Creatine is the most researched supplement there is, and almost everything written about how to take it stopped being updated around 2005. This is what it actually is, what it does inside you, and how much to take, which turns out to depend on your size and on what you want from it rather than on the number printed on a tub.
On this page
What creatine is, in short
Creatine is not a stimulant, a hormone or a drug. It is a compound your body already makes, at roughly a gram a day, and eats in red meat and fish. Around 95 per cent of what you carry is stored in skeletal muscle as phosphocreatine, where it acts as the fastest reserve your cells have for rebuilding ATP under sudden demand.
The part that matters for this page: most people walk around with those stores partly empty. A normal mixed diet leaves muscle creatine only 60 to 80 per cent saturated. Supplementing fills the gap, which is why the effects show up as things working a bit better rather than as a hit you feel, and why the dose question below is the one worth getting right.
If you want the full version first, including how the mechanism works, what the research does and does not support, and why the people it helps most are the ones it was never marketed to, start with what creatine is and who it is actually for. If you are a woman over forty, the evidence in women is worth reading alongside it. Everything below assumes you already have a tub and want to use it properly.
How much to take
This is the part most creatine advice gets wrong, including ours until recently. "Five grams a day" became the default number twenty years ago and it stuck, and it is a reasonable maintenance figure for an average-sized adult and nothing more than that. It is not a universal dose, it is not what all the research uses, and it is not a ceiling.
Two things actually decide your number: how big you are, and what you want from it.
Start with your bodyweight
Creatine is stored in tissue, so how much you can hold scales with how much tissue you have. The long trials in this field dose by bodyweight rather than by scoop, and the maintenance figure they use is around 0.1g per kilogram per day.
That is the whole rule. Take your weight in kilograms, move the decimal point one place, and that is your grams. Two worked examples, so you can see what it looks like against the scoop.
Your weight in kilos, divided by ten
One scoop is 5g of creatine, so most people are working out how far past one scoop they sit.
-
6g
60 kg
A heaped scoop. Close enough that precision is not worth chasing.
-
7.5g
75 kg
One and a half scoops. A single level scoop leaves you a third short.
0.1g
per kilogram, per day
A 110kg professional rugby player and a 58kg woman in her fifties taking it for daily energy and clarity are carrying very different amounts of muscle. One scoop cannot be the right answer for both of them.
How to read this. Two examples rather than a lookup table, because the arithmetic is one step and you can do it faster than you can find your weight in a list. The International Society of Sports Nutrition's position stand puts the same idea in words, noting that larger people in intense training may need 5 to 10g a day to maintain stores.
Then adjust for what you want from it
Different goals have been studied at genuinely different amounts. This is what the research actually used, rather than what the tub says.
| What you want | What the research used | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| General health as you age | 3g a day |
The figure proposed for habitual lifelong intake. A floor rather than a target. |
| Muscle and strength, with training | 3 to 5g a day |
Standard maintenance. Trials pair it with resistance training every time. |
| Larger build, or hard training | 5 to 10g a day |
Named explicitly in the ISSN position stand for larger people in intense training. |
| Filling stores quickly | 0.3g per kg for 5 to 7 days |
About 20g for a 70kg adult, split into four doses, then drop to maintenance. |
| Brain and cognition | 5 to 20g a day |
Trials range widely. Uptake into the brain is slower and more limited than into muscle. |
| Function on poor sleep | 20g a day for 7 days |
A short protocol used in the sleep-deprivation studies, not a permanent daily habit. |
All of the above are from the International Society of Sports Nutrition's position stand and the trials it reviews. They are descriptions of what was studied, not instructions for you.
Whether to load
How to read this. Both lines finish at exactly the same height, which is the whole point. Loading is optional and always has been: it changes how quickly you get there, not where you end up, and it is the more likely of the two to unsettle your stomach.
Two things worth knowing whichever route you take. A normal mixed diet leaves muscle stores only about 60 to 80 per cent full, which is the gap supplementing closes. And if you stop, it takes roughly four to six weeks for stores to drift back to where they started, so a missed week is genuinely nothing.
What to expect in the first few weeks
Two things, and neither is a problem.
Nothing much, at first. If you skip loading, your stores are filling gradually across three to four weeks. There is no first-dose effect to notice and there is not supposed to be. This is the same pattern as any nutrient that works by restoring a level rather than by producing a spike.
The scale may move slightly. Creatine draws water into muscle cells, which is part of how it works rather than a side effect. In one study, a week of creatine raised total body water by about two per cent, and body scans registered that as roughly one to two kilograms of additional fat-free mass. Worth knowing that trial used roughly four times a typical maintenance amount, so expect less at your own daily figure. If you own a smart scale, this is why it is about to tell you something surprising.
Getting more out of it
In order of how much difference each one makes.
Do not miss days
By a wide margin the most important thing on this page. Creatine works by holding a level. Take it on quiet days exactly as you would on busy ones, because your stores have no idea whether you exercised. Missing one day is nothing. Missing a fortnight means starting the fill again.
