November 2019 Running Economy and How You Run MaxVO2 is your body’s maximal oxygen uptake and use capacity. But this only tells how fit you are while your running economy (RE) tells how much energy you use relative to the distance you run. And it’s a better predictor of your racing skills. A study fromRead More
obesity
Bingeing at Night: A Hormonal Habit?
A recent article in the NY Times reviewed a scientific article in the December issue of the International Journal of Obesity that reinforced what many fitness and wellness professionals suspected: that nighttime binge eating may be more than habitual; it may be hormonal. The article suggested that obese people who binge eat – not all do, one mightRead More
The Real Fake News: Processed Food Is ‘Healthy’
The fitness field is replete with pseudo-science especially regarding diet, dieting and diets. While personal trainers may have some ‘expertise’ in nutrition based largely on what they learned in their certification prep courses or at professional conferences, they also have some serious biases often based on what’s worked for them. These could be appropriate forRead More
Artificial Sweeteners: Diet or Die?
Let me state from the get-go that I am not a biochemistry guru or even a registered dietician, so any comments below regarding the safety of artificial sweeteners (AS) such as saccharin, aspartame, sucralose or their ilk comes from an angle few in my profession are willing to take. Based on a hearty defense ofRead More
The Sounds of Obesity
I remember the fad of the record album of my college days that gave potheads- of which I was NOT one (really, ask anyone on my freshman floor) – a mellow thrill: recordings of the humpback whales. Stoned, they’d express youthful ‘wows’ as if the combination of science and THC took them to another level.Read More
REAL News – November 2018
November 2018 When Hip Structure Compromises Hip Motion A more recent diagnostic of hip deformity, along with a more recent surgical procedure to manage it (thanks to the work of a Nashville orthopedist), has helped explain a lot of athletes’, and even non-athletes’, groin pain. Called femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), it is essentially a recognitionRead More
Obesity Ain’t What You Think It Oughta Be
A fascinating, lay article in the Huffington Post, with the catchy title, “Everything You Know About Obesity is Wrong“, attempts to offer readers a simple, and emotionally moving, synopsis of obesity science. It is heartbreaking at times as interviewees often express lifelong feelings of pain and shame, and society and the medical community don’t help.Read More
Deflection Points: When Behavioral Eating Can Be Fatal!!!
How’s that for a headline? Grabs your attention, don’t it? But that’s how mass media, especially on line media, operates: it tries to grab eyeballs. Even researchers do so by titling their articles accordingly – either catchy, kitschy or catastrophically. But if you read them carefully, you will often see the big clue that it’sRead More
Not Again: Don’t Count Calories, but Calories Count
Weight management and weight loss (and, by association, weight gain) are two peas in a pod…but only eat one of them! I have written on this topic so many times in opinion pieces and in scientific reviews that I’m reluctant to do so again. But this most recent article in the NY Times has inspired meRead More
Does Looking at Thin Make You Feel Fat?
The Super Bowl is over – Fly EAGLES Fly! – but the effects of all those unhealthy snacks and drinks may last for a few more days or weeks. So it is with us Americans – we tend to live between holidays in a state of regret and shame. To make matters worse, we positionRead More