Creatine Loading Phase: Do You Need One?

You buy your first tub, turn it over, and the label tells you to take four scoops a day for a week before dropping back to one. Then someone at the gym says loading is a waste of powder.

Loading fills your muscle creatine stores in about a week. Taking 5 g a day fills the same stores in about four weeks. After that first month, the person who loaded and the person who did not are sitting at the same level.

The short answer

• A loading phase is about 20 g a day, split into four 5 g doses, for 5 to 7 days. You then drop to 3 to 5 g a day for as long as you keep taking it.
• Skipping the load means 3 to 5 g a day from day one. Same saturation, roughly four weeks later.
• Loading uses about 105 g of extra powder in that first week, which works out at $12.60 to $18.90 across the tubs we stock right now.
• Load if you have a date on the calendar. Otherwise take 5 g a day and forget about it.

What a loading phase actually does

Creatine sits in your muscle as phosphocreatine, the fuel your body reaches for during short, hard efforts. An untrained muscle sits around 60 to 80 percent full. The point of any creatine protocol is to push that as close to full as it goes and then keep it there.

Dose changes the speed, nothing else. Take a big daily amount and you top the tank up in days. Take a small one and the same total creatine goes in, spread over weeks. A loading phase is not stronger creatine. It is the same 5 g scoop, taken four times a day for a week.

Why 5 g a day gets you to the same place

Take 3 to 5 g a day with no loading week and muscle creatine climbs steadily, then plateaus around the 28 day mark. The research on this is old and boring, which is a good sign. The ISSN position stand treats both routes as valid and lists the slow one as the option for people with no deadline.

So the question is not which works. It is whether one week of waiting is worth 105 g of powder and seven days of four shakes.

For most people it is not. If you are mid training block with nothing on the calendar, four weeks to saturation costs you nothing you will notice. If you have a meet or a fitness test in 10 days, the week matters and loading buys it.

What loading costs at our current prices

A 7 day load at 20 g a day uses 140 g of creatine. The same week at 5 g a day uses 35 g. The difference is 105 g, roughly a third of a standard 300 g tub gone before you have settled into a routine.

Here is what that looks like against the monohydrate tubs we hold, prices as at 2 September 2026. Every tub below delivers 5 g of creatine monohydrate per serve, so price per serve and price per 5 g are the same number.

Look at the bottom row. The 150 g tub holds 30 serves and a 7 day load eats 28 of them, so you finish the week with two days left and a reorder to place. If you bought the small tub as a trial, do not load it.

The top row tells the other half. On the ProSupps tub, loading costs an extra $12.60 once, ever. That is cheap for bringing a result forward three weeks if you need the three weeks, and a silly spend if you do not.

What the evidence says

Kreider and colleagues published the ISSN position stand on creatine in 2017 and it is still the clearest summary available. The loading protocol it describes is 0.3 g per kg of bodyweight per day for 5 to 7 days, split across four doses, then 3 to 5 g a day. It also states that smaller daily doses reach the same muscle stores over a longer period, which is the basis for skipping the load.

Loading raises total body water in that first week because creatine pulls water into the muscle cell with it. It shows on the scale, usually as one to two kilos, and it sits inside the muscle rather than under the skin. We covered that properly in our guide on how much water to drink with creatine.

The one real complaint about loading is the gut. Large single doses are the usual cause of the bloating people report, which is why the protocol splits 20 g into four 5 g doses instead of one big scoop. If 5 g still upsets your stomach, take it with food and more water.

How to load creatine, if you decide to

The dose scales with bodyweight, so here are two worked examples using the 0.3 g per kg figure.

A 70 kg lifter needs about 21 g a day. That is four 5 g scoops, spread across breakfast, lunch, after training, and dinner. After 5 to 7 days, drop to one 5 g scoop a day.

A 95 kg lifter needs about 28 g a day, so five scoops across the day, then back to 5 g. At that bodyweight the maintenance dose sits at the top of the 3 to 5 g range rather than the bottom.

Take each dose in water or a drink, not dry. Do not stack all four into one sitting to save time, because that is where the stomach complaints come from. Keep the maintenance dose going daily after the load, rest days included. If you want to argue about morning versus post-workout, we went through the timing evidence in creatine before or after training, and it matters far less than taking it every day.

Choosing between tubs rather than protocols? Our creatine buying guide for New Zealand ranks what we stock. If you are wondering whether any of this changes for women, what creatine does for women covers it, and the 0.3 g per kg figure already accounts for bodyweight.

Where NZ Supps fits

We are based in New Zealand and ship from here, so orders placed before 1pm go out the same day and anything over $99 ships free. No customs wait.

For the cheapest way to a full tank, the ProSupps Creatine 300g at $0.60 per 5 g does the job for $36.00 and covers a load plus a month after it. If you already know creatine suits you and want to stop thinking about reorders, the Nexus 500g tub runs 100 serves for $62.85. Everything else sits on the creatine collection page. Loading does not need a special product, and we are not going to sell you one.

Is a creatine loading phase necessary?

No. It is a speed option, not a requirement. Loading gets your muscle stores full in about a week and 3 to 5 g a day gets there in about four weeks, with the same end result. Choose loading only if you have a date you need to be ready for.

How much creatine do you take during a loading phase?

About 0.3 g per kg of bodyweight per day, split into four doses, for 5 to 7 days. For most people that lands between 20 g and 28 g a day, or four to five 5 g scoops. After the loading week you drop to 3 to 5 g a day.

What are the side effects of a creatine loading phase?

The two people actually report are stomach upset and a small jump on the scale. The gut complaints come from large single doses, which is why the daily total is split into four. The weight is water drawn into the muscle, usually one to two kilos.

Do women need to load creatine?

No more or less than anyone else. Dose is set by bodyweight, so a 60 kg woman loading at 0.3 g per kg needs about 18 g a day, then 3 to 5 g after. Whether to load still comes down to whether you need saturation this week.

Is 5 g a day enough without loading?

Yes. Five grams a day reaches the same muscle creatine level, it just takes around four weeks. It is also cheaper and easier on your stomach.

Can you load creatine again later if you miss doses?

Missing a day or two does little, because stores drop slowly. If you have stopped for several weeks and want topping up quickly, run another loading week. In no hurry, just restart at 5 g a day.

Sources

Kreider et al. 2017, ISSN position stand on creatine (https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z); Examine.com creatine topic page (https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/). Prices as at 2 September 2026.