Reduced muscle protein synthesis appears to drive disuse atrophy in women🦵

This controlled study examined how 10 days of unilateral leg unloading affected muscle protein synthesis (MPS), muscle protein breakdown (MPB) and muscle size in 14 healthy young women 🔍

One leg was hile the opposite leg continued to receive resistance exercise 🦵

Results 📊

📉 MRI showed a significant reduction in vastus lateralis volume in the unloaded leg, confirming short-term muscle atrophy

🧮 Researchers compared traditional steady-state calculations with non-steady-state modelling that accounted for the shrinking muscle protein pool

↔️ Both modelling methods produced the same overall interpretation

📉 Mixed-muscle MPS declined significantly during unloading

🧬 The response was protein-fraction specific: myofibrillar MPS decreased, while sarcoplasmic MPS remained unchanged

↔️ Muscle protein breakdown did not increase, suggesting atrophy was not driven by greater protein degradation

🏋️ In the loaded leg, mixed, myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic MPS remained unchanged compared with baseline across the measurement period

💡 Short-term disuse therefore appears to reduce the construction of new muscle protein rather than substantially accelerate the breakdown of existing tissue

🙋‍♀️ The study adds valuable female-specific evidence to a research area that has often relied heavily on male participants

⚠️ The sample was small and involved only healthy young women using a 10-day unloading model, so findings may not fully translate to longer immobilisation, severe injury or older adults

For women, during injury-related unloading, maintaining as much safe mechanical loading as possible should be prioritised, with nutrition used to support that stimulus rather than assuming muscle loss is mainly caused by accelerated protein breakdown ✅

Reference:

physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/JP…

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A 200-km swim required nearly 14,700 kcal per day 🏊

This case study used doubly labelled water to measure energy expenditure during a 200-km open-water swim completed over 73.5 hours by a 103-kg former Olympic-level swimmer 🔍

Results 📊

🔥 Total energy expenditure averaged ng approximately 46,600 kcal across the 76-hour measurement period

📈 This equated to 6.17 times basal metabolic rate, placing it among the highest directly measured sustained energy expenditures reported over a similar duration

🌊 The swim took place in 20.5°C water, where continuous conductive heat loss likely added substantially to the metabolic cost of near-continuous swimming

🥣 The athlete consumed around 10,000 kcal/day, using gels, bananas, muesli bars, sports drinks and larger meals approximately every 4 hours

📉 Despite this, the estimated cumulative energy deficit was still approximately 16,600 kcal

⏱️ Nutrition was provided every 20 minutes during brief stops, helping maintain intake without substantially interrupting progress

💧 Daily water turnover reached 14.8 L, equivalent to approximately 0.61 L/hour

💪 The athlete completed an estimated 200,000 strokes, contributing to shoulder pain, blisters and substantial upper-body mechanical stress

😴 Total rest time was around 7 hours, including partial sleep, across the event

↩️ A previous attempt ended after 163 km and 55 hours, when intake was only ~5700 kcal/day and sleep totalled around 40 minutes

⚠️ This involved one athlete, and calculating expenditure required assumptions about respiratory exchange ratio, so the exact values remain uncertain

For extreme multi-day endurance events, success depends not only on physical capacity, but on sustaining very high energy intake alongside realistic pacing, planned sleep, thermal protection and frequent, practical feeding opportunities ✅

Reference:

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

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Walnuts may help reduce inflammation 🔥

This systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis included 24 randomised controlled trials and 2,068 adults, examining whether walnut intake influences inflammatory cytokines and adipokines 🔍

Key findings ⬇️

📉 Walnut consumption ion in C-reactive protein (CRP) versus control (WMD = −1.0 mg/dL)

🧬 Interleukin-6 (IL-6) was also modestly reduced (WMD = −0.11 pg/mL)

↔️ However, sensitivity analyses showed that these findings were not robust when several influential studies were removed

🔥 Walnuts did not significantly reduce tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α)

⚖️ There were also no significant effects on the adipokines adiponectin or leptin

📆 Subgroup analyses suggested stronger anti-inflammatory effects in interventions lasting more than 12 weeks

🥜 Effects also appeared more pronounced with walnut intakes above 50 g/day, although this does not establish an optimal dose

