Evidence Base

The studies behind every answer.

Original papers. Full analysis. Every finding linked to its DOI so you can check our work.

The Diet War That Ended in a Jar of Peanut Butter Stanford tracked 609 adults for a year on low-carb vs low-fat. The entire difference was less than a jar of peanut butter — and even that might not be real. Gardner et al. · 2018 · JAMA · n=609

Equal Taste, 500 Hidden Calories They rated both diets the same. Then ate an entire extra meal's worth of calories on ultra-processed food — every day, for two weeks, without noticing. Hall et al. · 2019 · Cell Metabolism · n=20

The Best Diet Beats the Worst by One Grape Per Day Researchers pooled 121 trials and 21,942 people to compare every popular diet. The gap between the best and mid-ranked diet is absurdly small — and a separate trial reveals what actually predicts whether a diet works for you. Ge et al. · 2020 · BMJ · n=21

The Post-Diet Muscle Split Nobody Saw Coming Both groups lost the same fat. But researchers kept measuring for 10 more weeks — and found the only body composition difference happened after the diet ended, not during it. Conlin et al. · 2021 · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · n=23

They Mapped 124 Factors. One Outperformed All Others. Researchers tested every possible predictor of weight regain across 31,741 people — from metabolism to demographics to psychology. The most consistent one is something most people already own and stopped using. Varkevisser et al. · 2019 · Obesity Reviews · n=31,741

The Math Behind Your Month-Four Plateau Researchers built a mathematical model to test whether metabolism or compliance explains the six-month plateau. The equation settled the debate — and the answer will probably sound familiar. Thomas et al. · 2014 · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · n=5,211

The App You Quit Was Already Working Researchers tracked what happened across 12 randomized trials and 1,190 people who kept logging their food. The per-meal math changes how you think about the app sitting unused on your phone. Berry et al. · 2021 · Obesity Reviews · n=1,190

Studies

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