Our methodology
How we test and review supplements
The Wellness Ledger reviews weight-management and wellness supplements so readers get an honest, data-led verdict before they spend money. This page explains who we are, how we score products like Gumitide, and exactly how we make our money, so you can judge our independence for yourself.
Who we are
The Wellness Ledger is an independent review publication operated by Wellness Ledger Media LLC, based in Greenville, South Carolina, and publishing since 2018. We are not a supplement manufacturer, and we do not sell our own products. We are a small editorial team that buys supplements, tries them, reads through buyer feedback at scale, and writes up what we find in plain language. You can reach us any time at [email protected].
Our reviewer
Our Gumitide review was reviewed by Nadia Klein, MS, RDN, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who leads ingredient and safety review for our weight-management coverage. Nadia checks every claim in a review against the product label and published ingredient research, flags anything that overstates benefits, and makes sure our safety guidance is responsible. Drafting is done by the Wellness Ledger research team, and every supplement review carries a named reviewer and a "last updated" date.
How we score: the eight criteria
Every supplement we cover is scored from 1 to 5 on the same eight criteria, then combined into a single editorial score weighted toward real-world results and value. The eight criteria are:
- Effectiveness - how consistently users report the intended benefit, plus our own hands-on experience.
- Value for money - price per serving against what comparable products cost.
- Ease of use - how simple the daily routine is to follow.
- Onset speed - how quickly users typically notice a change.
- Taste or swallowability - how pleasant it is to actually take.
- Tolerability - how often users report side effects.
- Label transparency - whether ingredient amounts are fully disclosed.
- Support and guarantee - refund terms and how reliably they are honored.
Effectiveness and value carry the most weight, while taste carries the least. We deliberately keep room for criticism: a product that hides its doses or relies on a proprietary blend, as Gumitide does, will lose points on transparency even if users like the results. That is why our editorial score for Gumitide (4.2/5) sits a little below the community rating (4.4/5).
How we test in practice
For hands-on testing, we buy the product at full price ourselves, never accepting free samples that could bias us. We follow the manufacturer's directions for a multi-week trial, holding other habits as steady as possible so any change can reasonably be attributed to the supplement. We log effects week by week and note what does not change, not just what does.
For the user-review data, we collect and standardize publicly available buyer feedback, remove obvious duplicates and low-quality entries, and summarize the patterns: average rating, would-buy-again rate, common positive themes and common complaints. These figures are an editorial synthesis to show the overall picture; they are not an externally audited dataset, and we say so wherever we present them.
Editorial independence
Our ratings are not for sale. No manufacturer can pay to change a score, add a positive line, or remove a criticism. We include the negatives and the critical reviews because a review that only praises a product is not a review, it is an advertisement. If we would not recommend something, we say so.
How we make money (affiliate disclosure)
The Wellness Ledger is reader-funded through affiliate links. When we link to a product's official website and you make a purchase, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. That commission helps pay for the products we buy and the time we spend testing them. It does not influence our scores or our verdicts, and we only ever link to a manufacturer's official website, not third-party marketplaces, because that is where buyers get the genuine product and the real guarantee. For the full details, see our affiliate disclosure.