Fitness Dictionary: Gym and Nutrition Terms A to Z

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% Daily Value (%DV): The share of a day's worth of a nutrient in one serving, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. As a rule of thumb, 5% or less is low and 20% or more is high. See the Nutrition Label Guide.
1RM (one-rep max): The most weight you can lift for a single rep with good form. Many programs set weights as a percentage of it, like 75% of your 1RM.
30/40/30: A macro split with about 30% of calories from protein, 40% from carbs and 30% from fat. See our 30/40/30 meal plan example.

A

Accessory exercise: A smaller exercise that supports your main lifts, like a triceps pushdown to help your bench press or a hamstring curl to help your deadlift.
Active recovery: Light movement on a rest day, like walking, an easy bike ride or stretching, to help you feel less stiff without adding fatigue.
Adaptive thermogenesis: The small drop in calories burned when you diet, beyond what your smaller body explains. It's real but modest for most people, and it slows weight loss without stopping it. Moving more and taking diet breaks can help.
Added sugar: Sugar put into food during processing or cooking, as opposed to the sugar found naturally in fruit and milk. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend keeping it under 10% of your daily calories.
Aerobic exercise (cardio): Steady exercise that raises your heart rate and breathing for a while, like walking, running, cycling or swimming. It's good for your heart and helps you burn extra calories.
Amino acids: The building blocks of protein. Your body breaks the protein you eat into amino acids and uses them to build and repair tissue, including muscle.
AMRAP (as many reps as possible): A set where you do as many good reps as you can, or a workout where you fit in as many rounds as you can in a set time.
Anabolic window: The old idea that you have only 30 to 60 minutes after a workout to eat protein or you'll miss out on muscle growth. Research doesn't back it up. Your total protein for the day matters most, and a meal with protein within a few hours before or after training has you covered. See How much protein do I need?
Anaerobic exercise: Short, hard efforts like lifting weights or sprinting, where your muscles work faster than your body can supply oxygen, so you can only keep it up for a short time.

B

Barbell: A long bar you load with weight plates on each end. A standard Olympic barbell weighs 45 lb (20 kg) on its own.
BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids): Three amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine) often sold as a supplement. If you eat enough protein, you're already getting plenty of them.
BMI (body mass index): Your weight compared to your height, worked out as kilograms divided by meters squared. It's a quick screening number, but it can't tell muscle from fat, so very muscular people can score as overweight.
BMR (basal metabolic rate): How many calories your body burns at rest to keep your heart, lungs and organs working. It's the starting point for working out your calories. See the Macro, TDEE & BMR Calculator.
Body fat percentage (BF%): How much of your body weight is fat. It's a better picture of your progress than the scale alone, since it separates fat from muscle. Home scales and handheld devices can be off by several points, so the trend matters more than one reading.
Bodyweight exercise: An exercise that uses your own body as the weight, like push-ups, squats, lunges and pull-ups. They work well for home workouts and for beginners.
Bro science: Gym slang for training or diet advice passed around in gyms and online that sounds convincing but isn't backed by research, like needing a protein shake within 30 minutes of a workout.
Bro split: Gym slang for a routine that trains one muscle group a day, like chest on Monday and back on Tuesday, so you train each muscle once a week. See our bro split example.
Bulk: Gym slang for a stretch of eating a little more than you burn, usually about 300 calories a day, to build muscle. A small surplus keeps the extra fat to a minimum.

