Dr.NateNeph said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

Pushing back on Dr.NateNeph here. I would resist the confidence. Half of what this board was certain about two years ago has since been quietly dropped, and nobody went back to correct the threads.

Dr.NateNeph said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

Agreed, with the usual condition: that holds for the average and this board is a collection of individuals. A population claim and a personal prediction are different things and get quoted interchangeably.

Dr.NateNeph said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

Bookmarking. The distinction being drawn above is the one nobody else makes. I will report back once I have actually tried it.

Clinical perspective, offered as context rather than as advice. The honest answer is that the effect is real, the magnitude is contested, and the individual variation is larger than either. Those three things can all be true at once, and most arguments here are two people holding different parts of that.

Dr.ObesityLA said:

The honest answer is that the effect is real, the magnitude is contested, and the individual variation is larger than either.

This matches mine closely enough to be worth saying so out loud. Nothing to add that would improve it.