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Creatine is one of the most widely studied and effective supplements for enhancing athletic performance and muscle growth. It is commonly used by athletes, weightlifters, bodybuilders and regular gym goers (1). Even though the adoption of Creatine is good among those looking to enhance their performance, how much Creatine you need per day, whether you should be loading it and timing are areas where there is confusion.
This article will break down the different strategies for optimal dosing, and whether the timing of Creatine matters so you can have clarity on how to get the most out of your Creatine supplement.
Creatine is a naturally-occurring substance that's found in meat and fish, and also made by the human body in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. It can be derived in small amounts from food but it is more widely known as a dietary supplement. When ingested it is converted into creatine phosphate or phosphocreatine and stored in the muscles, where it is used for energy.
The primary function of Creatine monohydrate in the body is to assist in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is often called the "energy currency" of cells because it provides the energy needed for various cellular processes. When you perform activities that require rapid and intense bursts of energy, such as weightlifting or sprinting, ATP is the primary source of fuel for your muscles.
Creatine monohydrate plays a key role in regenerating ATP during these short bursts of high-intensity exercise. Here's how it works:
This process of ATP regeneration is vital because the body's natural ATP stores are limited and can be depleted quickly during intense exercise.
By facilitating ATP regeneration, Creatine monohydrate can improve your muscle cells' ability to produce energy during short bursts of intense exercise (1). For a more in depth look into what Creatine is and the benefits check out the article Creatine: What is it and what are the benefits.
There are several hundred research papers that have studied the effects of Creatine with overwhelmingly positive results. Some of the potential ergogenic benefits of Creatine supplementation are
(Adapted from Kreider et al. 2017 - Creatine Position stand (1)
One key takeaway from the research is that the benefits are seen in both males and females, trained and untrained individuals alongside young and the older populations. (1,2,3). The research is still male-dominated in terms of participants but Abbie Smith Ryan's Review titled Creatine Supplementation in Women’s Health: A Lifespan Perspective outlines all the research for females. (4)
Now, let’s break down some of the research regarding specific goals.
An excellent paper by Kreider et al, 2003 summarised various studies and found that around 70% showed some improvement in exercise performance, which is pretty incredible for one supplement.
The extent of performance enhancement varies, influenced by factors such as dosage, the athlete's training level, and specific exercise conditions like intensity and duration. Generally, the literature points to performance boosts of about 10%–15% (1). More detailed findings include increases of 5%–15% in areas like maximal power, strength, anaerobic capacity, and work output in repeated sprints, while single sprint efforts show smaller gains, typically between 1% and 5%.
The primary mechanism behind these positive outcomes for Creatine supplementation appear to be attributable, in part, to increases in intramuscular phosphoCreatine (PCr) concentrations (6). Due to its potential not only to enhance strength and power output but also to enhance recovery from intense intermittent exercise, Creatine supplementation has been shown to allow for increased volumes of work and increased work output during resistance training, which may then translate into greater strength gains (7,8,9).
This is one of the key points to understand that Creatine can directly and indirectly support strength and power performance. Directly through energy metabolism and indirectly through improving your ability to train at a higher intensity and volume.
Furthermore Creatine supplementation has been shown to be effective when taken both short term and long term.
With regard to short term (under 2 weeks of supplementation) a recent systematic review identified 60 studies that adhered to rigorous criteria, including randomized controlled designs and a double-blind, placebo-controlled methodology, to investigate Creatine's impact on lower limb performance. The analysis revealed an effect size of 0.336 for strength gains in back squat exercises and 0.297 for leg press exercises. Additionally, the effect size for increased quadriceps strength was noted at 0.266, with a general effect size for overall lower limb strength also at 0.266 (10). These findings were consistent across various populations and supplementation protocols, underscoring the broad effectiveness of Creatine supplementation.
In a subsequent review by the same team, 53 studies were examined, this time focusing on upper limb strength enhancements due to Creatine supplementation. This meta-analysis found effect sizes of 0.265 for bench press and 0.677 for chest press strength improvements. The effect sizes for pectoral exercises and overall upper limb strength were 0.289 and 0.317, respectively, again demonstrating Creatine's effectiveness across different demographic and supplementation conditions (11).
Longer periods of supplementation tend to boost overall training effectiveness. This is achieved by enabling higher volumes of training, which, when combined with structured training programs, may lead to significant training improvement.
