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Creatine Loading Phase: Do You Need It?

By Updated 4 min read

You don't need a creatine loading phase. Loading, usually about 20 g a day for 5 to 7 days, fills your muscles with creatine in about a week. Taking 3 to 5 g a day from the start gets you to exactly the same place in about three to four weeks (Hultman et al., 1996). After a month, there's no difference.

So loading is a trade: faster results in exchange for more stomach upset, more short-term water weight and four doses a day. Most people are better off skipping it.

Loading vs no loading

Loading No loading
Daily amount ~20 g (0.3 g per kg) for 5–7 days, then 3–5 g 3–5 g from day one
Doses per day 4 during loading 1
Muscles full in About 1 week About 3–4 weeks
Stomach upset More likely Rare
Scale weight in first weeks Jumps faster Rises gradually, often unnoticed
Cost in the first month Higher (an extra ~100 g of powder) Lower
Where you are after a month Full stores Full stores

What the research shows

The classic study is from 1996. Researchers gave healthy men either 20 g of creatine a day for six days or 3 g a day for 28 days, and measured creatine in their muscles directly with biopsies (Hultman et al., 1996). Both groups ended up with the same muscle creatine. Loading just got there sooner, and a lower daily dose was enough to keep stores full afterwards.

That's why the International Society of Sports Nutrition describes loading as the quickest way to fill your muscles, not the only one, and lists 3 to 5 g a day from the start as an alternative (Kreider et al., 2017).

When loading makes sense

  • You have an event coming up soon, such as a competition or a block of hard training in the next two or three weeks, and you want full stores before it.
  • You've stopped creatine for a month or more and want to get back to full stores quickly.
  • You simply want to feel a difference sooner, and your stomach handles larger doses well.

When to skip it

  • You have a sensitive stomach. Large doses are the main cause of creatine stomach upset. In a study of soccer players, a single 10 g dose gave 56% of them diarrhea, while the same amount split into two 5 g doses was no worse than placebo (Ostojic & Ahmetovic, 2008).
  • You don't want the scale to jump. Loading pulls water into your muscles quickly, often 1 to 2 kg (2 to 4 lb) in the first week. It's harmless water inside muscle, not fat, but some people find it off-putting. See creatine bloating and water weight.
  • You won't remember four doses a day. One dose you take every day beats four you take some days.
  • You're cautious about hair. The only study that found a rise in the hormone DHT used a high loading dose. A later trial at 5 g a day found no effect. More in does creatine cause hair loss?

How to load, if you choose to

  1. Work out your dose: about 0.3 g per kg of bodyweight a day. For most people that's 20 to 25 g. Our creatine calculator does the maths.
  2. Split it into four doses of about 5 g, spread across the day. Never take it all at once.
  3. Take each dose with food or a drink, stirred in properly. Warm drinks dissolve it better.
  4. Keep it up for 5 to 7 days, then drop to 3 to 5 g a day.
  5. Drink normally. You don't need extra water, but don't take creatine with just a mouthful of liquid.

Calculator Creatine calculator Your daily dose, a loading plan, scoops per day and how long your tub lasts, from your bodyweight. Open the calculator →

Side effects of loading

The side effects of a loading phase are the same as creatine's in general, just more likely because the doses are bigger:

Side effect How to reduce it
Stomach upset, diarrhea Smaller, split doses; take with food
Bloated feeling Split doses; dissolve fully
Quick weight gain (water) Skip loading, or accept it as temporary

For healthy adults, loading isn't dangerous. Studies have used loading doses for decades without safety problems. If you have kidney disease, though, don't load or take creatine at all without your doctor's approval. See creatine and your kidneys.

The bottom line

Loading is optional. It gets you to full creatine stores about three weeks sooner, at the cost of more stomach upset and four doses a day. If you're not in a hurry, take 3 to 5 g a day and let it build. Our creatine dosage guide covers the rest: timing, mixing and missed days.

Questions people ask

Is it OK to not load creatine?

Yes. Taking 3 to 5 g a day from the start fills your muscles to the same level in about three to four weeks.

How long should a creatine loading phase last?

5 to 7 days at about 20 g a day, split into four doses, then drop to 3 to 5 g a day.

Does loading creatine cause bloating?

It's more likely to than a normal dose, because larger doses can upset the stomach and pull water into muscle faster. Splitting the dose helps.

Written by

Tom has trained in the gym for years and has taken 5 g of creatine every day for about a decade, with magnesium on and off for most of the year. Reading the research behind supplements started as a hobby; this site is where he writes it up. He isn't a doctor or dietitian, so every claim links to the study behind it.

Sources

  1. Hultman et al. 1996, Muscle creatine loading in men (J Appl Physiol)
  2. Kreider et al. 2017, ISSN position stand on creatine safety and efficacy (JISSN)
  3. Ostojic & Ahmetovic 2008, Stomach upset and creatine dose in athletes

We link to the original study wherever we can. Read how we grade evidence and choose products.

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