Bodybuilding Forums

So, I'm a big ol nerd, and I enjoy doing research more than is remotely normal.

That said, I got to doing some digging on creatine and non-responders and proper usage, and I am consistently finding a particular piece of advice - dissolve the creatine in warm water, because it does not dissolve in cold. I've even read claims that creatine is mostly ineffective when mixed with straight cold water.

This seems logical. I generally drink everything ice cold, and the creatine does in fact settle. Now, creatine doesn't degrade to creatinine until you heat it up to 303°C, so even if I mix mine in boiling water, I'm nowhere near destroying it. The sites I've read elsewhere (and there were scores) advise to mix it in hot water, then add cold water to bring it down to a drinkable room temp, and chug away, so this is my next little experiment. So far, I've tried this exactly once - in 4oz of hot water and 4oz of cold it didn't quite dissolve, but with 8oz of hot water, my heaping teaspoon of creatine dissolved entirely, and 8oz of cold brought it to room temp and didn't give me that gonna-hurl feeling from drinking hot water.

I'll check back in a few weeks and let you know if I notice a difference, but I'm wondering if any of you have tried or heard of this before? If so, anyone else tried it or am I the guinea pig here? Not that I mind being the guinea pig, just curious, and more info is always better.

Funny, I just posted a similar post, which I deleted as soon as I read this one, because it overlaps quite a bit.

I notice that there's always some creatine left in the bottom of my shake bottle, even when I mix it between sips, so I was thinking about switching to caplets or even soluble creatine, if I could find it for the right price. Not only do I want to make sure I'm getting the proper dosage and not wasting, but also wouldn't miss the chalky residue.

Does anyone know if these forms, especially the soluble, would be as efficient as the monohydrate powder? After researching a bit, it looks like the soluble creatine is creatine ethyl ester, not monohydrate, which I don't know anything about.

Creatine monohydrate caplets, on the other hand, are easy to find.

Obviously, I'll rethink these options if JoH gets any good feedback from others who might have done what he's trying, as the powder is the most cost-effective route.

Thanks!

LombieHerc wrote:Obviously, I'll rethink these options if JoH gets any good feedback from others who might have done what he's trying, as the powder is the most cost-effective route.

Yeah you're gonna be a bit of a wait on that... I can tell you definitely yes the monohydrate dissolves entirely in warm water. I can't speak to efficacy because I've taken all kinds of sick and I'm still not recovered enough to differentiate between what's supplementation and what's my body in flip-out-mode. Once I'm fully recovered I'll definitely follow up, though in the interim if anyone else wants to try and see if there's an advantage to it other than no chalky taste, no crap in the bottom of the shaker, and no grit in the teeth, go for it. I was doing 5g in 8oz of hot (nearly boiling) water, stir till diluted, then add 8 oz of cold to make it a drinkable temp. Seriously it all dissolved and there was virtually no taste.

Was there any definitive outcome to your research JoH ? I'm glad to hear it doesn't alter till 303°C - I was always worried about mixing it in tea but now I know thats cool but does it help beyond making it more drinkable ?

LoadedScissors wrote:Was there any definitive outcome to your research JoH ? I'm glad to hear it doesn't alter till 303°C - I was always worried about mixing it in tea but now I know thats cool but does it help beyond making it more drinkable ?

OMG I totally forgot I never came back to this!

Verdict - YES. Mix it in hot water. The grit being gone is nice, the fact that it absorbs faster and means all that liquid is heading straight to my bowels is annoying, but the leap in strength and strength gains I got changing from mixing it in cold to mixing it in hot water just blew my mind. I went from struggling to add a rep to each set week over week to being virtually guaranteed at least that level of progress, and frequently getting more. And literally all I had done was swap from mixing my pre-workout creatine in cold water to mixing it in hot.

It's strange that your stomach can't dissolve it.
I have no problem in getting the last stuff out of the bottom of the cup.
Just add more water and swirl, doh.

Haha, its funny you should say that I've NOTICED a difference taking creatine in my tea, whenever I tried is before its been in refrigerated juice or water (pre-muscle hack by a long way) and thinking back I took it because I thought I should but never actually got anywhere all this week I've either successfully added weight or added 3-4 reps! You're telling me this will continue ?! AWESOME !
Another thing I'll note you said is pre-workout I've also bee taking it pre work out (about 30mins - 1 hour) which seems to work better than post work out for me which is I think what mark suggests ?

Just got to work out how to push my bicepts harder now as nothing hits my bicepts as much as the tricept day hits my tricepts.
You never know one day I might actually put on noticeable muscle.

Cheers for coming back to this though. Your input is always appreciated.

I will try dissolving it in hot water first. Organic, filtered, heated cold water that is. . . .

Good luck John let us know if taking it in hot water improves things for you.

Well, too soon to tell but I took 5gr in heated water on waking up.
30 minutes later I started my protein shake with 5gr heated in water added.
Did 2 or 3 more reps on Abs than I did last week.
This is after doing 50 mile bike ride last Sunday in LA.
Too soon to tell because I did add 2 tablespoons of dextrose to my waking up stuff (AAKG, liquid B-Complex).
So it might be the Dextrose, it might be the heated Creatine, it might be just my normal killer progression towards huge muscle mass.

It really is hard to believe that my stomach acids can't dissolve the creatine on it's own. Dunno. So far, only anecdotal stuff on this subject.