i am trying to get my body fat % down to the point where I can see my abs. I am 40 6’0 & 173#. i am currently doing Coach Davies renegade training. also doing atkins. since creatine makes you hold water should I stop supplementing with creatine?
First of all, Atkins diet is not designed for athletes and definitely not designed for anyone doing Renegade training. You need to read the FAQ and find a diet suitable for this type of training. Renegade training is brutal and intense and requires a huge amount of energy expenditure, so you need to make sure you are taking in adequate calories even if you are trying to cut your body fat. The workloads in every Renegade training program should be sufficient to lean you out quickly without any drastic calorie cycling. While you may do ok on lower carbs, you need to incorporate refeeding with carbohydrates on certain days. See Don Alessi’s most recent article for a good plan on this. Also read the Essential Berardi article for links to dietary advice.
First of all, you’re 6’0" and 173 lbs? How come this seems rather light to me? What is your current BF%? That would be helpful to know. If you are around 12% or lower in terms of BF - probably could consider to bulk up a bit before “cutting down”.
As for creatine. I take creatine, and could care less about the "holding water" am more concerned about the benefits of creatine.
thanks for the advice. do not know BF%, i just have a small amount of fat I am trying to get rid of around the waist. i am on the thin side, just started bodybuilding 2 years ago to rehab from shoulder surgery and love lifting. dying to get that “cut” look. i will check on diets you suggest. thx!
i agree with the first two posts. just want to add though that creatine can be benificial during cutting cycles in that it can help keep your strength up and i remember reading somewhere that it might help preserve lbm a little. who cares if your holding water? are you trying to lose weight or fat? like the others said though, get the diet and other stuff worked out first before you start worrying about creatine.
Congrats on your progress. I do think you’re getting some good advice here, though. If you truly just have “a small amount of fat… around the waist,” then you should be able to see some ab definition already. Dropping those last few pounds to get shredded is one thing; losing enough fat just so you can see your abs – when you’re already 173# at 6’0 – is another. This rush to get lean might be a bit early in your lifting career. You may be perfectly primed for a good bulking cycle, though, so your present leanness is by no means wasted.
By the way, to attempt this and at the same time go off creatine is doubly dangerous. It’s conceivable that, stopping creatine – assuming you’re saturated with it at this point – you’d drop another four to six pounds. This would put you near the middle 160’s, at 6’0, with the ab fat still waiting to be lost. Maybe some people can pull off a good look with those numbers. I sure couldn’t.