🧩 Walnuts provide polyunsaturated fats, fibre and antioxidants, which may help explain potential effects on inflammatory pathways

⚠️ The average effects were modest, study results were not entirely stable, and the clinical importance of the changes remains uncertain

Adding walnuts to an overall high-quality diet may provide a small anti-inflammatory benefit, but these findings do not show that walnuts directly improve exercise recovery or performance ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42947498/

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Creatine does not reliably prevent muscle loss during immobilisation 🦵

This systematic review included 6 randomised placebo-controlled trials and 118 participants, examining creatine during immobilisation and rehabilitation 🔍

Key findings ⬇️

🛑 Studies used 1–2 weeks of mobilisation, mainly in healthy people aged 15–24 years

🥄 Protocols commonly used 20 g/day for 5–7 days, followed by 3–5 g/day during rehabilitation

📉 Direct imaging showed similar quadriceps losses with creatine and placebo: −5.6% vs −5.5% after 1 week and −11.0% vs −9.4% after 2 weeks

⚖️ Two studies reported better preservation of limb lean mass, but these used DXA or bioelectrical impedance, which can be influenced by fluid shifts and may not reflect preserved muscle tissue

💪 Effects on strength, power and endurance during immobilisation were inconsistent, with favourable findings mainly from small upper-limb studies

🏋️ Results were more promising once structured resistance rehabilitation began

📈 One study found greater quadriceps growth with creatine during rehabilitation (+21.3% vs +14.3%)

⚡ Other studies reported greater improvements in lower-limb lean mass, power, strength or muscular endurance, although benefits were inconsistent

↔️ Passive recovery without structured retraining showed no creatine benefit

⚠️ Evidence was limited and heterogeneous, with no trials in older adults or clinical populations at greater risk of prolonged muscle loss

For injured athletes, creatine should not be relied upon to prevent atrophy during complete immobilisation, but it may be worth continuing or introducing alongside progressive resistance-based rehabilitation, where the limited evidence is more encouraging ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42952382/

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Creatine and beta-alanine may help decisive endurance efforts 🚴‍♂️

This structured narrative review included 19 articles, examining creatine, beta-alanine and their co-supplementation for endurance athletes 🔍

Key findings ⬇️

🧬 Beta-alanine increases muscle carnosine and , potentially delaying fatigue when glycolytic demand is high

⏱️ Its clearest value may be in efforts lasting 1–10 min, or longer races containing threshold work, repeated surges, climbs and finishing sprints

📈 Some studies improved time to exhaustion, 10-km running or late-race sprint power, but several found no benefit for time trials or VO₂max

🥄 The review suggests 3.2–6.4 g/day for ≥4 weeks, divided into smaller doses to reduce paraesthesia

⚡ Creatine may support repeated high-intensity efforts through greater phosphocreatine availability, ATP resynthesis and buffering capacity

🍞 It may also enhance carbohydrate-mediated glycogen resynthesis and potentially reduce muscle damage and inflammation

🚴 Benefits appear most plausible in cycling, triathlon and tactically variable events involving repeated accelerations or decisive sprint finishes

🏃 Any transient body-mass increase may matter more in weight-bearing events such as running

↔️ Creatine has not consistently improved VO₂max, lactate threshold, time to exhaustion or overall endurance performance

🧪 Combining creatine and beta-alanine has not shown a clear additional benefit for aerobic capacity or endurance performance

⚠️ Most evidence comes from untrained, recreational or moderately trained participants, with little direct research in elite endurance athletes

For endurance athletes, creatine and beta-alanine are best periodised around high-intensity training or races involving surges, climbs and sprint finishes, rather than treated as universal supplements for steady-state endurance ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42959925/

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Concurrent training may limit maximal strength without blunting hypertrophy 🏋️

This randomised 11-week study compared endurance, resistance and concurrent training in 30 trained young men, examining lower-body strength, explosive performance and muscle morphology 🔍

Training sising maximal strength, followed by 6 weeks targeting explosive strength 📆

Results 📊

💪 Maximal voluntary isometric contraction increased only with resistance training (+18.4%), suggesting concurrent training may limit maximal-strength development

⚡ Peak rate of force development improved with resistance (+31.8%) and concurrent training (+23.1%)

