How Much Creatine Should You Take?

Three to five grams a day, every day. That is the whole answer for most people. If you want to be precise, the maintenance dose is about 0.03 g per kilogram of bodyweight, which is 2 g for a 60 kg person and 3 g for a 100 kg person. Five grams covers almost everyone with room to spare, which is why it became the default. New to it? Start with what creatine does.

• Standard dose: 3 to 5 g of creatine monohydrate daily
• By bodyweight: about 0.03 g per kg per day to keep muscle stores full
• Loading (optional): 20 g a day in four doses, for 5 to 7 days
• Time to full stores: about 6 days with loading, about 28 days without
• Above saturation: extra creatine is excreted, not stored

Why is 5 g the standard dose?

Because of a study from 1996, and because it is a round number that works for nearly everybody.

Eric Hultman's team gave 31 men different creatine protocols and measured what happened inside the muscle. Twenty grams a day for six days raised total muscle creatine by about 20%. Then 2 g a day held it there for another month. Separately, 3 g a day with no loading at all reached the same 20% increase; it took 28 days instead of six.¹

Every dosing recommendation you have read comes from that study and the work that followed it. The maintenance requirement is small. Five grams became standard because it exceeds what almost anyone needs, costs pennies, and removes the need to think about it.²

Evidence: strong. The saturation ceiling and the two routes to it have been replicated repeatedly since 1996.

How much creatine should you take for your bodyweight?

Creatine is stored in muscle, so bigger people with more muscle need slightly more. The usual scaling is 0.03 g per kilogram per day for maintenance and 0.3 g per kilogram per day during a loading phase.

For a 70 kg person, that is 2.1 g a day to maintain full stores, or 21 g a day for five to seven days if loading. In practice, 3 to 5 g a day is the sensible number, because it covers missed days, hard training weeks and an imprecise scoop.

Notice how flat the practical column is. A 50 kg person and a 100 kg person are separated by about 1.5 g a day. This is why the idea of a special lower dose for women does not hold up: the difference is a third of a teaspoon.

Is 10 g of creatine a day too much?

For muscle stores, yes: anything above saturation is excreted. But there are two dosing conventions in the research, and almost nobody explains the difference.

The muscle convention, 0.03 g per kg per day, comes from the saturation studies. It answers "what is the minimum that keeps muscle stores full?" and gives 2 to 4 g a day for most adults.

The ageing and bone convention, 0.10 to 0.14 g per kg per day, comes from trials in older adults and the bone research, which used much higher relative doses. For a 70 kg person that is 7 to 10 g a day. Researchers chose those doses partly because older adults may absorb creatine less efficiently and start with less muscle.³

Both are defensible. They answer different questions. A healthy 30 year old wanting the performance effect is covered by the lower convention. Someone over 60 following the protocols in the ageing research is drawing on trials that used considerably more. We think this should be said openly rather than papered over with one number. Kidneys and blood tests are covered here.

Evidence: strong for the muscle convention. Moderate for the higher relative dosing in older adults, which reflects trial protocols rather than a demonstrated advantage.

Should you do a loading phase?

Only if you have a deadline.

Loading means 20 g a day, split into four 5 g doses, for five to seven days. It fills muscle stores in about six days. Not loading means 3 to 5 g a day and reaching the same place in about four weeks. The end result is identical. Loading costs more creatine in the first month, raises the chance of an upset stomach, and makes the early water weight more noticeable.^{1, 4} How much weight creatine adds, and why it is not fat, is here.

If you have a race, a meet or a fixture inside three weeks, load. Otherwise the only thing it buys you is three weeks. The full case for and against loading, with the protocol if you do, is here.

Does taking more creatine work better?

No. Muscle creatine has a ceiling of roughly 160 mmol per kilogram of dry muscle, and most people start around 120. Supplementation moves you from one to the other and then stops mattering.¹

A 2025 meta-analysis that compared trials by dose found that low-to-moderate doses were not outperformed by high doses for strength gains. That comparison is between different trials rather than within one, so it is not proof that less is more, but it gives no support to taking more.⁵

Does the dose change for women?

