How to dose creatine correctly: a scientific look at loading, maintenance and cycling

Creatine is a food supplement that is popular worldwide and today it is one of the best-researched substances in sports nutrition. Although its effectiveness is beyond debate, athletes are often unsure which dosing protocol to choose and whether creatine needs to be stopped after a while. What does modern sports science say?

Two routes to maximum muscle saturation

The main aim of taking creatine is to increase its stores (above all in the form of phosphocreatine) in skeletal muscle. Two approaches are used most successfully to achieve maximum saturation:

Maintenance phase and cycling: is a break necessary?

After a fast loading phase you need to switch to a maintenance dose in order to keep your stores maximised. 2 to 5 grams a day is more than enough to keep the level of creatine in the muscles at its maximum (Hultman et al., 1996).

Stopping supplementation causes only a slow, gradual decline back to baseline values – the decline phase begins after 6 days. There is therefore no physiological reason for cycling creatine.

When to take creatine: before or after training?

The answer from sports science is: the exact timing within the day essentially does not matter. The only important thing is that you take it regularly every day.

Unlike caffeine, which blocks the fatigue receptors in the brain and provides an immediate performance effect within 60 minutes, creatine is not a stimulant. Its mechanism lies in gradually building up inside the muscle cells, where it forms stores of phosphocreatine (Harris, Soderlund, Hultman, 1992). At the moment you go to train, the muscles draw on stores built up over the long term – not on the single scoop you have just drunk.

Watch out for digestive problems: why not to take a large dose at once

Creatine is an extremely safe supplement, but some athletes report nausea, cramps or diarrhoea. These problems almost always stem from a single mistake: taking too large a dose at once or on an empty stomach.

Supplementation vs. a normal diet: why is eating meat not enough?

The body can make part of its creatine itself and we take in another part from food. Someone eating a normal diet gets roughly 2 g of creatine a day from food – which just covers what the body naturally loses. Not even eating meat regularly can fill the capacity of the muscles to their absolute physiological maximum.

Creatine and body weight: will you put on weight with it?

Creatine supplementation (especially during the loading phase) is accompanied by a weight increase of 0.5 to 3.5 kg, on average roughly 1 kg (Wax et al., 2021). This change is probably caused by an increased volume of intracellular water in the muscles – creatine increases the osmolality of the muscle fibres. Certain data also point to a gain in lean muscle mass with long-term use (Kreider et al., 1998), but not within a mere loading phase.

1. Hultman E, Soderlund K, Timmons JA, et al. (1996). Muscle creatine loading in men. J Appl Physiol, 81(1):232–237.
2. Green AL, Sewell DA, Simpson L, et al. (1995). Carbohydrate ingestion stimulates creatine uptake in human skeletal muscle. J Physiol, 489:27P.
3. Green AL, Simpson EJ, Littlewood JJ, et al. (1996). Carbohydrate ingestion augments creatine retention during creatine feeding in humans. Acta Physiol Scand, 158:195–202.
4. Harris RC, Soderlund K, Hultman E. (1992). Elevation of creatine in resting and exercised muscle of normal subjects by creatine supplementation. Clin Sci, 83:367–374.
5. Hultman E, Greenhaff PL, Ren JM, Soderlund K. (1991). Energy metabolism and fatigue during intense muscle contraction. Biochem Soc Trans, 19(2):347–353.
6. Wax B, Kerksick CM, Jagim AR, et al. (2021). Creatine for exercise and sports performance, with recovery considerations for healthy populations. Nutrients, 13(6):1915.
7. Kreider RB, Ferreira M, Wilson M, et al. (1998). Effects of creatine supplementation on body composition, strength, and sprint performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 30(1):73–82.
8. Jeukendrup A, Gleeson M. (2025). Sport nutrition (4th ed.). Human Kinetics.