⏱️ Resistance training produced progressive improvements across both phases, whereas concurrent training improved mainly during the second

🚀 Early-phase force development (0–50 ms) improved earlier with resistance training, while the concurrent group improved only from mid- to post-training (+38.3%), alongside greater quadriceps activation

🆙 Countermovement-jump positive impulse increased with resistance (+12.7%) and concurrent training (+8.8%), with no evidence of interference

📈 Vastus lateralis cross-sectional area increased with resistance (+17.0%) and concurrent training (+8.8%)

🧬 Muscle pennation angle also increased in both groups: +18.6% with resistance and +10.1% with concurrent training

↔️ Endurance training alone produced no improvements in rate of force development

⚠️ The study was small, included only trained young men and lasted 11 weeks

For trained athletes, concurrent endurance and resistance training may constrain maximal isometric strength and delay rapid-force adaptations, but well-periodised resistance training can still produce meaningful hypertrophy and explosive-performance gains alongside endurance work ✅

Reference:

ovid.com/jnls/nsca-jscr…

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Exogenous ketones show little benefit for post-exercise recovery 🥤

This systematic review included 16 studies, with 7 entered into meta-analyses, examining whether exogenous ketone supplementation improves recovery after exercise 🔍

Key findings ⬇️

😣 Exogenous ketones did e muscle soreness compared with control (SMD = 0.39)

🍞 Muscle glycogen resynthesis was also not significantly improved (SMD = 18.21), with substantial uncertainty around the estimate

🩸 Post-exercise lactate concentrations were slightly lower in the control conditions, although the difference was small and considered unlikely to be clinically meaningful

💪 Creatine kinase, a commonly used marker of muscle damage, was not significantly affected

🧠 Evidence for cognitive recovery was mixed, with isolated improvements in reaction time but most cognitive outcomes remaining unchanged

↔️ Overall, the findings do not support a consistent benefit for soreness, glycogen restoration, muscle-damage markers or cognitive recovery

🧩 Supplement protocols, exercise models and recovery measurements varied considerably between studies, making direct comparisons difficult

👨 Most participants were physically active men, substantially limiting generalisation to women and other athletic populations

⚠️ The evidence base was relatively small, and only 7 of the 16 included studies provided data suitable for meta-analysis

📊 The authors conclude that current evidence suggests limited recovery benefits from exogenous ketones, with further well-powered studies needed across more diverse populations and recovery settings

For athletes, exogenous ketones should not currently be expected to meaningfully accelerate post-exercise recovery, and established strategies such as sufficient carbohydrate, protein, fluids and sleep remain the priorities ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42958814/

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Nutrition for swimmers with type 1 diabetes 🏊

This new review examined nutrition, glucose monitoring, training and competition considerations for competitive swimmers with type 1 diabetes (T1D) 🔍

Key takeaway messages ⬇️

🩸 Glycaemic responses vary by session type: aerobic rs glucose, while anaerobic/high-intensity work may increase or stabilise it

📊 Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) can help guide fuelling and insulin strategies, but exercise-related lag means readings should be interpreted cautiously

🍞 Carbohydrate intake should be periodised to training load: roughly 3–7 g/kg/day for one daily session and 6–10 g/kg/day with ≥2 sessions

⚡ During longer sessions, 30–60 g carbohydrate/hour may be appropriate, with higher-intensity sessions also requiring adequate pre-exercise fuelling

💉 Insulin adjustments are highly session-specific, with larger bolus reductions generally required for longer aerobic work than for sprint or resistance sessions

🌙 Enhanced insulin sensitivity can persist for 24–48 h post-exercise, increasing the risk of late and nocturnal hypoglycaemia

🥛 Post-exercise recovery should prioritise carbohydrate for glycogen restoration, alongside protein; the review suggests 1.2–1.6 g/kg/day protein

🧃 Fast-acting carbohydrate should always be available, and hypoglycaemia should be treated promptly before returning to exercise

🏔️ Altitude may increase carbohydrate oxidation and hypoglycaemia risk, requiring closer monitoring and potentially greater carbohydrate provision

☕ Caffeine may reduce the fall in glucose during exercise, but responses are unpredictable and sleep effects should also be considered

