Salxir
Ask ten shilajit brands how much you should take and you will get ten answers, most of them vague. A rice grain. A pea. Half a scoop. None of that tells you anything in milligrams, which is the only unit the research actually uses. So here is a plain shilajit dosage guide: what human trials used, how to translate that into resin you can see on a spoon, and how to adjust by goal and body size.
This post is only about amounts. If you want the how (dissolving, swallowing, mixing) read how to take shilajit, and for timing see the best time to take shilajit.
The number the research keeps landing on
Most published human studies on purified shilajit sit in a narrow band: roughly 250 mg to 500 mg per day. The often quoted 2016 trial by Pandit and colleagues in Andrologia gave healthy men aged 45 to 55 a 250 mg dose twice daily, so 500 mg total, for 90 days. A 2019 study on fatigue related strength loss in recreationally active men also used 500 mg a day, for eight weeks.
Two things follow from that. First, 500 mg a day is the best supported ceiling for regular use, not a starting point. Second, below about 250 mg there simply is not much evidence either way, and above 1,000 mg there is no long term safety data at all. More is not a strategy here. It is just guessing with a bigger spoon.
What 300 mg of resin actually looks like
Resin is where people get lost, because you are eyeballing a sticky lump rather than counting capsules. Rough guides that hold up well in practice:
- A grain of rice sized piece is roughly 150 mg to 250 mg.
- A small pea sized piece is roughly 300 mg to 500 mg.
- A level quarter teaspoon is far too much, closer to 1,000 mg or more. Avoid teaspoon measures entirely.
These are estimates, not measurements. If precision matters to you, a jeweller's scale that reads to 0.01 g costs very little and removes the guesswork completely. Otherwise, capsules and tablets do the measuring for you: our shilajit tablets and shilajit capsules are fixed doses, which is genuinely the easier route if you travel or dislike the taste. The classic resin gives you finer control over the amount, at the cost of having to judge it by eye.
Shilajit dosage by goal
Just starting out
Begin at 150 mg to 250 mg a day for the first week or two. There is nothing magical about starting low, but it lets you notice how you respond, and it makes any digestive grumbling much less likely. Plenty of people stay here permanently and are happy.
Everyday energy and general use
250 mg to 500 mg a day, usually as one dose in the morning. This is the range the trials cluster in and where most regular users settle. If you split it, 250 mg morning and 250 mg early afternoon works fine.
Training, recovery and heavier physical demand
Still 500 mg a day, not more. The strength and recovery research used 500 mg over eight weeks. Doubling it does not double anything except your consumption rate. Consistency across weeks matters far more than the size of any single dose.
Women
The same 250 mg to 500 mg range applies. Iron levels are worth a thought since shilajit contains iron, so if you already supplement iron heavily, talk to your doctor first. We wrote more in our post on shilajit for women.
Does body weight change the dose?
Less than you would expect. Shilajit is not dosed per kilogram the way a medicine is, and no human trial has scaled it that way. That said, a sensible rule of thumb many people use: under about 60 kg, stay toward the 250 mg end; over about 90 kg, 500 mg is reasonable. Everyone in between can sit comfortably in the middle. Tolerance and how you feel are better guides than arithmetic.
One caveat that matters more than weight: purity changes the effective dose. A 500 mg serving of poorly purified material is not 500 mg of the same thing. This is why we publish third party lab certificates for our batches and why our facility is inspected by the Finnish Food Authority under the Oiva scheme. If a brand cannot show you what is in the jar, the milligram number on the label does not mean much. Our post on what the fulvic acid percentage means goes into that in detail.
How long before you judge it
Give any dose at least four weeks before deciding it is not working, and preferably eight. The trials that found something ran for 8 to 12 weeks. Raising your dose after five days because nothing has happened is the most common mistake we see, and it usually just means a smaller jar and no more clarity.
Signs you have gone too high: a heavy or slightly nauseous feeling after taking it, loose stools, or trouble sleeping if you take it late. Drop back a step, and it typically settles within a couple of days.
The short version
- Start at 150 mg to 250 mg daily.
- Settle at 250 mg to 500 mg daily.
- Do not exceed 500 mg without a specific reason and medical advice.
- Judge it over 8 weeks, not 8 days.
- Purity matters as much as the number.
If you would rather not eyeball resin at all, browse the full range in our shop and pick the format that fits your morning. Whichever you choose, the lab results for that batch are published, because we would rather you trusted the paperwork than the marketing. #WithLoveFromEarth
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied, balanced diet or a healthy lifestyle. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication or managing a health condition, speak to a qualified healthcare professional before starting shilajit.