Notes on dosing, label reading, and what published research actually used.
A pre-workout is not calorie free. Four we scanned carry between 2.5g and 7.5g of free amino acids per serving, which is roughly 10 to 30 calories, and the labels declare zero.
ABE, 68 against 64, and the dosing sub-score is where it separates: 75 against 60. ABE carries 2700mg of effective citrulline. Gold Standard carries 750mg and three ingredients doing nothing.
Both scored 64 and neither is the same product. C4 has one ingredient at a researched dose. Gold Standard has more ingredients, better creatine, and 750mg of citrulline against a 3000mg floor.
ABE, 68 against 64, and the four points hide a much bigger difference. ABE carries a real citrulline dose and twice the creatine. C4 carries more beta-alanine and a stimulant most people buy it for anyway.
AG1, 52 against 48, and only because half its label is disclosed. Bloom puts everything inside six proprietary blends, including 75mg of adaptogens where one ingredient alone is studied at 300mg.
Gorilla Mode, 78 against 64. The gap is not caffeine, it is that one carries 5000mg of citrulline and the other carries 1000mg of arginine, which is the ingredient citrulline replaced.
150mg to 200mg across four of the best sellers, which is a smaller spread than anyone expects. The number that actually varies is the scoop, and one of these doubles to 400mg.
High-dose biotin interferes with a common lab method and can push thyroid and heart tests wrong in either direction. The FDA has warned about it. Here is the dose that matters and when to stop.
Not at the doses it appears in. Fat burners and pre-workouts carry a few hundred milligrams, research uses 2g to 4g a day for weeks, and the form on the label changes what you are getting.
Mostly no, and the ones that show anything are correcting a deficiency rather than boosting anything. Here is what each ingredient on the label is actually doing, and why a measured rise still may not mean much.
It has more human evidence than the rest of the test booster shelf, which is a low bar it genuinely clears. The catch is the standardisation percentage, and most labels do not print one.
It takes the edge off without taking the alertness, which is why it is in your pre-workout. The studied pairing is around 100mg of theanine to 50mg of caffeine, and most pre-workouts get that ratio badly wrong.
Almost certainly. Studies on falling asleep use 0.5mg to 3mg, and the lower doses often work as well as the higher ones. The 10mg tub is the only supplement on the shelf sold at several times the studied amount.
We scanned it and it came back 52 out of 100. The vitamin panel is real and fully disclosed. The greens blend it is famous for is a single number covering dozens of ingredients.
The 4g of citrulline on the front is 2.7g of citrulline once you do the malate arithmetic. Every dose on the ABE Ultimate panel, read at the serving the label states.
Some do, and the label rarely tells you which. The strain code is the number that matters, and most tubs do not print one. Here is what to look for.
750mg of citrulline against a 3000mg to 6000mg research range, and two ingredients with no credible human evidence at the dose used. The full ON Gold Standard panel, read at the stated serving.
About 3%. A 1000mg turmeric capsule carries roughly 30mg of the active compound, while research uses 500mg to 2000mg. The word on the label decides which one you bought.
They cover gaps, and the magnesium line tells you how well. Most multivitamins are generous with the cheap vitamins and thin on the expensive minerals. Here is how to read one.
A 1000mg fish oil capsule usually contains about 300mg of the part that does anything. The front of the tub counts the oil. The panel counts the omega-3. Here is the gap.
Close, once you fix the leucine. Whey is about 11% leucine and pea is about 8%, so a bigger scoop or a pea and rice blend closes most of the gap. Here is the arithmetic.
No, and the fibre number is what settles it. A scoop of greens powder carries a gram or two of fibre against a 30g daily target. Here is what the powder can and cannot do.
No. Caffeine blocks the molecule that makes you feel tired rather than supplying anything. That one mechanism explains the crash, the tolerance and why an afternoon coffee ruins your sleep.
No, and it does not come from bulls. Taurine is a compound your own body makes from cysteine, and the one in your energy drink is made in a factory. Here is what it does and what the dose actually is.
Collagen is protein, and your gut breaks it into amino acids like any other. The evidence for skin and joints is real but small, and the price per gram is the part nobody checks.
Sweat is mostly sodium, and one stick can carry 1000mg of it. Whether that helps or just gets you to the daily limit faster depends on things you can actually check.
No, and one fact settles it. WADA bans anabolic steroids and does not ban creatine, so it is legal in the Olympics and every tested sport. Here is what it actually is.
