I am becoming more and more interested in Creatine as I heard it isn't essential, but is safe and works pretty good. I have even heard some stories of people seeing their muscles swell when they start using it......

I am curious about the whole water weight thing though, is this bloating?

Will it bloat me up considerably by making muscles bigger but by also making me look fatter?

Some bloat some don't, I've never seen anyone bloat a considerable amount. It's usually negligible.

Ah so it is bloating, Thanks.

What about those stories of muscles getting bigger from just taking the creatine....illusion of bigger muscles from bloating? myth?

If it's instant, it's obviously bloat. But bloat can help stretch muscle fascia. Also on top of extending the ATP-PC energy system, long term creatine use has also shown to increase IGF levels.

I never saw the bloat when I take creatine, but recently when I cycled off, I lost almost 5 pounds in a week, and it had to be mostly water that wasn't needed anymore since creatine stores were depleteing.

Atp-pc?

Igf?