Did you buy Optimum Nutrition creatine without a scoop? No worries. Today I will explain if Optimum Nutrition creatine comes with a scoop and if not, what you can do to accurately measure recommended 5-gram dose.
As a whole, the Optimum Nutrition micronized creatine does not come with a serving scoop. The supplement label suggests using one rounded teaspoon as a way to measure recommended 5-gram serving size. However, one rounded tsp of creatine is significantly less precise than a plastic 5-gram scoop.
In other words, everyone can have different ways to “load” the teaspoon with creatine, which means it won’t always equal 5 grams (more on that later).
Does Optimum Nutrition Creatine Come With A Scoop?
I bought many ON’s supplements in the past like pre-workouts, protein powders, amino acids, or glutamine and I never had a problem with a lack of serving scoop. Maybe one out of one hundred didn’t have a scoop inside, but I believe that was the manufacturer’s fault.
However, with ON creatine was different.
After I received my Optimum Nutrition creatine without a scoop I contacted ON’s customer service. They confirmed that micronized creatine monohydrate powder uses a “rounded teaspoon” as a serving size measurement.
Also, when you read the back of the product label, you can clearly see that they do not use a scoop to measure the volume of the powder, but a teaspoon.
To be honest, I think that’s weird.
Why There Is No Scoop In Optimum Nutrition Creatine?
Optimum Nutrition micronized creatine monohydrate powder is manufactured by Glanbia Performance Nutrition, which is worldwide manufactured of leading sports and lifestyle supplements.
On their website, you can read that their vision is to reduce carbon in their daily operations, as well as use less water and produce less waste.
Firstly I thought that the lack of plastic scoop in their creatine is some type of the “saving the planet” vision of the company. Maybe by removing the scoop, they create a better change for the environment.
However, that is not the case.
All of their other products like Amino Energy, Gold Standard pre-workout, and all of the protein powders do use a serving scoop as a way to measure the volume of the powder. Only creatine monohydrate suggest using a rounded teaspoon.
Secondly, I thought that this may have something to do with the format of the creatine. ON’ creatine monohydrate is a micronized form, which basically means its particles are reduced in size (this way it’s easier to mix with water and potentially easier to absorb).
That’s not the case either.
Micronized creatine monohydrate is slowly becoming an industry standard. Several other brands like Nutricost Performance, or 1st Phorm already use this form of creatine and they do not use a “rounded teaspoon” as a measurement system.
They use scoops.
Is Using Rounded Teaspoon To Measure Creatine A Good Idea?
In general, supplement companies express serving size in many ways like tablets, capsules, scoops, soft gels, packets, tablespoons, and teaspoons.
Overall, I don’t think using teaspoons to measure creatine powder is a good idea for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a rounded teaspoon is very subjective and it can be interpreted completely differently by people.
To make my point, me and my wife did an experiment where we compared the size of the “standard” teaspoon with a 13cc plastic scoop from one of my pre-workouts.
For the record, a 13 cc scoop is equivalent to 13 grams. The plastic scoop has a line that indicates 10 grams (which is the recommended dose for the supplement where I took it from).
In this experiment, we decided to use three different ways to measure teaspoons.
- 1 level teaspoon – this means that the powder on the teaspoon is “leveled” and does not goes over the edges of the spoon, which is quite straightforward.
- 1 rounded teaspoon – this means you take a teaspoon of creatine, and you leave a small hill that sits above the edges of the spoon.
- 1 heaping teaspoon – this means you want your hill to be as big as possible. The idea here is that the heaping teaspoon must be significantly bigger than the rounded teaspoon.
In the picture below you can see the picture collage with the servings of Optimum Nutrition creatine monohydrate using a level teaspoon, rounded teaspoon, and heaping teaspoon, respectively.
The goal of this experiment was to see if the 1 rounded teaspoon actually equals 5 grams, as Optimum Nutrition suggests on their creatine monohydrate label.
- First, I took each of the teaspoon servings and placed all the powder inside of my 13cc plastic scoop.
- Next, I wanted to see exactly how does the volume of each teaspoon serving size compares with the grams on the scoop.
- Lastly, I wanted to see if 1 rounded scoop of Optimum Nutrition does equal 5 grams.
To document everything, I took another picture collage, this time with the powder inside that is equivalent to the level, rounded and heaping teaspoon, respectively.
See below.
On the top of the scoop, you can see the line. This line indicates 10 grams.
- The first picture shows how much Optimum Nutrition creatine is the equivalent of a level teaspoon. I don’t have a kitchen scale, but for me, that’s roughly around 3 grams.
- The second picture shows the equivalent of a rounded teaspoon, which in my opinion is around 6-7 grams.
- The third picture shows heaping teaspoon, which in my opinion is around 11-12 grams.
As you can see, according to this experiment, Optimum Nutrition creatine monohydrate serving recommendations to use a rounded teaspoon to measure 5 grams is not valid.
Optimum Nutrition Creatine Monohydrate Scoop vs Teaspoon
In general, using rounded teaspoons as a serving guide in Optimum Nutrition creatine monohydrate is a bad idea is because there are different types and sizes of teaspoons.
According to Wikipedia, the size of teaspoons ranges from about 2.5 to 7.3 mL (which is 0.085 to 0.247 US fl oz).
I have no clue what the size of my teaspoon is (and I assume not many people do), which is another reason why I would not recommend using them for measuring creatine.
For example, according to the Optimum Nutrition micronized creatine monohydrate label, you should be taking it 4 times per day.
Now, if you’re taking recommended “rounded teaspoon” of creatine and your home teaspoon is 7ml, this means you’re actually taking way over 12 grams of creatine per serving.
That’s almost 50 grams of creatine per day.
Of course, creatine is safe to take.
However, if you’re taking 50 grams of creatine per day, most likely you’re wasting your money (most of the scientific literature recommends 20-25 grams during the loading phase).
I’m not even talking about stomach cramps, diarrhea, or other problems (as far as I know, I haven’t studied this a ton).
The difference between taking Optimum Nutrition creatine with a scoop versus a teaspoon is that scoop is a more accurate way to ensure you’re taking the correct dose. On the other hand, a teaspoon is very subjective and the size of the cutlery can vary depending on the region.
How To Measure Optimum Nutrition Creatine Without Scoop?
In general, to measure ON creatine without a scoop you can use a plastic scoop from an empty supplement that is equal to 5 grams. Keeping a couple of the scoops from my empty supplement containers is a good idea because they all vary in size.
Many scoop containers have little lines on the wall of the scoop, which indicates the serving size.
Conclusion
As you can see, getting Optimum Nutrition creatine without a scoop is a problem. Using a rounded teaspoon as a way to measure serving size can be very imprecise because many teaspoons vary in size.
Plus, people also have a different meaning of rounded teaspoon, and it’s very easy to either take not enough or too much of the powder.