Creatine vs Proteine powder

[MarkusSweden]

I'm about to start lifting weights. 

Which one should I use to grow in muscle mass? 

Or shall I use both? Or neither of them and eat tuna fishes and eggs instead?

[Faceless]

You just trying to gain a little muscle? 

Fish & eggs is fine. 

 

[Major Tom]

Isolated protein powder is fine post workout, I can't recommend creatine though, too many side effects. 

[RabbitHole]

You don't need that shit. Eat little caloric surplus, 1.5g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight and results will come. To increase your size you need higher calorie intake, sure those powders have like 300-500 calories per 100g, but that can be easily consumed by food, forget that they give muscle as many begginners believe, they are waste of money. Go into https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html# and check how many calories you need to gain weight. Then just start counting calories and hit the target daily, the higher surplus the more you gain, you can gain even 5kg per month, but I recommend keeping surplus 300-600 calories per maintenance otherwise you will gain fat too. Also for begginers mass comes much faster than those who do It for longer period. So with little surplus you will see decent improvements in already few months. If you have specific questions, bring them on, I know this stuff pretty well.

[pluto]

Protein/Amino Acids are the building blocks of muscle. You can't build without. Creatine is a secondary supplement and not essential.

Creatine will help retain water and increase performance and strength but its not absolutely necessary and if you eat a lot of protein rich foods and have healthy digestion you won't need a protein powder at all but in the beginning it is a nice boost.

If you want creatine as well make sure to get Creapure AKA German Creatine is the purest form known. There is also BCAAs but again most protein powders should have added BCAAs and if you eat enough protein rich and whole foods in general and train properly you are going to build mass no matter what.

 

Edited August 31, 2018 by pluto

[Prabhaker]

10 hours ago, MarkusSweden said:

I'm about to start lifting weights. 

 

[Naminami]

Your body uses protein to build new muscle, and recover damaged muscle tissue post-workout. You need 2.2g protein per kilogram of body-weight (1g/lb) to maximize muscle recovery and build muscle. For an 80kg/175lb guy, that’s about 175g of protein per day.

Read more https://stronglifts.com/build-muscle/

[Michael569]

18 hours ago, Naminami said:

You need 2.2g protein per kilogram of body-weight (1g/lb) to maximize muscle recovery and build muscle.

Not necessarily true if one wants to avoid renal and digestive issues. Sites aimed on muscle gain rarely consider health aspects of their recommended protocols

@MarkusSweden regarding the creatine, while there are some benefits for sure, your body creates creatine phosphate from the food you eat and uses it to produce the ATP (available cellular energy) in mitochondria by adding an ADP group. This only works for 10-15 seconds of the strenuous exercise (this is the time between starting the exercise until feeling first hint of discomfort or pain) after which the aerobic (jogging/swimming) or anaerobic (sprinting, HIIT) respiration kicks in depending on the activity type. Unless you are a professional athlete needing to get an edge during the initial 10-15 secs and potentially adding 2-3 seconds to it, supplementing creatine will only result in excess creatinine (byproduct of muscle metabolism) accumulation which puts stress on your renal filtration. 

P.S. the chart below explains the utilisation of creatine phosphate during exercise nicely. 

 

Edited September 14, 2018 by Michael569

[pluto]

From my experience, understanding and expertise in the field.

0.8g - 1.2.g/kg is optimal for general health, longevity, well-being ect..

1.5g - 2.0g/kg is for bodybuilding and athletic/strength performance.

There are also some other factors varying from person to person, some need more, some need less as Michael mentioned.

Find where you feel best and follow that

[sgn]

@Prabhaker Lemme guess, Osho?

 

[sgn]

@MarkusSweden I use both.