These improvements are likely driven by enhanced training consistency and intensity, supported by increased levels of PCr in muscles, and are observed both in individuals accustomed to resistance training and those who were initially inactive. For example, seasoned powerlifters who used Creatine noted more significant progress in their 3-rep max bench press and could complete more repetitions at 85% of their 3RM over 26 days than their placebo-taking counterparts. In a similar vein, recreational bodybuilders who supplemented with Creatine during a 5-week period, alongside resistance training, experienced greater increases in muscle (7).
There are numerous factors to consider when discussing supplementation and lean muscle growth, namely age, training status, gender, dietary intake, training volume to name a few. A superb review by Wu et al, 2021 aimed to investigate the effects of Creatine supplementation for muscle growth in various populations. A strict criteria was applied with 16 randomised controlled trials being selected from 2012 -2021 (12).
Three major themes related to muscle growth were derived from the review.
You must understand that resistance training and adequate protein intake are the key drivers for muscle growth. Creatine can support these but independent of them, it will not increase muscle growth.
In the last few years there has been more research focusing on the cognitive benefits of Creatine. A systematic review examined the effects of oral creatine administration on cognitive function in healthy individuals (13). The studies included in this review provide evidence that oral creatine intake may improve performance on memory and intelligence tasks. For other aspects of cognition, such as attention, executive function, response inhibition, word fluency, reaction time and mental fatigue, the results were inconclusive.
Interestingly, young adults were not affected by supplementation. Another study on Creatine and memory had a similar conclusion saying that Creatine supplementation enhanced measures of memory performance in healthy individuals, especially in older adults (66-76 years) (14).
As mentioned earlier in the article, oral supplementation with Creatine effectively raises intramuscular phosphocreatine (PCr) levels, which are crucial for the ATP-PCr energy pathway that predominantly fuels ATP production during 0–30 second high-intensity activities. This substantial increase in PCr storage is a fundamental reason why Creatine is known to enhance performance in intermittent, high-intensity exercises. High-intensity activities that demand significant force output rely more on type II muscle fibres, which naturally store more PCr than the oxidative type I fibres.
The improvement in performance can be attributed to a greater initial PCr concentration at the start of an exercise and a more efficient PCr regeneration during the rest intervals of intermittent anaerobic exercises. Consequently, when Creatine is supplemented, the availability of PCr is better maintained throughout successive exercise sets, helping to mitigate power output reduction and fatigue.
A comprehensive analysis of existing research confirmed that Creatine offers considerable benefits for activities of short duration but provides limited advantages for sustained endurance exercises (15). This seems to be because endurance activities typically require sustained energy output at lower intensities, which depends less on the rapid regeneration of ATP, a process where Creatine plays a key role (16).
Nonetheless, Creatine might indirectly benefit endurance by enhancing the quality and intensity of training sessions as a well structured training endurance programme will still have resistance based training in some fashion.
Here is what a 2023 review on Creatine and endurance concluded.
“Overall, Creatine supplementation increases time to exhaustion during high-intensity endurance activities, likely due to increasing anaerobic work capacity. In terms of time trial performances, results are mixed; however, Creatine supplementation appears to be more effective at improving performances that require multiple surges in intensity and/or during end spurts, which are often key race-defining moments” (17).
The term recovery is often contextual in nature and typically pertains to either physiological, subjective, or performance-based parameters. When most people speak of improving recovery it is in relation to mitigating the loss of force production, reducing muscle damage, lowering soreness, and modulating inflammation.
Creatine may be of benefit in relation to facilitating recovery, particularly in terms of physical performance, after periods of intense exercise. It has also been reported to lessen the inflammatory response after exercise, which in turn may attenuate indicators of muscle damage and alleviate muscle soreness.
Wang et al. 2018 indicated that a 4-week period of Creatine supplementation (20 g/day for 6 days followed by 2 g/day for 22 days) in conjunction with a complex training regimen reduced the post-exercise increase in Creatine kinase compared to a placebo group (18). This equates to 164g and if this is divided over the 28 days it equals 5.85g per day, which is similar to a normal daily dose.
Furthermore, Rosene et al. 2009 reported a higher level of maximal isometric force production in the days following a bout of eccentric leg extensions, a type of exercise known to instigate muscle damage, in those supplementing with Creatine after a maintenance dosing protocol, but not after an acute loading dose protocol (19).
What we do see from the research is that Creatine supplementation seems to have no negative effects on muscle recovery. It is not the primary reason you should be supplementing with Creatine but it may infer an added benefit in some scenarios.
