The Statura blog
Evidence-aligned explainers on the numbers behind fitness and health. Filter by pillar below.
BMI vs. Body Fat Percentage: Which Actually Matters?
BMI is everywhere, but it can't tell muscle from fat. Here's what each measure captures, where each one misleads, and how to read them together.
Read articleWhat Is a Healthy BMI? Understanding the WHO Categories
Where the 18.5–24.9 range came from, what the categories above and below it actually mean, and how much weight to put on the number.
Read articleHow to Measure Body Fat at Home (Without Calipers)
A practical guide to the U.S. Navy tape method — where to place the tape, how to avoid the common errors, and how it compares to scales and scans.
Read articleWaist-to-Hip Ratio vs. BMI: Which Predicts Health Risk Better?
Where you store fat matters as much as how much you carry. What waist-to-hip ratio measures, what the WHO thresholds mean, and when it beats BMI.
Read articleWhy the Scale Isn't Telling You the Whole Story
Muscle and fat weigh the same but occupy different space. What that means for tracking progress, and why the scale can stall while your body changes.
Read articleIdeal Weight Formulas Compared: Devine, Robinson, Miller and Hamwi
Four formulas, four different answers, all from the same height. Where they came from, why they disagree, and what to use instead of any of them.
Read articleBMI by Age and Sex: Why One Table Doesn't Fit Everyone
The same 18.5–25 range is applied to a 22-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman. Where that breaks down, what the alternatives are, and why the AMA changed its position in 2023.
Read articleIdeal Weight vs. Healthy Weight: Which Target Should You Use?
One is a number invented for drug dosing. The other is a range derived from mortality data. They are not the same thing, and only one of them is a sensible goal.
Read articleReading a Body Fat Percentage: What's Athletic, What's Risky
The categories, why men's and women's differ by ten points, why essential fat is a floor rather than a target, and how much to trust the number your method gave you.
Read articleWhat Is My Body Shape? How to Measure, and What It Does Not Mean
Hourglass, pear, apple, rectangle, inverted triangle — where the categories come from, how to take the three measurements properly, and which of your numbers actually predicts anything.
Read articleHow Many Calories Should I Eat? A Practical Guide to Your TDEE
How to find your maintenance calories, choose a deficit or surplus that works, and adjust when the number turns out to be wrong.
Read articleBMR vs. TDEE: The Difference That Decides Your Calorie Target
One is what you burn doing nothing; the other is what you burn living your life. Confusing them is the most common calorie-counting mistake.
Read articleProtein Intake Guide: How Much You Actually Need by Goal
The RDA is a minimum to prevent deficiency, not a target for someone who trains. What the research supports, by goal and body weight.
Read articleMacro Splits Explained: Balanced, Low Carb, High Protein and Keto
Four ways to divide the same calories. What each split is good for, what the evidence says about which wins, and how to pick one you'll stick to.
Read articleHydration Guide: How Much Water You Actually Need
Where the eight-glasses rule came from, why it isn't a rule, and how to estimate your own needs based on body size, activity and climate.
Read articleSafe Calorie Deficits: How Fast Can You Lose Weight Without Harm?
Why faster isn't better, what an aggressive deficit actually costs you, and how to pick a rate you can sustain to the finish.
Read articleWhy Your Watch's Calorie Burn Disagrees With Your TDEE
Your tracker says 2,900. The calculator says 2,400. Both can't be right, and the gap explains why a lot of carefully tracked diets quietly stop working.
Read articleCalorie Deficit Plateaus: Metabolic Adaptation, Honestly Explained
Four things happen when the weight stops moving, and only one of them is the metabolic damage the internet talks about. Here's how to tell them apart.
Read articleHow Many Carbs Should You Eat a Day? The Honest Answer
The published range is 45–65% of calories, and where you land inside it matters far less than two other numbers on the label. Here is what the evidence actually supports.
Read articleHow Much Fat Should You Eat a Day? Total Matters Least
Within the published 20–35% range, total fat barely moves health outcomes. What changes risk is which fats you eat and — this is the part usually left out — what they replace.
Read articleHow to Test Your 1RM Safely (and Why You Often Shouldn't)
Estimating your one-rep max from a submaximal set is safer, nearly as accurate, and repeatable far more often than a true max attempt.
Read articleStrength Training Basics: The Principles That Actually Drive Progress
Progressive overload, adequate volume, proximity to failure and recovery. Four principles that explain most of what works.
Read articleHeart Rate Training Zones: What Each Zone Does and How to Use Them
Five zones, two ways to calculate them, and why the 'fat-burning zone' isn't what the label suggests.
Read articleRunning Pace Guide: How to Find, Train and Race Your Pace
How pace, speed and distance relate, why race pace slows as distance grows, and how to set a goal you can actually hold.
Read articleCardio vs. Strength: Why You Probably Need Both
They adapt different systems and protect against different problems. The interesting question isn't which to choose but how to combine them.
