Insights
What the research actually says.
Every figure on these pages is attributed to a named study in the same sentence. Including the ones that contradict what everybody repeats.
Which happens more often than you would expect. The 10,000-step target came from a pedometer advert. “Ninety per cent quit the gym in three months” has no source at all. Losing weight quickly does not, on the trial evidence, mean regaining it faster. Where the popular version turns out to be right, these say so too.
One piece is an opinion rather than a report, and carries a label saying so. It has no sources list, because it is argued from experience instead of measured, which is worth knowing before you read it next to the others.
Habits and routine
Why efforts stop, and what the people who kept going had in common.
On the days you don't want to, just do the steps
OpinionThe Sunday I sat downstairs with a coffee intending not to train, and ended the week with six sessions. On the moment you say no, and why it is the same moment in the gym and at dinner.
31 August 2026 · 5 min read
You can go out on Friday
Diners underestimate a restaurant meal by about 175 calories, the error grows with the meal, and eating less afterwards recovers roughly a third of what you thought it would.
29 August 2026 · 5 min read
The morning routine, and what the phone is taking from it
What the research supports about light, walking and protein first thing, and the one part of the morning that quietly disappears when you take the phone in with you.
28 August 2026 · 7 min read
How long does the average diet last?
About three to five weeks. What studies measured about when people stop, why the popular explanations do not hold up, and what the ones who kept going had in common.
27 August 2026 · 10 min read
Calories and eating
What the trials report about deficits, targets and the numbers people set themselves.
I photographed my breakfast, then weighed it
The photo said 600. The photo plus a description said 425. The scales said 514. What the published accuracy studies report, and why the direction of the error matters more than its size.
6 September 2026 · 7 min read
Weigh daily, believe the weekly average
Fat comes off at a few hundred grams a week and everything else the scale weighs moves by more than that overnight. What the weekly rhythm looks like in 4,657 measurements, and which explanations for a bad morning do not hold up.
3 September 2026 · 7 min read
Calories eaten versus calories burnt
Set a 200 calorie deficit, add an hour of walking and an hour of lifting, and the real number is nearer 600. What that costs, and why no device on you can measure it.
2 September 2026 · 13 min read
Week one is the fastest week you will ever have
In the best-controlled study, fifteen days of restriction produced 1.6 kg of weight loss and 0.2 kg of fat. Where the rest goes, and why the slowdown is not what you think.
30 August 2026 · 6 min read
Eating too little to lose weight?
Cutting harder does stop working, but not for the reason everyone says. What the trials report about metabolic adaptation, under-reporting and regain.
26 August 2026 · 8 min read
Movement
Steps, walking, and what activity does and does not do to the arithmetic.
If they get five minutes to smoke, you get five minutes to walk
OpinionTen laps of a small office is 500 steps. On finding the movement already sitting in a working day, what changes when there are children at home, and why the target is 12,500.
4 September 2026 · 8 min read
How many steps a day?
10,000 came from a 1965 pedometer advert, not from medicine. What the research since has found, and why walking often moves the scale less than the arithmetic suggests.
23 August 2026 · 4 min read
These pages summarise published research, except where marked as opinion, and are not medical or dietary advice. Studies report group averages; individual results vary.