Creatine help
 

I've looked all over the website, through the stickies, and raped the search feature into oblivion... still can't find answers. I'm looking into finally buying creatine. First time user, so I've got some questions:

1) What are some reputable brands? On Nutraplanet I can find a kilo of the stuff (manufactured by Nutraplanet) for less than $20, but others that are twice as much for 45 servings. Everyone seems to say that I need to be careful of what brands to buy, but I can never find recommendations of which brands are ok? Budget is a big factor with me (college..), but I don't want to buy crap. I know that I need to look for monohydrate.

2) I've heard arguments for and against loading phases. Are they really necessary?

3) Regarding dosages... every different product has different instructions on how much to take, when to take it, and so forth. Is there really that much of a difference that I should follow the instructions of whatever brand I buy? Or is there a more general set of guidelines?

bonus question: I'm also looking for some dex/malto, up to this point I've just been using grape juice. Is that stuff all pretty much the same that I could pick up pretty much anything?

Maybe I'm retarded and missed something huge, but I couldn't find answers to this stuff anywhere on the website. Thanks in advance.

no loading really needed...i snagged some real cheap ass kre-alkalyn...which is cee i think. got like a million servings for $20...seems to work fine :)

apparently there's no real need to take it with a sugar....grape juice adds up after awhile :) after your system is saturated the creatine will still get in there if you don't take it with a sugar...just not as fast.

i usually get bulknutritions waxy maize....6 pounds for $20...but either that or malto/dex will work fine...trueprotein.com has those two...they are way out west...and proteinfactory.com is out east....and bulk is right in the middle :)

Thanks for the input. I'd never heard of waxy maize before, looked into it and decided that was probably a better option than dex/malto. Ordered some of that and CEE powder. Bout time I started getting into supplements, only took me 2 years...

^^^ The only "supplement" I use any more is chocolate milk. I have tons of bars and 20-30lbs of whey that I don't really bother with any more. It's a waste of time/money for the most part. :)

Well I'll take it off your hands :biglaugh:

I knew someone would say that. I "might" use it though, so I'll probably let it go bad before I give any of it away. :)

mon has been proven to be the most effective
it need a career like malto/dextrose/waxy maize

mono sorry

no it doesn't