(Realised I wrote an essay, so I added a TLDR, thank you)
This evening I tried 2000mg creatine supplements in the form of pills before a judo session, just as a little experiment, as I know creatine is supposed to boost athletic performance in high-intensity bursts, I thought that’d help during my sparring.
I’m very willing, and half expecting, that it’s down to the placebo affect, but I noticed my speed and alertness were significantly increased compared to a regular session without them – i’ve not changed anything else in my diet today.
I usually avoid these pills (I got them from my brother who used to be into body-building) because I heard about the water-retention and other things which would cause someone using these supplements to gain weight – i’m trying to do the opposite (niche myself into the <66kg weight catagory for judo, being at about 68-69 now), but after seeing the improvements made this evening, i thought i'd do a little research…
Most articles talk about power lifters – as I expected, the stuff works best on small, high intensity bursts, such as lifting weights or sprinting, taking 20-30 grams daily for 2 weeks to get the maximum creating retention, I assume for a competition, or so, and gaining, purely from the supplementation, 1-2kg weekly. Something i'd obviously like to avoid!
Now that I've explained all this you may be wondering what I'm on Y! Answers for – well, a skim over the first page of google on this issue doesn't seem to cater for people like me, trying to lose weight, and find performance boosting supplements for their sports…
Now my question is: How much creatine would anyone in-the-know recommend I add into my diet through supplementation, and when? I know creatine is found in red meat and tuna, in conventional diets, I borderline-never eat red meat, and tuna only very occasionally (probably the odd sandwich's worth every other week or less..), I jog about 2.5 miles every morning, cycle (casual speed, not competitive cycling) at least 6 miles every day to and from work, and twice a week (6 hours total) I attend judo clubs. I'm 19, about 69kg, Male, I try to stay away from fatty foods and "eat my greens" as it were, eating about 1800-2100 calories every day depending on the quantity of exercise I'm doing that day.
TL:DR
Creatine seems to be lacking in my diet – and it really seems to boost my judo performance when I take it with my diet, but how much should I limit myself to, whilst I'm trying to lose weight? Thank you for reading