How we grade evidence

Every method on this site carries one of three grades. Your Maxx Score is evidence-weighted: doing what's proven counts more than doing what's viral. These are the rules behind the badges, in full.

Science

At least one citable, non-social source: a peer-reviewed study or meta-analysis (PubMed), a major-body guideline (AASM, CDC, WHO), or an evidence aggregator with named references (Examine).

Science-graded doesn't mean guaranteed for you. It means the average effect is real in controlled research.

Community-proven

Consistently reported to work across large communities (high-consensus subreddits, established practitioner methods), but without strong formal trials behind it.

This grade is honest about its limit: lots of people swear by it, and that's exactly what we're claiming. No more.

Viral, unproven

Trending on TikTok/Instagram without credible evidence. We list these on purpose, labeled, so you know what the label means before you copy the trend.

Some viral tricks carry real risk (we flag those in the item text). Skipping a viral item never costs you score weight the way skipping a science item does.

Scoring weights

Science items weigh 3, community items 2, viral items 1. Your score is the share of total weight you actually do, from 0 to 100. That's why a routine of nothing but viral hacks scores low even at 100% completion: the score measures how well-founded your routine is, not just how busy it is.

What happens to your feedback

When you mark an item "worked for me" or "no effect", that verdict joins an anonymous aggregate. Once an item has enough real votes from people who actually tracked it, we'll show the numbers publicly. Until then we show nothing rather than fake precision.

Limits

We are not doctors and this is not medical or financial advice. Categories touching health carry disclaimers, and anything that could be risky says so in plain text on the item itself. When evidence changes, protocols get updated and the changelog says what moved.