There are several types of Creatine available. Here are the most common ones:
1. Creatine Monohydrate: This is the most widely used and well-researched form of Creatine. It is made up of one Creatine molecule and one water molecule and is considered the default option for Creatine supplementation. This is what we use in MARCHON Creatine powder.
2. Creatine Hydrochloride (HCl): This form of Creatine is made by binding Creatine to parts of hydrochloride molecules. It is believed to be more water-soluble than other forms of Creatine, which may make it easier to absorb (20). However there are no published studies on Creatine HCL on humans.
3. Buffered Creatine: This is Creatine monohydrate that has been mixed with an alkaline powder, such as sodium bicarbonate, to improve its stability in the stomach. However, research has found no significant differences in effectiveness between buffered Creatine and Creatine monohydrate [21].
4. Micronised Creatine: This is Creatine monohydrate that has been processed to have smaller particle sizes, which may make it easier to dissolve in water and absorb [22]. Once again the evidence doesn’t stack up to suggest this is a superior form compared to Creatine monohydrate (23)
5. Creatine Ethyl Ester (CEE): This is Creatine that has been combined with an ethyl group to increase the absorption (24). However, even though the principle behind this is correct, the research is yet to support this claim (25)
6. Liquid Creatine: This is Creatine that has been dissolved in liquid, such as water or juice. However, liquid Creatine is not as stable as other forms of Creatine and may break down into creatinine, a waste product, before it can be absorbed. The research that has tested Creatine serum against Creatine monohydrate powder has shown that Creatine Monohydrate produces superior results (26, 27)
7. Creatine Magnesium Chelate: This is Creatine that has been combined with magnesium. However, research on this form of Creatine is limited and shows no further benefit than Creatine monohydrate [28].
It is important to note that Creatine monohydrate, like MARCHON Creatine, is the most widely used and well-researched form of Creatine, and most studies (like this 2022 meta-analysis on different forms of Creatine) recommend its safety and efficacy over other types.
Different factors can affect how much creatine you need to consume. In essence, if you want to remove the confusion and admin of doing the calculations then aiming for 3-5g a day is what almost all of the research suggests to see benefits. However, if you want to get more detailed regarding your Creatine supplementation this section covers a more personalised approach. Some of the main factors that affect creatine needs are -
There are two main approaches when it comes to creatine supplementation, a loading phase and a maintenance dose. In this section let’s break down what they both are, the pros and cons so you can make an informed decision as to which is right for you.
A creatine loading phase typically involves taking a higher dose of creatine for a short period before transitioning to a lower maintenance dose. Here are the key details of what a creatine loading phase entails:
Pros of the loading phase:
Cons of the loading phase:
It's important to note that while the loading phase can accelerate the process of saturating muscle creatine stores, it is not strictly necessary. Taking a standard dose of 3-5 grams daily will achieve the same results over a longer period, typically about 3-4 weeks. The choice to use a loading phase often depends on individual goals, tolerance, and preferences.
Here are detailed loading phase dosage instructions for creatine based on body weight:
The standard loading phase involves taking 20-25 grams of creatine per-day for 5-7 days, typically divided into 4-5 doses of 5 grams each (31).
A more precise method is to calculate the dosage based on body weight using the formula - 0.3 grams of creatine per kilogram of body weight per day (32).
Here's a breakdown of daily loading phase dosages based on different weight ranges:
Dosing schedule
Divide the total daily dosage into 4-5 equal servings throughout the day. For example, if your daily dosage is 20 grams, take 5 grams four times a day. Take one serving with each meal and snack to help with absorption. Consuming creatine with carbohydrates may enhance uptake.
Continue this loading phase for 5-7 days and make sure to increase your water intake during the loading phase to help with creatine absorption and minimise potential side effects. Once the loading phase is complete, transition to a maintenance dose of 3-5 grams per day. MARCHON Creatine is 5g per serving and is 66 servings per bag.
It's important to note that while the loading phase can accelerate the saturation of muscle creatine stores, it's not strictly necessary. Taking a standard dose of 3-5 grams daily will achieve the same results over a longer period, typically about 3-4 weeks (33, 34). Some individuals may prefer to skip the loading phase to avoid potential side effects like gastrointestinal discomfort or water retention.
The maintenance phase of creatine supplementation serves several important purposes. After the loading phase saturates muscle creatine stores, the maintenance phase keeps these levels consistently high to continue providing performance benefits. This allows for ongoing improvements in strength, power, and muscle mass when combined with resistance training.
Without maintenance dosing, muscle creatine levels would gradually return to baseline over several weeks. The maintenance phase uses less creatine per day compared to loading, making it more economical for long-term use.
