Myth or fact

You have to load creatine first

Short answerNo

By GyroscopeUpdated November 14, 20267 sources

No. Loading is a shortcut. In the trial that tested both, 20 g a day for 6 days and 3 g a day for 28 days raised muscle creatine by the same 20%. Loading gets you there about three weeks sooner, and it costs you more water on the scale that week and a higher chance of an upset stomach.

Why people believe it

The loading week sounds like the part that makes creatine work. It’s in gym advice, many tubs print it, and it’s how creatine research began. The first human trial, in 1992, gave people 5 g four or six times a day, and that study shaped the advice that followed.

A week of 20 g a day also feels like doing it right. The scale jumps, and the jump feels like proof something is happening.

It’s like a fast charger

Plug your phone into a fast charger or a regular one and the battery ends at 100% either way. The fast charger gets there sooner and runs a bit hotter. Once the battery is full, leaving it plugged in doesn’t add anything. Loading is the fast charger, and your muscles have the same 100%.

What the study found

In 1996, Hultman and colleagues took muscle samples from 31 men on different creatine plans. On 20 g a day, muscle creatine rose about 20% in 6 days. On 3 g a day, the same 20% rise came more slowly, over 28 days. The men who kept taking 2 g a day after loading stayed full, and the ones who stopped were back where they started 30 days later.

If you start on Monday, November 16, here are the two paths. Loading is full by Saturday, November 21. On 3 to 5 g a day, you’re full by Sunday, December 13.

The International Society of Sports Nutrition gives both routes, a loading week of about 20 g a day, or 3 g a day for 28 days. A 2021 review sums it up by saying “you do not have to ‘load’ creatine”.

Skipping the loading week still works over a full training block. In a 2024 trial, 40 young adults lifted for 8 weeks. The group that took monohydrate without a loading week gained strength and muscle compared with placebo, and so did the group that loaded.

What loading costs

Water on the scale. A loading week typically adds 1 to 3 kg (2 to 7 lb), mostly water, all in about a week. On 3 to 5 g a day the rise is smaller and spread over a month, and some people see nothing. If you’re dieting or have a weigh-in, that water can throw off the number you care about. What the scale will do has the numbers by weight.

Your stomach. In a 2008 trial of 59 soccer players, one 10 g dose a day gave 56% of them diarrhea. Two 5 g doses gave 29%, about the same as the 35% on placebo. Loading means big daily totals, so it has to be split into four servings, and even then it’s the most likely time for stomach trouble.

A week of bigger numbers. Creatine raises creatinine on a blood test. A loading week is the worst time to have one.

When loading is the right call

If you have a competition, a strength test or a new program starting in the next week or two, loading makes sense. Use about 0.3 g per kg a day, which is 24 g a day in four servings of 6 g at 180 lb (82 kg), for 6 days, then 3 to 5 g a day. We cap the daily amount at 25 g, the top of what the loading trials used. The dose tool works out your servings.