Read the number.
Long-form on what we sell and what the research behind it actually says — the same register as The Monograph. A number beats an adjective, and if a study is weak, we’ll say it’s weak. That’s the whole point.
Creatine Monohydrate: The Most-Studied Supplement in Sports Nutrition, and What It Does for Men Who Train
How creatine monohydrate actually works, why the evidence behind it isn't close, and how to run it.
How Much Creatine Per Day? Two Routes to the Same Full Tank
Load in a week or fill slowly over a month — both routes end at the same place. The maintenance dose, whether timing matters, and how to run creatine and forget it.
Does Creatine Dehydrate You? The Cramping Story, Measured
Creatine pulls water into muscle, not out of you. What the research on athletes training in heat actually found, what really causes cramps, and how to run your bottle.
275 mg From 2,500 mg: How to Read a Magnesium Label
Most of the weight on a magnesium bottle isn't magnesium. Here's the one division that tells you what you're actually buying, and what 275 mg elemental covers.
How Much Colostrum Should You Take? The Two Numbers on the Label
One multiplication tells you what a colostrum scoop is actually worth. How to read an IgG percentage, what a specification guarantees, and what it doesn't.
How to Read a Supplement Label in Sixty Seconds
The front of a bottle is a design decision. The Supplement Facts panel has a required format. Six checks, in order, run on our own labels last.
When to Take Creatine: The Timing Question, Answered Small
Before, after, rest days, empty stomach. The timing question has a short answer and a long reason it keeps getting asked. Both are here, with the order.
Creatine for Men Over 45: What Actually Changes
The molecule does not change at 45. The dose does not change. What changes is the cost of a missed month, and that is not a supplement problem.
Electrolytes for Lifting: What a Session Actually Costs
An hour indoors is not an hour in July heat, and the aisle prices them the same. The sodium arithmetic, the tenfold spread, and one number to know.
Magnesium Glycinate vs Oxide: One Division Settles It
A 500 mg oxide capsule and a 1,800 mg glycinate capsule can carry similar magnesium. The arithmetic that tells them apart, and the ceiling nobody prints.
Colostrum vs Whey Protein: Two Different Jobs
One is a protein you eat by the tens of grams. One is a dairy fraction taken by the gram for what else is in it. Where the comparison breaks, and why.
Colostrum Side Effects: What the First Week Looks Like
Bloating, gas, a heavy first morning. What is commonly reported, what the popular explanation gets wrong, and how to start so most of it never happens.
What Shilajit Actually Is, and How to Read Its Label
A mineral pitch, an extract ratio, and a trace-mineral count almost nobody documents. What is actually in the jar, and the thinnest evidence we sell on.
Creatine HCl vs Monohydrate: What a Gram Carries
Monohydrate is about 88% creatine by weight. Hydrochloride is about 78%. The smaller capsule is smaller because it holds less, and that is the whole comparison.
Do Creatine Gummies Work? Read the Panel First
Creatine does not stop being creatine in a gummy. What changes is how much fits, how it is stored, and whether the number on the panel survives to the buyer.
Creatine Monohydrate vs Creapure: What a Name Buys
Same molecule, different paperwork. What an ingredient trademark actually guarantees, why most finished labels do not name their raw material, and what ours does not say either.
Does Creatine Expire? Dates, Clumps and Storage
A sealed tub in a dry cupboard is a stable place. A scoop left in a wet shaker is not. Where the date on the lid comes from, and what it is actually worth.
Magnesium Bisglycinate vs Glycinate: One Word Apart
Two names for one chelate, most of the time. The exception is a blend sold under the chelate's name, and the fraction on the panel is what exposes it.
Magnesium Threonate vs Glycinate: 8% Against 14%
A 2,000 mg threonate serving prints a smaller elemental number than a buyer expects. Where that number comes from, and the one claim the form is really sold on.
Can You Take Too Much Magnesium? The 350 mg Line
The limit applies to supplements and not to food, which is the part most people have backwards. How a stack reaches it quietly, and where our own protocol lands.
Does Colostrum Contain Lactose? The Plain Answer
Lower in lactose than milk, and not lactose-free. The difference between a lactose question and a milk-allergy question, and which one the label answers.
