Proprietary Blends: How Supplement Brands Hide What You're Actually Buying
Before you spend another krone, dollar, or euro on a supplement, learn these two words: proprietary blend.
They're the supplement industry's favourite magic trick. Once you see how it works, you can't unsee it.
To be clear, I'm not anti-supplement. Plenty of my clients run a protocol built around their training and their goals. But most of what's on the shelf does very little for those goals, and proprietary blends are one big reason why.
What is a proprietary blend?
Originally they existed to stop competitors copying a formula. Instead of listing how much of each ingredient a product contains, the company lists its own "blend": one total dose, then a list of ingredients with no individual amounts.
It looks like this: "Fat Burn Formula (250mg): turmeric, African mango seed, green tea extract..."
Legal? Yes. Transparent? Not remotely. You know what's in it. You have no idea how much. And in supplements, the dose is everything.
One rule unlocks the whole trick: ingredients are listed from most to least.
An honest label vs. a proprietary blend
An honest label lists every ingredient with its exact dose. Take a well-formulated sleep supplement: calcium, glycine, lemon balm extract, melatonin, each with the milligrams printed next to it. You can check every one against the research and see it contains doses that actually do something. That product can do what it claims.
Now go back to that "weight loss" blend. Most to least, remember.
The number one ingredient is turmeric, which has no demonstrated effect on weight loss at all. Its actual researched use is inflammation, and that needs roughly 1,500mg a day plus black pepper extract to absorb properly. The entire blend is 250mg. So the most abundant ingredient in the tub is already a filler sitting at a useless dose.
Ingredient two, African mango seed, has only poor-quality studies behind it and gets used at 150 to 300mg a day. There isn't room for that inside a 250mg total. And everything below it on the list gets less again.
That's the trick in full. A proprietary blend lets a company charge you for a label instead of a formula.
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How to read a supplement label in 30 seconds
My checklist before any supplement earns a spot:
No proprietary blends. Full stop. If a company won't tell you the doses, assume the doses are ineffective. Transparent brands are proud of their numbers.
Check the effective dose. Look the ingredient up and compare the researched dose to what's on the label. Thirty seconds of reading saves you hundreds.
Ignore the front of the package entirely. "Clinically proven", "fat-burning matrix", the shredded model on the tub. None of it is regulated the way you'd hope. The supplement facts panel is the only part that speaks.
Ask what problem it solves. A supplement should fill a specific, identified gap. If you can't name the gap, you don't need the product.
Basics before bottles. Nothing in a tub outruns under-eating protein, sleeping six hours and walking 4,000 steps a day. The boring stuff is the active ingredient.
Where your money actually goes further
Almost every supplement question I get is really a food question wearing a disguise. Bloating and digestion problems rarely need a product, they need the basics fixed first. Fat loss stalls rarely need a burner, they need a maintenance number you trust.
Vague labels are the scam. The dose was always the tell.
Find your real gaps first
The free Nutrition & Lifestyle Audit: a few minutes of honest questions, and a clear picture of what's actually holding you back. Habits > supplements ;)