Tuesday 10 April 2012

Creatine

What is Creatine Monohydrate - Is it for you ?

How Does Creatine Monohydrate Work?

Creatine increases the energy of your muscles. It does this by increasing the amount of ATP. Because your strength depends on ATP, supplementing creatine enhances your strength.
In a more detailed description, ATP is the initial fuel for your muscle contractions. (ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate.) The ATP provides energy by releasing a phosphate molecule, and it then becomes ADP (adenosine diphosphate). See how the name went from triphosphate to diphosphate? This just means it has 2 instead of 3 after losing 1.

The energy produced by this lasts for about 10 seconds, after which more ATP must be produced. This is where creatine phosphate comes in and gives its phosphate to the ADP making another ATP. This ATP again, is used as energy. You can think of it as the more creatine you have (by supplementing creatine) you'll be able to produce
more ATP and thus generate more energy during workouts. Your ability to generate ATP depends on your supply of creatine. The more creatine you have, the more ATP you can make. Having the extra creatine in your body allows you to work your muscles to the maximum potential - letting you squeeze every bit out of them. However, you still lose energy molecules and eventaully, no matter how much creatine you have, they won't do you any good without the energy molecules, which depends heavily on Ribose to manufacture.

Creatine and Your Diet

Creatine naturally exists in your body. So it's not some miracle drug scientists created. The amount of creatine in your body depends on your body weight and mostly on your muscle mass. An average 150lb person will have about 120 grams of creatine, and an average person uses up about 2 grams of creatine a day. Of course, don't
be thinking that this would only last you for 60 days, since you get creatine from your diet.
Creatine is found mostly in meat and fish. Some good sources of creatine include cod, tuna, salmon, beef and pork. While these meats contain creatine, it's not necessarily a good idea to eat too much meat, as most meats (especially red meat) contain high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol. (Of course they also contain a good
amount of protein as well.) But you should look to bodybuilding supplements for those extra nutrition and weight gain elements instead of trying to eat more meat than normal. You don't want clogged arteries or too much body fat.

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