Colostrum Powder vs Capsules: Count the Grams
Colostrum is dosed by the gram and a capsule holds a fraction of one. How many capsules a scoop is worth, and why the format decision is mostly arithmetic.
Shilajit Powder vs Resin: Three Forms, One Test
A 300 mg extract capsule and a 500 mg scoop of resin are not the same purchase, and no arithmetic on the front of either bottle can tell you which is which.
How Much Fulvic Acid Is in Shilajit? Ask the Method
A 60% figure on one jar and a 75% on another can describe the same material through two instruments. The percentage is only readable with a method printed beside it.
What Is a Proprietary Blend? One Weight, No Answer
One number covering eleven ingredients, listed in descending order and nothing more. Entirely legal, and it removes the only arithmetic a buyer could have run.
What Is a Certificate of Analysis? Specification vs Result
A specification is what a formula is supposed to be. A result is what a test found. Both are called certificates, and only one of them is a measurement.
What Does GMP Certified Mean? A Building, Not a Jar
It is an assessment of a facility, by a private assessor, against a standard, on a date, with an expiry. Four of those five almost never make it onto a label.
How Much Collagen for Tendons? 15 g, and 23 Doses in the Tub
15 g with vitamin C, 30 to 60 minutes before training. The study behind that number is eight men and a blood marker. At 15 g a 350 g tub is 23 doses, not 35.
Bioactive Collagen Peptides vs Collagen Peptides: What the Word Buys
A bioactive collagen peptide is hydrolysed collagen sold under a trademark on a peptide profile. What that buys, and what a buyer can check on a label.
Can You Take Collagen and Creatine Together?
They do not interact and are not taken at the same time. Creatine is 5 g daily, at any hour. Collagen is 15 g, 30 to 60 minutes before you train.
Does Collagen Actually Work? The Trial at Our Own Dose Found Nothing
For skin, strength, muscle and injury: no. A 15-week MRI trial at 15 g, the dose we recommend, found no tendon difference. What survives is narrower.
Collagen vs Whey Protein: If Your Goal Is Muscle, Buy Whey. We Do Not Sell It.
Whey builds muscle and collagen does not. Zero tryptophan, low leucine, DIAAS effectively zero. Swapping your protein powder for collagen is a trade down.
How Many Doses Are in the Tub? 23, and the Panel Says 35
A serving count is not a dose count. Under Load's panel declares 35 servings of 10 g; at the 15 g protocol a 350 g tub is 23 doses. The method, for any tub.
Creatine Side Effects: What Is Real, What Is Water, and What Is One Study
Bloating is water inside the muscle cell, and creatine raises the number a kidney test reports. What each trial measured, with its size beside it.
Magnesium Glycinate Side Effects: The Ceiling Is 350 mg and Night Work Uses 275 of It
The upper limit for supplemental magnesium is 350 mg a day. Night Work supplies 275 mg elemental, leaving 75 mg — and a multivitamin can spend that.
What Tested Actually Means: Three Different Things, and We Reach the Third Once
Tested names three things: a building was inspected, a product was tested once, this lot was tested. TARE holds no outside test of a finished container.
Supplement Forms Compared: Creatine, Magnesium and Collagen by Weight and by Evidence
Three tables computed from PubChem formula weights — creatine forms, magnesium salts, collagen sources — with what the research found for each, and every comparison on this site.
Supplements for Men Over 45 Who Lift: Protein First, Creatine Second, the Rest Only to Close a Gap
An evidence-ordered list for men 45 and over who train with weights: what is food, what is a supplement, the dose for each, and what to skip.
How to Choose a Creatine Supplement: Monohydrate, One Ingredient, 3–5 g, and a Document That Names Its Sample
Eight checks that separate one creatine tub from another: form, dose arithmetic, flavour systems, blends, gummies, storage and what a certificate covers.
How to Choose a Collagen Supplement: The Trial Dose, a Measured Protein Figure, and No Cosmetic Promise
Nine checks for a collagen tub: a dose that matches the trials, a measured protein figure, who ran the certificate, vitamin C, and the tendon evidence with its limits.
How to Choose a Magnesium Supplement: The Elemental Number, the Form’s Ceiling, and the 350 mg Total
Six checks for a magnesium bottle: the elemental figure, the form’s ceiling, capsule arithmetic, the 350 mg total across everything, buffered blends and the certificate.
