Browse the evidence

Regular vigorous exercise is associated with a significantly lower risk of mortality before age 90 and better late-life physical function in men.

To maximize your chances of living to 90 with good health, engage in vigorous exercise that makes you sweat at least 2-4 times a week. This habit, combined with not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and controlling blood pressure, significantly lowers your risk of dying before 90 and improves your physical function in old age.

Multicomponent exercise training (aerobic, strength, and balance) is the most effective intervention for improving mobility, increasing muscle mass and strength, and decreasing falls in older adults with physical frailty and sarcopenia.

If you are an older adult experiencing weakness or slowness, do not avoid movement. Engage in a structured program that combines walking (aerobic), resistance training (strength), and balance exercises. This combination is proven to preserve independence, reduce falls, and maintain muscle mass better than any single type of exercise.

Adherence to lifestyle counseling aims (specific dietary changes and physical activity targets) is associated with a significantly lower proportion of LGA newborns and a tendency toward lower GDM incidence compared to usual care.

For pregnant women who can strictly adhere to lifestyle counseling (improving diet and increasing physical activity), the risk of having a large baby is significantly reduced. This suggests that the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions depends heavily on patient adherence.

A generic, prolonged resistance-type exercise training program yields equivalent relative gains in muscle mass, strength, and functional capacity in elderly men and women, refuting the need for gender-specific programming.

If you are an elderly man or woman, you can follow the same resistance training program to build muscle and strength. Focus on progressive overload (increasing weight/reps over time) three times a week. You do not need a 'women's specific' program to see equal relative benefits compared to men.

Regular exercise training improves heat tolerance and glucose control in individuals with type 2 diabetes, potentially mitigating the reduced heat tolerance associated with the disease.

If you have type 2 diabetes, regular exercise can help your body handle heat better and improve your blood sugar control. Start with moderate exercise and gradually increase your intensity. This will not only improve your metabolic health but also help you tolerate heat stress better, reducing the risk of heat-related illnesses.

Adopting a cluster of healthy health behaviors (high physical activity, never smoking, excellent diet, moderate alcohol consumption) is associated with higher energy vitality, lower psychological distress, better self-rated health, and higher quality of life compared to clusters with multiple risk factors.

Don't try to fix everything at once, but recognize that your habits are linked. If you are physically inactive, you are more likely to smoke or eat poorly. Start by improving one area, like adding moderate activity, as this often correlates with better mental energy and vitality. The goal is to move into a 'healthier cluster' (e.g., becoming a former smoker, eating well, and staying active) rather than optimizing just one metric in isolation.

A home-based, multicomponent diet and exercise intervention delivered via mailed print materials and telephone counseling produces durable improvements in diet quality, physical activity, and body mass index, and slows functional decline in older, overweight/obese cancer survivors.

If you are an older cancer survivor struggling to stay active, this program shows that a home-based plan using mailed guides and phone coaching can help you improve your diet, exercise more, lose weight, and stay independent longer. It works by tailoring the advice to your specific situation and providing regular support, making it easier to stick with than going to a gym.

Progressive resistance training significantly improves functional mobility, gait speed, and balance in older adults (mean age >60) with skeletal muscle function deficits, thereby reducing fall risk.

Start resistance training 2-3 times per week. Focus on large muscle groups (legs, core) with progressive overload. Supervision by a professional is recommended to ensure safety and proper form. This improves your ability to walk, balance, and perform daily tasks, reducing fall risk.

Early postoperative unilateral progressive resistance training (initiated by Day 7) significantly reduces hospital length of stay and increases quadriceps muscle cross-sectional area and strength in elderly hip surgery patients compared to standard rehabilitation.

For elderly patients recovering from hip surgery, starting progressive resistance training (3 days/week) as early as one week post-op significantly shortens hospital stays and rebuilds muscle mass. Start with light loads (50% of max) and progressively increase weight every few weeks under supervision. This is safer and more effective than standard walking and basic exercises alone.

Maintaining or initiating regular physical activity is associated with improved cardiorespiratory fitness (measured by maximal treadmill test time) in healthy adults aged 25-55, with the greatest improvements seen in those with lower baseline fitness who transition from sedentary to active.

If you are currently sedentary, starting any regular physical activity (like walking or jogging) will significantly improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, potentially more so than if you were already active. You do not need to be an athlete to see benefits; simply moving more is the key lever for improving treadmill endurance.

Interpretive front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels that evaluate product unhealthfulness (e.g., stop signs, traffic lights) are more effective at guiding consumers toward healthier choices than positive signposts or non-interpretive labels.

If you are a policymaker, prioritize interpretive labels (like stop signs or traffic lights) that highlight unhealthiness over positive endorsements or raw numbers. Ensure the regulation is mandatory, clearly defined, and developed with independent experts to withstand legal challenges from the food industry. This approach is more likely to help consumers, especially those with lower literacy, make healthier choices.

Resistance training, particularly power training, is the most effective strategy to combat sarcopenia by improving muscle strength, power, and physical functioning, with power training showing greater improvements in power performance than strength training alone.

