Creatine calculator

How much creatine should I take, and how it's calculated

The number you take every day is the daily dose, usually 3 to 5 g. Loading is an optional first week at a higher dose that fills your muscles faster; after 5 to 7 days you drop to the daily dose for good. Both routes end in the same place.

Daily dose: 0.03 g per kg per day, with a 3 g floor

Once stores are full, or if you skip loading altogether, a much smaller daily amount holds them there. This calculator scales that maintenance figure at 0.03 g per kg of body weight, with a 3 g a day floor so it never suggests less than the low end of the well studied flat range below. For an 80 kg lifter, 80 × 0.03 = 2.4 g, which is below the floor, so the calculator shows 3 g a day. The floor only lifts once body weight passes 100 kg: at 120 kg, 120 × 0.03 = 3.6 g, above the 3 g floor.

That 0.03 g per kg figure is this calculator's own scaling convention, not a number from any of the sources below. It exists so a much heavier lifter is not stuck on the same flat number as everyone else, and it is built to sit inside, then gradually rise above, the flat 3 to 5 g a day range the research actually recommends.

Optional loading: 0.3 g per kg per day, capped at 20 g, for 5 to 7 days only

The loading protocol used in the research is about 5 g of creatine monohydrate taken four times a day, 20 g in total, for 5 to 7 days, which the ISSN also expresses as roughly 0.3 g per kg of body weight per day. The calculator uses 0.3 g per kg but never goes above the 20 g a day used in those studies. A 60 kg person gets 60 × 0.3 = 18 g a day, four servings of 4.5 g; an 80 kg lifter would work out at 24 g, so the calculator caps it at 20 g, four servings of 5 g. After the loading week, drop to the daily dose above.

Creatine loading vs skipping straight to maintenance

Both routes get you to roughly the same place, they just take different amounts of time to get there.

Loading: full stores in about a week

Ingesting around 0.3 g per kg a day, in four even servings, for 5 to 7 days is the fastest documented way to fill muscle creatine stores. A classic loading study in 31 men found that 20 g a day for 6 days (about 0.3 g per kg for a 67 kg person) raised muscle total creatine by roughly 20 percent within that week.

No loading: the same stores in about 28 days

The same study found a slower route to almost the same place: 3 g a day for 28 days produced a similar roughly 20 percent rise in muscle creatine, just spread across a month instead of a week. A later review of the evidence agrees that loading is not required, and that a flat 3 to 5 g a day, taken for at least four weeks, is an effective way to reach comparable muscle saturation.

Pick loading if you want the effect sooner, for example before a block of training or a competition. Pick no loading if you would rather skip the higher early doses and the water weight that comes with them, and are not in a hurry.

Creatine dosing at a glance

The daily dose is what you take every day, long term. The loading columns only apply if you choose to load, and only for the first 5 to 7 days.

Does it matter when you take it: before, after or any time of day

The research behind the numbers on this page looks at daily and weekly totals, not the clock. None of the sources cited here tested creatine timed around a workout against creatine taken at some other point in the day, so there is no dosage-backed answer to give on that specific question.

What the research does support is that consistency matters: taking the same amount, every day, is what filled and held muscle stores in the studies above. Mixing your dose into a drink with a meal is a reasonable, practical habit, since it is easy to remember and the powder stirs into water or juice, but treat that as convenience advice rather than a performance claim.

Creatine monohydrate vs other forms

Creatine monohydrate is, in the words of the 2017 ISSN position stand, "the most extensively studied and clinically effective form of creatine for use in nutritional supplements in terms of muscle uptake and ability to increase high-intensity exercise capacity."

Newer forms, buffered creatine, creatine hydrochloride, creatine ethyl ester and others, are marketed on claims of better absorption or less water retention than monohydrate. The same position stand addresses this directly: "claims that different forms of creatine are degraded to a lesser degree than creatine monohydrate in vivo or result in a greater uptake to muscle are currently unfounded." The formulas and doses on this page assume monohydrate, the form almost all of the underlying research actually used.

