Creatine monohydrate

These are the amounts published trials administered — not a recommendation, and not a dose to copy. Trial participants were screened, supervised and given a characterised preparation. What is in a retail bottle is frequently not what was studied, and the amount that suits one person is not general advice.

• Studied for Loading protocol

  20 g

  Strong

  Divided into four doses of 5 g across the day · 5–7 days

  Roughly 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight daily. Loading saturates muscle stores in under a week; it is not necessary, and it is the phase that produces most of the water-retention weight gain and gastrointestinal complaints.

• Studied for Maintenance protocol

  3–5 g

  Strong

  Single daily dose · Ongoing

  Maintains saturation after loading. Taken without loading, 3 g/day reaches the same muscle content in about four weeks — the endpoint is identical, only the speed differs.

• Studied for Cognitive and sleep-deprivation studies

  5–20 g

  Limited

  Daily, or single high doses in acute studies · Days to weeks

  Doses vary widely and the literature is much smaller than the exercise literature. Effects appear largest in vegetarians and under sleep deprivation, which fits a depletion model rather than a general enhancement one.

This is general information about food, not medical advice. It cannot diagnose, treat or replace guidance from a clinician who knows your history.

Each timing below was actually compared against an alternative in a trial, which is unusual.

• 🕐Any time

  Moderate

  Timing has been directly compared and it barely matters. Trials pitting pre- against post-exercise dosing find small and inconsistent differences, and what actually determines muscle creatine content is total daily intake and consistency over weeks. This is one of the clearest cases in supplementation where the marketing question has been answered and the answer is "it does not matter much".

  Timing was tested. A trial compared this window against another and reported a difference.

• 🍽️With food

  Moderate

  Co-ingestion with carbohydrate or a carbohydrate-and-protein meal increases muscle creatine uptake through insulin-mediated transport, shown in controlled studies. The effect is real but modest and mostly relevant during loading.

  Timing was tested. A trial compared this window against another and reported a difference.