C

Cable machine: A machine with an adjustable pulley and weight stack, used for exercises like rows, pulldowns, flyes and triceps pushdowns. The cable keeps tension on the muscle through the whole rep.
Cadence: How many steps you take per minute. Researchers use about 100 steps a minute as the point where walking counts as moderate exercise.
Caffeine: A stimulant in coffee, tea, energy drinks and most pre-workouts that can help you feel more alert and train a bit harder. The FDA says up to 400 mg a day is generally safe for most healthy adults, about four cups of brewed coffee.
Calcium: A mineral that builds bones and teeth and helps muscles contract. Dairy, fortified plant milks, tofu made with calcium and leafy greens are good sources. The Daily Value is 1,300 mg.
Calisthenics: Training with your own body weight, from basics like push-ups and dips to advanced skills like muscle-ups and handstands.
Calorie: A unit of energy in food. Protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram, fat has 9, and alcohol has 7.
Calorie deficit: Eating fewer calories than you burn, which is what makes you lose weight. A deficit of about 500 calories a day works out to around a pound (0.45 kg) a week at first. See How to count calories to lose weight.
Calorie density: How many calories a food has for its weight. Vegetables, fruit and lean protein are low, so they fill you up for fewer calories. Nuts, oils and sweets are high. See our Low-Calorie Snacks list.
Calorie surplus: Eating more calories than you burn. A small surplus helps you build muscle; a big one mostly adds fat. Our high-calorie foods list can help when it's hard to eat enough.
Carb cycling: Eating more carbs on some days, usually hard training days, and fewer on others, while keeping your weekly calories about the same. It hasn't been shown to beat steady carbs for fat loss at the same calories.
Carbohydrates (carbs): Your body's main source of fuel, especially for hard training. Rice, oats, potatoes, fruit and bread are mostly carbs. See What are macros?
Casein: A slow-digesting protein from milk. You'll find it in cottage cheese and Greek yogurt, and some people drink casein protein before bed.
Cholesterol (dietary): The cholesterol in food, found only in animal products like eggs, meat and dairy. The Daily Value is 300 mg. For most people, saturated fat raises blood cholesterol more than the cholesterol in food does.
CICO (calories in, calories out): The idea that your weight depends on the calories you eat compared to the calories you burn. Eat less than you burn and you lose weight. See How to count calories to lose weight.
Circuit training: Doing several exercises back to back with little rest in between, then repeating the round. It keeps your heart rate up and saves time.
Complete protein: A protein that has all nine essential amino acids. Meat, fish, eggs, dairy, soy and quinoa are complete proteins.
Compound exercise: An exercise that works several muscles at once, like a squat, deadlift, bench press or row.
Concentric: The lifting part of a rep, when the muscle shortens, like curling the dumbbell up or standing up out of a squat.
Cooldown: A few minutes of easy movement or stretching at the end of a workout to help your heart rate and breathing settle back down. It doesn't reduce next-day soreness.
Core: The muscles around your midsection, including your abs, obliques and lower back. They keep your spine steady when you lift, carry and twist. See our core workout example.
Creatine: One of the most studied supplements. Creatine monohydrate, usually taken at 3 to 5 grams a day, helps you do a little more work in short, hard efforts like lifting, which can add up to more strength and muscle over time. It can add a pound or two of water in your muscles, and research in healthy people hasn't found kidney harm at normal doses.
Cut: Gym slang for a stretch of eating in a calorie deficit to lose fat while keeping as much muscle as you can.

D

Dairy-free: Eating no milk, yogurt, cheese or other foods made from milk, often because of lactose intolerance or a milk allergy. See our dairy-free meal plan example.
Deload: A planned week of lighter training, usually every 4 to 8 weeks, so built-up fatigue can clear. See What is a deload week?
Delts (deltoids): Your shoulder muscles, with front, side and rear sections. Presses work the front, lateral raises work the side, and rows and face pulls work the rear. See our shoulder day example.
Detox: Products and cleanses that claim to flush toxins from your body. Your liver and kidneys already do that job, and there's no good evidence that detox teas, juices or cleanses improve on it. Any weight they take off is mostly water.
Diet break: A planned week or two of eating at maintenance during a long diet, to give your body and mind a rest before you go back to a calorie deficit.
Dirty bulk: Gym slang for eating as much as you can, often from fast food and sweets, to gain weight fast. You do gain weight quickly, but a large share of it is fat.
DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness): The muscle soreness you feel a day or two after a hard or new workout. It usually peaks 24 to 72 hours later and fades as your body gets used to training. Soreness isn't a sign of a better workout.
Double progression: A simple way to get stronger: keep the same weight and add reps until you hit the top of your rep range, then add weight and start again at the bottom.
Drop set: A set where you go close to failure, drop the weight right away, and keep going for more reps. It's a time-saving way to add hard work to the end of an exercise.
Dumbbell: A short handheld weight, used one in each hand or one at a time. Dumbbells let each side work on its own and allow a natural range of motion.
Dynamic stretching: Moving stretches like leg swings, arm circles and walking lunges, usually done as part of a warm-up to get your joints ready to move.

