Reddit mentions of Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored, Keto Friendly, 240 Servings

Most supplements are vegan. Make sure it's micronized for better mixing with your drink of choice. One of the top rated creatines that I usually buy is this one. I find my stomach agrees better with creatine in general in an acidic juice like OJ.

I recommend ON Creatine Monohydrate because it sources its as creapure, a high quality german creatine.

Amazon by far has the cheapest prices on them that I have seen. It also gives free shipping on the product. I recommend getting either

the 1.2Kg tub: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DYIZEY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

or the 2kg tub: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GIQS34/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

The 1.2kg tub goes at $29.50 (41g creatine/dollar) [$2.95 for 30 days worth @ 4g/day]

The 2kg tub goes at $37.79 (53g creatine/dollar) [$2.27 for 30 days worth @ 4g/day]

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Don't do what the label says and load 20g/day for a week or whatever it does say. You'd be wasting your money. Just do a nice 3-5g/day.

Do not buy from GNC, they are incredibly overpriced. I quickly perused some nutritional info and prices on their site and found that, for most of their products, you are paying about $1/day of use. Eg this, one of their top-selling creatines, costs 25 bucks, and contains 30 servings, with 10 grams per serving, much of which is sugar and other added crap.

This is turning into /r/fitness circlejerk, but this right here is what you want to buy. Currently on sale (act fast!) for 30 bucks, and it contains 225 servings with 5 grams per serving, none of which is sugar or other added crap. You don't have to be a math whiz to figure that out. It's either 25/month at GNC, or 30 for 9 months on Amazon

edit: ok, just found a different creatine sold by GNC which is 17 bucks for 100 servings of 5 grams creatine. Much more acceptable, but you can still get a better deal elsewhere

It has been about two months. Here is my routine, goals, and my plan. Looking for advice / other paths.

25/M/5'11''.

What I Started with

I started out at 207 pounds around July 1st. Decided I needed a change. Drastically changed my diet and started going to the gym 3-5 times a week. Working on a calorie deficit cutting weight. I would say around 1300- 1600 cals a day. I had a rolling two day routine.

Day 1

Chest / Triceps

Bench 3x10 Standing cable chest flies 3x10 Tricep 2h pull downs 3x10 Incline Bench 3x8 (Never did this before) or Hammer Strength Incline 3x10 Decline Bench 3x8 (Never did this before) Dips 3x10

Day 2

Back / Biceps

Shoulder press / shoulder dumbbell press 3x10 Lat pull down behind the head 3x10 Pull down bar in front 3x10 Curl bar or single isolated dumbbell curl per arm 3x10 Row Machine 3x10 Dumbbell back flies 3x10 Cable 2h bicep curls 3x10

I would throw some crunches and random ab work in there on random days. Also ran a mile or so randomly. Did this for about 5 weeks, dropped from 207 pounds down to around 188.

What I am doing now

About three weeks ago I changed my routine up. I started going to the gym more, about 5-6 times a week now with a different routine. I added legs and am now on a three day rolling list and added an ab routine to everyday. Diet has stayed the same, calorie deficit probably around 1400-1600 cals a day.

Day 1

Chest / Biceps

Run 1 to 2 miles. Bench or Dumbbell Bench 3x10 Standing cable chest flies 3x10 Incline Bench or Incline Dumbbell Bench 3x10
Hammer Strength Incline 3x10 Decline Bench or Decline Dumbbell Bench 3x10 Curl bar or single isolated dumbbell curl per arm 3x10 Cable 2h bicep curls 3x10 My ab routine (crunches, leg raises, plank, superman, reverse crunch with a leg raise extension, toe touch while laying on my back)

Day 2

Back / Triceps

Run 1-2 miles Lat pull down behind the head 3x10 Pull down bar in front 3x10 Dips 3x10 Tricep 2h pull downs 3x10 Row Machine 3x10 Dumbbell back flies 3x10 My ab routine (crunches, leg raises, plank, superman, reverse crunch with a leg raise extension, toe touch while laying on my back)

Day 3

Legs / Shoulders

Run 1 mile Squats 3x10 Leg extension 3x10 Leg curl 3x10 Shoulder press / shoulder dumbbell press 3x10 Dumbbell Shoulder Raises 3x10 Shoulder fly machine 3x10 Hammer strength shoulder press 3x10 Dead lift 3x8 (JUST started this week on this). My ab routine (crunches, leg raises, plank, superman, reverse crunch with a leg raise extension, toe touch while laying on my back)

After about 3-4ish weeks of this, I am down to 183 pounds. I am seeing little gain in some of my workouts, with more gain in others. Not where I want to be.

My overall goals / long time goals are: To lose weight, get bigger (like upper body muscles) and get stronger. Want to work towards a 6 pack and bigger muscles. Pretty much I want to look real good, and be stronger.

I have many questions and am not sure where I am going to take this for my goals. Any advice on what I should do?

I am thinking about cutting out the running and changing my routine up to kind of be like SS. Lower reps and adding weight with more rest in between. Once I kind of plateau I was thinking about moving to the PHAT routine.

Should I stop doing abs on the same workdays that I lift?

Would gearing my previous workout towards a SS kind of routine be a good idea before going into PHAT for my current goals?

Also I will be getting some protein, creatine, and a carb loader here in the next couple days. My plan is to have a protein shake in the morning, a little bit of the carb loader before the workout, and creatine post workout. Once I am happy with my weight loss I was going to up the carb loader and take some post workout also. Thoughts? This is what I have coming:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QSRO1Y/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DYIZEY/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i02

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DYJ0CA/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00

So if you're trying to add mass/strength, your biggest concern with going vegetarian is probably going to be getting enough protein. I try to take in like ~200g/day. You can calculate what you need here.

I personally get most of my protein from protein shakes. I use pea protein exclusively, this brand. Unfortunately, it comes from China but I can't pass on the price point. I also add peanut flour, cocoa powder, bananas, flax seed meal (good source of omega-3's), psyllium husk fiber (helps to slow down digestion of protein), BCAA's, creatine, and beta-alanine all in almond milk. The reason for some of those supplements can be found here.

Thanks to the fiber and the flax seed, it gets super thick almost like pudding if you let it sit. Usually, I'll mix in cold brewed coffee to get the consistency I want. It's really good. I drink like ~48 ounces a day, every day. Still have yet to get tired of it.

As far as recipes go, I try to eat high protein meals usually with beans/legumes and quinoa. I use tofu or tempeh as meat substitutes quite a bit too. I eat a lot of chili and curries. My instant pot (pressure cooker) is always getting used.

I also supplement with this multivitamin.

In response to the anti-protein focus comment, I guess I would say that I eat at a calorie deficit so it's hard to hit my protein targets unless I supplement. However, you should still count your macros at least at first to make sure you're getting in the range of where you should be.

Here's the link for the product. You can see the 240 servings one clearly has a bigger opening. As for the 120 one (the one I posted) has a shitty design: https://www.amazon.com/Optimum-Nutrition-Micronized-Monohydrate-Unflavored/dp/B002DYIZEY/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=creatine&qid=1574074125&sprefix=ceeatine&sr=8-3&th=1&psc=1