Curious about creatine loading? Let’s start at the beginning.

Among the thousands of potions, pills, and powders in the world of sports nutrition, creatine monohydrate is among the most studied, most tested, and most effective. Regular use can help enhance strength, muscle growth, and athletic performance by providing the raw materials your body needs to fuel brief, high-intensity efforts.

Some trainers and nutritionists suggest a creatine loading phase for the first week of use followed by a maintenance phase.

What does that mean, is it effective, and should you do it?

What Is Creatine Loading?

To speed up the availability of creatine for use in your workouts, creatine loading calls for taking a higher initial amount of the supplement for a brief period to saturate your muscles before switching to an ongoing, long-term schedule of regular servings.

Creatine is the body’s primary fuel source during the first few seconds of any exercise and continues to be the primary fuel source during repeated bouts of high-intensity exercise (think: sprinting and resistance training). This fuel is stored in your cells and typically acquired through dietary sources such as meat and fish.

Supplementation allows you to top off your cellular stores of creatine, helping to make more of it available during exercise.

How Long Does Creatine Take to Work?

At typical servings (five to 10 grams per day) of a creatine product, it can take a month or more of supplementation to build up your cellular creatine stores enough to make a noticeable difference in your workouts. Creatine loading allows you to reach those levels in as little as a week.

Here’s how it works:

• You take up to 20 grams of creatine per day (usually broken into four five-gram servings, each taken with water about four hours apart) for your first seven to 10 days on the creatine supplement.
• Then you taper down to a maintenance dosage of about five grams per day, which you can continue safely as long as you wish.

Continuing at a higher amount for longer than a week to 10 days won’t do you any good — you can’t make your cellular tanks any larger, after all — so once they’re topped off, be sure to dial back your daily intake to the maintenance level.

Are There Any Side Effects to Loading Creatine?

“Water retention is the most common event reported in the first several days of creatine use,” says Paul Falcone, principal scientist for BODi. Retaining water can occasionally lead to bloating and other gastrointestinal issues, including frequent urination.

However, the recommended five grams taken four times a day while loading should help mitigate these short-term side effects. “Spreading out your intake strategy should enable your body to on-ramp more easily,” says Falcone.

Any water retention should disappear after a few days, says Falcone. So even if you’re a little bloated at first, the effect will be temporary. And after five to seven days, switch to a lower amount of five grams daily.

Do I Need Creatine?

You don’t need creatine to achieve your strength training or performance goals, but it can help you reach them faster. In fact, if you’re interested in maximizing muscle and strength, creatine should be high on your list of supplements to try. Most people notice an uptick in their strength, performance, and muscle mass, with minimal side effects.