“APN Crea Fuel” Creatine Monohydrate Review

For some time now I have been opting for other pre-workout supplements rather than spending money on Creatine monohydrate. This time however, and just for a change, when I went to buy my Protein stack I also decided to buy Creatine mono. There were quite a few options available and even though I actually wanted to try the one by Universal Nutrition, I instead ended by buying “APN Crea Fuel” a company that I have had never heard before.

First things first, the only reason I bought APN Crea Fuel was on the suggestion of the guy I was buying from who also happened to be a friend of mine. He suggested that he had used the product and was quite pleased with the result. I have been buying supplements for a while now and have never heard of APN before. Even after I came home, I tried Googling it but there is not much information available about it on the web. They do not even have a website which kind of got me a little worried about whether or not I wanted to try it but since I already bought it, spent the money, I had no other option but to go for it.

Their price in Indian market is slightly lower than other well known supplement companies. Keep in mind though; I said slightly, nothing big. Depending on where and who you are buying it from, you can easily get the product between Rs. 600 to 700. A bottle of Crea fuel contains 60 servings of 5 grams each which is more or less the same with all other Creatine monohydrate products. The company advises you to load Creatine by taking 4 services each day for first 5 to 7 days. After that, the label advises you to take two servings before workout. This is pretty much the standard protocol with all the Creatine products. At the time of writing this article, I have just finished the loading phase, meaning that I have been using it for last 7 days.

There is no problem mixing it in the water. It is tasteless so no complain there as well. The weirdest thing however about APN that I noticed was that there was no scoop in the bottle. It tells you to take 10 grams of Creatine each day but there is nothing in there to measure it with which is very unusual. Every supplement comes with a scoop inside the jar. When I opened it, I had to go look for a 5 grams scoop from my previous supplements.

There is definitely a gain in strength during workouts. I have been lifting more weights than usual for last one week. My workouts have also been longer so increase in endurance as well. Muscles feel tightened and large. The problematic part however is that there is a drastic increase in water weight in my body. I feel big and people have started pointing that out but Its all water. I will post a couple of pictures for comparison. Within 7 days of using the product, my face has gone from pic 1 to pic 2.

 I know and have experienced water retention due to Creatine in the past but never to this amount before. My face has literally rounded withing 7 days and got that puffy look. On top it, it feels like there is slight swelling on my enire body, specially faceever since i started using APN. I am not really sure if it is swelling or just a round face but I definitely look bloated. I will continue using the product for coming few days. Even thought the results in gym have pleased me, I am not overall happy because of the bloating look. Since i have been taking 20 gms of creatine each day for loading and will now be reducing the intake, I am hoping that bloat look will go away. I will post another review of the product after using it for another week to ten days.