Read articleCalories Burned: How to Read MET Values (and Their Limits)
What a MET actually is, why heavier people burn more for the same activity, and why your watch and this calculator disagree.
Read articleRest and Recovery: The Missing Half of Every Training Program
Training is the stimulus; adaptation happens while you rest. What actually aids recovery, what doesn't, and how to spot when you need more.
Read articleHow Your Due Date Is Calculated (and Why It's an Estimate)
Four methods, one number, and a wide range of normal. What Naegele's rule assumes, why ultrasound usually wins, and what the date actually means.
Read articleOvulation and the Fertile Window: How to Time Conception
Why the fertile window is six days rather than one, where the day-14 assumption goes wrong, and what tracking methods actually tell you.
Read articlePregnancy Weight Gain: What's Recommended and Why It's a Range
The Institute of Medicine ranges by pre-pregnancy BMI, where the weight actually goes, and why the trajectory matters more than the total.
Read articleFirst Trimester Timeline: What's Happening Week by Week
The first thirteen weeks in outline — development, symptoms, appointments, and what's worth calling about.
Read articleUnderstanding Your Cycle Length: What's Normal and What's Not
What counts as a normal cycle, why the two phases behave differently, and which irregularities are worth investigating.
Read articleDue Date Accuracy by Method: LMP vs. Ultrasound vs. IVF
Four ways to date a pregnancy, accurate to anywhere from one day to two weeks. Which one your date came from tells you how much to trust it — and what happens when two of them disagree.
Read articlePregnancy Week by Week: What Each Trimester Actually Means
Why week 1 happens before you're pregnant, where the trimester boundaries really fall, and what the numbers in a week-by-week chart are actually measuring.
Read articleConception vs. Implantation: What the Calculators Assume
Three separate events happen over about two weeks, and they get conflated constantly. Knowing which is which explains why early tests come back negative on real pregnancies.
Read articleHow to Predict Your Next Period Accurately (and Why Apps Disagree)
Cycle prediction is simple arithmetic on a number most people measure wrong. How to count a cycle properly, how far ahead the maths holds up, and why two apps give you two different dates.
Read articleHow Far Along Am I? Reading Pregnancy Dates Without the Confusion
Why you were two weeks pregnant before you conceived, what '8w 4d' means, which dating method actually wins, and why your app and your midwife disagree by one week.
Read articleThe Four Phases of the Menstrual Cycle, Explained Properly
What each phase is actually doing, why only one of them varies in length, and what 'regular' means clinically — which is not 28 days.
Read articlehCG Levels in Early Pregnancy: What the Numbers Do and Don't Mean
Why 'doubles every 48 hours' is only half true, why the 66% rule is out of date, and why a single hCG value tells you almost nothing.
Read articleHow Statura's Calculators Work: Our Formulas and Sourcing
Every formula on this site is published, named and cited. Here is where each one comes from, how we chose it, and what we do when sources disagree.
Read articleReading Health Research: A Short Guide for Non-Scientists
How to tell a strong study from a weak one, why headlines mislead, and the handful of questions that filter most bad health claims.
Read articleWhen to See a Doctor: Calculator Results Aren't Diagnoses
What a screening number can and cannot tell you, which results warrant a conversation, and the symptoms that shouldn't wait.
Read articleUnderstanding Metabolism: What You Can and Can't Change
What metabolism actually is, why it's less broken and less boostable than people believe, and the one component you can genuinely move.
Read articleSetting Realistic Health Goals: Trends Beat Targets
Why outcome goals fail, how to build goals around behaviours you control, and what a realistic rate of change actually looks like.
Read articleBody Composition and Longevity: What the Evidence Actually Says
Muscle mass, fitness, fat distribution and the obesity paradox. Which body measures actually track with living longer and better.
Read articleA Healthy Habits Checklist That Actually Moves the Needle
Ten habits with real evidence behind them, ranked roughly by impact — and the ones that get far more attention than they deserve.
Read articleCommon Fitness Myths, Debunked by the Evidence
Spot reduction, toning, the fat-burning zone, muscle turning to fat, and a dozen other claims that survive on repetition alone.
Read articleTracking Progress Beyond the Scale
Eight measures that show change the scale misses, how often to take them, and how to read them together.
Read articleMetric vs. US Units: How Statura Handles the Conversion
Why the same formula gives different-looking numbers in different units, the conversion factors we use, and where rounding errors creep in.
Read articleUnderstanding Your Kidney Function Test: eGFR, Creatinine and Stages
Your blood test came back with an eGFR and a stage. Here is what the number measures, why it is scaled to a body that is not yours, and when a low reading does and does not mean kidney disease.
Read articleHow Alcohol Moves Through Your Body — and Why Only Time Sobers You Up
Coffee does not work. Neither does a cold shower, a big meal afterwards, or a run. Here is what actually happens to alcohol after you drink it, and why the timeline is so much longer than most people assume.
Read articlePrinted from mystatura.com — for general information only, not medical advice.