Browse the evidence

Strict dietary restraint and rigid monitoring during contest preparation promote binge-eating behavior through physiological hyperphagia and psychological perceived deprivation, creating a vicious cycle of disordered eating.

Avoid 'all-or-nothing' dieting. If you restrict food too strictly, your body and mind will eventually rebel with binge urges. Instead, use flexible dietary control: eat a variety of foods, pay attention to hunger, and compensate with healthier choices later if you eat something less optimal. This reduces the psychological pressure that leads to binges.

Female physique competitors face significantly higher risks of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), menstrual irregularities, and psychological distress compared to male competitors due to the biological demands of extreme leanness.

Female competitors should prioritize health over extreme leanness. Monitor menstrual function and bone health. Use slower weight loss strategies and maintain appropriate off-season body composition to reduce the risk of RED-S and hormonal disruption.

High insulin sensitivity is associated with enhanced metabolic flexibility to lipid (MetFlex-lip) during exercise, characterized by a strong correlation between increased circulating nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) and increased lipid oxidation (drop in respiratory quotient).

If you have high insulin sensitivity, your body efficiently switches to burning fat when fat is available during exercise. If you have low insulin sensitivity, this switch is impaired, meaning fat availability doesn't reliably drive fat oxidation. For general health, improving insulin sensitivity (via exercise and diet) may improve this metabolic flexibility, even if total fat burned looks similar on a monitor.

Individual metabolic and hormonal adaptations, including somatotype-specific responses and adaptive thermogenesis, drive significant variability in weight management outcomes, rendering the 'calories in, calories out' model insufficient for personalized strategies.

Stop assuming that a calorie is just a calorie for everyone. Your body's hormonal and metabolic response to food and restriction is unique. To succeed, you need to move beyond simple calorie counting and consider personalized strategies like precision nutrition, which may involve analyzing your metabolic profile, hormonal status, and even genetic factors to tailor your diet and exercise.

Somatotypes (ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph) correspond to distinct metabolic and hormonal profiles that influence individual responses to diet and exercise, suggesting tailored interventions are more effective.

Understand your body type as a starting point for tailoring your approach. Ectomorphs may need high-protein and resistance training to preserve muscle. Mesomorphs may respond well to balanced macronutrients and strength training. Endomorphs may benefit from low-GI diets and stress management to modulate insulin and cortisol. Use this framework to personalize your strategy.

Transdermal testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) increases lean body mass (LBM) in men with spinal cord injury (SCI) and hypogonadism, with effects comparable to or greater than those seen in able-bodied elderly men.

If you have a spinal cord injury and low testosterone, transdermal testosterone therapy (gel or patch) can help you gain muscle mass, potentially more than it does in older able-bodied men. The key is using the right dose to keep your testosterone levels in the normal range, which typically requires daily application and regular blood tests to adjust the dose. While it helps muscle, it may not significantly reduce fat mass in SCI patients, so managing diet and activity remains important.

Transdermal TRT improves metabolic markers, including resting energy expenditure (REE) and HDL cholesterol, in men with spinal cord injury, potentially reducing cardiovascular disease risk.

Testosterone therapy can help boost your metabolism and improve your 'good' cholesterol (HDL) levels, which is beneficial for heart health. This happens partly because building muscle increases your resting energy expenditure. While this doesn't replace the need for a healthy diet, it provides a metabolic advantage that can help manage weight and cardiovascular risk over time.

Higher protein intake (1.6 g/kg/day) modulates gut microbiota composition differently than moderate protein intake (1.0 g/kg/day) during resistance training, specifically affecting the abundance of Veillonellaceae, Akkermansia, and Eggerthellaceae.

While higher protein doesn't build more muscle, it does change your gut bacteria. Specifically, it increases beneficial bacteria like Akkermansia and Veillonellaceae. This may offer metabolic benefits independent of muscle growth, though the clinical significance is still being researched.

Semaglutide treatment resolves prediabetes and normalizes HbA1c levels in post-bariatric patients, even in those who did not achieve full diabetes remission post-surgery.

If you had bariatric surgery and still have prediabetes, semaglutide can help normalize your blood sugar levels. In this study, all patients with prediabetes who took semaglutide for a year achieved normal glucose levels. This highlights the importance of ongoing metabolic management after surgery.

Adjuvant pharmacotherapy with anti-obesity medications (AOMs) such as Liraglutide, Lorcaserin, or Naltrexone/Bupropion is effective and well-tolerated for managing weight regain or insufficient weight loss after bariatric surgery.

If you experience weight regain or insufficient weight loss after bariatric surgery, anti-obesity medications (like Liraglutide) can be a safe and effective option. Studies show they are well-tolerated and can help you lose additional weight, serving as a valuable tool for long-term management.

Both constant intensity (CI) and variable intensity (VI) resistance training protocols elicit favorable acute hormonal responses (increased testosterone/cortisol ratio and decreased cortisol) in elderly men, with no significant difference in metabolic or hormonal outcomes between the two methods when loads are equalized.

For elderly men, both constant weight (75% 1RM) and pyramid-style (67-80% 1RM) resistance training produce similar favorable acute hormonal shifts (improved T:C ratio). You do not need to complicate your workout with pyramid schemes to get hormonal benefits; sticking to a constant intensity is equally effective and potentially easier to manage. Focus on consistency and progressive overload over time rather than chasing acute hormonal spikes.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (EPA/DHA) reduce cardiovascular risk in observational studies, but randomized controlled trials of supplementation do not consistently show a reduction in major cardiovascular events.

