Creatine Calculator

Recommended daily dose
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Enter your body weight in kilograms or pounds, choose a loading or maintenance phase, and this calculator returns a creatine monohydrate dose grounded in standard sports-nutrition guidance. Loading uses roughly 0.3 g per kg of body weight per day for 5-7 days, split into four servings; maintenance settles at about 3-5 g per day. It is a quick planning aid, not medical advice.

How the dose is calculated

  1. 1

    Enter body weight

    Pick kilograms or pounds; the tool converts pounds to kilograms internally so either unit works.

  2. 2

    Choose a phase

    Loading front-loads creatine over 5-7 days; maintenance is the steady daily dose you take afterwards.

  3. 3

    Read the dose

    Loading is 0.3 g/kg/day in four servings; maintenance is 0.03 g/kg/day clamped to a 3-5 g range.

The formula

Creatine dosing scales with body mass. The widely cited protocol works in grams per kilogram of body weight:

  • Loading dose = body weight (kg) × 0.3 g/kg/day, taken for 5-7 days
  • Per serving (loading) = loading dose ÷ 4 servings spread through the day
  • Maintenance dose = body weight (kg) × 0.03 g/kg/day, kept within a practical 3-5 g/day window

Pounds are converted first: weight (kg) = weight (lb) × 0.453592.

Worked example

Take an 80 kg lifter who wants to saturate muscle stores quickly.

  • Loading: 80 × 0.3 = 24 g/day, split into 6 g four times a day for one week.
  • Maintenance: 80 × 0.03 = 2.4 g, raised to the 3 g floor and well under the 5 g ceiling, so 3 g/day thereafter.

A 100 kg athlete would load at 30 g/day (7.5 g per serving) and maintain at 3 g/day. Loading is optional, skipping it and taking 3-5 g daily reaches the same saturation in about 3-4 weeks.

Dosing at a glance

Body weight Loading (g/day) Per serving (×4) Maintenance (g/day)
60 kg 18 4.5 3
75 kg 22.5 ~5.6 3
90 kg 27 6.75 3
110 kg 33 8.25 3.3

Common pitfalls

  • Megadosing maintenance. More than 5 g/day rarely adds benefit once stores are saturated; extra creatine is simply excreted.
  • Quitting during loading. The loading week can cause mild water-weight gain, that is normal and not fat.
  • Fancy forms. Creatine monohydrate is the best-studied and cheapest form; HCl and “buffered” blends have no proven edge.
  • Skipping water. Creatine draws water into muscle, so keep hydration up, especially while loading.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Loading saturates muscle creatine in about a week, but taking a steady 3-5 g per day reaches the same level in roughly 3-4 weeks with less initial water-weight gain.

For most people 3-5 g of creatine monohydrate per day is plenty. Heavier or higher-muscle-mass athletes sit at the upper end of that range.

Your weight, units and phase are sent to the server to compute the dose, and they can be carried in the page link as you move through the steps. They are not stored, saved or shared, and there is no account or tracking of your weight.

No. This tool provides general sports-nutrition guidance only and is not medical advice. Creatine is widely studied and considered safe for healthy adults, but if you are pregnant, have a kidney condition or take medication, consult a qualified doctor or dietitian before supplementing.

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