Creatine Body Weight Calculator - Dosage, Timing, Effects

What is Creatine?

Creatine is one of the world's most popular sports supplements. It is a naturally occurring compound that is found in your body, mainly in your muscles. About 95% of creatine is stored in your muscles in the form of phosphocreatine.

Phosphocreatine is used to produce ATP, which is the main energy source for high-intensity exercise like weightlifting or sprinting. The more phosphocreatine your muscles have, the more energy they can produce.

This is why supplementing with creatine can improve high-intensity exercise performance, by up to 15% according to some studies.

Creatine supplements are very effective for increasing muscle mass and strength gains from weight training when combined with a proper diet and exercise routine.

How Does Creatine Work?

When you supplement with creatine, it increases the stores of phosphocreatine in your muscles. This provides a boost in immediate energy for high-intensity, weight bearing exercise like lifting weights.

Over time, increasing intramuscular stores of phosphocreatine also leads to more water being pulled into your muscle cells. This causes your muscles to expand slightly and take on a fuller appearance, which is known as "creatine pump."

Therefore, creatine has two key effects on your muscles:

• Increased stores of immediate energy (ATP) for more power output
• Increased water content within the cells for bigger muscles

Creatine also increases levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) within muscles, which signals your body to build more muscle.

Benefits of Creatine

Here are some of the major benefits of creatine supplementation:

• Boosts High-Intensity Exercise Performance: Numerous studies show that creatine increases strength and power output during intense exercise like weightlifting.
• Increases Lean Muscle Mass: Supplementing with creatine can lead to gains of up to 4 pounds of lean muscle mass over a 12 week period, especially when training hard.
• Enhances Muscle Pumps: Creatine increases intramuscular water content, leading to a fuller, pumped up appearance within your muscles.
• May Increase Strength: By improving your ability to perform high intensity exercise, creatine may lead to greater strength increases over time when combined with weight training.
• Improves Cell Signaling: Creatine increases satellite cell and myonuclei signaling involved in repairing and building muscle tissue.

The benefits of creatine occur because it fundamentally changes how your muscle cells produce energy to boost your training performance.

Who Should Take Creatine?

Creatine offers benefits for a wide range of people, especially those looking to improve high-intensity exercise performance and increase lean muscle mass. Some examples of people who can benefit include:

Weight Lifters

Creatine is highly recommended for anyone performing heavy weight training. Numerous studies show that it can significantly boost strength and lean muscle gains.

Sprinters & Team Sports Athletes

High-intensity sports like sprinting, football and hockey rely heavily on the ATP-phosphocreatine energy system. Supplementing with creatine can provide a performance edge.

Middle-Aged Adults

Creatine may help middle-aged adults maintain muscle mass and strength as they age. It can also provide cognitive benefits like improved memory.

Elite Athletes

Although it's a supplement, creatine provides similar performance benefits to something like caffeine or carbohydrate loading. For competitive athletes looking for a legal way to maximize performance, creatine is a top option.

Those Recovering From Injuries

Creatine offers muscle and strength building benefits without placing excessive stress on joints, ligaments and tendons. It can help maintain strength during rehab from injuries.

How Much Creatine Should You Take?

The standard dose of creatine is about 5 grams per day. Your body can only absorb about 5 grams at a time. Multiple daily doses don't provide any added benefit.

Cycling your dosage by taking creatine for 4-8 weeks, followed by 1-2 weeks off, can help maximize benefits. This prevents your body from becoming used to creatine and not responding as well.

You should take creatine with a meal or snack that contains carbohydrates. The carbs help increase creatine absorption by your muscles.

Most people don't need more than 5 grams per day to maximize creatine stores in the muscles. Taking too much for too long can lead to weight gain from water retention without providing added benefits.

Loading Phase

Some people do a "loading phase" when they first start supplementing with creatine, which involves taking 20 grams per day for 5-7 days. This saturates your muscles with creatine faster.

However, the loading phase is not necessary. You'll still reach full saturation by taking the standard 5 gram dose for 4-6 weeks.

When is the Best Time to Take Creatine?

You should take your daily creatine dose with a high carb meal or snack. The carbs help shuttle the creatine into your muscles.

Many people take creatine first thing in the morning or after their workout. But the timing isn't that important, as long as you're taking it with carbs.

Pre or Post Workout

Taking creatine immediately before or after a workout can be beneficial. It provides your muscles with extra energy and primes them for growth.

Morning

Taking creatine with breakfast or your morning snack helps provide a boost in cellular energy levels to kickstart your day.

Evening

If you work out later in the day, taking creatine with dinner can help fuel your muscles right before a workout and enhance recovery overnight.

The timing isn't as important as consistently taking creatine alongside carbohydrate-containing meals or snacks to maximize absorption.

Creatine Body Weight Calculator

The standard recommended daily dose of creatine is 0.3 grams per kg of body weight. This amount is sufficient to increase creatine muscle stores in the average person.

To find out how much creatine you should take based on your weight, you can use the following creatine body weight calculator:

Creatine Dosage Based on Body Weight

• Multiply your weight in pounds by 0.07 to get the number of grams of creatine per day.
• For example, a 180 pound person would take 180 x 0.07 = 12.6 grams of creatine daily.
• Round to the nearest 5 gram increment. So in this example, the dose would be 10 grams per day.

Most people don't need more than 3-5 grams per day. Only bigger guys over 200 pounds typically need 5-10 grams daily.

Creatine Weight Calculator Formula

Here is the creatine dosage formula based on body weight:

• Creatine dosage (g) = Body weight (pounds) x 0.07

Or for metric measures:

• Creatine dosage (g) = Body weight (kg) x 0.3

Using your body weight ensures the creatine dosage is appropriate for your size to saturate your muscles. Most people should split the daily dose into 2 equal servings.

Are There Any Side Effects

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.