Creatine Dosage: How Much to Take Daily by Weight

Ask five people how much creatine to take and you'll get five different answers: a scoop, a fixed five grams, or a twenty-gram loading phase. All three can be right, depending on who you ask.

How Much Creatine to Take Per Day

For an adult who trains, the maintenance dose of creatine monohydrate is 3 to 5 grams a day, taken every day. If you want to fill your stores fast, the loading phase is 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight per day for 5 to 7 days, split into four doses. After that you drop to maintenance and don't go back up.

• Maintenance: 3 to 5 g a day, the protocol that covers almost everyone.
• Loading phase: 0.3 g/kg/day in four doses, for five to seven days.
• No loading: 3 g a day for 28 days reaches the same saturation.
• High lean mass: the ISSN allows for 5 to 10 g a day in larger athletes.

These figures come from the International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand (Kreider et al., 2017).

How much creatine should I take per day?

3 to 5 grams of creatine monohydrate a day covers most adults, based on the International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand (Kreider et al., 2017). 3 g is also the figure the EU sets as the condition for the authorized health claim. Above 90 kg you may need 5 to 10 g.

Grams Per Day by Body Weight

The loading column is straight arithmetic on the ISSN's 0.3 g/kg. Maintenance doesn't scale the same way: the ISSN also lists 0.03 g/kg a day, which at 70 kg works out to 2.1 g, below the usual 3 g floor. That's why maintenance is given as a fixed range rather than a formula.

Use your current weight, not a goal weight. And the four loading doses should be spread across the day, so the gut isn't hit with all of it at once.

How much creatine should I take if I weigh 70 kg?

At 70 kg, maintenance is 3 to 5 g a day. If you run a loading phase, the ISSN protocol is 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight per day for 5 to 7 days: 21 g split into four doses of about 5.25 g. After that you drop to maintenance and don't go back up.

Skipping the loading phase is common, and for good reason: Kreider et al. (2017) list a slower route that gets to the same place. Taking 3 g a day for 28 days saturates the muscle just as fully as a fast loading phase, only over three or four weeks instead of one. Loading is worth it if you have a date on the calendar; if not, starting at 3 to 5 g spreads out the water-weight gain and eases any digestive discomfort.

Do I need to do a loading phase?

No, it's optional. It fills your stores in about a week instead of four, and Kreider et al. (2017) treat both routes as valid. Loading concentrates the water-weight gain and any digestive discomfort into a few days instead of spreading it out.

What happens if I take 5 grams of creatine a day?

That's the most common protocol and it sits inside the ISSN maintenance range. Without a loading phase, stores fill gradually: 3 g a day for 28 days reaches the same saturation as a fast loading phase (Kreider et al., 2017).

Why 3 Grams Is a Number With Legal Weight

3 g isn't an industry convention. It's the condition the European Commission attached to the authorized health claim for creatine under Regulation (EU) 432/2012, which reads:

“Creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise.”

The condition, also word for word: it can only be used in foods that supply a daily intake of 3 g of creatine, and consumers must be told that the beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 3 g of creatine. There's a restriction almost nobody mentions: it only applies to foods aimed at adults doing high-intensity exercise.

There's a second authorized claim that rarely comes up. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/672 added this one: “Daily creatine consumption can enhance the effect of resistance training on muscle strength in adults over 55 years old.” It requires 3 g a day plus resistance training three times a week at 65-75% of one-rep max, and it only applies to foods aimed at that group. That's not the case for this store: here it's shared as background information.

What Creatine Actually Does

The body makes creatine in the liver, kidneys and pancreas from three amino acids, and it's also found in meat and fish. In muscle it's stored as phosphocreatine, the immediate energy reserve for short, maximal efforts. Supplementing means topping up that reserve beyond what diet alone provides.

• Phosphocreatine: the form stored in muscle, ready to hand off its phosphate.
• ATP: what the muscle burns when it contracts, and it only lasts a few seconds.
• Saturation: the point where stores are full and taking more stops adding anything.

What Happens Inside the Muscle

When a muscle contracts it burns ATP and breaks it down into ADP, which can't produce force on its own. Phosphocreatine hands off its phosphate to ADP and turns it back into ATP within seconds. With full stores, that regeneration holds up for more reps, which is exactly the scenario the EU claim describes.

The ISSN position stand describes a 20 to 40% increase over baseline, though biopsy studies land toward the lower end: Harris et al. (1992) measured 17.2% and Hultman et al. (1996) around 20%. Kreider et al. (2017) put the ceiling at roughly 160 mmol per kg of dry muscle, beyond which more creatine adds nothing.

What the Evidence Actually Shows

It's worth calibrating the effect, because the industry tends to inflate it. Two Sports Medicine meta-analyses set the boundaries: Lanhers et al. (2015) found a small but statistically significant improvement in lower-body strength versus placebo, with an effect size of 0.455 on jump performance, and Lanhers et al. (2017) found the same for upper-body strength, regardless of population, protocol or dose. It's a real, modest effect, nowhere near the transformation promises that circulate on social media.

