Creatine Alpha-Ketoglutarate

Blackjack · 04-10-2007, 01:31 PM

Anyone know anything about this stuff?

I went into GNC because I had a 15% off coupon and needed some vitamins and creatine. I generally buy creatine monohydrate, the cheaper the better. To be honest, I've never noticed any difference if I took it or didn't take it.

Well, I got into a discussion about this with the sales guy. He actually seemed to know what he was talking about. He was a competitive BB and talked about the difference between monohydrate and this Alpha-Ketoglutarate. Basically it was from his experience using both. Told him I was cutting and used it to maintain as much muscle as possible. He's actually cutting for a contest in a few weeks.

It was quite expensive (IMO) $50 for 30-days supply. They've got a 30-day guarantee so if I don't see any difference he said to bring it back and they'll refund my $$. He said you'll notice a difference within a week or two. I thought, what the hell, I'll give it a try and see what happens. If it doesn't make a difference I'll take it back.

Did I just get hosed? Anyone know the difference between this stuff and the monohydrate? He said it acts inside the muscle as opposed to on the surface.

God I'm a sucker for a guy who sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

Blackjack · 04-10-2007, 01:32 PM

Here's the link to the stuff I bought:

http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp...entPage=family

How big of an idiot am I?

RedLefty · 04-10-2007, 02:15 PM

Holy hell that's expensive. I spend $20 for a six-month supply.

Hope it works for ya -- I know nothing about alpha-ketoglutarate.

RLP71586 · 04-10-2007, 02:36 PM

[/quote]He said it acts inside the muscle as opposed to on the surface.[/quote]

This really doesn't make any sense. The creatine won't serve its purpose if it stays outside the cell.

Michael Roussell · 04-10-2007, 02:37 PM

"Hosed" is such a harsh word. If I were you I'd keep my receipt. I think the alpha Ketoglutarate thing is a total scam. You'll also see it coupled with arginine instead of creatine in "nitric oxide" products. If I remember correctly EAS played around with AKG in some of their products in the mid-90s but it never really panned out so they settled with glutamine being the holy grail.

"acts inside the muscle as opposed to on the surface" - That statement makes no sense and sounds made up.

I was in a Vitamin Shoppe this weekend picking up some ZMA and I overhead the sales person trying to get a guy "looking for energy" to buy NO-Xplode....oh god. I politely told the guy that although I had never tried the product most arginine based product don't work and he was going to be buying expensive creatine and caffeine. I suggest Spike as it was cheaper and better product. The sales lady looked pissed I said something and the guy walked out.

"How big of an idiot am I?" - Not that big. Really you only spent $50 and you'll get your money back. I've done a lot worse

Blackjack · 04-10-2007, 03:28 PM

Most of the reviews on-line I've read seem to be positive. Although they all could be from 18-year olds, who knows. One thing that stuck out to me was that this was a time-released product which is helpful throughout the day.

My intention was for it to help maintain muscle mass during dieting. Berardi recommends creating + bcaa's during the GS diet. I'm not going quite that low calories quite yet, so this may/may not be an issue.

What have I got to lose?

Thanks for the comments Mike.

Ted