Is it best to cycle creatine monohydrate or just take it everyday?

Well, both methods work. But there's is no real reason for cycling creatine. It isn't toxic and it won't screw up your bodily functions. Once you get of creatine supplementation, your creatine levels will return to normal. You could experiment with small loading phases every 6-8 week to ensure proper saturation, but there's no scientific evidence that this will have any effect.

The best time during the day to take creatine is directly after a workout. Mix it into your post-workout shake, which should contain 80-150 grams of high-GI carbohydrates, depending on your bodyweight. If you're taking more than one dose a day the second best time is directly in the morning, 30-min. before breakfast. Always split the creatine into doses of about 4-5 grams. Bigboys (+220lbs) might want to double the dosages. The same goes for people who are extremely active and has a physical job.

Hi Mitchell

Creatine cycling is a concept that began because no one knew if 1. creatine was safe in the medium and long term and 2. some people hypothsised that taking creatine for too long would affect the creatine receptors in cells and cause future problems with uptake of creatine.

Now that creatine has been investigated in hundreds of scientific studies and safety reviews and used on tens of thousands of research subjects and has been used by millions of consumers world wide, it is clear that is has no substantiated negative side effects. Clear research by one of the world's most brilliant creatine experts, who I had the honour of working with when I worked for MuscleTech (Dr Mark Tarnopolsky), has shown that the "CreaT" (the creatine receptor) is not "down-regulated by creatine supplementation.

We also know that when you come off creatine, you lose muscle and strength!

So now that the two justifications for cycling off creatine have been disproved and that coming off creatine causes loss of muscle and strength, it is therefore justified to just stay on it!

I've been on creatine for most of the last 10 years or so and took it on and off before then.

For further info, see my two previous articles on fascinating facts about creatne:

http://fitnessinventor.com/articles/574-creatine-facts-and-myths-part-1-does-it-work-and-is-it-safe

http://fitnessinventor.com/articles/632-creatine-facts-and-myths-part-2-how-to-take-creatine