One thing worth knowing before reading any creatine article, including this one: a good chunk of the consensus literature (the ISSN position stand, the reviews by Antonio and by Smith-Ryan) is authored by researchers who disclose ties to Alzchem's advisory board, the maker of Creapure®. That doesn't invalidate peer-reviewed work, but it's worth knowing. And we sell a product that carries that seal.

What Can't Be Claimed in the EU

Alongside the two authorized claims, EU regulators rejected several others after evaluating them. They still show up in ads and articles:

• Mental performance, attention and memory: not authorized (entries 1524 and 1528, EFSA 2011;9(6):2216).
• Endurance capacity: not authorized (entry 1527, EFSA 2011;9(7):2303).
• Creatine plus carbohydrate to increase stores: not authorized (entries 544 and 545, EFSA 2011;9(6):2228).
• Increased muscle power and speed: not authorized (entry 1963).

Cognitive function deserves a note, since it's the trendy argument right now: it was resubmitted and EFSA reassessed it in 2024 with the same outcome, a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established (EFSA Journal 2024;22(11):e9100). These rejections mean the evidence reviewed wasn't enough to consider the effect established. A manufacturer can't promise it.

When to Take Creatine

Timing is the part of creatine that gets the most opinions and the least evidence. What's established is that the effect depends on how saturated the muscle is over time, not on any single dose. So the rule that actually pays off is taking it every day, including rest days, at whatever time you can stick to.

Before or After Training?

The study most often cited to support taking it after training, Antonio and Ciccone (2013), followed 19 bodybuilders for four weeks and found no statistically significant interaction. Forbes et al. (2021) found no difference either. The ISSN's 2025 consensus closes the question: the evidence doesn't support timing as decisive, and consistency is what matters most.

That fits the mechanism: with stores saturated, the creatine fueling this afternoon's set has already been sitting in the muscle for days.

Should creatine be taken before or after training?

What matters is taking it every day, including rest days, because the effect depends on how saturated the muscle is, not on the timing of any single dose. The evidence on the exact timing is thin and comes from small samples, so pick whichever time you can stick to.

What to Take It With

Water is enough. The advice to take it with carbs has real physiology behind it and a practical problem: Green et al. (1996) measured by biopsy that adding 93 g of carbohydrate to each of four daily doses increased muscle creatine uptake by 60% more, and Steenge et al. (2000) got 25% more retention with 50 g of protein and 47 g of carbohydrate. In the first case that's close to 400 g of sugar a day.

There's also a legal note: that combination was submitted as a health claim and rejected (entries 544 and 545). At 3 to 5 g, taking it with a meal is enough.

Creatine With Protein, Magnesium or Caffeine

Combinations are the second most common question after dosage, and the area where synergy gets sold hardest without data behind it. Short answer: creatine plays well with almost everything, and most of the combos marketed as boosters haven't actually been shown to work better together.

Creatine and Protein Together

You can take them at the same time, and no interaction discourages it. Mixing creatine into your shake is mostly convenience: one prep, fewer missed doses. They do different jobs and don't compete with each other. For the details, see creatine vs. protein, and for intake numbers, protein benefits, sources and recommendations.

Can creatine and protein be taken together?

Yes. No interaction discourages it, and mixing them in the same shake is mostly a matter of convenience and fewer missed doses. They do different jobs and don't compete with each other.

Creatine and Magnesium Together

These are also compatible, and several formulas put them in the same tub. What isn't backed by evidence is that magnesium improves how well creatine works. Selsby et al. (2004) compared magnesium chelate against monohydrate for ten days in 31 participants: both beat placebo and neither beat the other. A review of 17 trials on alternative forms (Fazio et al., 2022) found no consistent improvement. For magnesium on its own, see what magnesium citrate is used for.

Can creatine and magnesium be taken together?

Yes, and several formulas combine them in the same tub. What isn't backed by evidence is that magnesium improves how well creatine works: a ten-day comparison of magnesium chelate against monohydrate in 31 participants found both beat placebo and neither beat the other (Selsby et al., 2004).

Creatine and Caffeine

There's a persistent idea that caffeine cancels out creatine. It traces back to Vandenberghe et al. (1996), a double-blind crossover with nine participants where caffeine at 5 mg/kg wiped out the improvement in muscle torque. It hasn't held up: Trexler et al. (2016), with 54 participants, found no interaction, and the ISSN's 2025 consensus concludes the two ingredients likely neither help nor hurt each other.

What to Expect, Week by Week

This is the part almost nobody writes about, and the one that prevents most people from quitting early. Creatine doesn't give you a day-one feeling, and anyone expecting it to hit like a pre-workout will decide after three days that it isn't working. Here's the realistic timeline, without loading.

