dose — no loading needed.
The ISSN position stand — a systematic review of decades of research — concluded that 3–5 g/day of creatine monohydrate is safe, effective, and reliably improves strength, power and lean mass. Loading phases are optional, not required.
What the researchers did
Kreider and colleagues synthesised hundreds of trials on 's mechanism, dosing, safety and performance effects to produce the International Society of Sports Nutrition's official stand.
The key finding
3–5 g/day of saturates muscle creatine stores within 3–4 weeks, matching the plateau reached by loading protocols (20 g/day for a week). Effect sizes across ~250 trials are among the largest of any legal supplement — roughly +8% strength and +14% work capacity over placebo.
Why it matters
You do not need fancy 'HCl' or 'buffered' variants — monohydrate is the cheapest and most researched form. Timing does not matter. Consistency does.
3–5 g monohydrate daily, taken any time of day, with or without food.
- 1.6–2.2Daily protein intake that maximises hypertrophy.
- 7–9Nightly sleep for recovery, hormones and growth hormone release.
- 8,000Daily step count where all-cause mortality risk levels off — largely a NEAT effect.
- 3–6Pre-training caffeine dose that reliably improves strength and endurance output.
- 25–38Daily fibre intake linked to lower all-cause mortality and a healthier gut microbiome.
- 10–20Hard working sets per muscle per week for hypertrophy.