E

Eccentric: The lowering part of a rep, when the muscle lengthens under load, like lowering the bar to your chest on a bench press. Lowering the weight slowly makes the rep harder.
Electrolytes: Minerals like sodium, potassium and magnesium that help your body hold on to water and keep your muscles and nerves working. You lose some in sweat. See How much water is enough?
EMOM (every minute on the minute): A workout where you start a set of an exercise at the top of every minute and rest for whatever's left of that minute.
Essential amino acids: The nine amino acids your body can't make on its own, so you get them from food.

F

Failure: The point in a set where you can't do another rep with good form. A set taken to failure is 0 RIR.
Fake natty: Gym slang for someone who says they're natural but uses steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. Online, people often throw the label at physiques that years of hard training can build naturally.
Fasted cardio: Cardio done before you've eaten, usually first thing in the morning. It burns a bit more fat during the session itself, but studies comparing fasted and fed cardio find the same fat loss over time. The most important part of weight loss is a controlled calorie deficit over time, so you can do your cardio whenever it suits you.
Fat: One of the three macros, with 9 calories per gram. Your body uses it for hormones, healthy cells and absorbing vitamins A, D, E and K.
Fiber: The part of plant foods your body can't digest. U.S. labels count it in total carbs, and most adults do well with 22 to 34 grams a day.
Flexible dieting (IIFYM): Short for "if it fits your macros." A way of eating where any food can fit as long as you hit your calorie and macro targets. Most people who do it still eat mostly whole foods, since that makes the targets easier to hit.
Form: How you perform an exercise: your posture, the path of the weight and your control. Good form keeps the work on the right muscles and lowers your risk of injury.
Free weights: Weights you hold and move on your own, like barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells, as opposed to machines that guide the movement.
Full body split: A routine where every workout trains all your major muscles. It's a great fit for beginners and for 2 or 3 workouts a week. See our full body example and Push pull legs vs upper lower vs full body.

G

Gains: Gym slang for progress, usually more muscle or strength.
Glutes: The muscles of your backside, the biggest being the gluteus maximus. Squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts and lunges all work them. See our glute day example.
Glycemic index (GI): A scale of how quickly a carb-containing food raises your blood sugar. White bread is high, while beans and most whole fruit are low.
Glycogen: The form your body stores carbs in, mostly in your muscles and liver. It's your main fuel for hard workouts, and storing it also holds water, which is part of why weight drops fast on low-carb diets.

H

Hack squat: A machine squat where you lean back against a pad that slides on angled rails. It puts a lot of the work on your quads.
Hamstrings: The muscles on the back of your thighs. Romanian deadlifts and leg curls are two of the best ways to train them.
HIIT (high-intensity interval training): Short bursts of hard effort, like sprints, followed by short rests, repeated for a few rounds. It packs a lot of cardio into a short workout. The extra calories you burn afterward, often called afterburn, are small. See our bike interval example.
Hip hinge: A movement where you bend at the hips with a flat back and push your hips back, like a Romanian deadlift or a kettlebell swing. It works your hamstrings, glutes and lower back.
Hydration: Getting enough fluid for your body to work well. Most of it comes from drinks, and about 20% comes from food. See How much water is enough?
Hypertrophy: The scientific word for muscle growth.

