Browse the evidence

SSB intake is inversely correlated with national Socio-demographic Development Index (SDI) by 2018, meaning higher national development is associated with lower national SSB intake, though within lower-SDI nations, higher individual education correlates with higher intake.

If you are in a developing nation, be aware that SSB marketing often targets the educated and urban demographics. High individual education does not protect against high SSB intake in these regions; in fact, it may correlate with higher intake.

SSB intake is significantly higher in urban vs. rural areas globally (57.3% higher), with the largest disparities in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, while being lower in urban areas of the Middle East/North Africa.

Urban dwellers, particularly in Africa and Asia, face higher exposure to SSBs. Focus on reducing availability and marketing in these high-density areas.

Warm-ups should be restricted to exercise-specific movements, and stretching should only be prioritized if the goal is to increase flexibility.

Skip generic warm-ups and static stretching unless you want more flexibility. Instead, do a few light sets of your specific exercises to warm up.

The cardiovascular benefits of low-carbohydrate diets diminish after 2 years of adherence, with no significant difference from control groups in weight or lipid profiles at that duration.

If you plan to follow a low-carbohydrate diet for more than two years, expect the weight loss and cardiovascular benefits to plateau and potentially disappear, largely due to the difficulty of maintaining strict adherence. Short-term adherence (under 11 months) yields the best results.

Ketogenic diets reduce body mass and fat mass primarily through appetite suppression and reduced energy intake, rather than through superior metabolic advantages over isoenergetic non-ketogenic diets.

If you use a ketogenic diet to lose weight, expect it to work because it helps you eat less, not because it burns fat faster. If you match the calories of a low-fat diet, you will lose the same amount of fat. Focus on the appetite-suppressing nature of the diet to maintain a caloric deficit.

Using Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) for load prescription in resistance training yields small but probabilistically favorable strength gains compared to fixed percentage of 1RM loading, while producing equivalent hypertrophy.

If you are struggling to progress with fixed percentages, try switching to RPE. Instead of lifting 80kg for 8 reps, pick a weight that feels like a 7-8 on a 1-10 scale (where 10 is failure). If you hit the reps easily, increase the weight next session; if you miss reps, decrease it. This approach yielded slightly better strength gains in trained men over 8 weeks compared to fixed percentages, with no difference in muscle growth.

Self-tracking of physical activity using wearable devices increases daily step count in people with type 2 diabetes, but does not significantly improve glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels unless the individual achieves a specific threshold of activity increase (≥1000 steps/day).

Use a wearable tracker to monitor your daily steps, but don't expect your blood sugar to improve automatically. Focus on increasing your daily steps by at least 1,000 over your current baseline. If you achieve this increase, you are likely to see a meaningful improvement in your HbA1c. If you don't reach this threshold, your HbA1c may not change significantly, even if you are more active than before.

Implementing a 10% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and subsidies on healthy foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts/seeds) reduces cardiometabolic disease mortality by altering dietary intake patterns.

For policymakers, this evidence supports enacting a 10% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and processed/red meats, while using the revenue to subsidize fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts. This dual approach shifts consumer behavior toward healthier options, resulting in a measurable reduction in heart disease and diabetes deaths, particularly benefiting lower-income populations who are more price-sensitive.

Fiscal interventions on diet reduce health disparities between socioeconomic groups, with greater mortality reductions observed in lower education groups compared to college graduates.

Policymakers should design fiscal policies to explicitly account for higher price sensitivity in low-income populations. By combining taxes on sugary drinks and red meats with subsidies for fruits and vegetables, the policy can close the health gap between socioeconomic groups, as lower-income individuals are more likely to change their behavior in response to price changes.

Offering explicit swaps to lower-saturated-fat alternatives reduces the percentage energy from saturated fat in the shopping basket, but is less effective than altering the default product order.

If you are designing an online grocery platform, offer explicit swaps to lower-SFA alternatives when a user selects a high-SFA product. Ensure the swap matches the brand, weight, and price as closely as possible to increase acceptance. Note that this method is less effective than simply sorting products by health metrics.

Combining default order alteration and explicit swaps does not significantly increase the reduction in saturated fat compared to altering the default order alone.

If you are designing an online grocery platform, you do not need to implement both default ordering and explicit swaps. Implementing default ordering (sorting by SFA) is sufficient to achieve the maximum reduction in saturated fat. Adding explicit swaps provides no significant additional benefit and may increase complexity.

Initial weight loss achieved through commercial or standard care interventions is poorly maintained during a subsequent year of no intervention, with significant weight regain occurring in both groups.

If you lose weight through a program, expect to regain some of it once the program ends unless you have a specific maintenance plan. The study shows that even successful weight loss is often not sustained after 12 months without ongoing support. Focus on developing long-term maintenance skills rather than just relying on the initial weight loss phase.

A standard 12-week low-intensity behavioral weight management program (WMP1) is the next most cost-effective intervention after RYGB surgery for adults with severe obesity.

