Browse the evidence

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.

Real-world users of semaglutide (Wegovy) for weight management rarely follow recommended dose titration protocols, with the majority stopping at or below 1.0 mg rather than reaching the target 2.4 mg dose evaluated in clinical trials.

If you are using Wegovy, know that most people do not reach the maximum 2.4 mg dose. Many stop at 1.0 mg due to side effects or cost. This does not mean the drug isn't working for you, but it may mean your weight loss potential is lower than what is seen in clinical trials. Discuss your dose with your provider to see if escalation is appropriate for your tolerance and financial situation.

An acute increase in dietary fat (from 20% to 50% of energy) for two days increases whole-body fat oxidation and shifts skeletal muscle metabolism toward oxidative capacity in both lean and obese humans.

If you eat more fat for a couple of days, your body will naturally burn more of that fat for fuel, even if you are obese. This adaptation happens quickly (within 24-48 hours) and works similarly for lean and obese people. However, because this study was isocaloric (same calories), simply eating more fat without reducing other calories will still lead to fat storage because the body stores the excess energy.

Bariatric surgery significantly reduces the incidence of overall cancer and obesity-related cancers, with a more pronounced effect in women.

Bariatric surgery is a highly effective intervention for reducing cancer risk in people with severe obesity, particularly women. It offers a significant reduction in overall and obesity-related cancers compared to non-surgical controls.

Physical activity reduces cancer risk independently of its effect on body weight, through mechanisms like improved immune regulation and reduced oxidative stress.

Regular physical activity lowers your risk of breast and colon cancer, even if you don't lose weight. It works through mechanisms like better immune function and less inflammation.

In older adults (55-70 years), long-term lifestyle interventions for weight loss in prediabetes result in greater sustained weight loss but inferior preservation of fat-free mass and bone mineral content compared to younger adults (25-45 years).

If you are over 55 and losing weight, expect to lose more muscle and bone than a younger person would for the same amount of weight lost. To counter this, you must prioritize resistance training and adequate protein intake, as standard lifestyle interventions alone may not preserve lean mass effectively in this age group.

In adults with prediabetes, women experience less sustained weight loss and greater loss of fat-free mass and bone mineral content compared to men during long-term lifestyle interventions, despite showing greater improvements in some cardiometabolic markers like fasting glucose and HDL.

Women in this study lost less weight and more muscle/bone than men following the same lifestyle program. To mitigate this, women should prioritize resistance training and protein intake to protect lean mass, and focus on metabolic improvements (like blood sugar and cholesterol) rather than just scale weight, as these may improve even if weight loss is modest.

Adding 30-second no-load isometric holds (iso-holds) during the inter-set rest period of resistance training enhances mid-thigh (quadriceps) muscle hypertrophy compared to passive rest, but may impair lower-body maximal strength gains.

If you want to maximize quadriceps growth without spending extra time in the gym, try holding a strong isometric contraction (like a seated knee extension) for 30 seconds immediately after each set of squats or leg presses. Do this for the first 30 seconds of your 2-minute rest, then relax for the remaining 90 seconds. Note: This might slightly reduce your ability to increase the weight on the bar for lower body strength, so prioritize this strategy if hypertrophy is your main goal.

Low-volume high-intensity interval training (LV-HIT) significantly reduces circulating miRNA-27b expression in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), whereas high-volume HIT (HV-HIT) does not, despite both improving cardiorespiratory fitness.

For women with PCOS, low-volume high-intensity interval training (10 one-minute maximal efforts with rest) is effective at reducing circulating miRNA-27b levels, a marker linked to metabolism and inflammation. Interestingly, a higher-volume protocol (4x4 minutes) improved fitness but did not change this specific marker, suggesting that training volume and structure matter for molecular adaptations even when fitness gains are similar.

Women tend to lose more weight than men when treated with GLP-1 receptor agonists (semaglutide, liraglutide) for obesity, despite men often losing more weight with lifestyle interventions alone.

If you are a woman being treated with GLP-1 medications like Wegovy or Saxenda, you are statistically likely to lose more weight than a man on the same drug. This is due to how your body processes the medication. Do not compare your progress to male baselines or lifestyle-only results; your pharmacological response is typically superior.

Men tend to lose more absolute weight than women when undergoing non-pharmacological lifestyle interventions (diet and exercise), although the difference is small.

If you are a woman doing lifestyle changes (diet/exercise), you might lose slightly less weight than a man on the same plan. This is normal. Focus on consistency, as women often have better long-term weight maintenance success.

Concurrent resistance and endurance training combined with high protein availability (2 g/kg/day) does not impair maximal strength or muscle hypertrophy compared to resistance training alone, but it does attenuate anaerobic power gains.

If you want to train for both strength and endurance, do them on separate days (e.g., Monday/Wednesday/Friday for weights, Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday for cardio). Eat 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. You will likely gain strength and muscle just as well as if you only lifted weights, but you might not get as fast or powerful as if you only lifted weights.

Tirzepatide 15mg is associated with a higher risk of hypoglycemia compared to GLP-1 receptor agonists, although it has a lower risk of hypoglycemia compared to basal insulins.