Water retention and the number on the scale

A loading phase of about 20 g a day for 5 to 7 days typically adds 1 to 3 kg of body mass, mostly from water retention rather than new tissue. That is a documented, expected part of loading, not a sign anything has gone wrong.

Over the longer term the picture is less dramatic than the loading week suggests. Some studies find a short-term rise in body water with creatine use, mostly inside muscle cells; several others find no change in total body water at all once the initial loading bump settles. The often-repeated claim that creatine causes dehydration or muscle cramping is not backed by the experimental and clinical research on the subject.

If you would rather avoid the loading doses behind that early jump on the scale, skipping loading and going straight to a flat 3 to 5 g a day reaches similar muscle stores more gradually. For a daily fluid target, use the water intake calculator.

Kidney safety: what the research actually shows

The 2017 ISSN position stand states plainly that "there is no compelling evidence that creatine supplementation negatively affects renal function in healthy or clinical populations." A 2021 review in the same society's journal reached the same conclusion for recommended dosages specifically: creatine supplementation "does not result in kidney damage and/or renal dysfunction in healthy individuals."

Blood creatinine is used as a marker of kidney function, and the same review notes that transient increases in blood creatine or creatinine due to supplementation are unlikely to reflect a decrease in kidney function; worth knowing before reading a routine blood panel taken after starting supplementation. Anyone with existing kidney disease, or on medication that affects kidney function, should get individual advice from a doctor before starting, rather than relying on population-level research like this.

Vegetarians and lower baseline creatine stores

Creatine occurs naturally in meat and fish, so diets without them supply little to none of it before supplementation starts. The 2017 ISSN position stand reports that "vegetarians have been reported to have lower intramuscular creatine stores (90 to 110 mmol per kg of dry muscle) and therefore may observe greater gains in muscle creatine content from creatine supplementation."

In practical terms, the doses on this page apply the same way to vegetarians and meat eaters. The difference is the starting point: a lower baseline before supplementation means a vegetarian starting from empty typically has more room to gain from the same loading or maintenance protocol described above.

How to use your dose

Dissolve each serving in water, juice or a shake; creatine monohydrate mixes fine in either and there is no requirement to take it with anything specific. Weigh out or measure servings consistently rather than eyeballing a scoop, since the numbers above assume the actual gram amount, not a rough serving size.

The studies behind these numbers used continuous daily dosing, with no scheduled breaks or "cycling off," so there is no dosage-backed reason to stop and restart periodically once you are on a maintenance dose. If you do stop, muscle creatine drifts back toward your unsupplemented baseline: in the 1996 loading study it was back at the pre-supplementation value 30 days after stopping, and the ISSN puts the usual return at 4 to 6 weeks. For the protein side of the same plan, the protein calculator sets a daily target.

Common mistakes

Skipping the four-way split during loading. The standard loading protocol is about 5 g taken four times a day, not one 20 g-plus dose at once; the numbers on this page assume that split.

Stopping after the loading week. Loading fills the tank; nothing keeps it full without a maintenance dose afterwards. Drop to the maintenance figure, do not stop.

Panicking about the first-week weight gain. A 1 to 3 kg jump during loading is water moving into muscle, not fat gained overnight.

Buying an "advanced" form over monohydrate. Claims of better uptake from other forms are, in the ISSN's words, currently unfounded. Monohydrate remains the most studied option.

Expecting instant results without loading. Skipping loading is a fine choice, but it takes roughly a month of consistent daily dosing to reach the stores loading reaches in a week; taking a maintenance dose for three days and judging it as ineffective is judging it too early.

How coaches use a creatine calculator

For a coach, creatine is one of the simplest supplements to standardise across a client base, since the dose scales with body weight and the protocol does not change from client to client.

A workable routine: pick loading or no loading with the client based on how soon they want the effect, set the dose, then check in during the first couple of weeks about consistency and the expected early weight shift, so a normal water-related bump does not get mistaken for fat gain.

Scraler keeps that in the same place as the rest of a client's nutrition: set a supplement note per client, ask about adherence in a check-in, and track it alongside their meal plan instead of a separate note somewhere else.