I

Incline walking: Walking uphill or on a treadmill set to an incline. It raises your heart rate a lot more than flat walking without the pounding of running. See our incline walk example.
Insulin: A hormone your body releases after you eat, especially carbs, that moves sugar from your blood into your cells for energy or storage. It often gets blamed for weight gain, but fat loss comes down to total calories. Insulin matters most for people with diabetes, whose bodies don't make enough of it or don't respond to it well, which is why they manage their blood sugar with their doctor.
Intensity: How heavy a weight is compared to your max, or how hard a set feels. It's often written as a percentage of your 1RM, or as RIR or RPE.
Intermittent fasting: An eating pattern where you only eat during a set window, like 8 hours a day (16:8). It works for weight loss mainly by making it easier to eat fewer calories.
Iron: A mineral that carries oxygen in your blood. Meat and seafood have the form your body absorbs best, and beans, lentils and fortified cereals add more. The Daily Value is 18 mg.
Isolation exercise: An exercise that mainly works one muscle, like a curl, lateral raise or leg extension. See our arm day example, which is mostly isolation work.
Isometric exercise: An exercise where the muscle works without moving, like a plank or a wall sit.

K

Keto (ketogenic diet): A very low-carb, high-fat diet, usually under about 50 grams of carbs a day, that makes your body burn mostly fat for fuel. That isn't the same as losing more body fat: with calories matched, fat loss is about the same as on a higher-carb diet.
Kettlebell: A round weight with a handle on top, used for swings, goblet squats, presses and carries.

L

Lats (latissimus dorsi): The large muscles along the sides of your back that pull your arms down and back. Pull-ups, pulldowns and rows train them.
Lean body mass (LBM): Everything in your body that isn't fat: muscle, bone, organs and water.
Lean bulk: Gym slang for a bulk with a small calorie surplus, aiming to gain weight slowly so most of it is muscle. See How to bulk.
Leg press: A machine where you sit or lie back and push a weighted sled away with your feet. It works your quads and glutes.
Leucine: An amino acid that helps switch on muscle building after you eat protein. Meat, fish, eggs, dairy and whey protein are rich in it.
LISS (low-intensity steady state): Easy cardio you can keep up for a long time at a steady pace, like a brisk walk or a light bike ride.

M

Macros (macronutrients): Protein, carbs and fat, the three nutrients that make up almost all of the calories in food. See the Macro, TDEE & BMR Calculator.
Maintenance calories: The number of calories that keeps your weight about the same. It's another name for your TDEE.
Max heart rate: The fastest your heart can beat during all-out effort. A rough estimate is 220 minus your age, though it varies a lot from person to person.
Meal prep: Cooking and portioning meals ahead of time, often for the week, so eating to your targets is easier on busy days.
Mediterranean diet: A way of eating built around vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, fish, nuts and olive oil, with less red meat and sweets. It's one of the most studied eating patterns for heart health. See our Mediterranean meal plan example.
Metabolic damage: A popular claim that dieting permanently breaks your metabolism. Research doesn't support permanent damage. Your body burns fewer calories at a lower weight, and a little less on top of that while dieting (see adaptive thermogenesis), but that's different from a broken metabolism.
Metabolism: All the processes your body uses to turn food into energy. People often use the word to mean how many calories you burn in a day. Two people of the same size and activity level usually burn within a couple hundred calories of each other. See the Macro, TDEE & BMR Calculator.
METs: Short for metabolic equivalents, a way to rate how hard an activity is compared with sitting still, which is 1 MET. Walking at about 3 mph (4.8 km/h) is about 3.5 METs.
Micronutrients: Vitamins and minerals. You only need small amounts, but they're essential for everything from energy to bone health.
Mifflin-St Jeor equation: The formula most calculators use to estimate your BMR from your sex, age, height and weight. A major review found it the most accurate for most adults.
Mobility: How freely you can move a joint through its full range of motion with control. Good mobility makes it easier to lift with good form. See our hip and lower back and shoulder and upper back mobility examples.
Movement patterns: The basic ways your body moves under load: squat, hip hinge, push, pull and carry. Many full body routines include one of each.
Muscle confusion: A marketing idea that switching up your workouts all the time "confuses" your muscles into growing. Research doesn't support it. Muscles grow from enough hard sets and from adding weight or reps over time, which is easier to track when you keep the same exercises. See Progressive overload.
Muscle memory: The way muscle you've lost comes back faster than it took to build the first time. Researchers think part of the reason is that muscle cells keep extra nuclei from earlier training.
Muscle protein synthesis (MPS): The process your body uses to build new muscle protein. Lifting weights and eating protein both switch it on.
Muscular endurance: How long a muscle can keep working before it tires, like how many push-ups you can do in a row.