⚠️ Evidence specific to elite swimmers with T1D remains sparse, with many recommendations extrapolated from other sports and general T1D guidance

For swimmers with T1D, the priority is not a fixed carbohydrate or insulin formula, but repeatedly practising session-specific combinations of fuelling, insulin adjustment and glucose monitoring until responses become as predictable as possible ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42931559/

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Creatine may improve sleep consistency during perimenopause 💤

This randomised trial examined whether creatine supplementation alongside 6 weeks of high-intensity resistance training influenced cognition, sleep and menopause-related symptoms in 51 perimenopausal women 🔍
cated to creatine (n=18), placebo (n=20), or non-training control (n=13) 🏋️

Creatine and placebo groups completed a 5-day loading phase at 20 g/day, followed by ~4.5 g/day maintenance, alongside twice-weekly progressive resistance training 🥄

Results 📊

🧠 Stroop reaction time improved over the 6 weeks, but there were no between-group differences in cognitive performance

🩸 During the Stroop test, prefrontal oxygenation increased with creatine by +0.32%, while it decreased with placebo by −1.62%

😴 Sleep consistency improved more with creatine, with a baseline-adjusted advantage of +7.4 percentage points versus placebo at week 6

🌡️ Creatine was also associated with fewer self-reported temperature-sensitivity days

↔️ The abstract does not report clear benefits for memory performance or other menopause-related symptoms such as fatigue, soreness, brain fog or bloating

⌚ Sleep and symptoms were monitored daily using WHOOP wearables, while cognition was assessed with Stroop and Rey 15-item memory testing

⚠️ The intervention was short, the sample relatively small, and creatine was combined with resistance training, meaning the findings do not isolate creatine in a completely sedentary context

For perimenopausal women undertaking resistance training, creatine may offer benefits beyond muscle by improving sleep consistency and cerebral oxygenation, but larger and longer trials are needed before treating these effects as established ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42926218/

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Ashwagandha shows limited and inconsistent effects on body composition 🌿

This narrative review included 16 placebo-controlled studies, examining whether ashwagandha supplementation influences body mass, fat mass, lean mass, muscle size and anthropometric measures in adults 🔍
e clearest potential benefit was in overweight or obese adults, where several studies reported greater reductions in body mass, BMI or waist circumference versus placebo

📉 In one 8-week trial, 600 mg/day KSM-66® reduced body mass by 2.32 kg versus 1.13 kg with placebo

📆 A 24-week study using the same dose reported an 8.46 kg reduction in body mass, compared with 2.41 kg for placebo

🔥 Evidence for reducing body fat percentage was inconsistent; only one of several studies found a significant additional reduction versus placebo

💪 Evidence for increasing lean mass, fat-free mass or muscle mass was also largely negative, with no included study demonstrating a clear benefit using these measures

📏 Two resistance-training studies did report greater increases in arm and chest circumference, although circumference is a less robust measure of muscle growth than DXA or BIA

🏋️ The apparent muscle-size benefits therefore have not been confirmed as greater gains in actual lean or muscle mass

🧬 Proposed mechanisms include reductions in cortisol and stress-related eating, improved glucose and lipid metabolism, and possible increases in testosterone, but these mechanisms remain partly theoretical or preclinical

↔️ Effects appear less convincing in healthy, already active or trained adults than in those with excess body mass

⚠️ Studies varied substantially in population, extract, dose, training and dietary intervention, and 4 of the 16 studies had commercial sponsorship

📊 The authors conclude that current evidence is mixed and not strong enough to recommend ashwagandha specifically for improving body composition

For athletes, ashwagandha may support stress or other performance-related outcomes, but there is currently little evidence that it reliably increases lean mass or reduces body fat beyond the effects of training and nutrition alone ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42931579/

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Believing you’ve had caffeine can improve performance ☕

This systematic review and meta-analysis included 17 studies and 257 participants, examining the effect of giving athletes a placebo while telling them it was caffeine 🔍

Key findings ⬇️

☕ Across primary performance eine” produced a small-to-moderate improvement versus baseline (d = 0.49)

⏱️ The largest pooled effect was for time to exhaustion (d = 1.07), although this was based on only 2 studies

😮‍💨 Perceived exertion improved moderately (d = 0.52), suggesting expectation may make exercise feel easier

