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Explainers

The reading behind the numbers.

Plain-language explainers with real citations, linked so you can go and read the study. The same twelve are inside the app.

What the scale is doing

01 The fast early drop: glycogen and water Your body stores quick-access energy as glycogen, and glycogen holds onto water, roughly 3 grams of water for every gram of it. 02 Why the scale jumps even when you do everything right Daily weight swings of 2 to 4 pounds are mostly water, food still in transit, and glycogen, not fat gained or lost overnight. 03 Fasting and what it does to the scale Fasting creates one of the strongest deficits possible and speeds up glycogen depletion, which is when fat burning ramps up.

What changes when you lose weight

04 Why there is no reset button here If you have been searching for how to reset or repair your metabolism, you have probably found a lot of confident advice. 05 What actually changes when you lose weight Two different things happen, and they get confused constantly. 06 Hunger is the real adversary, not your metabolism People who regain weight usually blame their metabolism. The evidence points somewhere else. 07 A pound of muscle does not burn 50 calories a day You will see that figure everywhere. The real number is about 6 calories per pound per day, so the popular claim is off by roughly eight times. 08 Why weight loss slows down, and what it usually is not Almost everyone slows down eventually. The reason is usually much more boring than the internet suggests.

The practical numbers

09 BMR and TDEE: what they actually mean BMR is what you would burn doing nothing all day, just keeping you alive. 10 Why your fitness tracker overcounts calories Wrist trackers are good at heart rate and steps, but calorie burn is their weakest number. 11 Protein: why it matters more than any other macro In a deficit, enough protein is what tells your body to hold onto muscle and burn fat instead. 12 Hydration and electrolytes Your base water goal is about 2.5 liters, and TrueBurn nudges it up on higher-activity days.

Sources

Every number the app leans on is traceable.

These are the references behind the calculations themselves, as opposed to the explainers above. PubMed links are by PMID, so they do not rot.

Mifflin-St Jeor BMR equation (1990) Stanford fitness tracker accuracy study (2017) Compendium of Physical Activities (MET values) Steps and mortality, JAMA Internal Medicine (2019)

Reading is not the point

None of this tells you your own number. Two weeks of complete days does that.

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