Start resistance training 2-3 times per week. Focus on power training by using lighter weights (20-80% of your max) and moving them quickly. Do 3-4 sets of each exercise. This is more effective than just walking or cycling for maintaining muscle and preventing falls. If you are new to this, start with lighter loads and progress gradually.

Regular self-weighing (daily or weekly) is associated with greater weight loss and weight loss maintenance in adults, without causing adverse psychological outcomes such as depression or anxiety.

Weigh yourself daily or weekly using a consistent scale at the same time of day. Do not use the scale as a measure of self-worth; treat the number as feedback. If you see a trend upward, use it to adjust your food intake or activity levels immediately. This practice is linked to better long-term weight maintenance and does not increase the risk of depression or anxiety.

Maintaining higher daily step counts (median 7,731–8,290 steps) is associated with a significantly lower risk of incident chronic diseases, including obesity, sleep apnea, GERD, major depressive disorder, diabetes, and hypertension.

Track your daily steps using a wearable. Aim to consistently exceed 8,200 steps per day to gain protection against common chronic conditions like obesity, sleep apnea, and depression. You do not need to hit 10,000 to see benefits; the risk reduction is linear and starts lower. Consistency over years matters more than hitting a perfect daily number.

Lifestyle interventions targeting diet, body composition, physical activity, or stress are significantly more likely to produce positive health and wellbeing outcomes for nurses than interventions relying solely on education.

For nurses, simply attending health seminars or reading pamphlets is rarely enough to improve health. To see real results, interventions must be active and behavioral, focusing on concrete actions like dietary changes, physical exercise, or stress-reduction techniques (like mindfulness). Purely educational approaches are largely ineffective for changing long-term habits in this population.

A moderate-intensity web-based behavioral weight loss intervention combined with health coaching produces statistically significant weight loss in primary care patients with obesity and hypertension compared to usual care.

Use a structured web-based program that tracks simple habits like steps and TV time, combined with regular check-ins from a health coach. This approach is effective for weight loss in primary care patients with high blood pressure, offering a scalable alternative to traditional counseling.

Higher frequency of website utilization is associated with greater weight loss in web-based interventions.

To maximize weight loss, use the web-based tool as frequently as possible, aiming for at least 3 logins per week. Higher engagement leads to significantly better results.

Breaking prolonged sitting with standing and light-intensity walking improves 24-hour glucose control and insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetes patients more effectively than energy-matched structured moderate-to-vigorous exercise.

If you have type 2 diabetes, you do not need to perform intense gym workouts to improve your blood sugar control. Simply standing up and walking lightly every 30 minutes throughout the day is more effective for improving insulin sensitivity than doing one hour of intense cycling. Aim to replace sitting time with light movement and standing, breaking up long periods of inactivity.

Physical inactivity is a significant risk factor for sarcopenia in CKD patients, with higher levels of physical activity associated with a lower likelihood of sarcopenia.

For CKD patients, staying physically active is crucial for maintaining muscle strength. Aim for regular activity, as those who are more active have a significantly lower risk of developing sarcopenia. Start with manageable activities and gradually increase as tolerated.

Nudging interventions that alter the physical placement of fruit and vegetables (e.g., proximity, availability) significantly increase the likelihood of consumers selecting them, demonstrating a medium effect size.

To increase fruit and vegetable consumption, place these items in the most accessible, visible, and convenient locations within a food environment (e.g., at eye level in fridges, at the entrance of cafeterias, or on the main counter). This environmental change leverages automatic decision-making to significantly boost selection rates without restricting other options.

Scheduled napping (20-40 minutes) during night shifts improves alertness and reduces sleepiness in shift workers.

Take a 20-40 minute nap during your night shift, ideally between 2-3 AM, or before your shift starts. Allow 15 minutes after waking up for 'sleep inertia' to pass before performing high-risk tasks.

Long-term maintenance of weight loss is significantly predicted by and facilitated by regular physical activity, with exercise serving as the strongest predictor of success in both correlational and randomized controlled trials.

To keep weight off long-term, you must incorporate regular physical activity into your lifestyle. Dieting alone is rarely enough to prevent weight regain. Aim for moderate aerobic exercise (like brisk walking) 3-4 times a week. Supervised exercise programs may help you build the habit and adhere to the routine better than unsupervised efforts.

Gamified digital interventions produce a small-to-medium increase in physical activity compared to control groups, with effects persisting after the intervention ends.

To increase physical activity, try using a gamified app or wearable that tracks your steps or workouts and rewards you with points, badges, or social competition. The key is consistency; these tools work best when integrated into your daily routine for at least a few weeks. While the effect is modest, it is superior to standard tracking without game elements and can help sustain activity levels even after the initial novelty wears off.

Interactive computer-based interventions produce greater weight loss and better weight maintenance than minimal or no intervention (usual care/pamphlets) in overweight or obese adults, though they result in slightly less weight loss compared to in-person treatments.

Use an interactive computer program for weight loss if you want a structured, evidence-based approach that is more effective than doing nothing or reading pamphlets. However, do not expect it to work as well as seeing a human coach in person. It is a good starting point or maintenance tool, but for maximum weight loss, in-person support is superior.