Come off Creatine when cutting

[chapz]

Fed up of being a blocky, bloated guy and finally have the burning desire to get diced up, so I have started a cut. I want to come off creatine, because it makes me hold absolutely insane amounts of water in my upper torso and especially in face. I understand that people think it is important to stay on creatine whilst cutting in order to preserve strength and consequently muscle whilst in a deficit.
My cut will probably take 6 months if I am to do it properly, but I can imagine I will lose motivation if I stayed on creatine, as I would barely be able to see my face getting the impression of being leaner.
My question is: could I still do a succesful cut without creatine?

[shoefanatic23]

Yes, you can still have a successful cut without consuming creatine. What type of creatine were you consuming, mono?

[chapz]

Yes, you can still have a successful cut without consuming creatine. What type of creatine were you consuming, mono?

yeah mono

[shoefanatic23]

yeah mono

AH ok. Some have experienced with bloating while consuming mono. If you want to still consume creatine on this cut, you could look into something like Controlled Lab's Green Mag. Check Powercage's sig for a sample.

[Misctake7]

You can cut out creatine, but it's not the source of "insane amounts of water in my upper torso and especially in face". Sure, you will hold some water from creatine, but it won't be noticeable. That's going to be bodyfat or water retention due to diet. As long as you keep creatine down to 3-5g a day, you shouldn't experience any bloating from it. If you're intaking more, then it's possible it's causing bloat.

[chapz]

You can cut out creatine, but it's not the source of "insane amounts of water in my upper torso and especially in face". Sure, you will hold some water from creatine, but it won't be noticeable. That's going to be bodyfat or water retention due to diet. As long as you keep creatine down to 3-5g a day, you shouldn't experience any bloating from it. If you're intaking more, then it's possible it's causing bloat.

I cut out creatine mono for a week not so long ago whilst eating at maintenance. By the end of the week friends and family were saying it looked like I had lost a lot of weight in my face. Go figure.

[Misctake7]

I cut out creatine mono for a week not so long ago whilst eating at maintenance. By the end of the week friends and family were saying it looked like I had lost a lot of weight in my face. Go figure.

Were you eating at maintenance prior? Same meals and macro ratios? Where you consuming only 3-5g creatine prior?

Creatine might affect your body different enough to bloat you, but then again, so many factors to consider.

[llahhsoj]

Fed up of being a blocky, bloated guy and finally have the burning desire to get diced up, so I have started a cut. I want to come off creatine, because it makes me hold absolutely insane amounts of water in my upper torso and especially in face. I understand that people think it is important to stay on creatine whilst cutting in order to preserve strength and consequently muscle whilst in a deficit.
My cut will probably take 6 months if I am to do it properly, but I can imagine I will lose motivation if I stayed on creatine, as I would barely be able to see my face getting the impression of being leaner.
My question is: could I still do a succesful cut without creatine?

I would continue on to use the creatine. It does give you a few pounds of water weight but that will level off. If your diet is proper, you will see visible results.

[The Solution]

Creatine is stored intra-cellular not extra-cellular. The reason you may have had the bloating could be multpile factors
- not enough water
- taking in too much creatine (3-5g is plenty after 5g for 30 days)
- food sources in your diet or consuming more sodium then necessary which can make someone puffy.

There is no need to load creatine, taking in excessive creatine can be a reason for holding water.

Total body creatine pool turnover is ~2 grams per day. So, if you've neared saturation from use of creatine over an extended period of time, then you are not going to retain more than ~2 grams no matter what. ~3 grams (+/- a little dpending upon LBM) is really all that's needed. As you can see from the Cr group below, most of the 10 grams of creatine taken at once goes down the toilet.

remember:
creatine supplementation increases aldosterone no more than does placebo in studies.

Loading is the reason for increased water. If you load more than your GI can absorb then you will have creatine sitting in the GI tract and will pull water into the area to reduce the solute concentration, thus giving you the appearance of being bloated.

[chapz]

Creatine is stored intra-cellular not extra-cellular. The reason you may have had the bloating could be multpile factors
- not enough water
- taking in too much creatine (3-5g is plenty after 5g for 30 days)
- food sources in your diet or consuming more sodium then necessary which can make someone puffy.

There is no need to load creatine, taking in excessive creatine can be a reason for holding water.

