The HorseFil Gummy Math
One gummy weighs about 2.5 grams, including its sugar. Three of the six named ingredients have researched doses measured in grams. This page is the division.
A commercial gummy's total unit weight is specified at under 2.5 grams — sugar, gelling agent, water, colour, flavour and active ingredients together. L-citrulline's researched dose is 8 grams a day, L-carnitine's is 1 to 4 grams and maca's is 1.5 to 3.5 grams. Three of HorseFil's six named ingredients therefore cannot reach a researched dose in a gummy, and it is not close. Rhodiola and grape seed, dosed in milligrams, could fit.
The arithmetic, in full
A 2024 pharmaceutics paper that characterised six commercial gummies set the unit weight specification at under 2.5 g per gummy in total — sugar, gelling agent, water, colour, flavour and active ingredients together. Everything below is measured against that one number.
Three of the six cannot reach their researched dose in a gummy, and it is not close. Citrulline alone would need more than three whole gummies of pure powder, with nothing left over for the sugar, the gelatin or the other five ingredients. Carnitine and maca need most or all of a gummy each.
Rhodiola and grape seed are dosed in milligrams, so those two could physically fit. Ginseng sits on the line. Whether any of them is actually present at a researched amount is unknowable, because HorseFil publishes no amounts and no serving size. This chart does not claim to know what is in the bottle. It shows what the format can hold.
Everything in that chart is division. The only input that is not published by the seller is the gummy weight, and that comes from a 2024 paper in AAPS PharmSciTech that characterised six commercial gummies and set the unit weight specification at under 2.5 g (Adeleke & Abedin, 2024). The researched doses come from the citations at the bottom of this page.
Where the 2.5 gram figure comes from
This whole page rests on one number, so it is worth being careful about it.
The 2024 paper characterised prototype and commercial gummy formulations to work out what a sensible quality standard would be. Among other things it set a unit weight specification of under 2.5 g per gummy. That is the finished sweet, not the active load: it includes the sugar or sugar alcohol, the gelling agent, the water, the acid, the colour and the flavour.
Different manufacturers make bigger and smaller gummies, so treat 2.5 g as a reasonable working figure rather than a law. Even generously, a large gummy might reach 4 or 5 g. It does not change the conclusion: at 5 g a gummy, citrulline's 8 g dose still needs nearly two whole gummies of pure powder, with nothing left for the sugar that makes it a gummy.
| If a gummy weighs | Gummies of pure citrulline needed for 8 g | Room left for sugar, gelatin and five other ingredients |
|---|---|---|
| 2.5 g | 3.2 | None |
| 4.0 g | 2.0 | None |
| 5.0 g | 1.6 | None |
Scroll this table sideways →
That is the point of showing three rows. The argument is not sensitive to the exact gummy size, which is what makes it worth publishing.
What this does and does not prove
It does not prove the bottle is empty
Nothing here says the ingredients are absent. They are almost certainly present. The chart is about how much, not about whether.
Not a claim we are making
It does not prove the seller is dishonest
Unpublished amounts are the industry norm, not a confession. Plenty of reputable products keep their formula private.
Not a claim we are making
It does prove the format has a ceiling
A gummy cannot hold 8 g of anything. That is physics, not marketing, and it applies to every gummy from every brand.
This is the claim
It does prove the dose cannot be a researched one
For citrulline, carnitine and maca, whatever amount is in a HorseFil gummy, it is not the amount the studies used. There is no arrangement of a 2.5 g sweet where it could be.
This is the claim
The honest counter-argument, stated fairly
A smaller dose is not automatically a useless dose. Nobody has run a trial of 200 mg of citrulline a day for three months, so nobody can say it does nothing. What can be said is that it is not the dose anybody has tested, and a product that leans on citrulline's reputation is leaning on research conducted at forty times the amount a gummy can carry.
The two ingredients that do fit
Two of the six are dosed in milligrams, and for those the format is not a problem at all. It is worth saying so clearly, because a page that only found problems would not be worth reading.
Rhodiola extract
The trials used 100 to 576 mg a day. Even the top of that range is under a quarter of a gummy's total weight. Rhodiola in a gummy is entirely plausible. The catch is that its eleven trials conflict with each other and all carried a high risk of bias (Ishaque et al., 2012).
Fits comfortably
Grape seed extract
The blood pressure trials ran from 150 to 1,400 mg a day, and the meta-analysis subgroups split at 733 mg (Li et al., 2015). The lower half of that range fits in a gummy without difficulty, and it is the half where the evidence sits.
