Fitness Pudding - Where The Proof Is

A CNN blog recently revisited the tantalizing myth that sex is a workout. It must be circulating pretty well right now on social media, as I have been asked by several people if this is true or not. The article is referring to a 2013 publication from the New England Journal of Medicine entitled Myths, Presumptions, and Facts about Obesity , written by a prestigious group of experts. Myth #7 states "A bout of sexual activity...

A recent study finds that if you drink more water, you can lose more weight and stay slimmer. Wait, does it say that? Well, you would believe so, if you depended on these internet breaking news headlines. Drinking More Water Could Help with Weight Loss 8 Secrets Of Drinking More Water, Including Weight Loss The New Secret to Losing Weight? Water I love the last one, as if water - the magical cure for weight gain...

“I’m not fat, I’m big boned.” “I am overweight, because of my large bones.” We might be quite familiar with such comments, but is there any truth to them? Skeleton Weight First, take a moment and answer the following question. How many pounds do you think your skeleton weighs? 5 pounds? 10? 20? 40? The DXA machine helped us to decipher if muscle actually weighs more than fat , and I think will help us answer...

The classic brain teaser asks, “What weighs more, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?” Unfazed by this childish trickery, we would answer that they would weight the same – one ton. Using the same rationale, could we answer, “Does muscle weigh more than fat?” And this is our question for the day. Pound versus pound, sure, they would be the same. One pound of muscle weighs the same as one pound of fat....

I came across the headline, 'Pooping your way to weight loss' . I could not resist, as I must investigate on any potential myth. It is my 'duty'. Weight Loss Through Pooping Low fecal weight (i.e. poop) and slow bowel transit times are a health risk, being positively associated with cancer risk. 1 This concern is why dietary fiber is so important (see below), to increase the fecal weight – leading to less 'poop' being leftover...

Body mass index (BMI) has been getting slammed in the media. For example, this recent article from the LA Times claims that "BMI mislabels 54 million Americans as 'overweight' or 'obese,' study says." Or, as this article highlights, "more than 50 million 'quite healthy' Americans have been mislabeled as obese or overweight thanks to an over-reliance on BMI as a measurement of health..." What is BMI? BMI is simply a measure of body mass. More specifically,...

If its cold out, and you want to lose weight, don’t put on that jacket. Or, based on a current trend, you could pay money to stand or sit in cold air as a weight loss treatment. One article calls it “temperature treatment”, while others suggest weight loss without exercise. In short, the suggestion is that if we expose our bodies to cold, but not freezing temperatures (62 Fº or 16-17 Cº), we lose weight. But,...

Some recent headlines: How could dust cause obesity? Could house dust be making children FAT? Dust at home could be the major cause of obesity. Can house dust make us fat? Before the idea of fats lurking in the dusty shadows of your floorboards (or belly button lint) goes any further, I wanted to provide a quick clarification of what is really going on. I also wanted to provide a comment from my friend and topic...

The common idea that 1 pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories most likely comes from original research in the late 1950's on the effects of fasting in obese individuals. Well, it stuck, and is the basis for our current, simple prescriptions for weight loss. The subsequent rule, then, is to expend, 'burn', and/or reduce intake of 3,500 calories to lose a pound of fat. Commonly, this deficit is accomplished by expending and/or cutting 500...

A client of mine stepped on the scale after a 12-week weight loss program, to find she had lost 6 lbs. She was ecstatic at her positive results, sharing a smile that would warm any heart. Later that day, another client from the same program stepped on the scale to discover she had also lost 6 lbs. Ecstatic right? No, she blasted off a few expletives, and wanted nothing more than to 'hulk smash' the scale...