Articles
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2026-09-29
Training with knee pain: what to change, what to keep
Exercise is the first-line treatment for a painful knee, not the thing to stop. How to adjust depth, load and speed, what squats really do, and when to see a doctor instead.
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2026-09-29
Eating with PCOS: what the guideline actually says
PCOS makes weight harder to move, but the 2023 international guideline found no diet composition beats another. What the evidence supports, and what inositol and metformin are for.
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2026-09-29
Do fat burner supplements work?
What the randomised trials found for green tea extract and garcinia, why the effect sizes are under a kilogram, and the liver-injury record that makes this category a poor trade.
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2026-09-29
Losing weight while breastfeeding: what is safe
Breastfeeding costs about 500 kcal a day, but the weight does not always fall off. What the trials say about a safe rate, milk supply, and setting a target that includes feeding.
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2026-09-28
Vitamin D deficiency and tiredness: what the evidence supports
Deficiency is common across the Arab world despite the sun. What the blood test means, what tiredness can and cannot tell you, and why supplements do not cause weight loss.
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2026-09-28
Does stretching before exercise prevent injury?
Pooled trials put stretching's injury risk ratio at 0.963 and strength training's at 0.315. What stretching before a set costs, what it does for soreness, and what a warm-up is for.
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2026-09-28
Does lack of sleep cause weight gain?
Short sleep raises appetite and changes what you lose. What the controlled trials measured, how much a lost hour costs in calories, and what to do on a fixed schedule.
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2026-09-28
What causes muscle cramps during exercise?
The dehydration and salt-loss explanations failed when they were tested. What predicted cramps in 210 triathletes, why stretching stops one in seconds, and when a cramp is a medical question.
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2026-09-28
Is fresh juice good for weight loss?
Freshly squeezed juice is not a diet food. What a glass costs compared with the fruit, why it does not fill you, and how the WHO classifies its sugar.
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2026-09-28
How much fibre do you need per day?
The reference intake is 14 g of fibre per 1,000 kcal, and the outcome data points to 25–29 g a day. What fibre does for appetite and for constipation, and where it is on an Arab table.
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2026-09-28
Coffee before a workout: how much, when, and the catch
Caffeine reliably improves training performance at 3–6 mg per kg of body mass, taken about an hour before. The dose, the ceiling, and the sleep it costs you.
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2026-09-28
Cardio or weights for fat loss?
A randomised trial ran aerobic training, resistance training and both for eight months. Aerobic won on fat, weights won on lean mass, and the combination did not win twice.
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2026-09-28
Can you build muscle after 40?
Muscle growth after 40 is slower, not blocked. What controlled trials measured in adults from 50 to 96, how much protein the evidence asks for, and what a first programme looks like.
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2026-09-28
How much added sugar per day?
The WHO limit is a share of your energy, not a fixed number of grams. What counts as a free sugar, what cutting it does to body weight, and where it hides on an Arab table.
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2026-09-27
Will lifting weights make a woman bulky?
What the trials show when men and women run the same resistance programme, why the absolute ceiling differs, and what “toned” actually asks for.
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2026-09-27
How much salt a day, and does cutting it help?
The WHO ceiling is under 5 g of salt a day and this region eats roughly double it. What salt reduction does to blood pressure, where the salt actually comes from, and who needs to be stricter.
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2026-09-27
Is muscle soreness a sign of a good workout?
Soreness tracks novelty, not adaptation. What DOMS is, why it is a poor scoreboard, whether to train through it, and the rare pattern that means see a doctor.
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2026-09-27
Are eggs bad for your cholesterol?
One large egg carries about 186 mg of cholesterol, and that turns out to matter far less than forty years of advice assumed. What the feeding trials and the cohorts actually show.
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2026-09-26
Do artificial sweeteners help you lose weight?
WHO advises against using sweeteners for weight control; randomised trials show about a kilogram lost when they replace sugary drinks. Why both are right, and what to do with it.
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2026-09-26
Does protein timing after training matter?
The 30-minute anabolic window does not survive the trials: pooled randomised studies lost the timing effect once daily protein was controlled for. What distribution across the day does change.
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2026-09-26
How long before you lose muscle if you stop training?
A week off costs nothing measurable, cardio fitness fades first, and three-week breaks did not change 24-week muscle gains. What detraining really costs, and the minimum that holds it.
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2026-09-26
Is creatine safe, and does it actually work?
What the pooled trials and the sports-nutrition position stand say about creatine: a small real effect on strength, no credible kidney risk in healthy adults, and less cramping, not more.
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2026-09-25
Walking after meals and blood sugar
Ten minutes of walking after each meal lowered post-meal glucose more than the same walking done in one block. Why the timing works, who benefits, and why it is not a calorie strategy.
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2026-09-25
Does cooking oil count in your calories?
Oil and ghee are the most under-recorded items in a home kitchen and the most energy-dense. What a spoonful really is, why the app and the pan disagree, and how to log it once per pot.
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2026-09-25
Can you build muscle and lose fat at the same time?
Recomposition is real, and easiest for beginners, returners and people with more fat to lose. The three conditions it needs, the best-case trial numbers, and why the scale cannot see it.
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2026-09-25
Does bread make you fat?
Bread is not uniquely fattening, but it is the item people eat without counting and the vehicle for the fat around it. What a loaf costs, what the fibre evidence supports, and how to keep it.
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2026-09-24
Why weight loss stalls, and what to change first
A plateau is three flat weekly averages, not three flat days. What the evidence says about adherence drift, metabolic adaptation, and the order to fix things in.
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2026-09-24
Should you weigh food raw or cooked?
Cooking moves water, not calories — which is why 200 g of rice logged in the wrong state is a 470 kcal error. The rule, the exceptions, and how to handle a shared pot.
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2026-09-24
How many steps a day do you actually need?
Ten thousand was never a research finding. What the accelerometer cohorts show about the dose that matters, why speed is not the variable, and how to get the steps in a hot climate.
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2026-09-24
Do ab exercises burn belly fat?
Trained directly and measured directly, abdominal exercise does not reduce abdominal fat. What the trials found, the one honest exception, and what does move it.
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2026-09-23
How much water do you need in a hot climate?
The reference value is 3.7 litres of total water a day for men and 2.7 for women — counting tea, soup and food. What changes in heat and training, and what does not.
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2026-09-23
How wrong are restaurant calorie counts?
Laboratory measurements say published menu calories are accurate on average and unreliable per dish, unlabelled kitchens average far more than people expect, and diners underestimate by hundreds of calories.
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2026-09-23
Ramadan fasting and weight loss: what actually happens
Pooled evidence from seventy studies says Ramadan takes off a little over a kilogram and gives most of it back within weeks. Why, and what decides your month.
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2026-09-23
Does eating late at night cause weight gain?
A controlled trial moved 45% of the day's calories from evening to morning and found no difference in energy expenditure or weight lost — only in hunger. What that means for a ten o'clock dinner.
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2026-09-22
Why the scale goes up when you start training
The scale rising in your first weeks of training is glycogen water and repair fluid, not fat. What is happening, how long it lasts, and what to measure instead.
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2026-09-22
How accurate is calorie counting?
Menus, labels, portions and memory each add error, and the total is larger than most people assume. What the laboratory measurements actually found — and why a consistently wrong number is still a useful one.
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