No. Dose scales with bodyweight, not sex, and a woman of 60 kg needs the same as a man of 60 kg. If anything the evidence points the other way: in postmenopausal women, trials using 3 g a day or less without training showed no measurable effect, while effects appeared at 5 g a day or more combined with resistance training.^{6, 7} Creatine for women is covered here.

How much water should you drink with creatine?

Normal amounts. Drink to thirst and keep your urine pale. Creatine raises total body water, which is the mechanism, not a side effect. You do not need four litres a day, and forcing extreme volumes is unnecessary. Mix your dose in at least 250 ml of liquid so it dissolves, and drink normally the rest of the day.

Is your scoop actually 5 g?

Often not. Scoop volumes vary between products, and so does powder density, so a scoop labelled 5 g can deliver anywhere from about 3.5 g to over 6 g. Weigh one level scoop on kitchen scales once and mark the fill level with a permanent marker. The beginner's routine is here. It takes two minutes and also tells you whether the servings count on the tub is real. Pre-dosed formats such as gummies or tablets avoid the problem; check the creatine content per piece and the number of pieces that make a serving. What to check in a gummy is here.

Who should check with a GP or pharmacist first?

• Anyone with a diagnosed kidney condition or reduced kidney function.
• Anyone pregnant, trying to conceive, or breastfeeding.
• Anyone taking medication that affects the kidneys, including long-term anti-inflammatory painkillers or diuretics.
• Anyone under 18.
• Anyone managing a condition with medication.

Creatine is not known to be harmful in these situations. The evidence is thinner, and an individual decision beats a general article. Creatine also raises blood creatinine, which is the marker used in kidney-function tests, so tell your doctor you take it before any blood test.⁸

What we don't know

• Whether older adults need higher relative doses, or whether the trials simply used them. No head-to-head comparison exists.
• Individual variation. Roughly 20 to 30% of people respond minimally. Diet and muscle fibre type predict it in part, not reliably enough to personalise a dose in advance.
• Long-term dosing above 5 g. Most safety data covers 3 to 5 g.
• The right dose for any effect on the brain. Not established, and not what this article is about.

Frequently asked questions

Is 3 g of creatine enough?

For most people under about 75 kg, yes. The study showing 3 g a day reaching full saturation over 28 days used exactly this dose.¹ Below 3 g, evidence of benefit becomes patchy.

Can I take creatine twice a day?

Yes. Two doses of 2.5 g is a reasonable alternative to one 5 g dose if a single dose upsets your stomach. When to take it is here.

What happens if I miss a dose?

Very little. Muscle stores decline slowly, taking about four weeks to return to baseline with no supplementation at all. Missing a day is invisible. After two weeks off, resume your normal dose; there is no need to reload.¹

Do I need to cycle creatine?

No. There is no evidence that continuous use causes tolerance. Your body reduces its own production modestly while you supplement, and this reverses within weeks of stopping.²

Should I take creatine with carbohydrate?

It may help a little with uptake, but it is not required, and a 2024 meta-analysis found that taking carbohydrate alongside creatine did not improve body-composition outcomes.⁴

Does the dose change if I'm cutting?

No. Creatine has effectively no calories. Keep your normal dose in a calorie deficit.

Does creatine cause hair loss?

No trial has shown it. The worry comes from one 2009 study that measured a hormone, not hair, after a 25 g a day loading week. The only trial to measure hair directly, at 5 g a day for 12 weeks, found no effect. The full evidence on creatine and hair loss is here.

How long until it works?

About six days with loading, about four weeks without, and you will not feel anything either way. What to expect week by week is here.

Sources

1. Hultman E, et al. 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. 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.
4. Desai I, et al. The effect of creatine supplementation on resistance training-based changes to body composition: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2024. PubMed 39074168.
5. Zhang H, et al. Effects of creatine supplementation on muscle strength gains: a meta-analysis and systematic review. PeerJ, 2025. PubMed 41328071.
6. Smith-Ryan AE, et al. Creatine supplementation in women's health: a lifespan perspective. Nutrients, 2021. PubMed 33800439.
7. Naddafha S, et al. Creatine monohydrate for lean mass, strength, and bone density in postmenopausal women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2026. PubMed 42141930.
8. Effect of creatine supplementation on kidney function: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Nephrology, 2025. PubMed 41199218.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If you take medication or have a health condition, speak to your GP or pharmacist before starting a supplement.