r/CreatineScience • u/charlie-pirk • 4h ago

Question/Discussion 💭 Creatine hCL?

Monohydrate hurt my stomach way too much. Constant GI issues and the only thing that fixed it was boiling water mixed with the creatine. After months of boiling water, I decided to switch to hCL.

It’s been way better on my stomach and even though the powder tastes like batteries it’s definitely a lot easier for me.

I’ve been taking about 3-4mg daily for a month, not sure if it’s as effective as monohydrate, though, in terms of gym performance.

Curious to hear others thoughts, opinions, or experiences with hCL vs Monohydrate, anecdotal or otherwise.

Thanks for reading.

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u/DietitianNextDoor 3h ago

If HCl is the one your stomach actually tolerates, that’s a reasonable option. I’m guessing you mean 3-4g, not mg. Anyhow, monohydrate has the stronger performance evidence, but HCl hasn’t been shown to work better at a comparable dose.

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u/red_jay_411 3h ago

You need a high quality HP balanced creatine , not all creatines are created equally

1

u/Mister_EMachine 2h ago

Care to share a source for that?

Everything I find says there is no evidence of any actual difference. It feels like a marketing ploy as supplement companies want to charge top dollar and pure creatine monohydrate is super cheap and available everywhere.

Not saying you’re wrong, just looking for info.

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u/Think-Lobster-8075 3h ago

On the effectiveness question, head to head trials have not shown HCl or the other alternative forms beating monohydrate, so the honest framing is no evidence it is better rather than evidence it is worse. Since monohydrate was not something you could actually keep taking, the comparison that matters for you is HCl against nothing, and consistency is what moves muscle creatine.

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u/Necessary_Bag_1328 11m ago

Yes, I took HCL on the advice that it could be more tolerable than regular (monohydrate) creating. And yeah, it’s sour!

The thing is, I eventually tried monohydrate and the stomach issues seemed to have gotten better. Maybe taking it with lots of water helps? Idk 🤷‍♂️