creatine questions....bloating.....ect

ive done steroids a few times before.....i have been off for more than 6 months now...and i feel and look great, hoping to continoue gaining muscle naturally until future cycle (which i am not in a rush to start at all).
last time i used creatine was 4 years ago....i know what its like when combined with not so clean a diet. i get bloated...in the face and body.

can the face bloat be controlled if commited to clean diet and some cardio (once or twice a week)?

does creatine cause stomach bloat?

should i do a loading phase?

water retention can be completely avoided by using creatine ethyl ester (CEE) instead of creatine monohydrate, and it doesn't hafta be loaded

The loading phase for me just makes the results come faster..but creatine only works for me for about 6 weeks so no matter how I do it I only get gains for 6 weeks... then I hope off and hit it up again about a month or 2 later..

I've been on creatine monohydrate 2 weeks now... absolutely loving it. I think the water bloat in the face and gut are complete bull. I'm eating clean carbs and the strength and mass gains are great. To answer your questions, I'm using plain monohydrate (not something with ALA or sugar), and did the loading phase... (5 days at 20g spaced out over 4 servings). Currently taking 10g/day. I think if you keep your diet in check you should be ok with the bloat, imo, this stuff's great.

if your concerned about bloating from creatine, then go with V-12 or Satur8, I'm on Satur8 right now and the stuff is the bomb. No bloating at all.