N

Natty: Gym slang for natural, meaning someone who builds muscle without steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.
NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis): The calories you burn moving around outside of workouts: walking, standing, cleaning and fidgeting. It can add up to hundreds of calories a day.
Negative-calorie food: The myth that some foods, like celery, take more calories to digest than they contain. Digestion uses about 10% of a food's calories, so every food still adds calories. Low-calorie vegetables still help you fill up for very few calories.
Net carbs: Total carbs minus fiber, and sometimes minus sugar alcohols. It's a term some brands and low-carb diets use, not an official FDA label term.
Newbie gains: Gym slang for the fast progress most people make in their first several months of lifting, when strength goes up almost every week and muscle comes on faster than it will later.
Nutrient timing: When you eat, like protein after a workout or carbs before one. For most people it matters far less than how much protein, carbs and fat you eat across the whole day.

O

Omega-3 fatty acids: Healthy fats your body can't make on its own, found in fatty fish like salmon and sardines, and in walnuts, chia seeds and flaxseed.
Overtraining: Training more than your body can recover from over a long stretch, leading to falling performance, poor sleep and constant fatigue. True overtraining syndrome is rare. Most people who feel run down are short-term overreached, which a few easier days or a deload usually clears. See What is a deload week?

P

Paleo: A way of eating based on meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, with no grains, beans, dairy or added sugar. See our paleo meal plan example.
Paused rep: A rep with a short stop, usually one to two seconds, at the hardest point, like the bottom of a squat. It takes away the bounce, so the same weight feels heavier.
PDCAAS and DIAAS: Short for Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score and Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score, two ways to score protein quality based on its amino acids and how well you digest it. Whey, eggs and soy score near the top. Most other plant proteins score lower on their own, and eating a mix of them through the day makes up for it. See Best vegan protein sources.
Pec deck: A machine where you sit and bring two pads or handles together in front of your chest. It works your chest, and the reverse version works your rear delts.
PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs): Substances used to build muscle, strength or performance beyond what training and food can do, like anabolic steroids, testosterone and growth hormone. In the U.S., anabolic steroids are illegal without a prescription, and they carry real health risks, including heart, liver and hormone problems.
Periodization: Planning your training in phases over weeks or months, like building volume, then strength, then a deload, instead of doing the same thing all year.
Personal record (PR): Your best ever lift, number of reps or time on a given exercise. Also called a personal best (PB).
Pescatarian: Eating fish and seafood but no other meat or poultry. Many pescatarians also eat eggs and dairy.
Plateau: A stretch where your progress stalls, in the gym or on the scale. Small changes to your training, calories or recovery usually restart your progress. See Progressive overload, explained.
Plyometrics: Jumping and explosive exercises like box jumps and jump squats that train your muscles to produce force quickly.
Portion size: How much of a food you eat at one time, which can be very different from the serving size on the label.
Posterior chain: The muscles along the back of your body: your hamstrings, glutes, lower back and upper back. Deadlifts and hip hinges train them together.
Potassium: A mineral that helps control fluid balance, nerves and muscle contractions, and helps offset the effect of sodium on blood pressure. Potatoes, beans, bananas and yogurt are good sources. The Daily Value is 4,700 mg.
Pre-workout: A supplement taken before training, usually built around caffeine, to help you feel more energized. You can find the caffeine amount on the label.
Progressive overload: Making your workouts a little harder over time, with more weight, reps, sets or effort. Most strength programs build on it. See Progressive overload, explained.
Protein: The macro your body uses to build and repair muscle, with 4 calories per gram. See the Protein Calculator.
Protein powder: A powdered protein, often whey, casein or a plant blend, mixed into shakes to help you reach your protein target. See How much protein do I need a day?
Pump: Gym slang for the tight, full feeling in a muscle during and after a set, from extra blood flowing into it. It fades within an hour or so, and a big pump doesn't by itself mean a workout built more muscle.
Push pull legs (PPL): A split that trains pushing muscles (chest, shoulders, triceps) one day, pulling muscles (back, biceps) the next, and legs the day after. See our push pull legs example.

