THIS IS EXACTLY HOW MUCH CREATINE YOU SHOULD BE TAKING EVERY DAY
By Emily Laurence Sardinha | GQ.com
As the most studied supplement on the market, creatine has become a supplement stack mainstay. You’ve probably heard about its benefits, which include supporting muscle growth, brain health, and bone density.
Most of the time, taking a supplement is done to meet a nutrient need you aren’t getting through your diet. But creatine is different. “It would be almost impossible to get enough creatine to give you a performance-enhancing benefit from any food. You’d have to eat a crazy amount of red meat or fish, which could harm health in other ways,” says registered dietitian and personal trainer Max Snider, RD.
Since you can’t get enough creatine from food to make a noticeable impact, it means turning to a supplement. But when it comes to creatine, there’s a sweet spot of how much to take; too little won’t lead to any noticeable benefits and too much can be harmful. That’s why it’s important to know exactly how much creatine to take every day.
Creatine is primarily stored in the muscles. “Its main job is to help your body rapidly produce energy specifically for short bursts of high-intensity effort like lifting, sprinting, or anything explosive. Think of it as a quick-access battery for your muscles,” says exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist Harley Pasternak, MSc. “Its whole job is to rapidly generate ATP, which is your body’s immediate energy source,” adds Jordan Mazur, RD, the director of nutrition for the San Francisco 49ers and founder of Peak Performance Nutrition.
Ramdial says this means that if your workouts consist of short-burst activities like resistance training at lower reps, high intensities or interval training, supplementing with creatine can up your game. “It can also be helpful for explosive movements, which could include anything from a sprint-based sport, swinging a bat or golf club, powerlifting, and any sport in which improving sprinting or explosive strength and endurance would be beneficial,” he adds.
There are benefits to taking creatine beyond exercise performance. “Creatine is not just for gym guys,” Pasternak says. “Vegetarians and vegans often benefit because they’re not getting much creatine from their diet. Older adults can use it to support muscle mass and strength, which becomes critical for longevity. There’s also emerging evidence around cognitive health, so even people focused on brain performance may see value.”
Danielle Cushing Fruin, RDN, CSSD, a sports dietitian and the director of performance nutrition at FLIK Hospitality Group, also says that there is some scientific research suggesting that creatine supplements can help with brain function, such as memory and reasoning, particularly in older adults. For example, a 2023 scientific review published in Sports Medicine found that creatine may help with brain processing speed and memory in older adults whose cognition has been compromised by a neurological condition or during times of metabolic stress, such as when not getting enough sleep.
While creatine can be beneficial, Radial emphasizes that not everyone needs it. “If you’re comfortable with your progress and performance without creatine, you don’t necessarily need to start taking it. But once you begin taking creatine, it is hard to go back to training without it,” he says.
How much creatine to take a day
If you’re going to shell out for a creatine supplement, you want to make sure it’s actually worth the money. This means buying one from a trustworthy company and taking it correctly. All of the experts we talked to emphasized the importance of buying a creatine supplement that is third-party tested, such as by NSF or US Pharmacopia (USP). That way, you know that it actually contains creatine in the dose that’s advertised on the packaging.
In terms of the best time to take creatine, Snider says anytime works. What’s more important, he notes, is consistency. “Creatine works by saturation, which means that the body can only hold a certain amount of it. Once you reach that maximum, getting more of it won’t have any more benefits because the body can hold it,” he says, explaining that the body will excrete it. If you only take creatine on days you work out, the amount of creatine stored in the muscles will decrease. This is why, Snider says, it’s important to take it every day.
All five experts I spoke to flagged a common myth around the supplement and an initial “loading phase,” which means taking a high amount early on to achieve saturation quickly. All of the experts say that there is zero science behind this and that it’s a marketing scheme to make people take a bigger serving of the supplement so that they run out faster. In fact, Cushing Fruin says that creating loading can put unneeded stress on the kidneys.
Every expert interviewed for this piece generally recommends taking three to five grams of creatine a day. Remember, creatine has a saturation point, which means that there is no benefit to taking more than that. Your body will simply excrete it, and you’ll run out of your supplement faster.
“While creatine is not generally considered to be dangerous, regularly exceeding 10 grams a day can lead to side effects like bloating, nausea, and diarrhea. You may also experience headaches since creatine draws more water into your muscles and can lead to dehydration,” Cushing Fruin says.
Unlike taking caffeine, all five experts say that you won’t feel creatine working, though it will be quietly supporting your body behind the scenes. “The main thing you may feel is water retention. Your muscles will be a little puffier with water,” Pasternak says. That said, Cushing Fruin says that within a few weeks, you may notice that you can sustain quick bursts of high-intensity energy for longer periods of time or that you can lift heavier weights with the same amount of reps. “Noticeable gains in muscle mass typically become more apparent over several weeks or months,” she adds.
While you may not feel any different while taking creatine, Ramdial says that most people notice a difference when they stop taking it. “That drop-off is much more noticeable because it happens quickly, while the gains are slower,” he says. He adds that creatine isn’t going to lead to any miraculous results either. While it is beneficial, he emphasizes that it can’t take the place of maintaining a balanced, nutrient-rich diet and exercising regularly.
All of the experts emphasize that creatine has been studied more than any other supplement. It’s widely seen as safe and there isn’t a downside to taking it. But how much you take matters. So, unless you’re aiming to use creatine for its brain-boosting qualities, stick to the three to five grams a day recommendation.