Dosage of Creatine

“How much Creatine should I take?” goes the question.

And the most common answer that you’ll receive even from the directions on the product is usually…

“5g per day is good.”

While that generally fits the bill for most people, you there’s a much better method to determine how much Creatine you should take per day for the optimal effectiveness based upon the research studies. Here’s how to figure out your personal Creatine dosage specific to your body weight.

To calculate your creatine dosage according to the original research, you’ll first need to convert your body weight into kilograms. This won’t require a math degree. If it did, I wouldn’t be able to post this or even explain it!

Simply divide your current body weight in pounds by 2.2 to obtain your weight in kilograms. For example, if you weight 190 lbs. then your kilogram weight is ~86 kilograms (190 / 2.2 = 86).

Next, multiple your weight in kilograms for the appropriate dose.

Loading Dosage:

The recommended loading dosage is 0.3 grams per kilogram of body weight.

Maintenance Dosage:

The maintenance phase is even less at only 0.03 grams of creatine per kilogram of body weight.

Example: 86kg person starting a loading phase would require 25.8 grams of creatine per day for 5 days divided up into 4 equal parts during the day. The maintenance phase of an 86kg person would be 2.58g of creatine per day thereafter.

Your Personal Creatine Dosage Calculator:

• Step 1: Your body weight in pounds
• Step 2: Body weight in kilograms
  • body weight in pounds divided by 2.2.
• Step 3: Find your Loading dose.
  • body weight in kilograms multiplied by 0.3.
  • divide into 4 equal parts; take 1 part every 4 hours.
• Step 4: Find your Maintenance dose.
  • body weight in kilograms multiplied by 0.03.

It appears that the loading phase will saturate your muscle stores with creatine quicker but there’s little difference in a person who does or does not do the loading phase. Except it might take longer to reach full muscle saturation. Many references today (2008) report the loading phase as unnecessary or not required.

The loading phase can be done or not, it doesn’t appear there will be any outcome differences.

General maintenance phases of Creatine Monohydrate are between 3-5 grams. The references above will get you a more personalized approach to your creatine dosage vs. just the recommendations based on the average person.

To get the most benefits from Creatine supplementation based upon the research, you should optimize your personal dosage upon those studies. With the above Creatine dosage calculator, you can find your perfect amount of Creatine to take to optimize the results. You don’t want to take too little, and you certainly don’t want to take too much. While 5g might cover most of us, you can see precisely how close you come and get the dosage specific to you.

Remember, that while Creatine supplementation has been proven to be safe, you will want to properly hydrate to optimize the results. Creatine needs a hydrated body to work so if you are unwilling to hydrate and maintain your hydration status, Creatine may not be for you.