Two published protocols that arrive at the same place. One of them takes a week; the other takes a month and less arithmetic.
Estimates are for general guidance only and are not medical advice. For a personalised plan, book a free guided tour at RPM Gym.
The headline is the daily dose, and it is a range rather than a number because that is how the literature states it: 3 to 5 grams a day of creatine monohydrate. Beneath it sits the per-kilogram figure for context, and — only if you chose to load — what the loading week works out to at your bodyweight.
The per-kilogram row is worth reading carefully, because it usually surprises people. The individualised maintenance figure in the position stand is 0.03 g/kg/day, which at 70 kg is 2.1 g — below the flat range, not above it. Bodyweight is a much weaker lever here than supplement marketing implies, and a bigger person does not need a proportionally bigger daily scoop.
Loading and not loading reach the same destination. Muscle stores saturate either way; the difference is how long it takes to get there — roughly five to seven days at the loading dose, three to four weeks at the daily one. That makes loading a speed choice, and skipping it costs nothing except time.
What the page is describing is what the protocols say, not what you should take. Anyone pregnant, breastfeeding, taking prescribed medication or with kidney disease should be having this conversation with a doctor, and a calculator is not one.
Daily dose = 3–5 g/day, as stated. Not derived from your inputs. Per-kilogram context = bodyweight × 0.03 g/kg/day Loading, if chosen: Daily loading amount = bodyweight × 0.3 g/kg/day Duration = 5–7 days, then drop to the daily dose Split into roughly four doses across the day The flat range is the headline because it is what the evidence is stated in. Bodyweight is shown as context, not as a multiplier on the answer.
Someone at 88 kg who has decided to load first.
Twenty-six grams a day for a week, then three to five indefinitely. Notice the shape of that: the loading number scales hard with bodyweight and the maintenance number barely does — 2.6 g at 88 kg against 2.1 g at 70 kg, both under the flat range the page leads with. Whichever route you take, you arrive at the same saturation; loading just gets there about three weeks sooner.
The literature states 3 to 5 grams a day of monohydrate, and that is what the page leads with. The individualised figure in the position stand is 0.03 g per kilogram, which for most people lands at or below that range rather than above it — 2.1 g at 70 kg. Bodyweight moves this answer far less than people expect.
No. Loading and taking the daily dose reach the same saturation; the difference is about five to seven days versus three to four weeks. It is a speed choice, and the only real cost of skipping it is patience.
Because 0.03 g/kg is a small multiplier, and most people weigh less than the 100 to 167 kg it would take to reach 3 to 5 grams that way. This is exactly why the previous version of this tool was wrong: it used an unsourced 0.04 and a floor of 3 g, so heavier readers were told to take progressively more, when the published per-kilogram figure points the other way.
A little more during loading, where the dose genuinely scales with bodyweight, and barely any more for maintenance. The daily range is stated flat for a reason, and pushing it upward on the strength of bodyweight alone goes past what the protocol actually covers.
Whenever you will reliably remember. What matters is the stores staying topped up, and those are a function of taking it consistently rather than of hitting a particular window. The best time is the one you will not skip.
Usually a kilogram or two in the first couple of weeks, and it is water drawn into the muscle rather than fat. If nothing else in your training or eating changed and the scale moved shortly after you started, that is almost certainly what it was.
It is the one the protocols on this page were established with, which is a different claim from it being chemically superior — but it is the claim that matters when you are deciding what to buy. The alternatives are generally more expensive and are not carrying the same weight of evidence behind the doses quoted here.
The supplement is the easiest variable to get right and the least of what decides the outcome. If you would rather spend that attention on the training instead, the guided tour at Al Manhal is free.