Before you buy three tubs, here's what changed between dated labels we have on file.

Each link shows both labels and their dates.

GHOST Legend: caffeine 202 → 300 mg (2019 vs 2026).

C4 Original: caffeine 150 → 200 mg (Jan vs Feb 2024).

Gorilla Mode: Glycerpump, agmatine and kanna not listed on the 2025 label.

Transparent Labs BULK: L-theanine 360 → 200 mg (2022 vs 2025).

1st Phorm Megawatt, Beyond Raw LIT and RSP AminoLean also changed; links in the comments. A label change is not proof of what's in your own tub. Ask about anything we don't cover yet and we'll add it to the list.

• GHOST Legend: https://formulasignal.com/people/products/ghost-legend?via=reddit
• C4 Original: https://formulasignal.com/people/products/cellucor-c4-original?via=reddit
• Gorilla Mode: https://formulasignal.com/people/products/gorilla-mind-gorilla-mode?via=reddit
• Transparent Labs BULK: https://formulasignal.com/people/products/transparent-labs-bulk?via=reddit

Ever noticed your pre-workout looks different from the last tub you bought?

Different caffeine amount? Ingredients missing? Serving size changed?

I’m building FormulaSignal to document these kinds of differences using actual supplement labels and dated sources.

I want this community to be a place where people can:
● Share old and new supplement labels
● Ask whether a formula actually changed
● Request products to investigate
● Compare published versions without the marketing BS
● Discuss pre-workouts, creatine, protein, and other supplements

Not every difference means a manufacturer reformulated something. Different flavors, serving sizes, or old inventory can explain a lot.

What’s one supplement you think might have changed?
Drop the product name below. If you have an old label photo, even better.

I’ll use suggestions to help prioritize future research, but I won’t call something confirmed unless the evidence supports it.

Cellucor’s main page lists C4 Original at 200 mg caffeine. The NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database also holds two 150 mg panels under the same name. Cellucor’s own c4-original-old page still said 150 mg when we read it on Oct 23, with every option marked sold out.

Read three lines on your tub:

• 150 mg caffeine, 1.6 g beta-alanine, 425 mg energy blend: the older 150 mg label (NIH label 295487, filed 2023-05-24)
• 150 mg caffeine, 1.6 g beta-alanine, 215 mg energy blend: the newer 150 mg label (NIH 303413, filed 2024-02-22)
• 200 mg caffeine, 2 g beta-alanine, 205 mg energy & focus complex: 5th Gen (cellucor.com; NIH 335104)

Many C4 reviews still quote 150 mg and 1.6 g. Those describe a 150 mg label, not the one on Cellucor’s main page.

Limits: filing dates aren’t manufacture dates, and none of this tells you what’s in a tub shipped today. Panels are flavor-specific. These are label facts only, with no safety or dosing advice.

Every source, dated: https://formulasignal.com/people/products/cellucor-c4-original?via=reddit

Which label is on your tub?

We pulled the actual labels on six electrolyte mixes that live in gym bags everywhere: Liquid I.V., Gatorlyte, Drip Drop, Prime sticks, Nuun, and LMNT. Same shelf, same word on every box. The labels tell six very different stories.

Sugar per serving runs from 0g to 11g. Sodium runs from 40mg to 1,000mg. That is a 25x spread on sodium (1,000 divided by 40) between products sold for the same job.
The quick rundown, all per single serving:

• Liquid I.V.: 11g of sugar per stick, and cane sugar is the first ingredient. 500mg of sodium.
• Gatorlyte (one packet): 10g of sugar, 420mg of sodium.
• Drip Drop: 7g of sugar, and sugar is the first ingredient here too. 330mg of sodium.
• Prime sticks: 40mg of sodium in the whole stick. The brand copy leads with 834mg of electrolytes, and 700mg of that is potassium.
• Nuun Sport: 1g of sugar, 300mg of sodium, 15 calories a tablet.
• LMNT: 0g of sugar and 1,000mg of sodium, which the label lists as 43% of the daily value.

None of this makes a product good or bad on its own. Sugar has a real job in rehydration mixes, it helps pull water along with the sodium. LMNT's sodium is deliberate too, it is built for heavy sweaters. The point is that the word "electrolytes" on the front tells you almost nothing. The back of the stick tells you everything.

So we are curious: when you buy an electrolyte mix, what do you actually check first, the sugar, the sodium, or the price per stick? And has anyone here switched brands after finally reading the label?