Detailed maintenance phase dosage instructions based on body weight:
The standard maintenance dose is 3-5 grams per day, regardless of body weight. However, some sources suggest adjusting the dose based on body weight for optimal results using 0.08g/kg/bw.
Additional dosing considerations
From Kreider and Jung: Total creatine levels in mmol/kg “dry weight” muscle observed in vegetarians, subjects on a ”normal diet,” and in subjects in response to various creatine loading protocols with or without carbohydrate (CHO) and protein (PRO). It's important to note that while these guidelines are based on common recommendations, individual responses to creatine can vary. Some people may maintain elevated creatine levels with slightly lower doses, while others may require the upper end of the range. Consistency in taking the maintenance dose is key for sustaining the benefits of creatine supplementation.
The idea of cycling on and off creatine refers to alternating periods of taking creatine with periods of not taking it. However, based on current research, cycling creatine is generally unnecessary and may reduce it’s benefits. Here's a breakdown of the concept.
Cycling creatine typically involves:
Potential benefits of cycling (although this is not strongly supported by evidence):
Drawbacks of cycling
The current scientific consensus is that cycling creatine is not necessary:
While the idea of cycling creatine persists in some fitness circles, it's not supported by scientific evidence. For most people, consistent daily supplementation with 3-5 grams of creatine is likely to provide the greatest benefits without any need for cycling off. Remember, you should still take creatine on rest days to maintain saturation.
The main reason Creatine is associated with weight gain is due to water retention or increased intramuscular water levels in the muscle.
Yes, you will retain water, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Muscle is roughly 75% water by volume, and this water retention may actually be beneficial for muscle growth and performance.
Some evidence suggests that Creatine's "osmotic effect" may increase protein synthesis and enhance hypertrophy (36). To understand this, we need to differentiate between intracellular water (ICW) and extracellular water (ECW).
ICW is the fluid inside the cells of the tissue of interest, while ECW is the water outside the cells, including interstitial fluid (between cells) and blood plasma.
A study found that creatine supplementation increased intracellular water (ICW) within muscle cells, likely due to the osmotic effect of creatine drawing water into the cells (37).
This increase in ICW is significant because it suggests that Creatine may enhance muscle cell volumisation, which can act as an anabolic signal for protein synthesis and muscle growth.
As creatine may increase the body's water requirements, staying well-hydrated is crucial for maintaining overall health and bodily functions. While creatine is generally safe for healthy individuals, staying well-hydrated can help support kidney function and reduce any potential stress on the kidneys. Additionally, better hydration of muscle cells could improve muscle endurance and delay fatigue during exercise. This will result in you gaining a little weight. Remember, this is not an increase in fat mass (38). For a more in depth look into whether Creatine causes fat gain check out this article here.
Timing of creatine supplementation around exercise has recently been proposed as an important consideration to optimise muscle loading and performance gains although current consensus is lacking regarding the ideal ingestion time (39, 40).
The first thing to note is that Creatine is a saturation-based ingredient, meaning that you need to take it consistently to increase the stores in the body. Creatine is often used in pre-workout supplements but the practicality of getting to the required amounts may be challenging.
Most pre-workouts contain less than efficacious doses of Creatine and most people do not take their pre workout every single day. For example 3g of creatine (which is what most pre-workouts contain) x 3 times a week = 9g. To get to 140g you would need 15 weeks, but as you deplete Creatine each day it will be challenging to get to the saturation point.
Saying this, supplementing close to exercise appears to be more beneficial at enhancing muscle creatine levels compared to far away from training. A 10-week study provided creatine to adults who weight trained. They were split into 3 groups - one took it before training, one after and the other morning and evening, so not close to exercise (41). The group that took the supplement close to exercise gained more muscle and strength than the group that took the supplement in the morning and evening.
A 2013 study showed that Creatine supplementation plus resistance exercise increases fat-free mass and strength. The results also showed it appears consuming creatine immediately post-workout is superior to pre-workout (42).
Although exercise appears to enhance Creatine accrual in muscles with Creatine supplementation, evidence supporting the importance of timing around exercise (i.e., pre- versus post- versus during-exercise) is currently limited to only a few studies (43). As mentioned earlier there may be an added benefit of consuming protein and carbohydrates with your creatine and it also helps to habit stack taking it. The issue with attaching Creatine to any product that you take around a workout is that you may only use it on training days. A better way is to try and make it a habit every morning or with a specific meal to ensure it is taken most days.
