Sources
Melt is general fitness and food guidance, not medical advice. This is the research each recommendation in the app rests on, the same list you find in the app under Settings > Sources and on the Eat screen. Talk to a clinician before changing how you eat or train if you are pregnant, injured, unwell or on medication.
Protein at every meal
Melt asks for a palm of protein at each meal, about 30 grams, or around 1.6 grams per kilo of body weight a day on Muscle Guard.
Higher protein intake (1.2 to 1.6 g per kg a day, 25 to 30 g per meal) improves appetite control, body weight and fat loss while protecting muscle.
Gains in muscle from strength training plateau at about 1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight a day.
Spreading protein across the day, roughly 0.4 g per kg per meal, is the practical way to reach the daily target.
In a calorie deficit with hard training, the higher protein group lost more fat and kept more muscle.
A balanced plate
The Eat screen shows a plate as half vegetables and fruit, a quarter protein, a quarter starch. Meal ideas are suggestions, not a diet, and the protein and calorie figures on them are estimates.
Half the plate vegetables and fruit, a quarter whole grains, a quarter healthy protein.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The Healthy Eating Plate.
The UK government picture of a balanced diet: plenty of fruit and vegetables, starchy foods, protein foods, and eating in moderation.
Fat loss comes from a sustained energy deficit; the diet you can keep is the one that works. Melt never sets calorie targets for that reason.
Daily steps
Steps rise from 8,000 to 10,000 a day across the plan.
Risk of death falls with more daily steps, levelling off around 8,000 to 10,000 steps in adults under 60.
Taking 8,000 steps a day was associated with roughly half the mortality of 4,000 steps a day.
Adults should do 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week and strength work on two or more days, and every step above sitting counts.
Sleep
Melt asks for seven or more hours of sleep, because short sleep adds fat around the middle and raises hunger.
Adults should sleep seven or more hours a night on a regular basis.
Two weeks of short sleep increased calorie intake and abdominal visceral fat in healthy adults.
No food after 9pm
The Six-Pack Builder habit closes the kitchen in the evening.
Eating the same food four hours later in the day increased hunger and lowered the calories burned.
Late eaters lost less weight on the same diet than early eaters.
Training and belly fat
Every session is a strength block, a hard finisher and core under load. Ab exercises build the muscle; they do not burn the fat on top of it.
Aerobic and combined training reduce visceral fat even without much weight loss.
Exercise reduces visceral fat more than dieting alone for the same weight lost, which is why Melt trains you rather than only counting food.
HIIT is a time-efficient way to reduce abdominal and visceral fat. This is the finisher block.
Intervals and steady cardio produce similar fat loss; intervals take about 40 percent less time.
Six weeks of ab exercises did not reduce belly fat. Spot reduction is not real.
Waist size is the measure that tracks health risk, which is why Melt asks for a waist measurement rather than a scale weight alone.
Muscle Guard, for people on weight loss medication
Strength training and a protein target so that what is lost is fat, not muscle. Melt never advises on medication or dosing; that is between you and your clinician.
A meaningful share of the weight lost on a GLP-1 medication was lean mass, which is the loss Muscle Guard is designed to limit.
Adding resistance training to weight loss preserved lean mass and strength that dieting alone lost.
Higher protein plus training in a deficit kept muscle while fat came off.