How much sugar to take w/ Creatine?

[AandF6969]

I've been taking creatine about 5 months and have loaded it once a month, but I think I should see better results. I hear very good things about cell tech, and if I mix creatine with sugar will it do pretty much the same thing? If so, how much sugar should I use? I take protein shakes 4 times throughout the day/nightand I could always mix the sugar/creatine in there.

[Feli Fly]

First off, I don't see why anyone really uses creatine for that long, but lots of guys do, so to each their own I guess...

There is no real good answer as to the amount of sugar you should use... what you are aiming for is an insulin spike to push the creatine into cells. If you are taking it post workout, you might need a lot of help there (so a good amount of sugar) because insulin is very low at that time; same with early AM. If you are just taking it in mid-day, you may not need as much since insulin level is reasonably high already. It also depends on the GI of the sugars you are using.

If you research insulin and GI a lil bit, you can probably answer your own question here, bro.

[saboudian]

Why does everyone always insist on mixing creatine, dextrose, and protein all in one shake?

No cell tech is not the same thing as reg creatine with dextrose. Cell-tech has many things that help increase creatine absorption, once you start going through each of the ingredients you will see this.

However, i'm a broke ass college student and i can't afford cell-tech so i just buy creatine and dextrose in bulk so its cheap as fuck. (Like $10 a month). I'm not quite sure how much more effective cell-tech is, but for me, its either cheap creatine or no creatine at all.

[Feli Fly]

No cell tech is not the same thing as reg creatine with dextrose. Cell-tech has many things that help increase creatine absorption, once you start going through each of the ingredients you will see this...

Give me a fawkin break. I'm glad you like to read their ads, but if you really thought that it was "209 times better than creatine!" or whatever, you would be buying it.

What cell-tech has:
-creatine monohydrate
-dextrose (which you can buy for like $2/lb)
-ALA (which is stupid; ALA rapidly degrades when exposed to atmospheric conditions and is stupid to be in any tub of powder)
-vitamins/minerals (nothing you wouldn't get from a cheap multi)
-expensive ads, models, and a huge ad budget that they need to cover

The only reason Cell Tech supposedly "blows creatine away" is because they rigged the study. Look at the stupididy of it: cell tech vs creatine with water. Wow, I bet any creatine with sugars would beat creatine with water just as well! It comes down to insulin like I said.

If you are really so into the hype, buy pure creatine, dextrose or other high GI sugar, ALA (in capsules), and vitamins. You'll still probably spend less than half the $.

[saboudian]

Well if you really want me to give you a break, i won't.

I also beleive that creatine disolves when exposed to light or moisture just like ALA, yet it still works, isn't that weird? I take it you've never spent any time in the lab then, if you did then you would know that even if it does degrade in the atomsphere, it will do so at a mind numbingly slow rate which is why you would always need a catalyst, so unless you leave your cell-tech outside in the sun unsealed at 99% humidity, i wouldn't worry about the ALA or creatine being destroyed.

Cell-tech contains the following:

Taurine-many benefits but i'll just list the important one (amino acid by the way) basically it helps with cell membrane stability, helps move nutrients into and out of the cells.

Sodium,Potassium-both important for electrolyte balance

Vit C-i'm not going to list these, everyone should be aware of how powerful Vit C is.

Lipoic Acid
Mimics Insulin
Powerful Antioxidant
Enhances Glucose Utilization
Enhance Amino Acid Transport
Increases Creatine Uptake
Increases effects of other vitamins and antioxidants (such as Vitamins A,C,E)
Oh btw, if you've ever had cell-tech, you'll notice a burning sensation in the back of your throat, thats the ALA, thats how you know the ALA has not degraded

chromium picolinate
enhances insulin's effect in the body, improving the uptake of glucose, thereby causing better blood circulation and maintenance of blood sugar level. I beleive it has other benefits also, but you can see why it could be useful.

calcium- several benefits but main one i will list,
makes better use of present macronutrients in body

magnesium- important in several biological functions (over 300 i think), maintains normal muscle and nerve function, aids in energy metabolism and protein synthesis

You are right, most of this stuff is in any multi-vitamin, but they are not in a state that will be used as readily by the body as they would in cell-tech.

I did not want to sound so defensive, but you made me come off like a frickin idiot. Trust me, i love those 6 page ad reports as much as you do, but don't be so narrow minded before you make a decision about cell-tech because you always hear your friends saying that its a waste of money. If you do some research and maybe a lil thinking, you might figure out that they did make a decent product despite their marketing strategies.

I agree that essentially all you need is dextrose and creatine, in fact thats what i said in my original post and you later said the same thing , i just said cell-tech is better because it has many ingredients that will increase its absorption. I did NOT say Cell-tech would be 209 times better, i simply stated cell-tech would be better but i did not know by how much it would be better.

So plz gimme a fawkin break.

[Feli Fly]

Well, I'm not gonna sit here and argue with ya here bro. Oh, and I checked their site real quick, I guess Cell Tech is only "19 times better" after all LOL (but Nitro Tech sure is "24 times better than whey").

Bottom line is that I think we can both agree that for the price of Cell Tech tub, you could get a kilo of generic creatine mono, a couple lbs of dext, some WPC, a multivitamin, and probably even some glutamine too and you would be much better off.

And yah, I've spent a lil too much time in a lab actually... bio, chem, o-chem, anat, micro, biochem, virology, ecology, physio, dadada and now grad anat, micro, and histo so far.

I just would have to assume that ALA is better in caps as opposed to powders because that's what they use in every study on it an diabetes I've ever seen and the fact that it comes in dark glass tightly vacuum sealed bottles like most photo/atmosphere sensitive compounds do. I've never really read anything on creatine decay.

[GNCGUY83]

the ratio of carbs to creatine is 5:1, if your taking in 10 grams of creatine, take in 50 carbs