Browse the evidence

Set-volume equated hip thrust and back squat training produce similar gluteus maximus hypertrophy, despite hip thrusts eliciting greater acute muscle activation (sEMG).

If your goal is glute growth, you don't need to choose between squats and hip thrusts based on 'activation.' Both exercises produce similar glute growth when you perform the same number of sets and reps to failure. Squats may be better for overall leg development (quads/adductors), while hip thrusts might be preferred for those with back pain or specific mobility issues. Focus on progressive overload and volume equivalence rather than chasing 'burn' or activation feelings.

Twelve weeks of high-intensity resistance training (70-80% 1RM) significantly improves isokinetic muscle function (peak torque and total work) and hemorheological properties (erythrocyte deformability and aggregation) in middle-aged obese women, despite failing to produce significant changes in body composition, muscle hypertrophy (cross-sectional area), or blood lipid levels.

For middle-aged obese women, a 12-week resistance training program (3 days/week, 70-80% 1RM) will significantly improve muscle strength and blood flow properties (hemorheology) without necessarily changing body weight, muscle size, or blood lipids. Do not stop training if the scale or blood lipid panels don't change immediately; the functional benefits are real and significant. Focus on the feeling of strength and health markers beyond just weight.

General obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²) significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality across all glucose tolerance statuses (normoglycemia, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes), regardless of glycemic control.

Maintaining a healthy weight is crucial for longevity, regardless of whether you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, or normal blood sugar. Obesity significantly raises your risk of dying from heart disease or other causes, so weight management should be a primary health goal.

Central adiposity (high waist circumference) is a significant independent risk factor for incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in individuals with normal glucose tolerance (NGT).

If you have normal blood sugar, don't ignore your waist size. High waist circumference significantly increases your risk of heart disease and death, even if your glucose levels are normal. Focus on reducing waist circumference through diet and exercise.

Chronic static stretching exercises produce an overall unclear effect on skeletal muscle hypertrophy in healthy individuals, with a trivial point estimate and a prediction interval ranging from trivial negative to moderate positive effects.

Do not expect static stretching to build significant muscle on its own. While it improves flexibility, its impact on muscle size is negligible for most people. If you do stretch, ensure you are doing it for long durations (e.g., >60s per exercise) and high frequency, but prioritize resistance training for hypertrophy.

Trained individuals experience larger stretching-induced muscle gains compared to recreationally trained or sedentary individuals.

If you are already trained, static stretching may contribute more to muscle growth than it does for beginners or sedentary individuals. However, it is still not a replacement for resistance training.

Genetic polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly influence individual variability in fat loss efficiency in response to both dietary interventions and exercise regimens.

If you are struggling with fat loss despite consistent diet and exercise, consider that your genetic profile may influence your efficiency. While you cannot change your DNA, understanding your response patterns (e.g., better response to high-protein vs. low-fat diets) can help tailor your approach for better adherence and results.

Consuming saturated fat from dairy foods (specifically cheese) results in lower total and LDL cholesterol compared to consuming an equivalent amount of saturated fat from butter, due to the protective 'dairy food matrix' (including milk fat globule membrane and protein structure).

If you eat dairy, choose cheese over butter. While both contain saturated fat, the physical structure of cheese (the 'matrix') appears to raise cholesterol less than butter does. Current guidelines focusing only on limiting total saturated fat may inadvertently exclude beneficial foods like cheese.

Saturated fat intake increases LDL cholesterol primarily by increasing larger, less atherogenic LDL particles, whereas high-carbohydrate diets increase smaller, dense, pro-atherogenic LDL particles.

Don't just look at your total LDL cholesterol number. If you eat high-carb, your LDL particles might be small and dense (higher risk). If you eat saturated fat, your LDL particles might be larger (lower risk). Particle size is a better marker of risk than total cholesterol.

Higher dietary resistant starch (RS) intake is associated with significantly lower all-cause and cancer mortality, but not cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.

