Creatine Dosage Calculator: Daily Dose and How Long a Tub Lasts

Creatine is the most researched sports supplement there is, with decades of trials behind its effect on strength, power output and muscle mass. This page answers the everyday questions: how much to take, how many scoops that is, and when you will need the next tub.
For the loading week itself, with the dose split four ways and a curve of how fast the muscles fill, see the Creatine Loading Phase Calculator.

The dose

Loading (optional): 0.3 g per kg of body weight a day, split into 4 doses, for 5 to 7 days.
Maintenance: 3 to 5 g a day. This page scales it at 0.05 g/kg inside that range, so 60 kg lands on 3 g and 100 kg on 5 g.
The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) notes that larger athletes may need 5 to 10 g a day. The calculator stops at 5 g and says so above 100 kg.
You will also see 0.03 g/kg quoted. That is close to the 2 g or so the body breaks down each day, and it works too. Even 2 to 3 g a day fills the muscles, just over 3 to 4 weeks.

How long a tub lasts

Days = loading days + (tub grams - grams used while loading) ÷ maintenance dose.
A 500 g tub at 4 g a day lasts 125 days with no load. Load at 24 g a day for 7 days first and the load alone uses 168 g, which leaves 332 g, or 83 more days. So the same tub lasts 90 days.
That is the real cost of loading: about five weeks of creatine spent to get to full stores three weeks sooner.

Scoops

The scoop in the tub is not a standard size. Most hold 3 to 5 g of monohydrate, and some only reach the stated weight when packed. Weigh one level scoop on a kitchen scale once, and type that in.

Worked example

An 80 kg (176 lb) athlete loading for 7 days:
Loading: 0.3 × 80 = 24 g a day, as 4 doses of 6 g with meals.
Maintenance from day 8: 0.05 × 80 = 4 g a day, at any time.

Things worth knowing

• Creatine monohydrate is the form nearly all the research used. HCl, ethyl ester and buffered versions cost more without being shown to work better.
• Expect 1 to 2 kg (2 to 4 lb) of water weight in a loading week. It sits inside the muscle, and it is why loading the week before a weigh-in is a bad idea.
• Taking it with a carbohydrate meal raises uptake a little. Timing around a workout matters far less than taking it every day.
• Vegetarians and vegans start with lower muscle stores and tend to see a bigger effect.
• The ISSN position stand finds no harm to healthy kidneys at these doses, and no link to cramps or dehydration. Anyone with kidney disease should ask their doctor first, since creatine raises the creatinine figure on a blood test.

Expected results: the ISSN puts the gain in maximal strength and power at 5 to 15% with training, and 1 to 2 kg of body mass in the first week of a load, most of it water at first.