How Much Creatine Should You Take Per Day? A Complete Guide

Creatine supplementation can be a useful addition both for gym-goers and endurance athletes. To reveal its full potential, it is crucial to keep up with proper dosage and timing. Read how to take creatine effectively and what strategies concerning creatine are most common among physically active people.

Recommended Creatine Dosage Explained

To make use of creatine benefits, it is crucial to take it regularly. Depending on the strategy you implement, a typical cycle can last from a few weeks to a couple of months, but in any case, consistency is a must to see results. If you take creatine monohydrate once or twice and then set it aside for a week, the effects should be close to none, since a biological compound hasn’t had time to accumulate in muscle cells.

It’s not enough, though, to take creatine supplements a few months in a row. Equally significant is to maintain a proper dosage of product. Researchers established a recommended creatine dosage of creatine on a level of 3 to 5 g. In other words, you can take microdosages of creatine for years without any visible effect. Maintaining the aforementioned dose will probably give physiological effects in a matter of several days.

Sport physiologists compiled two different strategies for taking creatine. These are the loading phase and the maintenance phase. Both are best to be applied to creatine monohydrate, since it’s the most widely and thoroughly researched form of creatine. However, the same protocols are useful while cycling Kre-Alkalyn, creatine HCl, creatine nitrate or any other chemical formula. Only the doses would be smaller due to better solubility.

How Much Creatine Should You Take Per Day?

Among physically active people, two strategies concerning creatine are most common. You can either boost creatine intake for a brief period of time and then lower it drastically or use a constant dose of product.

Loading Phase

During the loading phase, for the first few days (usually between 5 and 7 days) it is recommended to take from 20 to 25 grams of creatine, divided into smaller portions for better absorption. This way, intracellular creatine stores will significantly increase during the first week of supplementation. After that concentration occurs, you should switch to the maintenance phase (3 to 5 grams of creatine per day).

Maintenance Phase

The maintenance strategy is more straightforward. You just keep to 'standard' dosage of 3 to 5 grams of creatine daily without exceptions for a couple of weeks (or months). The results are stable, but muscles are bulging slower than with the loading phase.

Is Creatine Loading Safe?

No matter which strategy you choose, the outcome shall be similar; however, the loading phase can be riskier for the digestive tract. Some people can be affected by bloating, nausea, stomachache, diarrhoea, or muscle spasms, but the chances are low.

One of the popular myths concerning creatine is combined with dehydration. It probably stems from the fact that effective creatine supplementation demands drinking a lot of water to ensure a proper environment for muscle cells to grow and regenerate. However, it should be discarded as unjustifiable. If you don't drink more fluids (especially water) during the cycle, creatine will act weaker, but it won’t cause you any harm. In 2022, researchers stated that 'In summary, experimental and clinical research does not validate the notion that creatine supplementation causes dehydration and muscle cramping.'

A long, follow-up research that lasted 5 years has shown that in most cases creatine is safe and well-tolerated even in higher doses, no matter the age and sex.

A Complete Guide to Timing Creatine

Does it make any difference when you take creatine? Well, it’s not so simple. Scientific data indicates that most nutrients (like protein powder) absorb better post-workout than pre-workout. The reason for this is called an 'anabolic window.' It’s a concept of increased absorption of nutrients and enhanced muscle protein synthesis in a brief period after a workout.

It is widely believed that proteins and carbohydrates actually accumulate more effectively immediately after physical activity; however, the effect is stronger in people who engage in training in a fasted state. Although creatine may absorb better, it doesn’t make its effectiveness greater. Much more important is to take it regularly. It all comes down to saturation of bio-active compound concentration, no matter if you take creatine pre-workout or post-workout.

The same can be said about supplements for immunity, vitamins, and minerals. Patience is the key to success!

How to Improve Creatine Effectiveness?

To improve creatine efficacy, it is important to take care of diet. Firstly, hydrate the body with fluids, especially water. Muscle cells need hydration to work and develop properly. If you normally drink between 70 and 100 fl oz, increase it by half. While training in a hot environment, you can even double the amount of water. Remember to spread water consumption throughout the day.

Another strategy is to combine creatine supplements with simple sugars, like sport drinks, fruit juices, or energy gels. Glucose boosts insulin secretion. It’s an anabolic hormone that increases creatine accumulation in muscle cells. Be aware that simple carbs are best to eat immediately after a workout, enhancing glycogen to resynthesize. The World Health Organization says that simple sugars shouldn’t exceed 10 to 15% of total carbohydrates' intake per day.

Research has shown that combining taurine and creatine creates a synergistic effect on endurance capacity. What is more, taurine is a biological transporter for creatine, making it absorb better.

If you want to incorporate creatine into your training regimen, choose the right form of supplement. Monohydrate can be the cheapest and most widely known, but it’s certainly not the quickest acting one. Malate, gluconate, or magnesium chelate may act faster and with smaller water-retention effects.