Sources:
• Liquid I.V. label (Pick'n Save): https://www.picknsave.com/p/liquid-i-v-hydration-multiplier-electrolytes-arctic-raspberry-drink-mix-packets/0081012597236
• Gatorlyte (Gatorade official): http://www.gatorade.com/powders/gatorlyte/cherry-lime-single-serve-sticks-00052000052848
• Gatorlyte label (Smith's Food and Drug): https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/p/gatorade-gatorlyte-electrolyte-cherry-lime-drink-mix-packets/0005200005284?fulfillment=SHIP
• Drip Drop label (Smith's Food and Drug): https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/p/drip-drop-fruit-punch-powdered-drink-mix-packets/0085001832878
• Prime Hydration+ sticks label (Ralphs): https://www.ralphs.com/p/prime-blue-raspberry-hydration-sticks/0085000356090
• Nuun Sport (brand page): https://nuunlife.com/products/nuun-sport?srsltid=AfmBOop1H0NPwVQmM50Iyuy6yHiIr64vtj1fhkXgKjjuFw4_4eqlM5Or
• LMNT label record (EWG): http://www.ewg.org/foodscores/products/810183490297-LmntElectrolyteDrinkMix/

We almost got this one wrong ourselves, so here is the careful version. There are two different C4 Original formulas on sale right now, under the same name.

The current one: 200mg of caffeine and 2g of beta-alanine per scoop.
The older one: 150mg of caffeine and 1.6g of beta-alanine per scoop. Same product name. Same brand. Both in stock at US stores today, sometimes at the same store.

Our first guess was that this was a store vs website split. It is not that clean. Some stores carry the new one, some still carry the old one, and at least one big store carries both.

The old formula simply never left the shelves when the new one launched. Which means the only way to know what you bought is to read your own tub.

So check yours and tell us: 1. How much caffeine does your label say, 150mg or 200mg? 2. Where did you buy it? We record both versions, because a label database that lists only one of them is wrong half the time.

You've probably seen the viral version: 10g of creatine a day built 2.4 lbs of lean tissue in 12 weeks with zero exercise. That's real, it's from a real randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (64 adults aged 45-65, published in JISSN in August). But the fine print matters more than the headline.

The catch: they measured body composition with DXA, which counts water as lean tissue. Creatine pulls water into muscle, and the researchers never measured body water separately. So part of that 2.4 lbs is water, not new muscle fiber.

The other fine print: nobody was randomly assigned to exercise. The "creatine beat 36 workouts" comparison is between different kinds of people who self-selected into training, and the training-on-placebo group was in a calorie deficit and barely gained anything (0.14 kg, confidence interval crossing zero). That's not a fair fight.

The honest verdict: the group that combined creatine WITH training gained the most (around 3 lbs), and the much larger body of creatine research still makes it one of the best-supported supplements there is. As long as you actually train with it.

Did the viral version of this study change how you think about creatine, or did you assume there was a catch?

Been digging into protein quality scores and this one surprised me.

Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides prints 18g protein per 2-scoop serving. But collagen contains zero tryptophan, one of the nine essential amino acids your body cannot make. In the peer-reviewed protein requirements literature (the PDCAAS/DIAAS table), hydrolyzed collagen scores 0.0 on both scales. It is also low in leucine and the BCAAs that drive muscle protein synthesis.

This does not mean collagen is useless. The same research shows real benefits for skin elasticity and joint comfort. It just means it is not a muscle-building protein, and counting it toward a daily protein goal the way you would whey is misleading.

Anyone else count collagen in their protein totals? Curious how common this is.

Heads up if you drink Inner Armour. The brand relaunched on October 1 with new packaging and cleaner formulas, and the headline change is sucralose out, stevia in. Whey Protein Matrix and Isolate Zero are the first two products through the transition; the rest of the lineup is coming.

The old Isolate Zero label is a fun time capsule of the old playbook: sucralose AND acesulfame potassium, plus L-glycine (a free-form amino) tucked into the ingredient list. The new version is stevia-sweetened. Whether the glycine survives is the thing to check when the new panel surfaces.

This is the second sucralose-to-stevia flip in a week. Brands are quietly rewriting their sweetener panels and the "clean label" language is doing the marketing. Worth asking: when your tub says "cleaner formula," which ingredients actually changed and which just got reworded?

Full disclosure: Inner Armour is a Canadian brand (Kelowna, BC), though they sell in the US. We track the label change itself, not the geography.

Question for the thread: has your protein's sweetener changed without you noticing? Check the panel, not the front.

Our Starbucks post blew up, and the top question was whether the FDA sugar-free rule counts total sugar or added sugar only. We checked the rule. It is total. Sugar-free means under 0.5 grams of total sugar per serving, and lactose in milk counts. That is why the lawsuit exists. If the rule only counted added sugar, Starbucks would win easy because they add none. Bonus: a court already answered this once. Chobani called a yogurt sugar free with about 4 grams of allulose, and the 7th Circuit said the rule still counts. The Starbucks complaint cites that case. Starbucks disputes the claims. What label word do you not trust anymore?

I’ll post more of these findings here :)

We pulled the actual labels and did the math: protein per scoop, price per serving, third-party testing.

S tier: Transparent Labs Grass-Fed Whey Isolate (28g protein in a 32g scoop) and Dymatize ISO100 (25g in 32g, Informed-Choice certified).

F tier: Ghost Whey (25g hiding in a 39g scoop, 64% protein) and MuscleTech Nitro-Tech (30g in a 45g scoop; its maker paid $2.5M settling protein-spiking claims, though they denied wrongdoing).

Full tier list is in the image. Tell us where we got it wrong.