Fits comfortably
Panax ginseng sits on the line. The four-week fatigue trial used 1 g or 2 g a day (Kim et al., 2013). One gram is 40 percent of a whole gummy's weight, which is possible in principle and would leave very little room for the other five ingredients and the sugar. Two grams is not possible.
How to use this when you buy anything in a gummy
Find the researched dose first
Look up the main ingredient and find what the studies used. One number, two minutes. If it is measured in grams, a gummy is the wrong format before you read another word.
Check the format against it
Grams belong in powders and scoops. Hundreds of milligrams belong in capsules. Tens to low hundreds of milligrams are where gummies work. Vitamin D, B12, zinc and melatonin are all genuinely good gummy ingredients for this reason.
Read the Supplement Facts panel
If it publishes amounts, do the division yourself. If it does not, you are buying on trust in the seller rather than on evidence about the formula, and you should at least know that is the trade.
Count the sugar
A gummy is mostly sugar or sugar alcohol. Two or three a day, every day, is not nothing. If the sugar content is not published, that is a second gap on top of the first.
Decide what you are buying it for
If you want a researched dose, buy the format that can carry one. If you want a habit you will actually keep, a gummy is the best format there is, and you should buy it knowing that is what you are paying for.
Gummy math questions
How much of each ingredient is in it?
Not published. There is no Supplement Facts panel in anything we were given, and not one milligram figure appears anywhere. That matters more here than in most products, because three of the six ingredients have researched doses measured in grams, and a whole gummy weighs about 2.5 grams including its sugar.
How many gummies is a serving?
Not published. The seller's instruction panel says only "follow the directions printed on the product label", which is not a serving size. Because no serving size exists, nobody can say how long a 30-gummy bottle lasts.
How much sugar is in a HorseFil gummy?
Not published, and it is a fair question. Gummies need a sweetener and a gelling agent, and neither the sugar content nor the Other Ingredients line was supplied to us.
What is in HorseFil?
Six ingredients, named on the seller's own INSIDE HORSEFIL panel: L-citrulline, L-carnitine, Panax ginseng extract, maca root extract, rhodiola extract and grape seed extract.
Is HorseFil a scam?
It is a real product from a seller with a US phone number, a named office and a named returns address. What it does not have is a published dose, a published serving size, a published price or a verified review. Those are four fair reasons to buy one bottle rather than six.
References
Every source linked here was opened and checked.
- Gough et al. — 2021. A critical review of citrulline malate supplementation and exercise performance. European Journal of Applied Physiology · PMID 34417881.
- Viribay et al. — 2022. Effects of Citrulline Supplementation on Different Aerobic Exercise Performance Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients · PMID 36079738.
- Fielding et al. — 2018. L-Carnitine Supplementation in Recovery after Exercise. Nutrients · PMID 29534031.
- Arring et al. — 2018. Ginseng as a Treatment for Fatigue: A Systematic Review. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine · PMID 29624410.
- Kim et al. — 2013. Antifatigue Effects of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer: A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. PLOS ONE · PMID 23613825.
- Jang et al. — 2008. Red ginseng for treating erectile dysfunction: a systematic review. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology · PMID 18754850.
- Shin et al. — 2010. Maca (L. meyenii) for improving sexual function: a systematic review. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine · PMID 20691074.
- Ishaque et al. — 2012. Rhodiola rosea for physical and mental fatigue: a systematic review. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine · PMID 22643043.
- Zhang et al. — 2016. The impact of grape seed extract treatment on blood pressure changes: A meta-analysis of 16 randomized controlled trials. Medicine (Baltimore) · PMID 27537554.
- Li et al. — 2015. Effect of Grape Polyphenols on Blood Pressure: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. PLOS ONE · DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0137665.
- Adeleke & Abedin — 2024. Characterization of Prototype Gummy Formulations Provides Insight into Setting Quality Standards. AAPS PharmSciTech · DOI 10.1208/s12249-024-02876-w.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Questions and Answers on Dietary Supplements. FDA.gov.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA Calls on Certain Firms to Stop Producing and Issuing Misleading 'FDA Registration Certificates'. FDA.gov.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Tainted Sexual Enhancement and Energy Products. FDA.gov.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Dietary Supplements for Exercise and Athletic Performance. ods.od.nih.gov.
Order HorseFil from the official website
Thirty gummies, six named ingredients, sixty days to change your mind. Start with one bottle so you can see the serving size and the price before you commit.
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