i know a lot of people in here will not lift without supplements. and i was one of them, until today i went to this place looking for a supplement and got turned into a better direction with it. im not saying like just diet and exercise, but like not "fake" supplements like creatine or hydroxycut or thermogain, etc.
 
just an idea, it might help with people like me who have decided not to use supplemental enhancers. unless they are 100% natural. an example, before today i was taking no-xplode, thermogain, ginseng (the most powerful formula i could find, not 100%), and protein powder that has a little creatine in it. now i will be taking a complete multi-vitamin, fish oil and yohimbe bark extract. i also decided to get all my protein intake from actual foods, not powder or processed.

power to you but.....
 
how is creatine a "fake" sup with all the science to back it up??????

just because it has science to back it up doesnt make it a natural product. hell every supplement wether it be natural or not is backed by science. i am not dissing anyone who takes supplements, hell i enjoyed them a lot and loved what they gave me. the good ones anyways.
 
i just for some odd reason decided to go all natural. things like organics and herbal. dont know why i decided to go this route, just did.

Creatine is found in food. How's it not natural?

the way it is taken i think. i should have been more specific on that matter, creatine supplements not being 100% natural is what i was told. i know it is found in certain foods, mainly meats, but do you get all pumped up and crazy when you hit the weights after eating a fat steak?

Ahh so you mean all the extra stuff supplement companys add in. I see where you're coming from. 

yeah just to make sure i didnt make an ass out of myself i looked it up, and the way they define a non-natural bodybuilder is if he or she takes any supplements or drugs that enhance performance or size. and i still argue with myself on wether or not protein powder is actually natural or not. but to be on the safe side i will just eat high protein foods. its hard to trust processed foods and supps to me. processed being that they added things to it to preserve freshness or better the effects.

ORIGINAL: No Quarter

Creatine is found in food. How's it not natural?

Yes, found in food; no, not at concentrations that make it effective.  How much steak do you have to eat to get the equivalent of one dose of creatine?

ORIGINAL: gzinkl

ORIGINAL: No Quarter

Creatine is found in food. How's it not natural?

Yes, found in food; no, not at concentrations that make it effective.  How much steak do you have to eat to get the equivalent of one dose of creatine?

Quite a bit. But how much food do you have to eat to get everything in a complete multivitamin?

"fake" or natural i know processed creatine is not natural but how is it "fake". I was just saying it works and is backed by science make sure you read before you comment

ORIGINAL: tatch

"fake" or natural i know processed creatine is not natural but how is it "fake". I was just saying it works and is backed by science make sure you read before you comment

Tatch, we've been nothing but polite.  I did read the comment.  It just brings up an issue of what the understanding of what "natural" is.  But No Quarter brings up a point I hadn't considered. 

Where is the line between natural and fake?  What is natural?  To me, natural is what is found in nature, unpurified and unprocessed.  None or our supplements fall into that category. 

So now, what is fake?  A vitamin made in the lab?  But it's not any different than a vitamin found in food--same ol' structure.  Do we mean fake where we let our supplements co-opt/substitute our natural muscle building processes?  Then hormones, pro-hormones, etc., would seem to fall into that category.  So where does creatine fall, under that definition? 

Is the part of definition of fake mean that when you withdraw the supplements, the advantages disappear?  Again, exogenous hormones, prohormones apply, but what about creatine?

I'm not bashing creatine, I'm just trying to understand where "fake" and "natural" fall.  It seems in my mind that the fake-natural dichotomy is not black-and-white, and is more of a spectrum.  Where is the line drawn, and what are the criteria.

Its natural its an amino. I dont take creatine but I use to and to take any kind of a stand against it saying its not "natural" is ridiculous. It would be like me saying a multi-vitamin isnt natural because there is no food out there with the same content as that pill therefore unnatural. I dont like creatine because I dont think it works that great and it isnt worth the money to me personally, but it is just as natural as anything else out there. If you wanna pull this natural bodybuilding thing and not supplement thats fine but by your own logic you cant be taking whey, multivitamins, etc... because they are just as unatural by your admission as creatine.

I'm not taking a stand on anything (groans to self).  I was trying to understand the finer points of what is natural and what is fake.

People say all the time that vitamins synthesized in the lab are "fake" but they differ not a whit from those found in food.

Maybe I'm just possessed by my profession.  Not paying attention to the nuances of a definition can sink a multi-million dollar investment in research and intellectual property.

So, what is fake? What is natural?  It's not meant to be taking a stand on anything; I'm trying to understand what people mean.

Creatine is naturaly produced even in your own body :/ IT cant get any more natural or real than that. Intakign creatine is just giving your body more to work with. I dont think it realy enhances performance. It just helps you build more muscle better faster because you have more of it in your system than just eating regularly. The pschological effects of seeing increase in size from water weight and more muscle from it may help you get more will power to lift more etc...

Protien powders are pretty much the same as vitamens imo. Its taken out of things clumped up more together. for expample instead of eat all the food you would have to get get a certain amount of stuff, you take a little pill, or mix a little power into a drink or something and take it.

I think supplements like no xplode etc.. would kinda be considered unatural with its mixture of stuff in it and kinda considered fake, because they stuff in it makes you get that pump feeling with out doing anything.

I am not trying to agrue with any one on this but just stating my point of view on the subject.

What does natural really mean?