Total body creatine pool turnover is ~2 grams per day. So, if you've neared saturation from use of creatine over an extended period of time, then you are not going to retain more than ~2 grams no matter what. ~3 grams (+/- a little dpending upon LBM) is really all that's needed. As you can see from the Cr group below, most of the 10 grams of creatine taken at once goes down the toilet.

remember:
creatine supplementation increases aldosterone no more than does placebo in studies.

Loading is the reason for increased water. If you load more than your GI can absorb then you will have creatine sitting in the GI tract and will pull water into the area to reduce the solute concentration, thus giving you the appearance of being bloated.

Wow thanks a lot. Think I will come off it for one week just to "flush it out" of my system, whilst eating under maintanance. Then will restart dosage at 3-5g a day and continue that for the rest of my cut. My diet is not high in sodium, so I can only assume it must be over consumption of mono and hence the GI tract issue...

[bbowsh54]

You can definitely have a successful cut without creatine...

However, I would personally stay on it as long as possible, especially for the first half of your cut...

Once it gets a little harder to shed the weight each week, you can cut out creatine towards the tail end of your cut, if you think it really affects your water retention.

It will serve as a little bit of built-in plateau breakthrough later in your cut... Just my opinion. Keep it under five grams a day, and you'll be fine!

[mtownballer20]

Try without it, you can always go back to it.

[The Solution]

Wow thanks a lot. Think I will come off it for one week just to "flush it out" of my system, whilst eating under maintanance. Then will restart dosage at 3-5g a day and continue that for the rest of my cut. My diet is not high in sodium, so I can only assume it must be over consumption of mono and hence the GI tract issue...

You realize some of the foods you eat contain creatine. Flushing it out won't do anything in the grand scheme of things.
Creatine can help competitors and those cutting to stay full, have better performance, endurance, and strength output as noted in research on the ingredient.

[schneppy07]

Fed up of being a blocky, bloated guy and finally have the burning desire to get diced up, so I have started a cut. I want to come off creatine, because it makes me hold absolutely insane amounts of water in my upper torso and especially in face. I understand that people think it is important to stay on creatine whilst cutting in order to preserve strength and consequently muscle whilst in a deficit.
My cut will probably take 6 months if I am to do it properly, but I can imagine I will lose motivation if I stayed on creatine, as I would barely be able to see my face getting the impression of being leaner.
My question is: could I still do a succesful cut without creatine?

Yes you can with or without it. I would keep it in though its not going to make you any less lean being on it. Stay on it and worry about fat loss and don't worry about any bloat if there even is some

[chapz]

You realize some of the foods you eat contain creatine. Flushing it out won't do anything in the grand scheme of things.
Creatine can help competitors and those cutting to stay full, have better performance, endurance, and strength output as noted in research on the ingredient.

Yes I realize creatine is found naturally in food sources. You said an excess can cause build up in the GI tract. By coming off supplementation altogether at the beginning of my cut I would hopefully be removing this large excess, as during that week I would only get a source from foods, hence I would still receive a source, but would be removing the bloating caused from the loading issue you mentioned. Would then restart at 5 g as I continue on the continue the cut. Don't see what I failed to understand in your post.

[The Solution]

Yes I realize creatine is found naturally in food sources. You said an excess can cause build up in the GI tract. By coming off supplementation altogether at the beginning of my cut I would hopefully be removing this large excess, as during that week I would only get a source from foods, hence I would still receive a source, but would be removing the bloating caused from the loading issue you mentioned. Would then restart at 5 g as I continue on the continue the cut. Don't see what I failed to understand in your post.

Your mistake was loading in the first place. You can just resume the typical 3-5g on workout days and you will be fine. No need to cut it cold turkey. it will do its job over time.

[~Hades~]

Not sure why you'd want to come off tbh. cutting is about losing fat not water.

[Rushie]

Yes I realize creatine is found naturally in food sources. You said an excess can cause build up in the GI tract. By coming off supplementation altogether at the beginning of my cut I would hopefully be removing this large excess, as during that week I would only get a source from foods, hence I would still receive a source, but would be removing the bloating caused from the loading issue you mentioned. Would then restart at 5 g as I continue on the continue the cut. Don't see what I failed to understand in your post.

I'm sure you will be perfectly fine if you cut out creatine. You don't need it for a successful cut.

[TrainerTone]

I don't see a need to cut it out during a cut. I use it regardless if I'm bulking or cutting. Guess it comes down to personal preference