Find your ideal creatine dose by body weight, with or without a loading phase.
Calculate My Dose ↓Get a maintenance dose, with an optional loading phase.
Creatine draws water into muscle cells, which is part of how it works. Make sure you're drinking adequate water daily, since this cellular water retention is a normal part of the mechanism, not a concern in itself.
Creatine works by gradually saturating muscle stores over days to weeks, not through an acute one-time effect. Taking it at the same time daily, alongside a meal, is a simple way to build a consistent habit.
Creatine monohydrate can be mixed with water, juice, a protein shake, or taken with a meal — there's no requirement around specific timing relative to training for the maintenance dose to be effective.
Whether or not you load, full muscle saturation and the associated strength benefits typically take 3-4 weeks to fully develop. Don't expect an immediate, noticeable difference in the first few days.
The maintenance dose is calculated at roughly 0.04g per kg of body weight per day, which lines up with the commonly cited 3-5g/day range used in most research for typical adult body weights, while scaling slightly for individual size. If you choose the loading phase option, it's calculated at approximately 0.3g per kg per day for the first 5-6 days, split into 4 smaller doses throughout the day to improve absorption and reduce the mild digestive discomfort some people experience with large single doses.
Loading is entirely optional — it saturates muscle creatine stores faster (within about a week) but isn't necessary for the same eventual outcome, since a flat maintenance dose reaches full saturation in roughly 3-4 weeks on its own. These figures are general guidance based on typical research protocols, not personalized medical advice — if you have kidney concerns or another relevant health condition, check with a doctor before starting any supplement.