How much creatine should I take?

3–5 g of creatine monohydrate daily. A loading phase of about 20 g a day for 5–7 days fills muscle stores faster but reaches the same end point as simply taking 3–5 g for three to four weeks.

Is creatine bad for your kidneys?

In people with healthy kidneys, long-term studies have not found harm. The concern originates in creatine raising serum creatinine, a marker used to estimate kidney function, without impairing the kidney itself. People with existing kidney disease should ask their doctor.

Do you need to cycle creatine?

No. There is no evidence of receptor downregulation or tolerance, and no benefit to stopping periodically. Stores simply return to baseline over several weeks if you stop.

Creatine: the one supplement with a boring amount of evidence

Hundreds of trials, decades of use, one of the few supplements that does roughly what the label claims. Here is the dose and the things it does not do.

The AIM teamOctober 16, 20264 min read

Most supplements have marketing where evidence should be. Creatine is the conspicuous exception: hundreds of controlled trials, decades of use, and effects that are modest, real and consistently replicated.

What it does

Creatine increases the phosphocreatine your muscles hold, which is the fuel system for short, intense effort, the first ten seconds or so of a hard set or sprint.

The practical results:

More reps at a given load. A couple more per set, which compounds into meaningfully more training volume over months.
More lean mass over time: partly from that extra volume and partly from intracellular water.
A small early weight gain: typically 1–2 kg, which is water inside muscle, not fat.

There is also a growing and genuinely interesting line of research on cognition, particularly under sleep deprivation and in older adults. Less settled than the muscle findings, worth watching.

The dose

3–5 g of creatine monohydrate daily. That is the whole protocol.

A loading phase, about 20 g a day for 5–7 days, saturates muscle faster, and gets to the same place that 3–5 g daily reaches in three to four weeks. Loading is a speed preference, not a requirement, and it is the phase most likely to cause stomach upset.

Timing does not matter. Creatine works by saturating a store, not by an acute effect. Any time of day is fine.

Monohydrate is the form to buy. It is the one studied, and it is the cheapest. Hydrochloride, buffered, liquid and micronized variants cost more and have not shown better outcomes.

The kidney question

The concern will not die, and it has a specific origin worth understanding.

Creatine raises serum creatinine: which is a waste product used to estimate kidney function. So a routine blood panel on someone supplementing creatine can show a creatinine value that looks like impaired kidney function while the kidney is working normally.

Long-term studies in healthy people have not found harm. If you have existing kidney disease, that is a conversation with your doctor. And if you are having bloodwork done, mention that you take creatine, it prevents a false alarm.

What it does not do

It is not an anabolic steroid and shares no mechanism with one.
It does not cause hair loss. One small study found a rise in DHT, never replicated, and it is now cited far past what it supports.
It does not cause cramps or dehydration. The research points if anything the other way.
It does nothing measurable for pure endurance performance.

Tracking it

Creatine is not a nutrient with a daily goal in any conventional sense, but it is a good example of something worth tracking as a custom metric, a simple daily yes/no. The benefit depends entirely on consistency, and a streak you cannot see is a streak you will break without noticing.

Common questions

How much creatine should I take?: 3–5 g of creatine monohydrate daily. A loading phase of about 20 g a day for 5–7 days fills muscle stores faster but reaches the same end point as simply taking 3–5 g for three to four weeks.
Is creatine bad for your kidneys?: In people with healthy kidneys, long-term studies have not found harm. The concern originates in creatine raising serum creatinine, a marker used to estimate kidney function, without impairing the kidney itself. People with existing kidney disease should ask their doctor.
Do you need to cycle creatine?: No. There is no evidence of receptor downregulation or tolerance, and no benefit to stopping periodically. Stores simply return to baseline over several weeks if you stop.