If you are on the 15mg dose of Tirzepatide, especially if you also take insulin or sulfonylureas, your risk of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) is higher than if you were on a standard GLP-1 drug like semaglutide. Monitor your blood sugar closely and discuss dose adjustments with your doctor if you experience symptoms of low blood sugar.

Naltrexone/bupropion reduces food cravings and reward-driven eating by antagonizing opioid receptors, thereby decreasing the subjective delightfulness of energy-dense foods.

If you struggle with intense cravings for sugary or fatty foods, standard dieting may fail because your brain's reward system is driving your intake. Naltrexone/bupropion targets this by blocking opioid receptors, reducing the 'high' you get from these foods. This is prescribed alongside lifestyle changes for obesity management.

An 8-week vegan diet significantly reduces epigenetic age acceleration (GrimAge, PhenoAge, DunedinPACE) and extends telomere length compared to an omnivorous diet in healthy adults.

Adopting a vegan diet for 8 weeks can significantly slow down biological aging markers, including epigenetic age and telomere length, compared to a healthy omnivorous diet. To maximize these benefits, ensure you are getting adequate nutrients, particularly B12 and other 'epi-nutrients' mentioned in the study, through supplementation or careful food selection.

Metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) is associated with a significantly lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all-cause mortality compared to treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) in patients with type-2 diabetes and severe obesity.

For patients with type-2 diabetes and severe obesity, metabolic surgery appears to offer better protection against major heart events and death than treatment with GLP-1 medications alone. While surgery carries a small risk of complications, the long-term cardiovascular benefits outweigh these risks compared to pharmacological management. Patients should discuss these specific cardiovascular outcomes with their healthcare providers when choosing between surgical and medical management.

Asian populations develop obesity-related cardiometabolic morbidities at lower BMI thresholds than white populations, necessitating lower diagnostic cutoffs (BMI ≥25 or 27.5 kg/m²) for accurate risk identification.

If you are of Asian descent, do not rely on the standard BMI of 30 to define obesity. Your risk for diabetes and heart disease increases at lower weights. Use region-specific guidelines (BMI ≥25 or 27.5 kg/m²) or waist circumference measurements to assess your health risk accurately.

Gut microbiota composition and function are altered in type 2 diabetes, characterized by reduced diversity and decreased abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria, which is associated with insulin resistance and increased diabetes risk.

People with type 2 diabetes often have less diverse gut bacteria and fewer bacteria that produce butyrate. This is a consistent finding, but it doesn't mean there's a single 'bad bacteria' to target. Focus on dietary patterns that support overall microbial diversity.

Regular active recovery (ACT) consisting of 15 minutes of moderate jogging immediately after high-intensity interval training (HIIT) does not attenuate training adaptations (specifically maximum running velocity, velocity at VO2max, and anaerobic lactate threshold) compared to passive recovery (PAS).

If you do HIIT, follow it with 15 minutes of easy jogging (approx. 50-55% of your max speed) rather than sitting still. This will clear lactate faster and may actually improve your lactate threshold more than doing nothing, without increasing your overall stress or hindering your fitness gains.

Acute endurance exercise stimulates skeletal muscle mitochondrial biogenesis through integrated retrograde signaling from mitochondria to the nucleus, involving the activation of kinases (AMPK, CaMK, MAPK, PKA) and the translocation of transcriptional coactivators like PGC-1α to regulate nuclear gene expression.

To boost your muscle's energy production capacity (mitochondrial biogenesis), engage in endurance exercise. This can be moderate intensity continuous exercise (MICE), high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE), or sprint interval exercise (SIE). The specific intensity determines which fuel sources are used and which signaling pathways are prioritized, but all forms of endurance exercise trigger the necessary retrograde signaling from mitochondria to the nucleus to increase mitochondrial content and function.

Full range of motion (fROM) resistance training yields trivial to small advantages over partial range of motion (pROM) for overall muscle hypertrophy, strength, power, and body composition outcomes.

For most people, full range of motion is the best default for building muscle and strength because it offers a slight edge. However, the difference is small. If you have an injury that hurts at full depth, partial range of motion is still highly effective and better than nothing. If you are a powerlifter or sport-specific athlete, train the specific partial ranges relevant to your sport, as strength gains are specific to the angle trained.

If initial double combination therapy fails to control HbA1c, a triple combination of metformin, SGLT-2 inhibitor, and GLP-1 receptor agonist is recommended as the best treatment to reduce cardiovascular events and mortality.

If your first two medications don't control your blood sugar, add a third: a combination of metformin, an SGLT-2 inhibitor, and a GLP-1 receptor agonist. This is the most effective way to protect your heart and kidneys based on current real-world evidence.

Insulin should be the first-line treatment if insulin deficiency is the predominant factor at the onset of type 2 diabetes, followed by cardio-renal protective medications.

If your body isn't making enough insulin, start with insulin therapy first. After stabilizing your blood sugar with insulin, add medications that protect your heart and kidneys (SGLT-2 inhibitors or GLP-1 receptor agonists).

Rest-pause and drop-set training do not produce superior hypertrophic adaptations compared to traditional resistance training when total training volume is equalized.

You do not need to use rest-pause or drop-sets to build muscle. If you perform the same total amount of work (sets x reps x weight) using traditional sets, you will gain the same amount of muscle mass as those using advanced techniques.