To potentially lower your risk of cancer and all-cause mortality, aim to increase your intake of resistant starch. The best sources are whole grains and legumes. A key strategy is to cook starchy foods (like potatoes, rice, or pasta) and then cool them before eating, as this process increases resistant starch content. Aim for the highest intake levels seen in the study (approx. 4.7 g per 1,000 kcal of energy), but do not do this by simply eating more total carbohydrates; instead, swap digestible carbs for RS-rich foods to avoid increasing total energy intake.

Resistance training under hypoxic conditions (RTH) provides a trivial but statistically significant benefit for strength development (1RM) compared to normoxic training (RTN) when specific methodological variables are optimized.

If you have access to hypoxic training, you can gain a small advantage in strength over normal air training, but only if you structure your workout correctly. Focus on multi-joint exercises, do at least 9 sets per muscle group per week, and stop short of muscle failure (non-failure). Do not train to failure in hypoxia, as it may increase fatigue without adding benefit.

Optimizing resistance training prescription variables in hypoxia—specifically using non-full-body routines, multi-joint exercises, 9+ sets/week, and training to non-failure—yields a small but significant strength benefit over normoxic training.

To get the most out of hypoxic training, structure your week to train specific muscle groups separately (non-full-body). Use compound movements (squats, presses), aim for at least 9 sets per muscle group weekly, and crucially, stop 1-2 reps before failure. This specific combination yields better strength results than standard hypoxic training.

Regular use of fish oil and glucosamine supplements is associated with reduced all-cause and cancer mortality in cancer patients, but this benefit is conditional on having a low Life Essential 8 (LE8) score or a poor cancer prognosis.

If you have cancer, taking fish oil or glucosamine may help reduce your risk of death, but only if your overall cardiovascular health (LE8 score) is below average or your specific cancer type has a poor prognosis. For patients with high cardiovascular health scores or good-prognosis cancers, these supplements did not show a significant mortality benefit in this study. Always consult your oncologist before starting supplements.

Using a single, universal velocity loss (VL) threshold to prescribe resistance training volume is unreliable and fails to control the actual amount of work completed across individuals.

Do not use a single, fixed velocity loss threshold (like stopping at 20% velocity loss) to dictate your training volume for everyone. The study shows that men, women, and individuals with different personality traits (like emotional stability) perform different numbers of reps to reach the same velocity loss. To control volume accurately, you must individualize the threshold based on sex, training history, and strength levels, or accept that the volume will vary significantly.

Sex, emotional stability, and training history significantly influence the number of repetitions performed to reach a specific velocity loss threshold, making universal thresholds invalid.

When using velocity-based training, account for individual differences. Women tend to perform more reps to reach the same velocity loss than men. Additionally, individuals with higher emotional stability may perform more reps. Adjust your velocity loss targets or volume expectations based on these factors rather than applying a single rule.

Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty (ESG) is a highly cost-effective, less invasive alternative to surgery for Class I obesity, with an ICER well below willingness-to-pay thresholds.

For Class I obesity, ESG offers a durable, cost-effective alternative to surgery with a favorable safety profile. It is particularly valuable for patients who want more than lifestyle changes but are not candidates for or willing to undergo surgery.

Electromagnetic resistance devices (including variable resistance and eccentric overload settings) produce myoelectric activity (sEMG) amplitudes that are statistically similar to traditional dumbbell resistance training, with observed differences being modest (~5-10%) and of minimal practical significance for muscle excitation.

If you are using or considering an electromagnetic resistance device (like Tonal) with variable or eccentric overload settings, you can expect muscle activation levels that are largely comparable to using dumbbells. While there may be slight differences in shoulder (deltoid) or forearm (brachioradialis) activation, the primary arm muscle (biceps) receives similar stimulation from both. You do not need to switch to dumbbells to get results, nor do you need to buy expensive tech to get better results than dumbbells offer for this movement.

