When a Scoop is Not a Scoop

Here is a little bit of insider info that you may not have known. The measuring scoop that comes inside your supplement bottle is just a rough estimate when it comes to the gram weight of a serving size. I know it's hard to believe but it's true. When a nutritional panel says 1 serving is 1 scoop or 4.3g I can guarantee you with almost 100% certainty that a level scoop doesn't weigh 4.3g of supplement powder.

How can a supplement company get away with this? It's false advertising? They are trying to trick the consumer to use more per serving so that they'll buy more sooner. We've heard all the conspiracy theories. Now, there could be a little truth to what the customer thinks when he carefully measures out 28 level servings when the bottle clearly states 30 servings but it's more likely due to one simple fact.

Scoops come in many various sizes BUT they don't come in every size. You can also be certain a supplement company isn't forking out the extra cash for a custom scoop. There are exceptions to that rule. For example, Canadian powerhouse Allmax Nutrition have a custom scoop that hooks into the top of the bottle lip to prevent it from sinking to the bottom of the powder. But most concentrated pre-workouts are guilty of a tiny scoop that may not measure the exact amount when leveled off. The consumer must remember that a custom scoop is out of the budget of most small companies, so they go with the next best thing. In the example above, a supplement with 4.3g of powder per serving most likely comes with a 5g scoop because that is what is available. Most supplement users are not aware of this and may get taken for a few servings (if they even notice). The only true way to get 4.3g of powder is to weigh it out on a scale. Treat your supplement serving amount like food when you are dieting and weigh it out to get an exact measure.

Most supplement purchasers wouldn't go to the extreme of weighing out powder. However, there are others who are very particular with supplement gram weight and want to take exactly what the serving size on the bottle prescribes. That approach is perfectly fine but so is eye-balling your powder with the scoop. Just be aware that the scoop you are using may not yield the precise gram weight that the label displays and may result in less servings per container. If you want to be 100% certain of the amount you are consuming, you'll need to pull out the scale.