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How much creatine should you use?

Creatine is one of the most popular and widely researched supplements in the fitness world. It is known for enhancing strength, increasing muscle mass, and improving exercise performance. However, the question that often arises among all people is; How much creatine should you use? In this blog, we'll expose a wide dosage of creatine, its benefits, and the medical guidelines surrounding its use.

What is Creatine?

Creatine is a naturally occurring compound found in muscle cells. It helps your muscles produce energy during high-intensity activities like weight lifting or sprinting. Most of the creatine in your body is stored in your muscles as phosphocreatine and it plays a crucial role in ATP (adenosine triphosphate production) which is the energy currency of your cells.

Benefits of Creatine Supplementation

Before diving into the dosage, it's essential to understand why people use creatine supplements:

Increased Muscle Mass: Creatine promotes water retention within muscles, leading to muscle vocalizations and increased muscle size.

Enhance Strength: It increases ATP availability, allowing for more extended and intense exercise sessions, which leads to strength gains.

Improve Exercise Performance: Creatine boosts endurance, especially doing short explosive activities like sprinting or lifting heavy weights.

Faster Recovery: It helps in faster muscle recovery after an intense workout producing muscle strains or soreness after the workout routine.

Recommended Creatine Dosage

The Loading Phase:

The loading phase is a strategy that involves taking a higher dose of creatine than a regular maintenance dose for short periods to help maximize your creatine stores and experience its benefits quickly. To saturate the muscle with creatine quickly many experts recommend a loading phase. During this period, you should take:

20 grams of creatine per day, split into 4 doses of 5 grams each. This loading phase typically lasts for 5-7 days, which allows your muscle to become saturated with creatine rapidly, leading to quicker results in strength and performance.

2. The Maintenance or Non-loading Phase:

The non-loading phase is a strategy where a creatine loading phase is not required if you plan to take creatine for an extended period of time (30 days or more). The standard recommendation is:

3-5 grams per day, this amount is enough to maintain muscle creatine stores without the need for continued high doses. Most research supports that 5 grams per day is sufficient for long-term benefits.

3. Skipping the Loading Phase:

if you prefer not to go through a loading phase or high doses, you can take 3-5 creatine per day from the start. However, it will take 3-4 weeks to reach full muscle saturation, meaning the process is going to be slow but it will have higher benefits appear more gradually.

Creatine and Body weight

Some experts suggest creatine dosage could be tailored to your body weight:

0.3 grams per kg of body weight per day during the loading phase.

0.03 grams per kg of body weight per day for the maintenance phase or non-loading phase.

For example; if your weight is 70kg the loading phase would require about 21 grams of creatine per day (0.3*70=21) followed by around 2.1 grams per day (0.03*70=2.1) for the maintenance or non-loading phase. This personalized approach may be more effective for an individual of different sizes as per the medical term.

Safety and Potential Side Effects

Creatine is generally considered safe when taken with recommended dosages. Several studies have confirmed that long-term use (up to 5 years) at moderate dosage does not cause significant health issues in healthy individuals.

However, some possible side effects of creatine include:

Water Retention: Creatine pulls water into your muscles which may cause bloating or weight gains.

Digestive issues: If individuals practice the loading phase then some can experience stomach discomfort because it is quite difficult to digest a heavy dose of creatine in a day.

Kidney Function: If an individual has pre-existing kidney conditions or kidney disorders, then consult your doctor first before using creatine. In healthy individuals, there is no evidence that creatine harms kidney functions.

Conclusion

Creatine is a highly effective supplement for improving strength, muscle mass, and performance. The recommended dosage varies depending on a goal but generally, a loading phase followed by non-loading doses is the most common approach. if you are new to creatine or have an underlying health condition it is always a good idea to consult with a healthcare professional before starting any supplement regimen. But following the appropriate dosage and staying consistent, creatine can be valuable to your fitness journey.