Creatine dosage
“How much creatine should I take?” the question goes.
And the most common response you will get even from product instructions is usually …
“5g per day is good.”
While that generally fits the requirements for most people, there is a much better method of determining how much creatine to take per day for optimal effectiveness based on research studies. Here’s how to determine your personal creatine dose specific to your body weight.
To calculate your creatine dose based on original research, you will first need to convert your body weight into kilograms. This will not require a math degree. If I did, I couldn’t post this or even explain it!
Simply divide your current body weight in pounds by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms. For example, if you weigh 190 pounds, then your weight in kilograms is ~ 86 kilograms (190 / 2.2 = 86).
Next, multiply your weight in kilograms to get the proper dose.
Loading dose:
The recommended loading dose is 0.3 grams per kilogram of body weight.
Maintenance dose:
The maintenance phase is even less with just 0.03 grams of creatine per kilogram of body weight.
Example: an 86 kg person starting a loading phase would require 25.8 grams of creatine per day for 5 days divided into 4 equal parts during the day. The maintenance phase for an 86 kg person would be 2.58 g 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 faster, but there is little difference between a person doing the loading phase or not. Except it may take longer to reach full muscle saturation. Many references today (2008) report that the loading phase is unnecessary or not required.
The loading phase can be done or not, there seems to be no difference in the final result.
The general maintenance phases of creatine monohydrate are between 3-5 grams. The references above will give you a more personalized approach to your dose of creatine vs. only recommendations based on the average person.
To get the most benefits from creatine supplementation based on research, you should optimize your personal dose in those studies. With the creatine dosage calculator above, you can find the perfect amount of creatine to take to optimize results. You don’t want to take too little and you certainly don’t want to take too much. While 5g may cover most of us, you can accurately see how close it is and get the dose specific to you.
Remember that while creatine supplementation has been shown to be safe, you will want to hydrate properly to optimize results. Creatine needs a hydrated body to function, so if you are unwilling to hydrate and maintain your hydrated state, creatine may not be for you.