Creatine monohydrate: how much per day, whether to load, and what it does

What creatine does

Creatine helps your muscles get energy fast. It helps regenerate ATP, the cell’s main fuel, during short, powerful efforts: a set in the gym, a sprint, a burst of speed on the pitch. Supplements raise phosphocreatine stores in muscle, which makes repeated efforts easier.

Your liver and kidneys make about 1 g of creatine a day from the amino acids glycine, arginine and methionine. A little more comes from beef, pork and salmon. Vegetarians have lower muscle creatine stores and often respond more to a supplement.

The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) describes creatine monohydrate as the most effective supplement available for high-intensity exercise capacity. NIH ODS cites this position in its review of sports supplements.

Who benefits from creatine, and who doesn’t

Creatine doesn’t help everyone equally. It works best where effort is short and repeated:

• Strength training and weightlifting.
• Sprinting and bursts of speed.
• Team sports with repeated sprints, such as football.
• Training with progressively heavier loads over weeks and months.

It does little:

• For distance running and swimming. The extra water weight may even slow you down.
• If you don’t train. It supports training rather than replacing it.
• For “fat burning”. Creatine doesn’t do that.

How much creatine per day: dosage and loading

There are two ways to take it. Both end with the same muscle saturation; the only difference is speed.

• Take 3–5 g every day, rest days included.
• Any time of day works as long as you don’t skip it; with breakfast is easy to remember.
• Stir the powder into water, juice or a protein shake.
• Drink enough fluid: good hydration may lower the risk of stomach upset and cramps.

If you’re not aiming for a specific date, you don’t need to load: your muscles saturate within 3–4 weeks anyway.

What sports bodies and studies say

Creatine is a rare case where sports organisations agree:

• The ISSN calls creatine monohydrate the most effective supplement for high-intensity exercise.
• The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine agree that creatine improves repeated high-intensity performance and supports training capacity.
• The Australian Institute of Sport supports its use under sports medicine supervision.

Examples from trials: 25 g a day for 6–7 days in resistance-trained men, and 20 g a day for 5 days in sprinters. Responses vary: some people notice little difference.

Creatine monohydrate vs other forms

The ISSN names creatine monohydrate as the most effective supplement for high-intensity exercise, and loading and maintenance doses are worked out for it. That makes monohydrate the default. If a tub contains another form, compare it with monohydrate on price and creatine per serving.

Capsules are handy when travelling, but 3–5 g takes several at once. Before buying, work out how many capsules make a serving and how long the bottle will last.

Water retention, weight and kidneys: myths and facts

Weight gain is normal. Creatine holds water in your muscles. In studies, people doing strength training gained 1–2 kg in a month. That’s not fat, but it matters in weight-class sports and for runners.

Kidneys in healthy people. According to NIH ODS, creatine is safe for healthy adults over weeks and months, and use over several years also appears safe. It has no consistent pattern of side effects.

Blood tests. Creatinine is a breakdown product of creatine and is cleared by the kidneys. Before a creatinine blood test, tell your doctor you take creatine so the result can be read correctly.

Occasionally reported: nausea, loose stools, stomach discomfort, muscle cramps and stiffness, and heat intolerance. These come mostly from individual reports rather than controlled trials.

How to tell if creatine works for you

Creatine doesn’t feel like an energy boost. If it works for you, it shows up in your training numbers. Before the first scoop, jot down your working weights, reps or sprint times in a notebook or your phone, then compare after 4–8 weeks of regular training. If nothing has changed, you may be one of the people who respond little to creatine.

Creatine for women and older adults

Creatine works for women just as for men, at the same 3–5 g a day. In a study of female university footballers, 15 g a day for a week followed by 5 g a day for 12 weeks increased strength, though lean mass didn’t change noticeably.

Age alone isn’t a reason to avoid creatine. But kidney problems and multiple medicines become more common after 60. Ask your GP to check your kidney function before you start.

Who shouldn’t take creatine without medical advice

• If you have kidney disease or reduced kidney function on blood tests, only with your kidney specialist’s agreement.
• In pregnancy and while breastfeeding there’s little safety data.
• For under-18s, whether to take it and how much is a decision for a GP or sports doctor.
• If you take medicines that affect the kidneys, check with your doctor or pharmacist.

Children shouldn’t take creatine unless a doctor recommends it.

How to choose creatine on iHerb

1. Choose creatine monohydrate, the best-researched form.
2. Check the ingredients: a good powder contains nothing but creatine monohydrate.
3. Look at the serving size: grams per scoop and servings per tub.
4. Compare price per 5 g, not per tub.
5. If you’re drug-tested in sport, choose products with independent testing (Informed Sport, NSF Certified for Sport or similar).

For large tubs, check delivery rules in our guide to ordering from iHerb. More supplements for active people are in our men’s health and sport section and our guide to supplements for men. Magnesium is another popular supplement with athletes; our guide to types of magnesium explains the forms. Our Supplement Facts guide shows where to find the grams of creatine on a label.