Fitness Pudding - Where The Proof Is

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...

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...

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,...

Here is an interesting article examining a historical and scientific perspective on if skipping breakfast is really that bad (for weight loss). A few notes to add: The Largest Study on Breakfast and Weight Loss The web article does refer to the largest breakfast and weight loss study to date , led by Dr. David Allison's wonderful research team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 1 In this study, 283 participants classified as overweight or...

The truth is, the overall amount of time that we spend preparing our food has decreased, while, the subsequent consumption of fast food, ready-to-eat meals, and away-from-home foods are increasing. Not having to prepare our own food does save time, but can be more expensive. “In addition, fast food consumption and away-from-home eating is directly associated with higher body weight and risk of obesity. In contrast, involvement in the preparation of food and higher cooking skills...

I am sure you have already noticed the many internet articles and ads popping up about keeping your New Year’s Resolution.  But, what about why we break and abandon our resolutions? I came across a really cool 1972 study by Drs. Marlatt and Kaplan. 4  They examined 135 people and their resolutions over a 3-month period. The majority of resolutions were a desire to lose weight – interestingly, with an average starting weight of only 138 pounds...

Update!  With what little research we had back at this this same time in 2015, we concluded that it was “unlikely” that elevation trainings masks actually simulated altitude training. (see original post below) It did not make sense that it would work conceptually or physiologically for aerobic variables, but perhaps more advantageous for respiratory muscles, because it is just harder to breath in these things. But, at that time there was little research. I predicted that...

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...

Think about the food that you crave the most. Indulge in that thought. Think about smelling it, holding it, and savoring it. Now try to shake the craving. Difficult, right? There is a strong line of research that not only shows that food cravings are common, but are hard to dismiss. In other words, the cravings take control of our thoughts, and we might not be able to concentrate on anything else, such as work, until...