Do You Need a Creatine Loading Phase?

No. A loading phase is optional, and most people are better off without one. Loading means about 20 g of creatine a day for five to seven days. It fills your muscle stores in about six days. Taking 3 to 5 g a day fills them to exactly the same level in about four weeks. The end point is identical, so the only thing loading buys you is three weeks.

• Load if: you have a race, a meet or a fixture inside three weeks
• Skip loading if: you do not, which is most people
• If you do load: 20 g a day split into four 5 g doses with meals, for five to seven days, then 3 to 5 g a day
• Never: 20 g in one go. Single doses of 10 g or more roughly double the chance of diarrhoea
• After a break: no reloading. Stores take about a month to empty, so a fortnight off is not worth a second loading week

What is a creatine loading phase?

A short period of taking far more creatine than you need, to fill your muscles quickly, because what creatine does depends on a full store. The classic protocol is 20 g a day, split into four 5 g doses, for five to seven days, then a maintenance dose of 3 to 5 g a day.^{1, 2}

The idea comes from a 1996 study at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, which is still the reference for how creatine fills muscle.¹ Men who took 20 g a day for six days raised their muscle creatine by about 20%. That is close to the ceiling: muscle will not hold much more, and anything beyond it is passed in urine. Once full, the stores stayed full on as little as 2 g a day.

The same study ran a second group on 3 g a day with no loading at all. Their muscle creatine rose by the same 20%. It just took 28 days instead of six.

What happens if you skip the loading phase?

Nothing, except that you wait longer. You reach the same full stores, the same performance effect and the same roughly 1 kg of extra body water. You arrive in about four weeks instead of about six days.¹

An international group of creatine researchers reviewed this question directly in 2021 and concluded that a loading phase is not required.³ The position stand of the International Society of Sports Nutrition says the same: loading is the quickest route, not the only one.²

Skipping it also has three practical advantages. You use less creatine. You are less likely to get an upset stomach, because the daily dose is a quarter of the size. And the early water weight arrives gradually rather than all in one week, which some people prefer.

Evidence: strong. Two routes, same destination, measured directly in muscle.

Loading vs no loading: the numbers

Here is what each approach costs and delivers over the first month, using the Nottingham data for saturation time and the pooled trial data for body mass.^{1, 5, 6}

The water weight is not a side effect in the usual sense. Creatine draws water into muscle cells, which is part of how it works. In loading studies the average rise in body mass is 0.79 kg; across all protocols it is about 0.86 kg.^{5, 6} Loading does not add more water in the end. It adds it faster.

Can you take 20 g of creatine at once?

You can, and you should not. Creatine is absorbed well, but the gut has a limit on how much it handles comfortably in one sitting. A 28-day study in 59 professional footballers compared 10 g a day taken as two 5 g doses with 10 g taken in one go.⁴ Diarrhoea was reported by 29% of the split-dose group and 56% of the single-dose group. The split dose was no different from placebo.

If 10 g in one serving doubles the risk, 20 g in one serving is asking for trouble, and it does not fill your muscles any faster. Split a loading dose into four 5 g servings and take them with meals. If 5 g still bothers your stomach, smaller, more frequent servings work. How to fit doses around meals and training is here.

Can I load with 10 g a day?

Yes, as a middle route. No trial has mapped exactly how fast 10 g a day fills muscle, but the Nottingham data shows uptake is faster at higher doses until the stores are full, so 10 g a day should land somewhere between the six days of a full load and the four weeks of 3 g, most likely inside a fortnight.¹ Take it as two 5 g doses. The footballers' study used precisely this protocol for 28 days with no more stomach trouble than placebo.⁴

Treat the fortnight as an estimate. The two measured routes are 20 g for six days or 3 to 5 g for four weeks.

What is a good creatine loading phase?

