Creatine Monohydrate - Safe loading dosage?

[WorldClassGenes]

Hello BBers!

I've recently purchased USN Creatine Monohydrate and it states to load 5g 4/5x a day for 5 days... However this works out taking a dose every 6 hours which is a pain in the ass having to keep track on time.

I'm wondering if a 10g dose twice a day would be beneficial? For example 10am and 10pm or 4pm and 8pm?

Thanks

[mtownballer20]

There is no real need to load. You will be fine taking 3-5 grams daily.

[wakingmalice]

No loading necessary. Take 3-5g, 3-5 days/week.

[Free2Fight]

the point of creatine as a supplement is to synphasise the used ATP which becomes ADP back into ATP again but at the risk of sounding boring ill carry on with my point, what im saying is if your taking creatine when it is not needed then it is wasted by the body thats why your advised to take it with meals and after workouts as this is when its needed, you take it before bed as this is when alot of the creatine can be stored within the muscles, so although its an arse keeping track of time it is nesesary so i would advise setting an alarm on your phone or just taking it with breakfast, dinner before bed and after a workout.

[Fuze*]

the point of creatine as a supplement is to synphasise the used ATP which becomes ADP back into ATP again but at the risk of sounding boring ill carry on with my point, what im saying is if your taking creatine when it is not needed then it is wasted by the body thats why your advised to take it with meals and after workouts as this is when its needed, you take it before bed as this is when alot of the creatine can be stored within the muscles, so although its an arse keeping track of time it is nesesary so i would advise setting an alarm on your phone or just taking it with breakfast, dinner before bed and after a workout.

So you divide the 3-5g dose into 4 doses? What if you take it once a day all at once?

[emergency]

So you divide the 3-5g dose into 4 doses? What if you take it once a day all at once?

why do that ? just take it all at once . also I would not recommend taking creatine before bed just because of the killer headache you get from doing that

[Terrimonas]

Hello BBers!

I've recently purchased USN Creatine Monohydrate and it states to load 5g 4/5x a day for 5 days... However this works out taking a dose every 6 hours which is a pain in the ass having to keep track on time.

I'm wondering if a 10g dose twice a day would be beneficial? For example 10am and 10pm or 4pm and 8pm?

Thanks

More smaller doses will lead to better retention compared to fewer larger doses for the first few days. After that point you are just pissing most of it out no matter how you dose it.

[WorldClassGenes]

Interesting replies thanks

[njmuscle66]

the point of creatine as a supplement is to synphasise the used ATP which becomes ADP back into ATP again but at the risk of sounding boring ill carry on with my point, what im saying is if your taking creatine when it is not needed then it is wasted by the body thats why your advised to take it with meals and after workouts as this is when its needed, you take it before bed as this is when alot of the creatine can be stored within the muscles, so although its an arse keeping track of time it is nesesary so i would advise setting an alarm on your phone or just taking it with breakfast, dinner before bed and after a workout.

Lets try to spend a little more time learning before we spew advice. Especially something as ridiculous as what you posted above.

[Trans_Isomer]

Supplementation Protocols and Effects on Muscle Creatine Stores

Various supplementation protocols have been suggested to be efficacious in increasing muscle stores of creatine. The amount of increase in muscle storage depends on the levels of creatine in the muscle prior to supplementation. Those who have lower muscle creatine stores, such as those who eat little meat or fish, are more likely to experience muscle storage increases of 20–40%, whereas those with relatively high muscle stores may only increase stores by 10–20% [19]. The magnitude of the increase in skeletal muscle creatine content is important because studies have reported performance changes to be correlated to this increase [20,21].

The supplementation protocol most often described in the literature is referred to as the "loading" protocol. This protocol is characterized by ingesting approximately 0.3 grams/kg/day of CM for 5 – 7 days (e.g., ≃5 grams taken four times per day) and 3–5 grams/day thereafter [18,22]. Research has shown a 10–40% increase in muscle creatine and PCr stores using this protocol [10,22]. Additional research has reported that the loading protocol may only need to be 2–3 days in length to be beneficial, particularly if the ingestion coincides with protein and/or carbohydrate [23,24]. Furthermore, supplementing with 0.25 grams/kg-fat free mass/day of CM may be an alternative dosage sufficient to increase muscle creatine stores [25].

Other suggested supplementation protocols utilized include those with no loading phase as well as "cycling" strategies. A few studies have reported protocols with no loading period to be sufficient for increasing muscle creatine (3 g/d for 28 days) [15] as well as muscle size and strength (6 g/d for 12 weeks) [26,27]. These protocols seems to be equally effective in increasing muscular stores of creatine, but the increase is more gradual and thus the ergogenic effect does not occur as quickly. Cycling protocols involve the consumption of "loading" doses for 3–5 days every 3 to 4 weeks [18,22]. These cycling protocols appear to be effective in increasing and maintaining muscle creatine content before a drop to baseline values, which occurs at about 4–6 weeks [28,29].

If you have never taken creatine before, I recommend our product Creatine RT to reach muscle creatine saturation faster - then from there, a maintenance dose of ~3g per day is fine.