Saving your calories for the big meal is the oldest holiday tactic there is, and the appetite research says it works against you. A 20 g protein preload cut intake at the next meal by about 16 percent. Here is what to eat instead, and why the metabolism argument for snacking is wrong.
Static stretching before lifting costs about 5 percent of maximal strength, but only when held over 60 seconds per muscle. And the Cochrane review found post workout stretching reduces next day soreness by about one point on a 100 point scale. Neither side of this argument was right.
Six weeks of seven ab exercises, five days a week, produced zero change in abdominal fat or waist circumference in a 2011 trial. Core training is still worth doing, for reasons that have nothing to do with how your stomach looks.
The 2013 Cochrane review found regular vitamin C shortens colds by 8% in adults but does not prevent them. Here is what that means for probiotics, chicken soup and the rest of the cold season advice.
Training the low back alongside the abs is correct. Doing it with the superman is questionable: McGill’s lab measured roughly 6000 N of compression on the hyperextended spine, against about 1800 N for the bird dog, which activates similar muscles.
The ACSM has surveyed exercise professionals for 20 years and wearable technology has topped the list nine times. The forecasts are useful, but they measure what trainers expect, not what anyone does. Here is how to read them.
Processed food does not slow your metabolism. That mechanism is wrong, but the advice survives anyway: an NIH trial found people ate about 500 calories more per day on an ultra-processed diet. Here is which common diet rules hold up against the data.
A 3 ounce serving of canned pink salmon with bones has 117 calories, 21 g of protein and about 180 mg of calcium from the softened bones. The catch is sodium: 324 mg per serving before you add anything.
Habit research puts the median time to automaticity at 66 days, with a range of 18 to 254. A 30 day challenge ends before most habits form, which is fine if you know what you are actually buying: structure, data, and a deadline.
The often repeated 4,500 calorie Thanksgiving figure comes from a food industry trade group, not a study. Here is what the research supports for the day before and the day of, including where the standard advice falls apart.