Most fat burners are caffeine and a list. The caffeine does something, the list mostly does not, and the doses are usually far below what the research used. Here is how to read one.
Isolate is more protein per scoop and costs more per tub. Whether that is good value is arithmetic you can do on the label. Here is the sum, and the one group who should pay it regardless.
The entire belief traces back to one 2009 study of twenty rugby players. It measured a hormone, not hair, and nobody in it went bald. Here is what that study found and what it never looked at.
The advice to cut protein is real, but it is for people who already have kidney disease. In healthy kidneys, high protein raises filtration without causing damage. Here is the difference, and the blood test that confuses people.
Monohydrate is 88% creatine, HCl is 78% and nitrate is 68%. The cheapest form is also the one with the most creatine in it and the one nearly every study used. Micronized is the same molecule, milled finer.
Whey is already about 25% BCAAs, so a scoop of protein delivers more of them than a BCAA serving does. The trials that show a benefit are mostly in people who were short on protein to begin with.
KSM-66 is a standardised ashwagandha extract with a guaranteed amount of the active compounds. Plain ashwagandha powder guarantees nothing, so the same number on two labels can mean very different things.
The theory is reasonable and the human evidence is thinner than the marketing. Here is what the combination is supposed to do, what the trials actually show, and the one situation where it genuinely matters.
The 30 minute rule does not hold up. When studies give both groups the same protein per day, the timing effect disappears. Here is what the research actually found and what it means for your shake.
Oxide is 60% elemental magnesium and absorbs badly. Glycinate is 14% and absorbs well. The bigger number on the label is the one that gets you less, which is why comparing milligrams between forms tells you almost nothing.
Yes, and most people taking a pre-workout with creatine in it are still short of a maintenance dose. Here is the arithmetic, the caffeine question, and why timing matters less than the daily total.
We scanned the supplement facts panel. The vitamins are real and well dosed. About three quarters of the scoop is proprietary blends whose individual amounts are never disclosed.
We photographed the supplement facts panel of nine pre-workouts and scored every dose against the amount used in published research. Here's the ranking, and the ingredient that actually separates them.
We pulled the live App Store numbers for every supplement scanner in the US store. Two apps have almost all the ratings, neither has shipped an update since January, and the thing that separates them is not the one the listings talk about.
We scanned all three supplement facts panels and compared them dose by dose. They score within 14 points of each other and the reasons are completely different, and the ingredient that separates them is not the one anybody argues about.
1000mg is the most common vitamin C tablet on the shelf. It sits exactly on the UK limit and at half the US one, and most of it leaves in your urine either way.
5000 IU is the most common high-strength vitamin D capsule and it sits above the upper limit in both the UK and the US. Whether that matters depends on something no label can tell you.
We scanned the best-selling pre-workout in the world and it came back 64. Caffeine at 150mg is the only ingredient in it at a researched dose, and all five vitamins on the front land under the daily value.
It's beta-alanine, it's called paraesthesia, and it's harmless. The more useful part is that the tingle tells you nothing about whether you're getting a dose that works.
Yes, and they barely interact with each other. The competition people are worried about is real, but it is zinc against copper, iron and calcium, and it only matters at doses most labels quietly exceed.
We scanned the supplement facts panel and added it up. It scores well, and almost every number on it means something different depending on whether you take one scoop or two.
Yes, but rarely in the way people expect. Most excess is wasted rather than harmful, the short list that genuinely matters is shorter than you think, and almost nobody gets there from one bottle.
50mg is the most common dose on an immune supplement and it sits above both countries' upper levels. Here is what those limits are, why they differ, and what actually goes wrong when you stay above them.
Most pre-workouts carry 1g to 3g of creatine against a studied 5g, and plenty carry none at all. Here is the dose the research used, why the label figure is usually short, and how to check yours.
No, and not in Ireland or Australia either. Here is what SuppCo actually is, why every article recommends it anyway, and what a UK reader can realistically use instead.
The biggest supplement scanner in the world is not available in the UK, and most of what is left has fewer than fifty ratings. Here is what you can actually download here, and how the two approaches differ.
Most claims made for magnesium glycinate are really claims about magnesium. Here is what separates the glycinate form from the rest, and the label figure almost everyone reads wrong.
Most pre-workouts print beta-alanine on the front and put a fraction of the studied dose in the tub. Here is the range the research actually used, and how to check what yours has.