A poly-metabolite score derived from serum and urine metabolomics can accurately predict and discriminate between high (80% energy) and low/zero (0% energy) ultra-processed food (UPF) intake in free-living populations.

Current dietary self-reporting methods for ultra-processed foods are prone to error and misclassification. This research identifies specific blood and urine metabolite patterns that serve as objective biomarkers for UPF intake. For researchers, these scores improve the accuracy of studying UPF's health impacts. For individuals, it underscores that 'ultra-processed' is a biological reality detectable in the body, not just a label on a package, highlighting the metabolic complexity introduced by industrial food processing.

Higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is associated with a greater increase in type 2 diabetes risk compared to artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs).

If you must choose between sugary and artificially sweetened drinks, sugary drinks pose a much higher risk for type 2 diabetes. However, both are associated with increased risk compared to not drinking them. The best choice for diabetes prevention is water or unsweetened beverages.

Obesity should be managed as a chronic, relapsing disease with long-term structured medical interventions (pharmacotherapy, surgery, behavioral therapy) rather than relying on short-term lifestyle changes, mirroring the established management model for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM).

Stop treating obesity as a short-term lifestyle issue. Seek a healthcare provider who recognizes it as a chronic disease. This means expecting long-term management with evidence-based tools like GLP-1 receptor agonists (e.g., semaglutide, tirzepatide), behavioral therapy, and potentially surgery, rather than just being told to 'eat less and move more.'

Metabolic bariatric surgery (MBS) procedures, specifically Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), sleeve gastrectomy (SG), single anastomosis duodenal-ileal bypass (SADI), and biliopancreatic diversion (BPD), provide superior long-term total body weight loss (TBWL) compared to obesity management medications (OMM) and endoscopic bariatric procedures (EBP).

If you are struggling with obesity and lifestyle changes alone have not provided sufficient long-term results, metabolic bariatric surgery (specifically RYGB, SG, SADI, or BPD) offers the highest probability of significant, sustained weight loss. While newer medications (semaglutide, tirzepatide) are excellent short-to-medium term options and comparable to surgery initially, surgery tends to maintain higher efficacy over the long term (3+ years). Consult a specialist to determine if you are a candidate for these procedures, especially if your BMI is >= 40 kg/m2.

The EMP16 combination therapy significantly improves the Fatty Liver Index (FLI) and reduces visceral adiposity index (VAI) more effectively than conventional orlistat, suggesting specific benefits for liver health beyond general weight loss.

If you have fatty liver or high visceral fat, this specific combination pill (EMP16) may offer better liver health improvements than standard orlistat. It significantly reduces the Fatty Liver Index compared to conventional treatments.

GLP-1-based therapies (semaglutide, tirzepatide) cause lean mass loss proportional to total weight loss (approx. 15-45%), but this reduction is adaptive and accompanied by improved muscle quality (reduced fat infiltration), resulting in preserved or improved muscle function and strength.

If you are taking a GLP-1 medication like semaglutide or tirzepatide, expect to lose some muscle along with fat. This is normal and proportional to your weight loss. Crucially, these drugs often improve muscle quality by reducing fat inside the muscle, which helps preserve your strength and function. To maximize muscle retention, ensure you are consuming adequate protein and engaging in resistance training if possible.

Combining moderate-to-vigorous exercise with GLP-1 receptor agonist (liraglutide) treatment preserves hip and lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) during significant weight loss, whereas GLP-1 RA treatment alone reduces BMD at these sites despite similar weight loss.

If you are using a GLP-1 medication like liraglutide or semaglutide for weight loss, you must incorporate regular exercise to protect your bones. This study shows that while the medication alone might reduce bone density at the hip and spine, adding moderate-to-vigorous exercise (like cycling and circuit training) completely preserves bone density, even when you lose a significant amount of weight. Do not rely on the medication alone for skeletal health.