Creatine Dose
The standard or popular dosing of creatine is as follows:
Creatine Loading Phase
During the first week it is common for athletes to consume 20g of creatine daily. This is known as a loading phase and is basically designed to saturate your muscles with creatine in order to increase their volume.
Creatine Maintenance Phase
Once the loading phase is completed, the most common dose is 5g of creatine per day. This is what is known as the maintenance phase and maintains the amount of creatine within your muscles.
Another approach is to consume 0.3g of creatine per kilogram of bodyweight during the maintenance phase, followed by 0.03g of creatine per kilogram of bodyweight during the maintenance phase.
Dosing varies depending on the type of creatine you use check out our Creatine Monohydrate and creatine ethyl ester sections for specific information.
Creatine Cycling
It is most common for creatine supplements to by cycled so that your body doesn't get used to the supplement. Whether or not cycling with creatine is necessary is debatable, however most consume creatine in a cycle. As for how long to cycle creatine, you will find a lot of different opinions - personally I cycle creatine for 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off - I'll leave this decision up to you. Many popular creatines will recommend cycling periods and it is advised that your follow their guidelines.
