Fitness Pudding - Where The Proof Is

This is how I got here. I first saw a post on Yahoo! News, "Beat Belly Fat With This 45-minute Running Workout," which brought me to another article by the same title. I noticed there had been 6,000 shares of this article in about 7 hours, and I know many would like to 'beat' belly fat, so I kept reading. The article details a 45-minute running with 19 different 1-5 min intervals workout ranging from 4.0-7.5...

The clothes we wear can make a strong impression on others. We learn early on in our careers to ‘dress for success’, and TV shows, such as the Today Show’s ‘Ambush Makeover’ , emphasize the power of clothes to create favorable impressions. From drab...to fab. The effort to manage the impressions we make on others is called ‘self-presentation’, and clothing is a great way to manipulate such impressions. For example... Teaching assistants in formal clothes are...

Could the type of motivation you have affect whether or not you choose unhealthy snacks after exercise? Even though we might think that exercise makes us hungrier, we have previously found that this is probably not the case – since there is more evidence that exercise reduces our appetite in the short-term. 3 Yet people still claim that exercise makes them ‘snacky’, and there is definitely variability in how people respond. Take Jill and Lisa. After...

This potential myth most likely comes from the mindless, zombie-like trance that we can experience when watching television. The issue has garnered specific attention in kids, since they watch a lot of TV, and as we see in these very candid photos taken while children watched television...can easily slip into their zombie-like trance. Calorically speaking, sitting quietly is commonly considered to the minimal standard for energy expenditure, which is 1 Metabolic Equivalent or MET. We then compare other...

We hear so much about the weight control and fitness benefits of physical activity, but we forget about the  benefits of physical activity on mental health, mood, stress, and cognition. At the same time, we have similar support of the benefits of being out in nature on mental health. So, what if we were physically active in nature?  Some recent research sought to answer this question, especially since the urban sprawl continues to consume space and...

In the 1953, Professor Jerry Morris and his colleagues published a ground-breaking study, finding that drivers of London's double-decker buses, compared to conductors, were more likely to have cardiovascular disease and die suddenly from blood clots in the heart. The bus drivers were sedentary throughout their shift, while the conductors were actively climbing up and down stairs during their shift.  As a follow-up, Morris found that postal workers, who walked and biked to deliver the mail,...

Brenda lived two streets down from our rental house. At the time, I was an undergraduate at Texas A&M, and rode my bike to campus each morning.  On my way, I would see Brenda speed walking through the neighborhood. She was fast – even in her matching blue ankle and wrist weights. We would exchange a "howdy", as I slowly passed by on my bike. I once 'busted' her eating a donut in the Shipley's at the end...

If you were interested by our previous post, Exercise Doesn't Help with Weight Loss  – a review of a controversial editorial, "It is time to bust the myth of physical in activity and obesity: You cannot outrun a bad diet,"  – you might also be interested to read some recent comments and responses by other experts regarding this article, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (click below). It is Time to Bust the Myth of...

How many steps should you get a day? If your answer was 10,000, then you are not alone. Most people believe that we are required to get 10,000 steps per day to improve our health. However, some recent attention has challenged this traditional step goal. To be honest, I find it odd that I ever have to defend walking, but I digress. Let's clarify if 10,000 steps is actually debunked. Is 10,000 Steps Debunked? No, not...

Years ago, we figured out that listening to music, watching TV, or both provided a distraction or dissociation from the discomfort that comes along with exercise. For many people the discomfort is not enjoyable, and can be a big deterrant to exercising. Research tells us that we all respond differently to the physical side of exercise (e.g. fatigue, muscle discomfort, increased heart rate, breathing fast, and sweating). Some respond negatively, especially those who do not have...