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Supplements · lesson 3 of 11

Dose — what you actually take per day

RDA vs clinical dose vs fairy dust — and why more isn't always better.

6 min read · reviewed October 2026

The number that matters is the dose you genuinely take per day — which means serving size × servings per day, not the biggest figure on the front of the bottle. A label that boasts a big amount "per 3 capsules" is telling you a different story than it first appears.

Three dose concepts are worth keeping straight:

  • RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance): the amount that prevents deficiency in most people. A floor, not an optimum.
  • Clinical / therapeutic dose: the amount actually used in the studies that showed a benefit. This is usually what you want for an effect.
  • Fairy dust: a token, sub-effective amount sprinkled in so an ingredient can appear on the label — common in 'proprietary blends.'
Key concept

Beware the proprietary blend

When a label lists a 'proprietary blend' with one combined weight instead of the dose of each ingredient, you can't tell whether the active ingredients are at clinical levels or fairy-dust traces. Prefer products that disclose each ingredient's exact dose.

Make a guess

Creatine monohydrate is one of the most-studied supplements there is. What's the standard daily maintenance dose used in most research?

Somewhere between 0 and 20 g.

Reveal the answer →

~5 g/day

The well-established maintenance dose is about 5 g per day (some protocols front-load with ~20 g/day split into doses for a week first). A product giving you 1 g 'creatine complex' is under-dosed versus the evidence. Knowing the studied dose lets you check whether a product delivers it.

Check yourself

A bottle's front says '1000 mg' but the supplement facts say 'serving size: 3 capsules.' You take 1 capsule a day. What's your actual daily dose?

  1. 1000 mg
  2. About 333 mg
  3. 3000 mg
  4. Impossible to know
Show the answer →

B.About 333 mg

The 1000 mg is per 3-capsule serving, so one capsule is about 333 mg. Always read the serving size and divide. Front-label numbers are marketing; the supplement facts panel is the truth.

Try it in the app
Check the real per-day dose on any product

Formulate scores dose against the clinically studied range, so under-dosed and proprietary-blend products are easy to spot.