For patients with severe obesity who cannot or choose not to have surgery, a standard 12-week behavioral weight management program is the most cost-effective non-surgical option. This program involves weekly group sessions focusing on diet and physical activity advice. It offers good value for money and can be delivered at scale.

Resistance training to failure and non-failure have equivalent effects on sleep quality (subjective and actigraphic) and heart rate variability (HRV) during sleep.

You don't need to worry that training to failure will ruin your sleep. Both failure and non-failure training resulted in similar sleep quality and heart rate variability. Focus on managing your strength recovery instead.

Randomizing exercise selection and repetition ranges session-by-session in resistance-trained men significantly increases intrinsic motivation compared to fixed exercise protocols, while producing equivalent gains in muscle thickness and maximal strength.

If you are a trained lifter struggling with motivation or adherence, try randomizing your exercise selection and rep ranges using an app or randomizer, keeping volume and intensity (failure) constant. This will likely boost your enjoyment and consistency without costing you any strength or muscle gains compared to sticking to a fixed routine. If your goal is purely maximal strength or hypertrophy and you enjoy your routine, you do not need to vary exercises to see results.

Interrupting prolonged sitting with frequent, low-volume activity breaks (3 minutes of low-to-moderate activity every 30 minutes) significantly lowers fasting glucose and daily glycemic variability in adults with obesity, but does not improve overall glucose tolerance.

If you have obesity and sit for long periods, try breaking your sitting every 30 minutes with just 3 minutes of light activity (like walking or squats). This simple habit can lower your fasting blood sugar and reduce glucose spikes throughout the day. However, do not expect this alone to fix your overall glucose tolerance; you likely need more volume or intensity of activity for broader metabolic improvements.

Increasing the weekly frequency of plyometric jump training sessions leads to larger hypertrophic gains, whereas total training duration, session duration, and total number of jumps per week do not significantly moderate hypertrophy.

To maximize muscle growth from jumping exercises, focus on how often you train rather than how long or how many jumps you do in one session. Aim for more frequent sessions per week (e.g., 3-4 times) rather than fewer, longer sessions. The total number of jumps or the length of the workout does not appear to significantly change muscle growth outcomes.

Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) correlates with blood lactate levels in high repetition resistance training protocols, suggesting RPE can be used as a non-invasive proxy for metabolic stress.

You can use how hard a set feels (RPE) to estimate your metabolic stress. In high-rep sets, if it feels very hard (high RPE), your lactate levels are likely elevated, indicating significant metabolic stress.

Contrave (naltrexone/bupropion) promotes weight loss (~6% TBWL) and may improve fertility by mitigating PCOS and endometriosis effects, though it is less effective than GLP-1 RAs.

Contrave is an oral option for weight loss that targets food cravings and reward pathways. It typically results in about 6% weight loss. It is less potent than GLP-1 injections but may help with emotional eating. You must stop taking it before trying to conceive.

Common genetic variants explain only a small fraction (12-24%) of the variation in fish and EPA+DHA consumption, with non-genetic personal and environmental factors being the principal determinants of intake levels.

Do not rely on genetics to predict or change your fish intake. The study shows that where you live, your culture, and your habits matter far more than your DNA. Focus on modifying your environment (e.g., access, availability) rather than looking for a genetic reason why you can't or won't eat fish.

Verbal instructions directing attention to the triceps (internal focus) significantly increase triceps brachii activation during the bench press, whereas instructions targeting the pectorals do not significantly increase pectoralis major activation.

When performing the bench press, if your goal is to emphasize your triceps, explicitly tell yourself to 'push with your triceps' or 'push your elbows away from each other.' This will increase triceps activation. However, do not expect this instruction to significantly increase chest activation; the chest will work regardless of the instruction. You cannot 'turn off' the chest by focusing on the triceps, nor 'turn on' the chest by focusing on it.

Web-based self-disclosure health support (WSHS) systems that incorporate forced self-disclosure and peer visibility of weight changes produce significantly greater short-term weight loss compared to standard one-on-one email health support.

To lose weight more effectively using digital tools, choose a platform that requires you to publicly share your progress (like weight and lifestyle) and view the progress of others, rather than just receiving private advice. The act of 'forced self-disclosure' and seeing peers' changes creates a social accountability loop that drives better results than private email counseling alone. Commit to weekly updates for 12 weeks.

Quitting smoking after a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality, although the risk remains higher than in those who never smoked.

If you smoke, quit. Even after a diabetes diagnosis, stopping smoking lowers your risk of heart attack and death compared to continuing. While your risk might not drop to the level of someone who never smoked, it is much better than staying a smoker. Combine this with exercise for the best results.

Higher pre-diagnosis physical activity is associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality in postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer, but this benefit does not differ based on the number of cardiometabolic risk factors.

If you have had early-stage breast cancer, staying physically active before and after diagnosis is linked to a lower risk of dying from any cause. This benefit appears to apply whether you have metabolic risk factors (like high blood pressure or diabetes) or not. Aim for regular moderate-to-vigorous activity, such as brisk walking or recreational exercise, as measured in MET-hours per week.