🏋️ Placebo caffeine also increased repetitions performed (d = 0.48) and total weight lifted (d = 0.73)

↔️ Effects on power output, velocity, heart rate, lactate and oxygen consumption were not significant

🧠 Placebo effects were larger when researchers were blinded to whether participants had actually received caffeine, suggesting researcher expectations may also influence outcomes

📣 Using more strategies to reinforce the belief that caffeine would improve performance was associated with larger reductions in RPE

🙋‍♂️ Effects appeared larger in studies with fewer women, but 82% of participants were male, making sex differences highly uncertain

📊 Between-study heterogeneity was low (I² = 21%), and results were not driven by any single study

⚠️ However, 9/17 studies were high risk of bias and the remaining 8 had unclear risk, resulting in low overall certainty

Interestingly, the pooled placebo effect (d = 0.49) sits within the range previously reported for actual caffeine, suggesting some of caffeine’s ergogenic effect may come from expectation alongside its pharmacological effects 🧐

For athletes, believing caffeine will work may meaningfully contribute to its performance benefit, so familiarisation, positive expectations and a consistent caffeine routine could help maximise the effect of actual caffeine use ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42897966/

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Sodium bicarbonate improves 10-km running performance in recreational women 🧂

This randomised, double-blind crossover study examined whether acute sodium bicarbonate improved outdoor 10-km running performance in 21 recreational female runners 🔍

Participants completed two e trials after sodium bicarbonate or placebo 🏃

Sodium bicarbonate was consumed at 0.3 g/kg body mass, compared with 0.03 g/kg salt as placebo 🧂

Both treatments were taken alongside a standardised carbohydrate-rich meal providing 1.5 g/kg carbohydrate 🍚

Supplementation and the meal were consumed 90 min before running ⏱️

Results 📊

📈 Blood bicarbonate increased from 22.2 → 27.7 mmol/L with sodium bicarbonate, while blood pH increased from 7.42 → 7.47

🏃 10-km completion time was significantly faster with sodium bicarbonate: 3046.1 vs 3078.4 seconds

🩸 Blood lactate was also higher after sodium bicarbonate at rest and throughout exercise, consistent with greater extracellular buffering and glycolytic contribution

🤢 Importantly, GI symptoms did not differ between conditions, suggesting the protocol was well tolerated

🩸 Trials were completed during the same phase of the menstrual cycle, helping reduce within-participant hormonal variability

💡 The study extends bicarbonate research beyond short, high-intensity exercise by showing a benefit during a prolonged endurance event performed under field conditions

⚠️ The sample was relatively small and limited to recreational female runners, so the findings should not automatically be generalised to elite athletes or other populations

For runners, 0.3 g/kg sodium bicarbonate taken with a carbohydrate-rich pre-race meal 90 min before exercise may be a practical way to improve 10-km performance without necessarily increasing GI symptoms ✅

Reference:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42926128/

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Gut microbiota may influence exercise performance and recovery, but human evidence remains limited 🦠

This narrative review examined research from 2013–2026 across human, animal and experimental studies 🔍

Key findings ⬇️

🏃 Athletes often have more diverse gut microbiota than although diet, body composition and training make causality difficult to establish.

🧬 Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), including acetate, propionate and butyrate, may influence muscle glucose uptake, glycogen replenishment and energy metabolism.

⚡ Disrupting the microbiota can impair glycogen stores and exercise capacity in animal models, but this does not establish the same effect in humans.

🏃‍♂️ Veillonella can metabolise lactate into propionate and increases after marathons. Its performance benefits have been demonstrated in mice, not athletes.

🥦 Fibre supports SCFA-producing bacteria. High-protein diets that are also low in fibre and carbohydrate may adversely alter the microbiota and increase protein fermentation by-products.

💩 Reducing fibre before demanding sessions or races may improve GI comfort, but chronic restriction could negatively affect microbial diversity.

🛡️ The microbiota could influence recovery through intestinal barrier integrity, immune regulation and inflammatory signalling.

💊 Certain probiotics may reduce muscle-damage markers or offer modest performance benefits, but results depend on strain, dose and population.

⚠️ Much of the mechanistic evidence comes from animals. We cannot yet recommend an ideal “athlete microbiome” or universal microbiome-targeted performance strategy.

