How much Creatine Monohydrate should I take?
The Basics
It is commonly recommended that a person divide their supplementing regimes into three separate phases. These have been termed the loading, maintenance and wash-out phases. The sum of these three phases is known as one period. Several periods can be chained together in a process known as periodizing.
Loading Phase: The purpose of the loading phase is to rapidly fill your muscle creatine stores within a brief period of only a few days.
Maintenance Phase: As it’s name implies, the maintenance dose should just compensate for the amount of creatine used on a daily basis in order to maintain the stores full.
Wash-out Phase: The wash-out period allows the body to recover from the artificially high creatine levels observed during supplementation that the body would not ordinarily encounter in everyday life. The wash-out period is mainly a precaution, since the long term consequences of creatine supplementation are not well known or understood.
Period: The cycling between these three phases has been termed periodizing. A period begins with each new loading phase and ends with the wash-out phase.
Loading
In the original scientific study that devised the loading strategy of taking creatine, a person’s creatine dose is a function of their weight (see reference below). This makes sense since a person’s capacity to store creatine is determined by their amount of muscle mass. During the loading phase, 0.3 grams of creatine should be taken for each kilogram of bodyweight.
NOTE: A scoop is usually provided by the manufacturer in the creatine container. The instructions on the side of the container should indicate how many grams of creatine are provided in each scoop of creatine. One scoop’s worth of creatine is often referred to as serving size. Also see Concluding Remarks.
How to calculate your weight in kilograms.
To calculate your creatine dose, you must first know your weight in kilograms. To convert you weight in pounds to kilograms, simply divide your weight in pounds by 2.2. For example, a 154 pound person would weigh 70 kilograms; 154 / 2.2 = 70.
How to calculate your creatine dose.
To calculate your loading dose, simply multiply your weight in kilograms by 0.3. For example, a 70 kilogram person would take 21 grams of creatine per day during the loading phase; 0.3 x 70 = 21.
For those of you who would rather not do the math, a table of creatine dose is provided below.
Creatine Dosing Table
(per day)
Note: Below your weight is your corresponding creatine dose.
How to take your creatine dose.
Divide the loading dose into 4 equal parts; take one part every 4-5 hours. In other words, if your loading dose is 20 grams per day, you would take 5 grams of creatine four times a day during the loading phase. For the best results completely dissolve this amount of creatine powder into
at least 16 ounces of fruit juice. Take one part with your morning meal, another at lunch, one immediately after your workout, and one before you go to bed. Again, do not take creatine immediately before you work out. The reason for this will be given in a subsequent newsletter.
The loading phase should not exceed 5 days.
NOTE: As far as creatine is concerned, more isn’t necessarily better. During the five days of loading, an equivalent of one day’s creatine dose (~20 grams) is absorbed by our muscles. This is equal to about 1/5, or 20%, of our pre-existing muscle creatine reserves. After five days, creatine absorption by skeletal muscle declines precipitously. This can be either because the muscle is full or because creatine entry at the muscle surface is being blocked. No matter the reason, it doesn’t make sense (economically or physiologically) to continue creatine loading for more than 5 days.
Maintenance
Normally, our creatine stores degrade at a rate of about 2 grams per day. This amount would need to be replaced each day in order to “maintain” the stores full. The purpose of the maintenance dose is to replace this loss amount of creatine. During the maintenance phase, reduce the creatine dose to 0.03 grams of creatine per kilogram of body weight. This is equivalent to 2.1 grams of creatine per day for a 70 kilogram (154 pound) person; 70 x 0.03=2.1. It is recommended that
the maintenance phase not exceed 4-5 weeks. Take the maintenance dose immediately following your workout.
Wash-out
Following the maintenance phase a wash-out period should be incorporated to allow the body to recover from abnormally high creatine concentrations. The commonly recommended duration of the wash-out period is one month. Usually our muscle creatine reserves return to their original levels after one month of stopping supplementation. After washout, the next round of supplementation may commence again.
Concluding Remarks
Remember that these values are for pure creatine monohydrate. If your creatine product contains other additives, such as sugars, this will increase the recommended dose. This should be explained with the manufactures instructions. Nevertheless, the actual amount of creatine you take should not exceed what was outlined above.
Original Scientific Reference:
Hultman, E., Soderlund K., Timmons, J. A., Cederblad, G. and Greenhaff, P. L. (1996) Muscle creatine loading in men. Journal of Applied Physiology, Volume 81(1), pages 232-237