Take it with a meal
There is a real effect here and it is worth stating carefully. In a 1996 study, taking creatine alongside carbohydrate increased how much ended up in muscle by around 60 per cent, an effect the researchers attributed to insulin.
Worth knowing before you copy it: that trial used 93g of simple carbohydrate with each of four daily doses, which is not something anyone should attempt. The usable version is the sensible one: taking your scoop with or just after a meal is better than taking it on an empty stomach, and it costs you nothing.
Take it near activity, if there is any
A follow-up study found exercise increased creatine uptake, and only in the limb that had exercised. You do not need a workout for this to be worth doing. A walk, the garden, the stairs. Take it around the time you move, if you move at a predictable time.
Mix it properly, and drink it
Give it a proper stir and drink it while it is mixed. Creatine that settles at the bottom of a glass on the bench is creatine you did not take. This is a practical point rather than an evidence-based one, and it is the single most common reason someone gets less than a full serve.
Tell your doctor before a blood test
This one is specific, practical, and almost nobody mentions it.
Routine kidney function tests work by measuring creatinine in your blood, a waste product of creatine metabolism, and calculating an estimated filtration rate from it. Take creatine and you have more creatine metabolising, so that marker rises. The calculation then reports a lower filtration rate.
A 2026 review pooling 26 studies and 1,036 participants found exactly this: creatine raised serum creatinine and lowered estimated filtration rate when measured by the standard creatinine-based method, and found no difference at all when kidney function was measured a different way. The authors concluded it reflects altered creatinine handling rather than kidney injury.
Why yours tastes like something
Worth a short word on why this tub is not the same as the plain white powder most creatine comes as, in the words of our co-founder Andrew.
Creatine is normally unflavoured and dumped in a shake. That framing assumes a protein shake and a gym-goer, and that is not who this is for.
The research is growing rapidly and the benefits are far more widespread than just muscle and exercise, so the range of people taking creatine is much wider than it used to be. This is for someone who just wants some energy, who wants to exercise a bit better, who is not taking protein, who wants an afternoon pick-me-up.
There were very few good clean flavoured creatines. Most were plain and unflavoured and not very nice to take on their own, so they had to be mixed in with something else. We decided to make a really nice refreshing one instead.
We also used a more expensive version of creatine monohydrate called OptiCreatine™. It is water-washed and micronised, so it mixes better, and it works well with the flavour profile. The only thing we rejected was a plain unflavoured monohydrate, which is where all the competition is.
One thing worth being straight about: OptiCreatine™ is the same molecule as ordinary creatine monohydrate. The processing changes how it mixes and how it sits, not how well it works. Anyone telling you a branded monohydrate absorbs better or builds more muscle is selling you something. That is the same standard we hold everywhere else in the range, and the rest of what separates one tub from another is set out separately.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to load creatine?
No. Loading fills your stores in about a week instead of three to four, and that is the only difference. If you are in no hurry, take your normal daily amount from the start and your stores fill on their own. If you would rather not wait, loading is roughly 0.3g per kilogram split into four doses a day for five to seven days, then back to maintenance. Loading is also more likely to unsettle your stomach, which is the main reason most people skip it.
When is the best time to take creatine?
Timing matters far less than not missing days. Creatine works by filling a store, not by hitting a peak, so the useful habit is a time you will actually keep. If you want to be precise about it, taking it with a meal gives a small advantage, and taking it near activity gives another, but both are minor next to consistency.
Will creatine make me gain weight?
You may see the scale move up slightly in the first weeks, and it is water inside muscle rather than fat. In one study, a week of high-dose creatine raised total body water by about two per cent, which registered on body scans as one to two kilograms of extra fat-free mass. That was a loading dose, roughly four times a normal serve, so expect less on a single daily serving. It is also worth knowing before a smart scale tells you something alarming.
Is creatine bad for your kidneys?
In healthy people the safety record is long and good. There is one practical wrinkle worth knowing: creatine raises the level of creatinine in your blood, which is the marker most routine kidney tests are based on. A 2026 review of 26 studies found exactly that, and found no change when kidney function was measured a different way, concluding it reflects how creatinine is processed rather than any damage. Tell your doctor you take creatine before a blood test so nobody misreads the result. If you have kidney disease, do not take creatine without medical supervision.
Do I have to take it every day, even on days I do nothing?
Yes, and that is the whole point of it. Creatine is not a pre-workout. It works by keeping your stores topped up, and your stores do not know whether you exercised. Take it on quiet days exactly as you would on busy ones. Missing the occasional day will not undo anything, but missing a fortnight means starting the fill again.
What if I forget a day?
Nothing dramatic. Your stores drain slowly, over weeks rather than days, so one missed serve is not worth thinking about. Take your normal serve the next day. Do not double up to make it even, because the extra will not be stored and is more likely to unsettle your stomach than to help.