Your creatine dose in grams, worked out from the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s own numbers — both routes: load for a week, or skip loading and take 3 g a day.
80 kg · loading
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| Route | Daily | For | Then |
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This is not medical advice and it does not diagnose anything. Creatine is one of the best-studied supplements there is, but if you have kidney disease, are pregnant, or take medication that affects your kidneys, ask your doctor or pharmacist before you start.
For most people creatine is 3–5 g a day, every day, and that is the whole answer. If you want your muscles full inside a week you can load first: 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight, split into four doses, for five to seven days. Both numbers come from the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s position stand, and this page just does the arithmetic against your weight.
How to use it
Type your body weight in pounds or kilograms. The loading route gives you the daily total and what each of the four doses is; the other route is the stand’s 3 g a day for 28 days, which needs no loading week at all. Tell it what your tub’s scoop weighs and the answer comes in scoops too. Nothing here scales past what the stand publishes.
The two routes, in the stand’s own words
- Load, then maintain. “5 g of creatine monohydrate (or approximately 0.3 g/kg body weight) four times daily for 5–7 days”, then 3–5 g/day to keep stores up. At 80 kg that is 24 g a day in four 6 g doses for the loading week.
- Skip the loading. “3 g/day of creatine monohydrate for 28 days” gets to the same place, with the increase spread over three to four weeks.
- If you are large. “Larger athletes may need to ingest as much as 5–10 g/day in order to maintain creatine stores.” This page switches to that band at 100 kg, and says so — the boundary is ours, the numbers are the stand’s.
The part most pages bury is that loading is optional. It changes how fast you saturate, not how saturated you end up, so the reason to load is impatience or a competition date, not effectiveness.
What the scale does in week one
Loading holds water: the stand reports “a short-term fluid retention (e.g., about 0.5 – 1.0 L) that was generally proportional to the acute weight gain observed”. A kilo on the scale in the first week is that, not fat, and it is the single most common reason people stop.
Kidneys, and the honest limit of that reassurance
The position stand’s review is blunt: “there is no compelling evidence that creatine supplementation negatively affects renal function in healthy or clinical populations”. That is a statement about the studies it reviewed, not a clearance for one particular person — if you have kidney disease, are pregnant, or take medication that affects your kidneys, ask your doctor before starting. The stand also mentions 10–30 g/day for people with a creatine synthesis deficiency; that is medical treatment, not a training dose, and this calculator will never suggest it.
Worked examples
- 60 kg (132 lb). Loading: 18 g a day in four 4.5 g doses for 5–7 days, then 3–5 g a day. Slow route: 3 g a day for 28 days.
- 80 kg (176 lb). Loading: 24 g a day in four 6 g doses, then 3–5 g a day. At a 5 g scoop that is a rounded scoop per dose.
- 105 kg (231 lb). Loading: 31.5 g a day in four 7.9 g doses, then the stand’s larger-athlete band of 5–10 g a day.
Common mistakes
- Loading forever. The loading dose is for 5–7 days. Staying on it is money down the drain and a stomach ache.
- Quitting in week one because of the scale. See the fluid note above.
- Taking a day off “to cycle”. The stand’s protocols are continuous daily use; nothing in them asks for a washout.
- Buying a fancy form for the dose. Every number here is for creatine monohydrate, which is what the studies used.
Frequently asked questions
How much creatine should I take?
3–5 g a day for most people. If you load first, 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight a day, split into four doses, for five to seven days — which is 21 g a day at 70 kg and 27 g a day at 90 kg.
When should I take creatine?
The position stand’s protocols are daily totals, not clock times: what matters is taking it every day. Loading doses are split across the day because the total is large, not because of timing magic.
Do I need a loading phase?
No. 3 g a day for 28 days gets you to the same place. Loading only makes it faster.
How long does creatine take to work?
Five to seven days with a loading phase, three to four weeks on 3 g a day — those are the stand’s own windows for filling muscle stores.
Does creatine make you gain weight?
In the first week, yes, as water: about 0.5–1.0 L during loading, in the stand’s figures.
Is creatine bad for your kidneys?
The position stand found no compelling evidence that it harms kidney function in healthy or clinical populations. If your kidneys are not healthy, that finding is not about you — ask your doctor.
How many scoops is 5 grams?
Depends on your tub. Type your scoop size into the calculator and it converts; most scoops are printed on the label in grams, and if yours is not, weigh one.
Read next
- Creatine for the brain: what the sleep-deprivation trials found — the same supplement, measured on thinking rather than lifting.
- My top three nootropic supplements, each bought and taken for four weeks.
- Do nootropics help with memory?
This is not medical advice, and nothing here diagnoses or treats anything. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting a supplement — especially if you have kidney problems, are pregnant, or take prescription medication.