Eating fish is associated with lower heart disease risk, but taking omega-3 supplements does not consistently prevent heart attacks or strokes in clinical trials. If you want the benefits, focus on eating fatty fish rather than relying on supplements.

Short sleep duration is associated with increased adiposity (BMI, fat mass index, percent body fat, trunk fat) and decreased lean body mass in adult women, but this association is not observed in adult men.

For women, prioritizing sufficient sleep duration (avoiding the shortest quartile) may help manage body fat and preserve lean mass, as this study found a specific link between short sleep and higher adiposity in women. For men, this specific study did not find a link between sleep duration and body composition, suggesting other factors may be more critical for weight management. Ensure sleep duration is age-appropriate, as sleep needs decrease with age.

In pre-frail and frail older adults, a 6-month multi-component exercise program combined with twice-daily protein supplementation (20g per dose) improves grip strength and physical performance regardless of whether the protein source is whey or rice, indicating that total protein quantity and exercise adherence are more critical than protein quality (amino acid profile).

If you are an older adult at risk of frailty, focus on doing regular multi-component exercise (strength, balance, walking) and ensuring you get enough protein (around 40g/day from supplements if needed) rather than stressing about whether the protein is whey or rice. Both work for improving strength and physical performance. If whey causes stomach upset, try rice protein instead.

High protein intake (1.7–2.3 g/kg/day) improves lean body mass retention during low-energy diets, but evidence for its benefit during very-low-energy diets (VLEDs) is conflicting.

Eat more protein (around 1.7-2.3g per kg of body weight) if you are on a low-calorie diet to help keep your muscle. However, if you are on a very strict very-low-calorie diet, extra protein might not help as much as you hope, and results vary. Check with your doctor if you have kidney issues.

Whey protein supplementation (concentrated, hydrolyzed, or isolated) significantly reduces fat mass compared to isocaloric carbohydrate placebos in healthy adults undergoing resistance training, but does not significantly increase fat-free mass.

If you are doing resistance training, switching from a carbohydrate-based post-workout drink to whey protein may help you lose a small amount of fat mass over ~2 months. Do not expect this to build muscle mass; the study found no significant difference in fat-free mass gains between whey and placebo groups.

Whey protein supplementation significantly reduces fat mass only in 'regular physical activity practitioners' and not in 'sporadic' practitioners or 'athletes' in subgroup analyses.

If you train regularly (2-3 times per week), whey protein may help you lose fat. If you train sporadically or are a professional athlete, this specific fat loss benefit was not observed.

Auricular acupoint stimulation (ear acupuncture or acupressure) significantly reduces body weight, BMI, body fat percentage, and waist circumference in overweight and obese adults compared to placebo or no intervention.

If you are overweight or obese, auricular acupoint stimulation (using needles, seeds, or electrical stimulation on specific ear points) can help you lose a small amount of weight (about 1.2 kg on average) and reduce body fat and waist size. It works best when combined with standard lifestyle changes and requires a treatment duration of at least 6 weeks for optimal results on waist circumference.

Auricular acupoint stimulation treatments lasting 6 weeks or longer are more effective for reducing hip circumference than treatments shorter than 6 weeks.

If you are using ear stimulation for weight loss, ensure you commit to at least 6 weeks of treatment to see potential benefits in hip circumference reduction.

Low glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates increase postprandial GLP-1 secretion and decrease GIP secretion compared to high GI carbohydrates, which mediates cardiometabolic health benefits.

Choose carbohydrates that digest slowly (low GI), such as whole grains, legumes, or specific sugars like isomaltulose, over refined sources like white bread or sucrose. This slows nutrient absorption, allowing glucose to reach the lower intestine where it triggers GLP-1 release. GLP-1 improves cardiovascular health, reduces appetite, and protects the heart, whereas rapid digestion triggers GIP, which is linked to fat storage and inflammation.

Oral contraceptive use does not negatively affect body composition (fat-free mass) or strength adaptations (bench press and squat 1RM) in resistance-trained women during an 8-week supervised resistance training program.

If you are a woman who has been strength training for at least two years, using combined oral contraceptives will not stop you from getting stronger or building muscle. You can continue your resistance training and diet as usual; your results should be similar to those who do not use OCs. Consult your doctor for contraceptive choices, but know that performance-wise, it is not a barrier.

GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) improve sperm parameters (concentration, motility, morphology) and testosterone levels in obese men with metabolic hypogonadism, primarily through weight loss and direct testicular effects.

If you are obese and struggling with fertility, GLP-1 medications like semaglutide or liraglutide may help improve your sperm count and testosterone levels, not just by helping you lose weight, but potentially by directly supporting testicular function. The key is working with a doctor to start with a low dose and slowly increase it to minimize stomach issues. While these drugs are expensive, the potential for improved fertility and sustained weight loss might justify the cost compared to other treatments.

SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists offer weight loss and glycaemic control, with SGLT2 inhibitors providing cardiovascular protection beyond glucose lowering and GLP-1 agonists showing early evidence of CVD event reduction.

Newer diabetes medications like SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 agonists not only lower blood sugar but also help with weight loss and may protect the heart. They are often preferred for patients who are overweight or have high cardiovascular risk, offering benefits beyond just glucose control.

High adherence to exercise (≥66%) and supplementation (≥80%) allows the intervention to preserve femoral neck bone mineral density and increase total body lean mass, suggesting the protocol is physiologically effective if adhered to.

If you can strictly follow the full exercise and supplement regimen, you may preserve hip bone density and gain lean mass. However, this requires a high level of commitment (n=11 in the study achieved this), which is difficult for most patients.