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I know it is important to increase water intake while taking creatine.

I am taking creatine for 14 days, off 7 days, on 14, off 7, so on and so forth.

On the 7 day intervals where I am not consuming creatine, do I still need to drink more water? Or could I go to a regular consumption level?

If this question exists already, can you please point it out? I haven't been able to find it.

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  • I think the thing everyone is going to be wondering here is why are you taking 7 days off creatine every third week?
    – Thomas Markov
    Oct 31, 2022 at 18:45
  • Thats just what I was told. Do you have sources I could look into? I'd really appreciate it.
    – Bri Han
    Oct 31, 2022 at 18:48
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    This article by Dr. Eric Trexler should have everything you ever wanted to know (and everything you didn't know you wanted to know) about creatine.
    – Thomas Markov
    Oct 31, 2022 at 19:18

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It is not necessary to increase water intake while off creatine. The creatine will flush out of your system naturally. You'll go back to baseline after a few days.

Also, while not part of the question, I'm not sure the point in cycling creatine at such rapid intervals. Some people like to cycle off it for a couple weeks every six months or so, but I've never seen anybody suggest a three week cycling schedule. Your muscles would never reach full saturation unless you load it the first week of each cycle.

To me, it sounds like you are over-thinking it. Just take 5g or so a day. If you get thirsty then drink more. If you're not thirsty, then you're likely already drinking enough.

EDIT:

According to this study that Thomas Markov posted, it can take as long as 30 days for creatine to completely leave the system, so that seems to indicate cycling this rapidly will not be useful.

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  • This study found that the washout period for muscle creatine levels could be longer than 30 days. But yes, 5g a day, every day, for the rest of your life.
    – Thomas Markov
    Oct 31, 2022 at 18:44
  • @ThomasMarkov Wow that's pretty long. I know that if I stop taking it I lose about 7-10 lbs. of weight after about four days, but it's my assumption that the creatine was all flushed out. I guess that doesn't necessarily mean it is. (I also seem to be abnormal in the amount of bloat it causes because most people seem to gain about 2-3 lbs of water).
    – DeeV
    Oct 31, 2022 at 19:01
  • It is likely you are just a hyper-responder to supplemental creatine because you wash it out so fast. The working theory about non-responders to creatine seems to be that they are just exceptionally good at retaining muscle creatine and so are able to reach saturation just through their regular diet. It isn't that creatine doesn't help them, it's that they already are getting the benefits of high muscle creatine without having to supplement.
    – Thomas Markov
    Oct 31, 2022 at 19:12
  • Do your creatinine and creatine kinase levels come back really high when you have bloods done?
    – Thomas Markov
    Oct 31, 2022 at 19:25
  • @ThomasMarkov They're higher but not out of abnormal range.
    – DeeV
    Oct 31, 2022 at 19:43

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