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brcmthrowaway

I remember learning about Creatine as a weightlifting teen

I never ended up doing it because you had to cycle it, and it was just one more thing to track

Is it the same case in 2026? Is there a simple pill I can take?

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You don't have to cycle it. You also don't need to load it (a marketing ploy to get you to buy more).

You can just take 3-5g daily.

Cycling is also a marketing ploy, since it makes it sound more like a PED and less like a compound found naturally in meat. It's the same reason people say they 'take' whey, when Miss Muffet simply ate it.

Cycling creatine was the guidance from the 90s. 5g/day and drink plenty of water is all you need to do.

I don't ever remember needing or being advised to cycle it.

It was always start by 'loading' and then cruise at 5g. Of course GNC was filled with sugar filled "delivery" products like Celltech that claimed to forego any need for 'loading'.

I've never heard of cycling it. We're you a teen during the steroid arrival? Maybe people were confusing things. I've always just done 5mg a day, but now people are talking about taking mega doses of like 20-30mg a day, shrug

Creatine is dosed in grams not milligrams, otherwise your number are correct.

Homeopathic sports supplementation

That’s never been the case, you were getting bad information.

It was certainly the case that gym bros thought you had to cycle it. But you're right that this was never necessary.

Yes, they did, and many still do write it on the package, but it is, and always was a myth born God knows when out of precaution, because nobody really knows anything about how all this stuff really works now, and they did know even less than that 30 years ago. There never really was any evidence that you have to cycle it, and nobody (aside from the manufacturers) ever says it anymore. It makes about as much sense as cycling protein powder.

As for pills, yes, there is about every form of creatine supplement now, even chewing gum, but this is just dumb, how much of creatine do you think you can consume this way in a day?

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