Q

Quads (quadriceps): The four muscles on the front of your thighs. Squats, leg presses, lunges and leg extensions train them.

R

Range of motion (ROM): How far a joint moves during an exercise. A full range of motion, like a deep squat or a full stretch at the bottom of a press, tends to build more muscle than cutting your reps short.
RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance): The official daily minimum for a nutrient. For protein it's about 0.36 grams per pound (0.8 grams per kilogram), which is enough to avoid a deficiency but low for people who train.
Recomp (body recomposition): Losing fat and building muscle at the same time, which is most likely when you're new to lifting or coming back after a break.
Recovery: Everything that helps your body bounce back between workouts: sleep, food, rest days and managing stress.
Refeed: A planned higher-calorie day during a diet, usually with extra carbs, to help with energy and training.
Rep (repetition): One full movement of an exercise, like lowering and pressing the bar once on a bench press.
Resistance band: An elastic band that adds resistance to an exercise. Bands are light and portable, which makes them handy for warm-ups and home workouts.
Resistance training (strength training): Exercise where your muscles work against a load, like weights, machines, bands or your body weight, to build strength and muscle. See the Beginner gym workout plan.
Rest day: A day without hard training so your body can recover. Light activity like walking is fine on a rest day.
Rest period: The break between sets. About 2 to 3 minutes for compound lifts and 1 to 2 minutes for isolation exercises works well. See How long to rest between sets.
Resting heart rate (RHR): How many times your heart beats per minute while you're at rest. For most adults it's 60 to 100, and it often drops as your fitness improves.
RIR (reps in reserve): How many more good reps you could have done at the end of a set. If you could have done 2 more, the set was 2 RIR. See What does RIR mean in lifting?
RPE (rate of perceived exertion): A 1 to 10 score for how hard a set was. RPE 10 means you had nothing left, the same as 0 RIR, and RPE 8 is about 2 reps in reserve.

S

Satiety: How full and satisfied you feel after eating. Protein and fiber are especially filling, which helps when you're eating in a calorie deficit. See our low-calorie snacks list.
Saturated fat: A type of fat found mostly in butter, fatty meat, cheese and coconut oil. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend keeping it under 10% of your daily calories.
Serving size: The amount of food that the numbers on a nutrition label are based on. It's a reference amount, not a recommendation for how much to eat.
Set: A group of reps done back to back, like 8 reps of squats. Three sets of 8 means doing that three times with rest in between.
Smith machine: A barbell that slides up and down on fixed rails. It counts as a machine, since the rails guide the bar. See Machines vs free weights.
Sodium: A mineral found mostly in salt. Your body uses it to balance fluids, and you lose some in sweat. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend under 2,300 mg a day for most adults.
Spot reduction: The idea that working one area, like doing crunches, burns fat from that spot. Studies don't support it. Your body loses fat from all over in a pattern set largely by genetics, and a calorie deficit drives the loss.
Spotter: A training partner who watches a lift, usually a bench press or squat, and helps you finish or rack the weight if you get stuck.
Starvation mode: The myth that if you eat too little, your body switches into a mode where it stores everything you eat as fat. That isn't true. Your body does burn somewhat fewer calories as you diet, but it can't store energy you didn't eat, so you keep losing fat as long as you eat less than you burn. When weight stalls, the usual reasons are water retention or eating more than you think.
Static stretching: Holding a stretch in one position, usually for 15 to 60 seconds. It fits best after a workout or on its own. Before a workout, dynamic stretching works better, since long holds right before lifting can lower your strength a little.
Superset: Two exercises done back to back with little rest in between, usually for different muscles, to save time.

