How We Read a Study

BodyFat.Tips is built on a simple rule: claims come from sources, and we tell you what they are. This page explains where our information comes from, how a claim gets checked, and what we do when we get something wrong.

Where our information comes from

We start from primary sources — the actual research, not somebody’s summary of it. Depending on the claim, that means peer-reviewed studies and meta-analyses, clinical-trial registries, systematic reviews, and regulatory documents from bodies like the FDA. When we rely on reporting or a press release, we link it and say so. And when a claim traces back to a single mouse study or a company’s own marketing, we tell you that too — because where a claim comes from is half the story.

Primary sources are the floor, not the ceiling. We read widely to connect things: a new trial next to the older ones it revises, a supplement’s label dose next to the dose that was actually tested, a viral headline next to the study it claims to be based on. The goal is that every piece adds something that wasn’t there before — a comparison, a correction, a clearer frame.

How a claim gets checked

For each claim we look at what the evidence actually is, not just whether a study exists. That means reading for study design, how many people were involved, how long they were followed, who funded it, whether it has been replicated, and what the researchers themselves said the limits were. A single small trial and a large replicated meta-analysis are both “a study” — and they carry very different weight.

That reading produces two things you’ll see on every verdict: an evidence panel laying out what the piece rests on, and a confidence rating — Established, Supported, Preliminary, or Unsupported — that says how much weight the evidence can bear. The four levels and what they mean are set out on our Editorial Policy page.

What we don’t do

We don’t accept payment to reach a conclusion, and no advertiser sees or shapes a verdict. We don’t present opinion as fact — when something is our judgment call, we say so. We don’t claim precision we don’t have: research has gaps, conflicts, and things that simply aren’t settled yet, and where that’s the case we tell you rather than pretend. And we don’t invent numbers — every figure on this site traces to a source you can check.

Updates and corrections

Research moves. New trials land, findings get overturned, and a verdict that was right last year can be wrong this year. We revisit our claims as the evidence changes, and we date significant revisions. When we get something wrong, we correct it on the page and leave the correction visible — it’s part of the record, not something to quietly erase. If you spot an error, tell us. Our full policies live on the Editorial Policy page.