Ok, whats going on here?

[Russell D Wells]

For the past 3 months, I have been drinking a 12 oz egg protein drink with creatine (Mixed with water) after my workouts. I usually WOD 4-5days a week. I don't know exactly how many calories I take in in a day, but my guess is 3,000-3,500. Pretty close to Paleo, I would say about 80%. Anyway, I have been slowly gaining weight. Before I started the protein/creatine, I weighed 162, with a BF% of 17%. I am 6' tall, so I was "Skinny". I have gotten up to 170, so I was doing pretty good. Anyway, I ran out of protein last week, and have not gone to buy new yet. I figured that I would take a break for a week, except for amino acids. I am also still taking a multivitamin. I have continued my WOD Routine this week. This morning, I got on the scale, and I was 159#'s, and my BF% was 14%. I know that hydration affects BF% readings, but I am drinking during workouts, plus 64+ ounces of water a day. I have not changed my diet, other than maybe adding in more good fat, which I was not eating that much of to begin with.

I find it hard to believe that lack of 1 12oz. protein/creatine drink a day made that much difference in my weight and BF% in just one week.

Any comments?

[Chris Mason]

Do you always weigh yourself at the same time?

No, the drink is not making the difference. If you don't take creatine every day you won't even see its full benefits. You know, it drives me nuts that people don't know that. Taking creatine only before or after you train really won't do much of anything...

[Russell D Wells]

Originally Posted by Chris Mason

Do you always weigh yourself at the same time?

Yes, 2-3 times a week 10-15 min after I eat my post workout meal.

Originally Posted by Chris Mason

No, the drink is not making the difference. If you don't take creatine every day you won't even see its full benefits. You know, it drives me nuts that people don't know that. Taking creatine only before or after you train really won't do much of anything...

You are right, I did not realize that creatine should be taken on off days as well.

[Darryl Shaw]

Originally Posted by Russell D Wells

Before I started the protein/creatine, I weighed 162, with a BF% of 17%. I am 6' tall, so I was "Skinny". I have gotten up to 170, so I was doing pretty good. Anyway, I ran out of protein last week, and have not gone to buy new yet. I figured that I would take a break for a week, except for amino acids. I am also still taking a multivitamin. I have continued my WOD Routine this week. This morning, I got on the scale, and I was 159#'s, and my BF% was 14%.

There are a few things that can affect your weight on a day to day basis eg. hydration levels, glycogen stores, stomach content etc. You also need to take into account that most domestic scales aren't really all that accurate and will often give two consecutive readings with the same subject that vary by as much as 1-2 lbs. So although an 11 lb difference is at the upper end of what you might expect to see at a weekly weigh in it's not something you should worry about because the one thing you can be certain of is that you haven't lost 11 lb of fat and/or muscle in just one week.

[Andrew N. Casey]

water weighs 8lbs per gallon. you lost alot of water. the creatine was probably causing you to retain water. add in if you lost some due to less sodium, being slightly dehydrated, maybe you had a good bowel movement, whatever. i bet if you add the creatine back, eat good carbs with salt, and drink lots of water you can gain back the 11lb pretty quick and easy

[David Meverden]

I'm with Andrew guessing it's the creatine.

It sounds like you are slowly becoming leaner but you didn't notice because of increased water retention that can be caused by some creatine supplements (Chris says it's due to low supplement quality. His company AtLarge nutrition sells a good creatine that true to from I have not really noticed any bloating or water retention with. If you are using some off the shelf mystery creatine you should try his next time).

Are you trying to gain weight? If so, you might not be trying hard enough. Also, how is the mirror check going? Noticed any difference at any time?

[Richard Deyan]

Originally Posted by Russell D Wells

For the past 3 months, I have been drinking a 12 oz egg protein drink with creatine (Mixed with water) after my workouts. I usually WOD 4-5days a week. I don't know exactly how many calories I take in in a day, but my guess is 3,000-3,500. Pretty close to Paleo, I would say about 80%. Anyway, I have been slowly gaining weight. Before I started the protein/creatine, I weighed 162, with a BF% of 17%. I am 6' tall, so I was "Skinny". I have gotten up to 170, so I was doing pretty good. Anyway, I ran out of protein last week, and have not gone to buy new yet. I figured that I would take a break for a week, except for amino acids. I am also still taking a multivitamin. I have continued my WOD Routine this week. This morning, I got on the scale, and I was 159#'s, and my BF% was 14%. I know that hydration affects BF% readings, but I am drinking during workouts, plus 64+ ounces of water a day. I have not changed my diet, other than maybe adding in more good fat, which I was not eating that much of to begin with.

I find it hard to believe that lack of 1 12oz. protein/creatine drink a day made that much difference in my weight and BF% in just one week.

Any comments?

Like others have said, creatine is most likely responsible for that weight loss. Also, weighing yourself at the same time after a workout isn't accurate, there's way too many factors. The most accurate time you can weigh yourself is literally when you wake up, and even then there's still variables. I assume you're using an electronic scale with a "body fat reader" on there. Don't pay attention to that, it's horribly inaccurate. All it does to measure bodyfat is send an electrical signal through your body and wait to see how long it takes for the signal to make its way back to the scale. The amount of time it takes while taking into account the information you put into the scale, if any (gender, height, age, etc) uses an equation. The electrical signal travels through the body's water and the longer it takes, theoretically the more fat it had to bounce and dodge around. If you were to be tested using air displacement, water, or someone very skilled with calipers it would most likely read you at a much lower rate of BF.

People fluctuate on creatine anywhere from 3-15 pounds depending on how much they take, their size, etc.