Creatine is one of the most researched supplements with strong evidence that suggests it may help with exercise performance, strength, recovery and hypertrophy. The recommendation is to take 3-5g daily for at least 2-4 weeks to see benefits with a loading phase only needed if you have a short time frame in which to saturate your stores. This could be a fitness competition or race but being more proactive with consistent supplementation before this is advised. There is also no evidence to suggest you need to cycle it. Creatine monohydrate is the preferred form to take with other variations showing no further benefit.
It would be highly recommended to consult a healthcare professional before starting any supplementation regime. If you are someone who is training regularly Creatine may be something worth considering to enhance your performance.
MARCHON Creatine is 100% Creatine Monohydrate with 63 servings per bag.
For more in-depth information on Creatine check out the article Creatine: What is it and what are the benefits and our other article Does Creatine Cause Fat Gain?
Technically, it is possible to get enough creatine from your diet alone, but it can be challenging depending on your dietary habits and activity level. Creatine is naturally found in animal products, particularly in meat and fish. A standard diet usually provides about 1 gram of creatine per day, with the body synthesising around 1 gram per day. However, cooking can reduce the creatine content in meat and to consume the recommended 5g of Creatine per day you would need to consume around 1kg of raw beef per day. If you're very active, vegetarian or vegan and looking to optimise muscle creatine stores for performance benefits, it can be difficult to get enough creatine through diet alone. Therefore supplementation is an easy and convenient way to get your Creatine in.
100% you can take Creatine if you are not an athlete. It can help everyday gym goers and even improve cognitive function. It is not an athlete only supplement. If you are doing any form of training Creatine can help.
The main differences between the creatine loading phase and maintenance phase are the amount taken and the time frame followed. A loading phase is typically 20-25 grams per day split into 4-5 doses of about 5 grams each for 5-7 days. A maintenance phase is usually 3-5 grams per day for an extended period of time. The loading phase is often used to rapidly saturate muscle creatine stores whereas a maintenance phase is used to maintain the elevated creatine levels. However, a loading phase is not needed if you plan to take Creatine consistently and infers the same benefits.
Yes, you can consume caffeine while taking creatine. However, there are some considerations to keep in mind. Most recent research disproves earlier concerns about negative interactions between the two supplements (45, 46). Although there doesn’t seem to be a synergistic effect both have performance benefits.
Most people see a benefit in terms of muscle fullness and strength improvement at around 10 days - 2 weeks.
The notion of needing to cycle creatine to avoid any health detriments likely stems from a faulty interpretation of creatine metabolism and its byproducts. After being utilised to support exercise performance, creatine & phosphocreatine is degraded into its metabolite, creatinine, in the bloodstream (44). Your kidney filters the creatinine from your blood, which is then excreted in your urine. Because of this, creatinine levels in the blood have been used as a proxy marker for healthy kidney function, and an accumulation of creatinine levels in the blood would send up red flags. Supplementing with creatine can increase both blood and urinary measures of creatinine. But don’t sound the alarm bells just yet. Several long-term studies and reviews [46, 47, 48, 49] have suggested that despite these transient increases in serum and urinary creatinine levels, chronic creatine supplementation should create no complications to your kidney or liver health. According to a position stance on Creatine, the lack of negative health effects has even been observed in subjects taking 30 grams of creatine daily for five years.
You can absolutely and this is recommended as the main dietary source of Creatine is meat and fish making it more challenging to get on a plant based diet.
As mentioned earlier Creatine is safe to take at the recommended dosages for extended periods of time (1) but cycling off it can be something to consider. The washout period for Creatine stores to return to baseline are around 4 weeks (38). Practically applying this it could be that you stop taking during times such as holidays, Christmas or times when you aren’t training. However, Creatine does infer other benefits such as improvement in memory and cognitive function so it might be something to consider taking more consistently.
Creatine is generally not considered a direct weight loss supplement, but it may indirectly support weight loss efforts in several ways.
Creatine can help maintain lean muscle mass during a calorie deficit, which is important for preserving metabolic rate while losing weight. It also increases energy supply to muscles, allowing for better performance during high-intensity workouts and resistance training. This can lead to burning more calories during exercise (even if this is a small contributing factor to energy balance it can help). Creatine may improve recovery between workouts, potentially allowing for more frequent or intense training sessions. When dieting your recovery and energy levels may be reduced due to being in a deficit. It's important to note that Creatine is not a fat-burning supplement and does not directly cause weight loss, but taking it when dieting may help offset some of the negative aspects of weight loss and help you see better results from a performance and muscle preservation perspective.
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