Take 3 to 5 g of creatine monohydrate every day, training days and rest days. Loading is optional and timing matters little. How much to take, loading, when to take it, what to mix it with and how to tell it's working, with figures from our labels.
Creatine
How to take creatine comes down to one habit: 3 to 5 g of creatine monohydrate every day. Take it on training days and rest days, with water or in a drink you already have. The time of day matters far less than taking it daily. A loading week fills your muscles faster, but it is optional.
This guide covers how much to take, whether to load, when to take it, what to mix it with and how to tell it's working, with the exact figures from Fuel Sync's creatine labels.
Take 3 to 5 g of creatine monohydrate a day. That keeps your muscle stores full once they're topped up, and it is the dose most research uses.
Larger people who train hard usually sit at the top of that range. A few studies use more, but more than 5 g a day doesn't add much for most people. It mainly raises the chance of an upset stomach.
Check what your scoop actually gives you, because not every scoop is 5 g of creatine:
One scoop of either a day is enough. You don't need to take two.
You don't need to load, but it gets you to full stores faster. Both ways end in the same place.
Frixos's rule for his clients is to start straight on one scoop a day. In his experience nobody he coaches has shown a measurable difference from a loading phase, and he doesn't think the extra benefit has been proven.
Loading can cause bloating or loose stools, because of the large amounts in a short time. Splitting it into four doses with meals helps. If you have a competition or a training block starting soon, loading makes sense. If not, one scoop a day is simpler.
If you want to load, pure creatine is the easier choice: four 5 g scoops a day for a week uses 28 of the 60 scoops in a tub, and it has no taste, so it goes into anything. Flavoured creatine is made for one drink a day, not four or five.
The best time to take creatine is whenever you'll take it every day. A 2022 review of the timing research in Frontiers found that taking creatine before or after training gave similar results, and that the evidence doesn't support a set time.
A few studies lean slightly towards taking it after training, close to the session. It's a small difference, so if after training suits you, use it. If mornings suit you better, that works too.
Most of Frixos's clients take it with their post-workout shake, and a lot of others take it with the first glass of water in the morning.
On rest days, still take one scoop. Your muscles keep their stores topped up between sessions, and skipping rest days slowly lets them drop.
Before bed is fine. Creatine isn't a stimulant, so it won't keep you awake the way a pre-workout with caffeine can.
Mix creatine with whatever you'll drink every day. Each of our creatines has its own best match:
Creatine dissolves better in room-temperature or warm liquid than in ice-cold water. If it settles at the bottom of the glass, give it a stir and drink the rest. You can add pure creatine to coffee or tea, but drink it soon after mixing rather than leaving it to stand for hours.
With protein: a protein shake is one of the easiest ways to remember creatine. Some research suggests taking creatine with protein or carbohydrate helps your muscles absorb it, though the effect is small.
With coffee: most people can take creatine and drink coffee normally. A few studies found large amounts of caffeine taken at the same time as loading blunted the effect, so if you load, keep big coffees apart from your creatine.
Creatine works quietly, so look for these signs over the first month:
If you notice none of these after six weeks of daily use, check you're taking it every day, including rest days. Some people already have high creatine stores from a meat-heavy diet and notice less.
Creatine doesn't dehydrate you, but training in a Cypriot summer does. Drink water through the day, not just with your scoop. Frixos's advice is to sip small amounts regularly rather than drinking a lot at once. Keep your tub somewhere cool and dry, out of the car and away from the sun. Close the lid after every scoop so the powder doesn't take in humidity and clump.
Here's a routine that works for most people who train three to five times a week:
Either works. Research finds little difference between before and after training. If you train at different times, take it at a fixed time of day instead, such as with breakfast.
Yes. Take one scoop on rest days too, so your muscle stores stay full. The timing on rest days doesn't matter.
Take your normal scoop the next day. Don't double up. One missed day barely changes your stores, because they drop slowly over weeks, not hours.
Skip loading, take one scoop a day rather than several at once, and take it with a meal and plenty of water. Most bloating comes from large single doses. Frixos hasn't come across stomach problems from creatine itself. Where clients do get an upset stomach it is usually from shakes made with milk, and switching to water usually fixes it.
Loading with four portions a day for the first month. Frixos sees it often, and says it is a waste: nobody has shown that it adds any benefit.
No. There's no evidence that taking breaks helps. If you stop, your stores fall back to normal over about four to six weeks.
Yes. Pure creatine mixes into milk or a milk-based protein shake just as well as into water.
For loading, or for adding to a shake, choose pure creatine: 4,388 mg of creatine a scoop and 60 servings. To drink it on its own, choose flavoured creatine in four flavours. New to creatine? Read what creatine does and whether it's safe first.
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