Creatine Research Summary: 60 Trials, an Effect Size of 0.235, and Where the Evidence Stops
Every major creatine study and statement in one table — design, population, dose, effect size and the limit beside it — then what is established, what is mixed and what is not shown.
Collagen Research Summary: One Finding at 15 to 30 g With Loading, and One MRI Trial That Says No
The collagen studies that matter in one table: what each measured, what it found and the limit beside it — including the 15 g MRI trial that found nothing.
Magnesium Research Summary: 300-Plus Enzyme Systems, a 350 mg Ceiling, and Thin Data on Forms
Magnesium’s roles, intake figures and absorption trials in one table, with the limit beside each finding — and what the exercise research does and does not show.
Creatine vs Whey Protein: Two Different Jobs, and Only One of Them Is a Protein
Whey counts toward a protein target; creatine fills a phosphocreatine store. Different doses, different timing, and only one of them is easy to get from food.
Micronized Creatine vs Monohydrate: Same Molecule, Smaller Particle, No Measured Advantage
Micronized creatine is monohydrate ground finer: it disperses faster and settles slower. Same molecule, same 87.9% creatine, and no trial with stated particle sizes shows better uptake.
Creatine Ethyl Ester vs Monohydrate: Sold on Better Uptake, Measured as Creatinine
Sold as the better-absorbed creatine. Measured, serum creatinine roughly tripled within six days, and muscle creatine did no better than on monohydrate.
Buffered Creatine vs Monohydrate: No Advantage, and Stomach Acid Was Never the Problem
Sold on a higher pH and a 1.5 g dose. Stomach acid already stops creatine breaking down, and the one muscle-biopsy trial found no advantage over monohydrate.
Bovine vs Marine Collagen: Same Building Blocks, and Only One Is a Major Food Allergen
Cattle hide or fish: the collagen types, the amino acids, the peptide size, what reaches the blood, and the one difference a label has to declare.
Collagen Peptides vs Gelatin: The Same Amino Acids, Cut Shorter, and the Best-Known Trial Used Gelatin
Gelatin is collagen broken down until it gels; peptides are broken down further until it does not. Near-identical amino acids per gram, different mixing, and the trial behind the dose used gelatin.
Collagen Types I, II and III Explained: Once Hydrolysed, the Number Mostly Names the Tissue It Came From
There are 28 collagen types and three dominate. Where each sits in the body, what supplements are made from, and why undenatured type II is a different product altogether.
Collagen vs Bone Broth: Broth Carries Collagen-Derived Protein, but Only a Powder Tells You How Much
Bone broth carries gelatin and collagen amino acids in amounts that change from pot to pot. The one served broth that was analysed afterwards held more than double a powder serve.
Magnesium Glycinate vs Citrate: Two Points Apart on Magnesium, and One Doubles as a Laxative
Citrate carries a little more magnesium per gram and moves the gut more at higher doses. Glycinate is chosen for tolerability, on thinner evidence than its reputation. The division and the trials.
Magnesium Glycinate vs Malate: Almost the Same Magnesium, and a Story About Malic Acid
Malate and glycinate carry nearly the same magnesium per gram. Malate is sold on malic acid's place in energy metabolism; the absorption ranking that puts it first comes from rats.
Magnesium Chloride vs Glycinate: A Good Form to Swallow, and a Weak Case for Magnesium Oil
Chloride is one of the forms the NIH names as better absorbed, and the salt in magnesium oil. Swallowed, it holds up. Applied to the body, the evidence is one pilot study and a review that says no.
How Much Magnesium Per Day? 420 mg for Men Over 30, and No More Than 350 mg of It From Supplements
The RDA for men is 400 to 420 mg a day from everything; the ceiling on supplements is 350 mg. What the average diet supplies, the foods that carry the most, and where a supplement fits.
Supplement Label Glossary: 65 Terms From the Panel, the Certificate and the Study, Defined
65 terms from the panel, the certificate and the study, each defined in a sentence or two and linked to the page that goes deeper — including the ones most labels leave unexplained.
How to Read Supplement Research: Seven Questions to Ask Before You Believe a Finding
Seven questions for any supplement study — design, size, population, outcome, effect size, certainty and funding — each worked on a trial this site cites, including the ones against us.