For athletes, consuming sufficient energy, varied plant foods and adequate fibre remains sensible, with adjustments around training to manage GI symptoms. Microbiome manipulation remains promising rather than an established performance-enhancing strategy ✅

Reference:
journals.uafm.edu.pl/sas/article/vi…

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Nitric oxide precursors for reducing post-exercise soreness 🫜

This systematic review and network meta-analysis included 19 randomized placebo-controlled trials and 356 participants, comparing nitric oxide precursor strategies for delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) 🔍
beetroot-derived nitrate, watermelon-derived citrulline, watermelon + added citrulline, and isolated amino acid precursors such as L-arginine and citrulline malate 🫜🍉

Here are the key findings ⬇️

⏱️ Effects differed according to the stage of recovery, with benefits most apparent at 24–48 h

🍉 At 24 h, watermelon + added citrulline produced the largest significant reduction in soreness versus placebo (SMD = −0.97)

🫜 Beetroot-derived nitrate also significantly reduced DOMS at 24 h (SMD = −0.67)

📉 At 48 h, beetroot-derived nitrate was the only intervention with a significant benefit versus placebo (SMD = −1.18)

↔️ By 72 h, none of the interventions significantly reduced soreness compared with placebo

🏆 Exploratory rankings placed watermelon + citrulline highest at 24 h and beetroot-derived nitrate highest at 48 h

🏃 In trained athletes, beetroot-derived nitrate significantly reduced 48-h soreness, whereas this was not demonstrated in untrained participants

💊 Isolated L-arginine/citrulline interventions did not show a consistent significant benefit across recovery time points

🧬 Whole-food products may offer effects beyond nitric oxide production through compounds such as polyphenols, betalains, lycopene and vitamin C, although this was not directly established

⚠️ Evidence certainty was generally low, with substantial heterogeneity and few direct head-to-head comparisons between supplements

For athletes, beetroot-derived nitrate currently has the most consistent evidence for reducing soreness across the first 48 h of recovery, while citrulline-enriched watermelon may provide a more specific early benefit around 24 h ✅

Reference:

frontiersin.org/journals/nutri…

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16 common diet questions answered by the evidence 🥗

This review examined 16 common diet questions and misconceptions using trials, reviews and meta-analyses 🔍

Here are the 16 key takeaways ⬇️

💪 Need a surplus to build muscle? Not always. Beginners can recomp; ~10–20% may rainees

⚖️ Lose weight without prescribed calorie restriction? Yes. Some diets reduce intake spontaneously

⏱️ Intermittent fasting better than continuous restriction? No clear long-term advantage

♀️ Sex differences in fasting? Some exist, but not enough for sex-specific protocols

💊 Can athletes meet all needs from food? In theory yes, but many fall short; targeted supplements can help

🍽️ Ideal macro ratio? No. Energy balance, protein, food quality and training demands matter more

📉 Are obesity-diet benefits mainly from weight loss? Mostly yes; higher protein may further help body composition

🧬 Do DNA-based diets improve fat loss? No convincing evidence

🌙 Does eating late cause fat gain? Not inherently; pre-sleep protein can support recovery without increasing fat mass

🥩 Is the carnivore diet well supported? No. Evidence is limited and nutrient concerns remain

🫒 Best diet for longevity? No single diet, but Mediterranean-style, nutrient-dense eating, calorie moderation and adequate protein are supported

🫐 Do “superfoods” exist? Not scientifically; overall diet quality matters more

🌱 Can vegan diets provide enough protein? Yes, with sufficient quantity, variety and planning

🚨 Do high-protein diets damage healthy kidneys? Current evidence says no

🍴 Do more meals increase weight loss? No; total energy balance matters more

🍞 Are carbs more fattening than fat? No. Neither is inherently fattening without excess energy intake

Overall, sustainable energy balance, sufficient protein, nutrient-dense foods and individualisation matter more than rigid diet rules ✅

Reference:

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

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No single diet is best for weight loss ⚖️

This 2026 ISSN position stand reviewed major dietary approaches for reducing body weight and fat mass in healthy, active and athletic adults 🔍

Here are the key findings ⬇️

🔥 A sustained energy deficit is the primary requirement for ize of the deficit matched to goals, body composition and lean-mass preservation

