๐Ÿ“– The UnitPrism Blog

The math & science behind
the numbers you live by.

Deep dives into units, money, health, and the surprisingly interesting corners of everyday measurement.

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Money & Finance

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Health & Body

Person walking on a path
Fitness & Distance
How Many Steps in a Mile โ€” And Why Your Count Might Be Wrong
The average is 2,000 steps, but your actual step count depends on your height, stride, and pace. Here's the real math.
March 18, 2026 ยท 5 min read
Person measuring waist with a tape measure
Health & Fitness
Waist-to-Height Ratio: The 30-Second Health Check That Beats BMI
WHtR is your waist divided by your height โ€” and a growing body of research shows it predicts heart disease and diabetes better than BMI. Here's the formula, the cutoff, and what your number means.
April 22, 2026 ยท 6 min read
Person exercising
Health & Fitness
Why BMI Called You Overweight (And Why It's Probably Wrong)
BMI can't distinguish muscle from fat, was invented in 1832, and the AMA has officially acknowledged its limits. Here's what to check instead.
April 10, 2026 ยท 6 min read
Healthy food
Health & Fitness
Why Calorie Calculators Are Wrong (And How to Fix Yours)
Eating at a deficit but not losing weight? The activity multiplier is probably off by 200โ€“400 calories. Here's how TDEE calculators work and where they go wrong.
April 10, 2026 ยท 7 min read
Person sleeping
Health & Fitness
Why Sleeping Less Makes You Fatter (The Research Is Brutal)
Cutting sleep to 6 hours can cause you to lose 50% less fat and 50% more muscle on the exact same calorie deficit. Here's the study โ€” and what to do about it.
April 10, 2026 ยท 7 min read
Healthy food
Health & Fitness
Why You're Bloated Even When Eating Healthy (It's Your Gut Bacteria)
Persistent bloating on a clean diet isn't about the food. It's about what's living in your digestive system. Here's what the gut microbiome research actually shows.
April 10, 2026 ยท 7 min read
Brain and habits
Health & Fitness
Your Brain Is the Reason You Can't Stick to a Diet
It's not weak willpower. Dopamine, cortisol, and the stress response are actively working against your diet โ€” and understanding the mechanism changes everything.
April 10, 2026 ยท 8 min read
Glass of water
Health & Fitness
How Dehydration Is Quietly Stalling Your Weight Loss
Fat burning literally requires water โ€” it's chemistry, not metaphor. Most people dieting are chronically mildly dehydrated and don't know it.
April 10, 2026 ยท 6 min read
Smoothie
Health & Fitness
Why Replacing One Meal With a Smoothie Actually Works (The Science)
Meal replacement smoothies have a bad reputation as fads. But clinical trials consistently show they outperform conventional dieting. Here's why โ€” and how to build one that works.
April 10, 2026 ยท 6 min read
Person jogging outdoors for fitness
Health & Fitness
BMI Explained: What Your Number Actually Means (And Its Real Limits)
BMI is used by millions of doctors worldwide โ€” yet it was designed by a mathematician in the 1830s and was never intended as a health measure.
March 25, 2026 ยท 5 min read