grams daily, that’s it. Drink plenty of water as you should be, but a good amount more when taking creatine. Some people have reported cramping when taking a lot of Creatine and not staying hydrated. I would shoot for a gal or two daily when taking Creatine.

[smokinal]

Too much in one dose can most definitely cause upset stomach and diahrreha. I've never heard of it causing sore muscles though.

If I were you, and wanted to give it another go, I'd wait 3-4 days, make sure you feel "normal", and then just start in with 5g once per day and see how you feel.

[MCrow]

Take 3-5g a day every day, that's all you need. Loading is useless.

It could be that the creatine gave you the poops enough to dehydrate which would cause the cramps and maybe chills too. Could also have been a stomach bug.

[keyboardworkout]

I take 10 grams every morning with no problems. This is the dose my doc recommended.

[koweanguy]

Too much in one dose can most definitely cause upset stomach and diahrreha. I've never heard of it causing sore muscles though.

If I were you, and wanted to give it another go, I'd wait 3-4 days, make sure you feel "normal", and then just start in with 5g once per day and see how you feel.

^Mhmm,

Stay hydrated!!

[Farley1324]

3-5g a day, every day, any time of day, in any beverage, no loading, no cycling. Done

[shadow_flare]

Loading is not needed. You are saturated after awhile anyways so loading is kinda dumb.

As for your water intake you should be getting a lot more. I usually try to drink about a gallon to 64 ounces a day depending on my activity and I count stuff like tea in that amount as well.

Hm, the muscle cramping sounds like a potassium issue. Eat a banana. I used to get something similar to that in my calves and it hurt like mf.

[BenMcLeodNZ]

I have no idea why companies recommend loading, that's a very common experience and it turns people off it. Even just taking 5g a day felt terrible to me for a week or two.
After a month you're saturated anyway, and that's not a long time in the grand scheme.

[9863]

Personally I do the loading phase (I'm impatient) usually around 20g/day for about a week, then I drop to 5g daily.
I've never had any issues during either phase but in saying that I always increase my water intake when taking creatine.

Everyone is different, people react differently.