Guides

The numbers in a fitness app arrive with a lot of confidence and very little explanation. These pages explain what they actually measure, and where they stop being useful.

Why almost everyone quits food logging — In one study of 189,770 downloads, 86% never logged twice and 2.58% lasted a week. The reason is friction, not willpower.
How accurate are photo body-fat estimates? — Photo-based body scans estimate circumferences within a few centimetres in good conditions. What that means, and what it does not.
Strain and recovery, explained — What strain and recovery scores actually measure, which signals feed them, and how much to trust them without a wearable.
How many calories should I eat? — How calorie targets are actually calculated, why every calculator disagrees, and how to correct yours with two weeks of your own data.
How much protein per day? — What the evidence supports for protein intake when training, why the ranges are wide, and how to hit them without weighing everything.
How accurate are calorie labels? — Food labels carry legal tolerances, databases carry user errors, and your logging carries both. What that means for a deficit.
Progressive overload, without the mystique — What progressive overload actually means, the several ways to apply it, and how to know when to stop adding weight.
HRV, explained — Heart-rate variability in plain terms: what it measures, why your number cannot be compared to anyone else’s, and how to use the trend.
Body recomposition, honestly — When recomposition is realistic, who it works best for, and why the scale is the wrong instrument for measuring it.
Why weight loss stalls — The five ordinary reasons a deficit stops working — most of them are not metabolic — and how to tell them apart.
Why the scale jumps overnight — Daily weight is mostly water, food volume and salt. What each one contributes, and how to read the trend instead.
When to weigh yourself — Morning, after the toilet, before eating — and why consistency matters far more than the time you pick.
How to track macros — Set protein first, let the rest follow, and log consistently rather than perfectly. A practical guide to macro tracking.
Deload weeks — What a deload is, the signs you need one, and how to take one without losing the progress you built.
RPE and RIR, explained — What RPE and reps-in-reserve mean, how to estimate them honestly, and why they beat fixed percentages on most days.
Sleep and muscle growth — Why short sleep costs you muscle and strength, what the research suggests, and the handful of changes that actually help.
Creatine, plainly — The most studied supplement in sport, in plain terms: what it does, the dose, and the water-weight question everybody asks.
How many steps a day? — Where 10,000 steps came from, what the research actually supports, and why steps matter more in a diet than people expect.
Finding your maintenance calories — How to find the number you actually maintain on — not from a calculator, but from two weeks of your own data.
How long before you see results? — A realistic timeline for strength, fat loss and visible change — and why the order they arrive in surprises people.
A beginner gym programme — Three days a week, compound movements, progressive overload. What a first programme should contain and what it should leave out.
Cardio and lifting on the same day — Whether cardio blunts strength gains, what order to do them in, and how much is actually a problem.
Tracking a meal you did not cook — Restaurant meals are the most common reason a log stops. Four methods that keep the week honest without ruining dinner.
What soreness actually means — Soreness is not a measure of a good session, and its absence is not a sign of a wasted one. What DOMS actually indicates.
How much water do you need? — Where the eight-glasses rule came from, what the evidence supports, and why training and climate matter more than a fixed number.
How to lose belly fat — Spot reduction does not work. What actually determines where fat comes off, and what to do with that information.
How long to rest between sets — Short rests do not burn more fat and long rests are not lazy. What the evidence supports for strength and for muscle.
How many days a week to train — Three is enough for most people, four is better if you can sustain it, and six is usually how a routine dies.
The best time to train — Performance peaks slightly in the afternoon. Consistency beats that by a wide margin. What the evidence supports.
Does fasted training burn more fat? — Training fasted changes which fuel you use during the session. It does not change what happens over a week.
Reverse dieting — Coming out of a diet slowly, what the claims are, what the evidence supports, and a simpler alternative that works.
Tracking or intuitive eating? — Both work for different people at different times. How to tell which one you need right now, and when to switch.
Ways to measure body composition — Four ways to measure body composition, what each actually measures, how wrong each can be, and which to use for what.

How these are written

Every figure is traceable to a source or to a measurement, and every guide says what it cannot tell you as clearly as what it can. None of it is medical advice — it is how to read a number an app is already showing you.

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