I take about 1 gram of creatine a day. If you’re about to say, Brianna, that’s a fifth of a serving, there’s no way that’s doing anything, you’re wrong, and I’ll show you why in a second. First, how I got here.
Years of it, then not
I was on creatine for years and years as a rower. Full dose, every day, fine. Then I started running and somehow it stopped working for me. It makes me feel bloated. I have to drink so much water to keep up with it, and if I don’t, my calves cramp. I’ve tried it so many times. Full serving, half serving, loading, not loading. Same result every time.
So I microdose. About 1 gram a day. The bloat is gone, the cramps are gone, and I still get the benefit, because it 100 percent helps me recover and I can feel the difference when I stop.
Why 1 gram is not nothing
I’m vegetarian. Creatine comes from meat and fish, so I get none of it from food. Vegetarians sit around 10 to 30 percent lower on muscle creatine than people who eat meat, and we respond harder to supplementing because we’re starting from further down.
Here’s the number that matters. The dose the research points to for bringing a vegetarian’s stores up to where a meat eater already is from diet is about 1 gram a day. That’s it. The 3 to 5 gram maintenance dose, and the 20 gram loading week, are for pushing stores above normal. I’m not trying to go above normal. I’m trying to not be deficient. 1 gram does that.
And I still get the creatine twitches when I start it back up after a break, which is my body telling me it noticed.
What I buy
The powder. Plain creatine monohydrate, the big tub, because it’s cheap as fuck and a gram a day means the tub lasts a year. [FILL: brand, if you want to name one.]
Gummies are a scam
Don’t. Creatine is stable as a dry powder and breaks down into creatinine once it sits in water, and gummies are made with water. So even if the label is honest, you don’t actually know what’s left by the time you eat it, and you definitely don’t know it’s spread evenly across the batch.
In late 2025 NOW Foods paid for independent testing on 12 popular creatine gummies. Five of the 12 were badly under-dosed. One top seller that claimed 5 grams per serving tested at 0.005 grams. Basically zero. The powder costs a fraction of the gummies and it’s the actual molecule. Buy the powder.
The short version
If you eat meat, you probably don’t need this post. If you don’t, a gram of monohydrate a day in your coffee is the cheapest recovery thing you can do, and if a full dose makes you feel like a water balloon with cramping calves, you’re allowed to take less. I do.
Receipts
- Does one dose of creatine fit all? Review, 2024, which is where the 1 gram a day for vegetarians number comes from.
- International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand on creatine.
- Switching to a vegetarian diet reduces the body creatine pool, randomised trial.
- NOW Foods creatine gummy testing and the write-up in Nutritional Outlook.
Questions I get
Does 1 gram of creatine a day do anything?
For a vegetarian, yes. About 1 gram a day is the dose the research points to for bringing a vegetarian's muscle stores up to what a meat eater gets from food. It won't load you like 5 grams will. It isn't supposed to.
Why does creatine make me bloated and cramp?
It pulls water into your muscles. At a full dose I have to drink a ridiculous amount to keep up, and if I don't, my calves cramp. At 1 gram I don't have the problem.
Are creatine gummies legit?
Independent testing in 2025 found almost half of popular creatine gummies were badly under-dosed, and a couple of top sellers had basically zero creatine in them. Buy the powder.
