Creatine per Body Weight: How much to take ?
Why Consider Supplementing With Creatine ?
Boost Your Workouts
Creatine is like that secret weapon in your gym bag. It’s known to give your athletic performance a serious boost.
- When you mix it with resistance training, it helps you pack on muscle in both your upper and lower body (NCBI).
If you're aiming to bulk up and get stronger, creatine is your go-to.
Even if you're not a young athlete, creatine can still work wonders.
For older men, it helps improve strength and body composition when paired with strength exercises. So, it’s pretty much a win-win for everyone.
- Creatine also shines in short, intense activities like sprinting, jumping, and HIIT workouts (NCBI). If you’re into high-energy, quick-burst exercises, creatine’s got your back.
Pump Up Those Muscles
Creatine is a champ when it comes to muscle growth. Combine it with resistance training, and you’ll see your muscles grow in both your upper and lower body. If bigger muscles are your goal, creatine is your best friend.
- Creatine also helps increase your total body water, mostly inside your muscles. This makes your muscles look fuller and can even help you perform better.
- Creatine has been shown to boost muscle strength, sport performance, and muscle growth in healthy, trained young people (PubMed).
It also ramps up your muscle’s insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) when you’re lifting heavy, which helps you gain more muscle mass.
The best part?
- Creatine is most effective for high-intensity, short-duration activities or repeated high-intensity exercises with short breaks (NCBI). Think lifting weights, sprinting, or jumping.
Want to know more about how creatine works in your body or if it makes you gain weight? Check out our articles on creatine in human body and creatine makes you fat.
Creatine Dosage and Recommendations
Loading Phase Guidelines
Want to turbocharge your muscle creatine levels? Start with a loading phase.
- Take 5 grams of creatine monohydrate (or about 0.3 g/kg of your body weight) four times a day for 5 to 7 days.
This method quickly fills up your muscle creatine stores, which you can then keep topped up with a smaller daily dose.
| Body Weight (lbs) | Loading Dose (g/day) |
|---|---|
| 150 | 27.2 |
| 175 | 31.8 |
| 200 | 36.3 |
| 225 | 40.9 |
| 250 | 45.4 |
Once your muscles are loaded up, you can usually maintain those levels with 3 to 5 grams a day.
Bigger athletes might need 5 to 10 grams daily to keep things optimal. Taking creatine with carbs or a mix of carbs and protein can help your body hold onto it better.
Curious about how to kick off your creatine journey? Check out our article on creatine first week.
Maintenance Dose Considerations
After the loading phase, it's all about keeping those creatine levels steady. Your body needs around 1 to 3 grams of creatine daily to stay in the game, with about half of that coming from your diet.
For instance, a pound of raw beef or salmon gives you about 1 to 2 grams of creatine.
| Maintenance Dose (g/day) | Recommended for |
|---|---|
| 3 - 5 | Everyone |
| 5 - 10 | Bigger athletes |
| 10 - 30 | Medical conditions |
If you're a larger athlete or hitting the gym hard, you might need 5 to 10 grams a day to stay on top.
- People with certain medical conditions or creatine synthesis issues might need 10 to 30 grams daily.
Wondering how to handle creatine on your rest days? Check out our article on creatine on off days.
Adding creatine to your routine can seriously boost your performance and muscle growth.
For more info on creatine safety and how it interacts with your body, see our articles on creatine and liver and creatine monohydrate is safe.