If you have decided to load, this is the protocol the research used:

1. Dose: 20 g a day, or 0.3 g per kilogram of bodyweight if you prefer to scale it. For a 70 kg person that is 21 g; for a 90 kg person, 27 g.²
2. Split: four roughly equal servings, with breakfast, lunch, dinner and one other meal or snack.
3. Mix: each serving in at least 250 ml of water or juice so it dissolves. Drink it straight away rather than leaving it to sit.
4. Duration: five to seven days. Longer adds nothing, because the stores are already full.
5. Then: drop to 3 to 5 g a day and stay there. How to pick between 3 g and 5 g for your bodyweight is covered here.

Use plain creatine monohydrate, which is the form in essentially every study above.

Are there side effects of a loading phase?

Three things to expect, none of them dangerous for a healthy adult:

• Weight on the scale. Roughly 0.8 kg within the week, which is water held inside muscle.⁵ It is not fat and it does not keep climbing. More on creatine and weight here.
• Stomach upset. Mostly a problem of large single doses, as above. Splitting and taking with food deals with most of it.⁴
• A higher creatinine reading. Creatine is broken down to creatinine, which is the marker used in kidney-function blood tests. Supplementing raises it, and loading raises it more. In healthy adults this is a measurement artefact rather than a change in kidney function, but tell your GP you take creatine before any blood test.^{2, 3}

Anyone with a diagnosed kidney condition, anyone pregnant or breastfeeding, and anyone under 18 should talk to a GP or pharmacist before taking creatine at all, loading or not.

If I stop taking creatine for two weeks, do I need to load again?

No. In the Nottingham study, muscle creatine took about 30 days to fall back to where it started after supplementation stopped.¹ After two weeks off, your stores are still partly full. Go back to your normal 3 to 5 g a day and they will top up within a couple of weeks. A second loading week would get you there a few days sooner at the cost of another 100 g of creatine and another week of stomach risk, which is a poor trade.

The same applies to a missed day or week. Stores drain slowly. Carry on. What happens when you stop, week by week, is here.

Is creatine three times a week enough?

Probably not to fill your stores, and nobody has tested it directly. Three 5 g doses a week is 15 g, which averages out to about 2 g a day. In the Nottingham study 2 g a day was enough to hold stores that were already full after loading, but the lowest dose shown to fill them from scratch was 3 g every day.¹ So three doses a week might maintain a level you have already reached, and would take an unknown, longer time to build one.

Daily is simpler and is what every trial that showed a benefit actually did. If remembering is the problem, tie it to a fixed meal rather than to training days. What you should notice, week by week, is here.

What we don't know

• Exactly how long 10 g a day takes to saturate. The fortnight above is inferred from dose-response data, not measured in a trial.
• Whether intermittent dosing works. Three times a week, or training days only, has not been tested against daily dosing.
• Loading in women and older adults. The saturation studies were done in young men.

Frequently asked questions

Does loading make creatine work better?

No. It makes it work sooner. Full stores are full stores, however you reach them, and the performance effect is the same.^{1, 3}

How long should a creatine loading phase last?

Five to seven days. The stores are full by day six; day seven is a margin. Beyond that you are paying for creatine you excrete.¹

Can I do a loading phase with creatine gummies or tablets?

The rule is the same for any form: it is the grams of creatine that matter. Check the dose per gummy or tablet, work out how many make 5 g, and spread four servings across the day. For most products that is an impractical number of pieces, which is one reason people who load tend to use powder.

Sources

1. Hultman E, Söderlund K, Timmons JA, Cederblad G, Greenhaff PL. Muscle creatine loading in men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 1996. PubMed 8828669.
2. Kreider RB, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017. PubMed 28615996.
3. Antonio J, et al. Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show? Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2021. PubMed 33557850.
4. Ostojic SM, Ahmetovic Z. Gastrointestinal distress after creatine supplementation in athletes: are side effects dose dependent? Research in Sports Medicine, 2008. PubMed 18373286.
5. Glaister M, Rhodes L. Short-term creatine supplementation and repeated sprint ability: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2022. PubMed 36041731.
6. Pashayee-Khamene F, et al. Creatine supplementation protocols with or without training interventions on body composition: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2024. PubMed 39042054.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition or take regular medication, check with your GP or pharmacist before starting creatine.