I am trying to get back in shape, I don't eat red meat. I haven't eaten it since I was a serious athlete a few years back. For some reason it is the only part of my old diet that I didn't break, I ate loads of crap but not red meat.

Now that I am trying to get back in shape after about a year getting fat I am going back to the old diet. I know that red meat is a natural source of creatine, is there any creatine in chicken? If not would it be worthwhile to add a creatine supplement to my diet? If so, are there any brands/types that you would recommend? How much should I take?

I am 6'1", I weigh about 84kg and have a body fat of about 12-16% so it won't be too much work hopefully to get back to my best of about 7% body fat. I want to weigh 92kg.

I might post my workouts in here if I lack motivation, hopefully I won't need to.

Cheers

For all practical purposes chicken is not a source of creatine.

Creatine (monohydrate) is a well-researched, effective (if you aren't a non-responder) and safe (if you aren't a ******) supplement. Go with any micronized creatine monohydrate. As long as you are getting that substance, the brand doesn't matter. You can buy it cheaply in bulk.

You can start with the standard dosing of 5g with your pwo drink/meal. Experiment and modify. There is debate about loading. I don't think it's necessary.

Is creatine a performance enhancer? I mean that once I stop taking it will I lose the benefits of having taken it? Will I lose the retained water etc?

There is not very much good info. about creatine online imo

Take this with a grain of salt because my knowledge of creatine is limited (and I've never taken it).

From what I've read, creatine is a performance enhancer in the sense that it helps you recover quicker and might give you a little bit of extra energy/"feeling good" to help you have better workouts. It's benefit is the fact that you're allowed to push yourself harder than you would have been able to.

After you stop taking it you would lose the water weight, but you wouldn't lose any extra muscle/etc. you had developed while on it.

There are no "gains" to be lost b/c creatine is non-hormonal. That is, your body's physiology will be the same whether or not you are using creatine. When you juice, your body is receiving insane amounts of anabolic hormones and creating an essentially artificial environment for muscle growth.

That's why when you get off, you will lose a sizeable amount of your gains from a cycle. Not sure if you want it, but here's a little biochemistry lesson just to explain how creatine works.

Your body uses ATP (adenosine triphosphate) as its primary energy source. When ATP is used up, a phosphate group is cleaved off leaving it as ADP (diphosphate). The ADP will grab a phosphate group off of creatine-phosphate to create more ATP. So in theory, the larger the available pool of creatine-phosphate, the more ATP you have available during strenuous exercise and thus, more reps. Hope this helps.

Edit: Didn't see your additional questions at the bottom. Chicken has very small amounts of creatine, so yes supplementing would be a good choice. Look for micronized creatine monohydrate. Purity seems to be a big issue lately, so try to find one that is 3rd party certified as 100% pure. Use 5 grams a day and make sure to drink lots of water.

taking small amounts of creatine as a supplement should be fine. The only research I've read that causes kidney problems was *mostly* from people who took too much or for too long a cycle and didn't drink enough water (you need a lot). There is still a ton of long term research to do but I haven't read anything that definitely says to stay away from it.

Thanks for all the advice guys, I will try to pick up some creatine monohydrate this weekend. I presume it is best to go for creatine on its own as opposed to a combination of protein/glutamine/creatine etc?

What? No. It's perfectly fine to use all 3 together, you should be supplementing with protein anyway when you are lifting regularly.

I know. I am on weight gain and protein. It would be easier to control what you are taking if they are all separate. E.g taking creatine right before a workout, whereas your last meal should be at least 1 hour before the workout so it would be better if the creatine is not mixed up with other stuff

Just curious. Why don't you eat red meat?

I was a pretty serious rugby player, I was told that I could go on to be a professional. I changed my diet to get an edge. Red meat is not good for you with the exception of lean steak. It has a high animal fat content.

As for the rugby, **** happens. I don't play any more. Haven't played properly in about 2 years, in the interim I gave up on my diet but for some strange reason I never ate red meat.

You do know that most elite athletes are meat eaters right.

I doubt that they eat a lot of pork, lamb, bacon, poor quality steaks etc. I eat chicken, turkey and fish. I have been taking an iron supplement just in case although I probably don't need to since most breakfast cereals are fortified with iron. I am only now looking into the lack of creatine in my diet.

If you just don't like red meat that's fine. But if your only concern is eating too much saturated fat, then you can avoid that by getting lean cuts, especially if you get grass fed, free range beef. It seems counter-intuitive to avoid red meat and then take various supplements to make up for what you're missing.

the steak i get has 19g of protein and 2g of fat per 4 oz serving, and is super tasty.

damn, what steak is that? I've just been eating 90-93% lean ground beef and good quality lean steak, but nowhere near that low in fat. I eat beef and eggs almost every day, and although I definitely need the sat fat in my diet I should probably cut down a little bit. I've heard good things about buffalo meat too. Where do you guys get this stuff?

Whole Foods usually has bison available. And if you go grass fed and free range, cow meat can get really lean.

I've seen far less than 5 grams recommended, and got a very noticeable effect from about 2 grams.

Also keep in mind that the fat in red meat is only 40% saturated fat. Back to OP, the fat composition of pigs is a lot different from cows and bison. Pork is not considered a red meat.

If you're fat then work out and forget the performance enhancers.

Jeff, i dont have any in my fridge right now since im leaving today, but its prepackaged stuff haha, and its just in the meat section in the tom thumb i go to, theres usually like 4 diff types of beef filet prepackaged and this was the best protein fat ratio so i got it and it tastes pretty damn good to boot.