The scale deserves a precise note, because a claim keeps circulating that the evidence doesn't back. A 20 g/day loading phase over 5 to 7 days typically shows up as 1 to 3 kg, attributable to total body water retention, not fat (Antonio et al., 2021). The idea often tacked on, that this water moves into the muscle cell itself, is shakier: the study that measured fluid compartments directly by dilution, titled Creatine supplementation increases total body water without altering fluid distribution, found no significant shift toward the intracellular compartment (Powers et al., 2003). At 3 to 5 g a day, the increase is spread over weeks and barely noticeable.

There's also a minority who respond less. Since Harris et al. (1992), it's been observed that people who start with lower stores gain more, though studies on responders are small and descriptive. Burke et al. (2003) followed 18 vegetarians and 24 non-vegetarians for eight weeks: the vegetarians started lower (117 vs. 130 mmol/kg) and gained more total creatine and more work capacity. The ISSN estimates the body replaces 1 to 3 g a day and that about half of that normally comes from diet, which doesn't happen without meat or fish.

Which Creatine to Buy and In What Form

The market offers monohydrate, micronized, HCl, alkaline and ethyl ester, at very different prices. The decision is simpler than the shelf suggests: the evidence is overwhelmingly concentrated in one of those forms, and the rest compete mostly on absorption claims.

Monohydrate, the Form With the Studies Behind It

The ISSN position stand opens its conclusions by naming monohydrate as the most effective form available for increasing high-intensity exercise capacity. Every dose, protocol and saturation percentage cited in this article refers to monohydrate.

What the Creapure® Seal Means

Creapure® isn't a different type of creatine: it's monohydrate manufactured by Alzchem in Trostberg, Germany, with a minimum purity of 99.9% and controls on byproducts like dicyandiamide. It guarantees the process and the traceability of the source, not a different molecule.

Micronized, HCl and the Rest

Micronized is just monohydrate ground finer: it dissolves better and sits better with people who notice grittiness, but the molecule that reaches the muscle is the same. With HCl, alkaline and ethyl ester, the selling point is superior absorption that hasn't translated into better outcomes in head-to-head trials.

JustLoading's catalog has seven creatine references, from plain monohydrate to formulas with magnesium, electrolytes or collagen. The Creapure® seal is on the lemon-flavored 150 g tub; the rest use monohydrate or CreaLab™, like the CreaLab™ Advanced Creatine in watermelon and lime.

Safety, Side Effects and Who Should Check First

Creatine is one of the most studied sports supplements on record, and the ISSN position stand describes long-term use in healthy people without attributable adverse effects. Even so, there are three things worth being clear on before starting.

Do I need to cycle off creatine from time to time?

There's no evidence that cycling adds anything. If you stop taking it, your stores gradually return to baseline, so a break only costs you the saturation you built up. The ISSN describes years of continuous use in healthy people without issues.

The Kidney and Creatinine Question

The most common fear comes from a mix-up of names. Creatine breaks down into creatinine, which the kidneys clear and which labs use to estimate kidney function: take more creatine, produce more creatinine, and the bloodwork reflects it. Longobardi et al. (2023) break this down: serum creatinine rises, while the markers that actually measure filtration (measured glomerular filtration rate, cystatin C, proteinuria and albuminuria) stay stable.

The myth has a specific origin: a single case published in The Lancet in 1998 (Pritchard and Kalra) involving a 25-year-old with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and five years on cyclosporine, a nephrotoxic immunosuppressant. With those confounders, nothing can be pinned on creatine. Poortmans and Francaux (1999) studied users of ten months to five years and found no differences in creatinine clearance, urea or albumin.

Tell your doctor you're taking creatine before any bloodwork. And this applies to healthy people: with diagnosed kidney disease, you fall outside that evidence.

Does creatine damage the kidneys?

In healthy people at normal doses there's no evidence of kidney damage. Creatine raises blood creatinine, which is its normal breakdown product and also the marker used to estimate kidney function: the marker goes up, not the damage (Longobardi et al., 2023). If you have kidney disease, check with your doctor first.

Digestive Discomfort

The most common side effect is stomach discomfort and bloating, almost always from large doses taken at once or too little water. Three fixes usually solve it:

• Split the loading dose into four separate doses spread across the day.
• Dissolve it in a full glass of water, not a splash.
• If it still bothers you, skip loading and start at 3 g a day.

Who Should Check With a Doctor First

Anyone with diagnosed kidney or liver disease, anyone on chronic medication, and anyone pregnant or breastfeeding. For minors, the decision belongs to a pediatrician or a sports doctor: the EU claim is limited to adults doing high-intensity exercise.

Can minors take creatine?

The authorized EU health claim is limited to foods for adults doing high-intensity exercise, so creatine isn't positioned as a product for minors. For that age group the decision belongs to a pediatrician or a sports doctor.

Remember: if you have any doubts about your particular case, speak to a healthcare professional. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied and balanced diet.