⚠️ Very-low-energy (<800 kcal/day) and low-energy diets (800–1200 kcal/day) produce faster short-term loss, but offer no clear long-term advantage and increase the risk of lean-mass and nutrient loss

⏱️ Intermittent fasting is not inherently superior to continuous calorie restriction when energy intake is comparable

🍽️ Meal frequency has little independent effect on fat loss, although ≥3 protein-rich meals/day may help preserve lean mass in active people

🏋️ Resistance training + sufficient protein are central to protecting lean mass during a calorie deficit

🥩 Protein targets are ~1.2–1.6 g/kg/day for the general population, 1.6–2.2 g/kg/day with resistance training, and potentially 1.9–3.2 g/kg/day in lean, resistance-trained people dieting

🥑 The carb-to-fat ratio can largely be individualized: low-fat, low-carb and ketogenic diets can all reduce weight when calories and protein are controlled

🥓 Ketogenic diets may reduce weight and fat effectively, but can also produce greater fat-free-mass losses, particularly in shorter studies

📉 Weight loss can reduce energy expenditure and increase hunger, but adaptive thermogenesis is usually modest and may diminish once weight stabilizes

📊 Plateaus are normal and may reflect a new energy equilibrium, reduced adherence, short-term fluctuations or body recomposition

For athletes and active people, effective fat loss is less about finding a “best diet” and more about creating a sustainable deficit while preserving training quality, protein intake, lean mass and long-term adherence ✅

Reference:

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

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Sports nutrition guidelines are not just for elite athletes 🏃

This 2026 PINES “10 Questions/10 Experts” session examined how sports-nutrition guidance translates from elite to recreational athletes 🔍

Here are the 10 QnA summaries ⬇️

1️⃣ Guidelines based mainly on elite ence comes from recreationally active or trained athletes, not world-class performers.

2️⃣ Same marathon carbohydrate targets? No. Recreational runners generally need less CHO/h, although total race intake may be similar because they run for longer.

3️⃣ Must recreational athletes hit 1.6 g/kg/day protein? No. It is a useful target, not a minimum needed to benefit from training.

4️⃣ Does nitrate work equally well? No. Response varies with training status, oral microbiome and systemic nitrite; highly trained athletes may respond less.

5️⃣ Does everyone need a hydration plan? No. Many manage adequately without one, but athletes prone to large fluid losses or overdrinking may benefit from individualised plans.

6️⃣ Is sodium bicarbonate only for elite athletes? No. Recreational athletes may also benefit, although performance effects and GI tolerance vary.

7️⃣ Do athletes need more micronutrients than the RDA? Not automatically. A nutrient-dense diet often meets needs; supplement based on assessed status.

8️⃣ Is eating after 8 p.m. harmful? No. Evening athletes may need late nutrition to restore glycogen, meet energy needs and support recovery.

9️⃣ Are recreational athletes at greater risk of low vitamin D? Not inherently. Sun exposure, season, latitude, skin pigmentation and body composition matter more.

🔟 Should recreational athletes train with low CHO availability? Generally no. It may amplify molecular signals but increases effort, reduces training intensity and has not consistently improved performance.

Strategies should match training and competition demands, goals, tolerance and practicality rather than simply copying elite sport ✅

Reference:

journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/…

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Plant protein complementation is not an effective strategy for muscle protein synthesis 🌱

This new study compared beans + rice, carbohydrate alone and lean pork for post-exercise myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) in 26 physically active adults 🔍

Participants completed an ng session before consuming one of three meals 🏋️

🌱 The complementary plant-protein meal provided 20 g protein, including 7.5 g essential amino acids and 1.6 g leucine, from beans and rice

🥩 The pork meal also provided 20 g protein, with 8.1 g EAAs and 1.5 g leucine

🥤 The carbohydrate condition provided 0 g protein

Results 📊

📈 Over the 5-h recovery period, MPS reached 0.103%/h with pork, compared with 0.056%/h with beans + rice

⬆️ Pork therefore produced an approximately 82% greater MPS response than the complementary plant-protein meal

↔️ Surprisingly, MPS after beans + rice was not different from carbohydrate alone (0.056 vs 0.057%/h)