T

TDEE (total daily energy expenditure): All the calories you burn in a day: at rest, moving around, training and digesting food. See the Macro, TDEE & BMR Calculator.
TEF (thermic effect of food): The calories your body burns digesting food, about 10% of what you eat. Protein takes the most energy to digest.
Tempo: How fast you move during each part of a rep. It's often written as numbers, like 3-1-1, meaning 3 seconds down, a 1-second pause and 1 second up.
Time under tension (TUT): How long a muscle is working during a set. Slowing your reps down increases it.
Toning: A popular word for looking firmer and more defined. There's no special "toning" workout. The look comes from building some muscle and losing enough fat to see it, the same as any lifting goal.
Training frequency: How many times a week you train a muscle. Most popular routines train each muscle about twice a week. See How many days a week to work out?
Training volume: How much work you do, usually counted as hard sets per muscle per week. Most people build muscle well with about 10 to 20. See How many sets per week to build muscle?
Trans fat: A type of fat that raises LDL (bad) cholesterol. The FDA removed the main source, partially hydrogenated oils, from the U.S. food supply. Labels can still say 0 g when a serving has less than 0.5 g.
Traps (trapezius): The muscles running from your neck across your upper back. Shrugs, rows and deadlifts work them.

U

Ultra-processed food: Foods made mostly from refined ingredients and additives, like soda, chips, candy and many packaged snacks, based on a system called NOVA. In a 2019 NIH study, people ate about 500 more calories a day on an ultra-processed diet than on a minimally processed one. The category is broad, though, and researchers still debate how much the processing itself matters compared with the calories, sugar, salt and fat in those foods.
Unilateral exercise: An exercise that works one arm or one leg at a time, like a split squat or a one-arm dumbbell row. It evens out side-to-side differences and makes light weights work harder. See Dumbbell workouts at home.
Unsaturated fat: The healthier type of fat, found in olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado and fish. It's usually liquid at room temperature.
Upper lower split: A split that alternates upper body days and lower body days, usually four workouts a week. See our upper lower example.

V

Vegan: Eating no animal products at all, including meat, fish, eggs, dairy and honey. Vitamin B12 comes from fortified foods or a supplement. See our vegan meal plan example.
Vegetarian: Eating no meat, poultry or fish. Most vegetarians eat eggs and dairy. See our vegetarian meal plan example.
Vitamin B12: A vitamin your body uses to make red blood cells and keep nerves healthy. It's found almost only in animal foods, so vegans get it from fortified foods or a supplement. The Daily Value is 2.4 mcg.
Vitamin D: A vitamin your body makes from sunlight and gets from fatty fish, eggs and fortified milk. It helps you absorb calcium. The Daily Value is 20 mcg.
VO2 max: The most oxygen your body can use during hard exercise. It's one of the best measures of cardio fitness, and many fitness watches estimate it.

W

Warm-up set: A lighter set before your working sets to get your muscles and joints ready. Warm-up sets don't count toward your training volume.
Water weight: Short-term changes in your weight from the water your body holds, which can swing a few pounds from one day to the next after a salty or high-carb meal. See How much water is enough?
Whey protein: A fast-digesting protein from milk and the most common type of protein powder. It's rich in leucine.
Whole foods: Foods close to how they come from nature, like meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, beans, grains, nuts and dairy, with little added to them.
Working set: A hard set at your training weight, as opposed to a warm-up set. They're the sets you count toward your training volume.
Workout split: How you divide your training across the week, like full body, upper lower or push pull legs. See Push pull legs vs upper lower vs full body, or try the Routine Finder.

Z

Zone 2 cardio: Easy, steady cardio at a pace where you can still hold a conversation, often around 60 to 70% of your max heart rate. It builds your aerobic base without much fatigue. It burns a higher share of fat during the session, but fat loss still comes down to your calories over time.