Evidence-based nutrition

We read the studies. You get the answers.

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The Definitive Guide

The complete evidence guide to exercise and body composition

The three variables marketed hardest in fitness — exercise type, weight load, and workout intensity — were each tested independently by different research teams across different decades. This guide holds all nine analyses together for the first time, including the tensions between them and the one question nobody can answer yet.

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Myths we killed 4

Cardio is better than weights for fat loss

You need to lift heavy to build muscle

HIIT burns significantly more fat (afterburn effect)

Women will get bulky from lifting weights

8 studies 7 meta-analyses Triple-verified Explore cluster →

What the evidence says

Do You Need Heavy Weights to Build Muscle? Your muscles cannot tell how much weight you are holding. They only know how hard they are working. When you push a set to the absolute limit —… 3:06 · 3 studies

Will Lifting Weights Make You Bulky? 29 Studies Measured the Difference Your muscles grow at the same percentage rate as a man's. The meta-analysis measured 0.69% difference across 29 studies — with a 26% chance women actually grow faster.… 2:47 · 2 studies

HIIT for Fat Loss: 29 Trials Measured the Afterburn at 5 Grams Per Day If you do HIIT instead of regular cardio, you will lose essentially the same amount of fat. The tiny extra fat loss HIIT provides — about the weight… 2:58 · 2 studies

The Best Exercise for Fat Loss Doesn’t Exist — Here’s What 65 Trials Actually Reveal Your body does not care whether you run, lift, or do both — it cares how hard you work and how much you eat. Three large bodies of… 2:50 · 6 studies

Cardio vs Weights for Fat Loss — 36 Trials, One Surprising Answer Your body doesn't care whether you run, lift, or do both — it cares how hard you work. The tiny fat-loss advantage cardio has over weights comes from… 3:07 · 3 studies

Does Cardio Kill Your Gains? What 43 Studies Found Your body does not have to choose between getting stronger and getting fitter through cardio. Forty-three studies put people through both types of training and measured the results… 3:15 · 3 studies

How Many Sets Per Week Do You Need to Build Muscle? Your muscles grow more when you train them more — but only up to a point. The first ten or so weekly sets per muscle earn full returns,… 3:14

The Exercise Advice Women Over 40 Keep Getting Is Solving the Wrong Problem Your body responds to exercise the same way a man's does — your muscles grow at the same percentage rate, and whether you run, lift, or do both… 3:26

Why Isn’t All This Exercise Making Me Lose Weight? Your body has a daily calorie budget that stays roughly the same whether you exercise moderately or intensely. Burn more through movement and your body quietly cuts spending… 3:40 · 3 studies

The papers we actually read

Your Training App Counts Sets Wrong. 67 Studies Prove It. A 67-study meta-analysis found that counting indirect sets as half a direct set — the fractional method — predicted muscle… Pelland et al. · 2025 · Sports Medicine · n=67

The Afterburn Effect Is Real — and It Doesn’t Matter The afterburn advantage is statistically real but clinically trivial — less than half a percent of body fat, roughly 5… al. et al. · 2023 · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · n=807

The Interference Effect, <em>Tested</em> in 43 Studies Combining cardio and strength training has no meaningful effect on muscle growth — the difference across 43 studies and 1,090… Schumann et al. · 2022 · Sports Medicine · n=1,090

Women Build Muscle at the Same Rate. So Why the Fear? Women and men build muscle at virtually the same relative rate. The 0.69% difference across 29 studies is too small… Refalo et al. · 2025 · PeerJ · n=2,815

Do You Need Heavy Weights to Build Muscle? 21 Studies Muscle growth was statistically identical between light and heavy weights when sets were taken to the point of complete muscular… Schoenfeld et al. · 2017 · Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

Cardio vs. Weights: The 1 kg Gap Nobody Mentions The fat loss difference between cardio and weights is approximately 1 kg across 36 studies. When total work is equalized,… Lafontant et al. · 2025 · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · n=1,564

The Constrained Energy Model: More Exercise Won’t Burn More Above a moderate activity level, your body's total daily calorie burn plateaus — additional exercise gets metabolically absorbed rather than… Pontzer et al. · 2016 · Current Biology · n=332

Best Exercise to Lose Fat Not Muscle — The Scale Gets It Backwards Resistance training outranked all aerobic exercise for preserving muscle during a calorie deficit, while moderate intensity ranked above heavy —… Xie et al. · 2025 · Frontiers in Nutrition · n=4,429

Nutrition

You paid more per can, compared three brands, and settled on the one that tastes almost like the beer you actually want. The switch to non-alcoholic beer was a calculation, not a whim — a line item in the same budget that tracks your protein intake and your gym schedule. Every sip trades a small pleasure for the confidence that your gains are no longer under threat.

Your Non-Alcoholic Beer Was Solving the Wrong Problem

3 min read 582 words

Training

The improvement happened in the wiring, not the material.

How Your Body Gets Stronger After 60 Without Adding Muscle

2 min read 455 words

Training

Recovery takes longer after 60. Injuries don’t just heal — they remind you they happened, weeks after the fact. Somewhere between those two realities, the choice between machines and free weights starts carrying a weight it never had at 35. Not because the equipment changed. Because the margin you feel you have left got smaller.

The Equipment Choice That Stops Mattering After 60

2 min read 620 words

BUILT TO PROVE OURSELVES WRONG

5 verification gates. 3 pipelines. 28+ kill switches.

Nothing publishes without surviving our Skeptic Protocol — the system we built to catch our own mistakes.

Skeptic Protocol → Manifesto →

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About FitChef

No opinions. Just the science.

We go through hundreds of studies so you don't have to. Then we turn them into stories anyone can understand — and listen to on the go.

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The research

8 peer-reviewed studies

9 claims verified

Triple-verified · DOI-linked · Kill-switched

In numbers

19stories

136claims

120studies reviewed

60-second quiz What do you burn? Find out

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