🧬 This occurred despite the plant meal providing a similar total protein, EAA and leucine content to the pork meal

The findings therefore suggest that simply combining complementary plant proteins to improve amino-acid balance does not necessarily produce an equivalent anabolic response 💡

However, this was an acute study measuring MPS for only 5 h, so the results cannot establish differences in long-term muscle growth or training adaptation ⚠️

The plant meal also contained substantially more energy and carbohydrate than the pork meal 🧐

Matching protein, leucine and essential amino acids on paper may not guarantee an equivalent post-exercise anabolic response from plant based vs animal based protein sources 🚨

Reference:

ovid.com/jnls/acsm-msse…

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Cold-water immersion helps recovery in some contexts, but can blunt strength adaptations 🧊

This umbrella review synthesised 15 systematic reviews with meta-analyses, covering 161 unique studies and 3,210 participants, examining post-exercise cold-water immersion (CWI) for daptation 🔍

Here are the key findings ⬇️

🧊 The most consistently effective protocols were 10–15 min at 10–15°C, or 5–10°C when reducing muscle damage or supporting jump recovery was the priority

😣 CWI consistently reduced muscle soreness, with benefits lasting up to ~96 h in some analyses

🩸 Creatine kinase was generally lower 24–72 h after exercise, although CRP and IL-6 were not consistently changed

🫀 CWI improved heart-rate variability immediately post-exercise, suggesting faster parasympathetic reactivation

🚴 Endurance performance improved mainly in the immediate recovery window (~1 h), with little evidence of benefit at ≥24 h

⚡ Power and jump performance showed a time-dependent response: performance may be worse in the first 1–6 h, but can improve from ~24–72 h

↔️ Maximal strength recovery was not consistently improved

🏋️ Repeated CWI after resistance training may attenuate strength and hypertrophy adaptations, particularly when the exercised limbs are immersed

🏃 Endurance training adaptations appear largely unaffected by repeated CWI

🔥 CWI may be most useful when rapid recovery from high-intensity exercise or heat strain is more important than maximising long-term adaptation

⚠️ Evidence certainty was mostly low to very low, and all included reviews were rated low or critically low methodological quality

Cold-water immersion is best treated as a periodised recovery tool: useful during congested competition, hot conditions or when short-term recovery matters, but better avoided immediately after key strength or hypertrophy sessions when adaptation is the priority ✅

Reference:

link.springer.com/article/10.118…

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Plant proteins can stimulate muscle protein synthesis similarly to animal proteins 🌱

This systematic review and network meta-analysis included 51 studies and 1,128 participants, comparing different protein sources for acute muscle protein synthesis (MPS) after resistance e key findings ⬇️

🥛 Native whey, pea protein, whole egg, mycoprotein and whey ranked highest for estimated post-exercise MPS

📊 In the standard network analysis, only whey protein produced a statistically significant increase versus control

🏆 Native whey ranked highest overall, followed by pea protein, whole egg, mycoprotein and whey, although several estimates were based on very few studies

🥚 Dose-response modelling suggested particularly strong MPS responses with ~20 g native whey, 18 g whole egg, 25 g pea and 25 g mycoprotein

🌱 Pea and mycoprotein therefore achieved MPS rankings comparable with leading animal proteins, but generally at slightly higher doses

💪 This challenges the assumption that plant proteins are inherently inferior for stimulating post-exercise MPS

🧬 Differences in digestibility, leucine and essential amino acid content may partly explain why some plant proteins require larger doses

⚠️ Importantly, the analysis did not directly compare animal versus plant protein as broad categories, so this interpretation comes from individual protein rankings

📉 Fava bean and mealworm protein produced some of the lowest predicted MPS responses in the network

⏱️ Outcomes represented acute MPS over ~2–7.5 h, which should not automatically be interpreted as greater long-term hypertrophy

📊 Heterogeneity was very high (I² ~93%), and the network showed significant inconsistency

⚠️ Native whey was represented by only one study arm and pea by two, making those high rankings particularly uncertain

For athletes, total protein dose may be at least as important as whether protein comes from plants or animals; well-selected plant proteins such as pea or mycoprotein can produce strong acute MPS responses when consumed in sufficient amounts ✅

Reference:

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

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