Creatine Calculator — Loading & Maintenance Dose
Loading and maintenance doses straight from the ISSN position stand — the most-studied supplement in sport.
- Nutrition
- 2 cited sources
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Your creatine doses (ISSN position stand)
24 g/day loading (optional)
Maintenance: 3–5 g/day
Loading (0.3 g/kg/day for 5–7 days, split into ~4 doses) saturates muscle stores in about a week; skipping it and taking the maintenance dose gets there in three to four weeks with the same end result. These are the published sports-nutrition guidelines, not personal medical advice.
Methodology
Doses follow the International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand (Kreider et al., 2017), the reference document on creatine in sport:
- Loading (optional):
0.3 g per kg bodyweight per day, typically split into four doses, for 5–7 days. - Maintenance:
3–5 g per day, indefinitely.
Loading saturates muscle creatine stores in about a week; skipping it and taking 3–5 g daily reaches the same saturation in three to four weeks. The end state — and the performance effect — is identical.
Interpreting your result
Creatine monohydrate is the most-studied performance supplement in existence: consistent small-to-moderate benefits for high-intensity, repeated-effort work and for lean-mass gain alongside resistance training. Expect a kilogram or so of quick water-weight gain inside muscle as stores saturate — that is the mechanism working, not fat gain.
Daily consistency matters far more than timing. If you experience gut discomfort during loading, split doses further or simply start at the maintenance dose.
Limitations
- Guidance applies to healthy adults; anyone with kidney disease, on relevant medication, pregnant or under 18 should involve a doctor before supplementing.
- Roughly 20–30% of people are "non-responders" whose stores are already near-saturated from diet.
- These are published sports-nutrition guidelines, not personal medical advice — the calculator does arithmetic on a public formula.
Sources
Pull the receipts — 2 cited sources
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to load creatine?
- No. Loading (0.3 g/kg/day for 5–7 days, split through the day) saturates muscle stores in about a week; a steady 3–5 g/day gets there in three to four weeks with identical end results.
- Is creatine safe?
- In healthy people it is among the most-studied and best-tolerated supplements in sports nutrition, per the ISSN position stand. Anyone with kidney disease or on relevant medication should speak to a doctor first.
- When should I take creatine?
- Timing matters little — daily consistency is what saturates and maintains muscle stores. Taking it with a meal is a convenient habit anchor.
- Which form of creatine is best?
- Creatine monohydrate. Other forms cost more without outperforming it in the published evidence.
Written and reviewed by Mathew Beale — MSc Biotechnology, University of Reading.
Last reviewed:
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