The Best Way To Take Creatine: Timing, Dosage, & More

Creatine is mostly associated with bodybuilding, but its benefits go far beyond that, and also change with age:

Muscle & brain benefits

Creatine offers benefits beyond exercise, such as improving muscle, strength, quickness, memory, and reducing dementia risk. Creatine monohydrate is the most common and effective form; it’s tasteless, inexpensive, and widely available. Get it micronized if you want to to be non-clumping (easier to mix into liquids), but this is only a physical change not a chemical one, and doesn’t affect its effects.

Dr. Hardwick-Smith recommends, as a daily dose:

• If under 120 lbs: start with 2.5g
• If between 120–160 lbs: start with 5g
• If over 160 lbs: consider starting with 10g

Doses up to 30 grams/day have been studied with no harm.

Many people use higher doses for the first week (a “loading period”), but this is not necessary and can cause bloating due to water retention, so she recommends not doing that.

About timing, she says that consistency is key: take it daily at a regular convenient time, such as paired to some time-specific habit, for example one’s morning coffee. Beyond that, she says timing and food intake do not matter—just take it regularly.

For more on all of this in her own words, enjoy:

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Creatine: Very Different For Young & Old People

Take care!