How We Research | Sources and Evidence Standards

Last updated: 2026-09-24

The sources we rely on

In rough order of weight:

Public-health and clinical guidance from national and international bodies, such as the World Health Organization's physical activity guidelines, national health services and government dietary and activity guidelines.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which combine the results of many studies.
Position stands and consensus statements from established professional and scientific organisations in exercise science and nutrition.
Individual peer-reviewed studies, used carefully, especially when they're small, short or in specific populations.
Reputable clinical reference resources for medical topics, such as national health service condition pages and medical encyclopedias.

We don't treat social media posts, influencer claims, supplement marketing or single case reports as evidence for recommendations.

How we weigh evidence

Consistency over novelty. A finding repeated across many studies outweighs one surprising new result.
Relevance. We look at whether studies involved people like our readers (adult men, often beginners) and realistic conditions.
Size of effect. Something can be "statistically significant" and still too small to matter. We say when effects are small.
Safety first. Where evidence is uncertain and a practice carries risk, we err on the side of caution.

How we express uncertainty

We use careful language on purpose. "Commonly recommended", "research generally supports", "often" and "for many people" are there because bodies vary and evidence has limits. When something is genuinely unknown or debated, we say so rather than picking the most exciting answer.

We also give ranges rather than exact prescriptions where appropriate, for example weekly rates of fat loss, protein intakes or training volumes. That's because a single number would suggest more precision than the evidence supports.

Numbers you'll see across the site

Some figures appear often. For transparency, these are the kinds of sources they come from:

Physical activity: at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week plus muscle-strengthening activity on two or more days, from public-health physical activity guidelines such as the WHO guidelines (opens in a new tab).
Rate of fat loss: roughly 0.5% to 1% of body weight per week as a sustainable pace, a range commonly used in sports-nutrition research and practice.
Protein: around 1.6 g per kg of body weight per day for people doing resistance training, reflecting meta-analytic research on protein and muscle.
Sleep: at least seven hours for most adults, reflecting sleep-medicine and public-health recommendations.

Keeping content current

Evidence and guidance change. We review health-sensitive and cornerstone pages regularly and update them when important new guidance or strong new evidence appears. Every guide shows its last-updated and last-reviewed dates.