Posts Tagged ‘exercise’

Exercise Self-Reports Predict Less Benefit for Men Than Women?

February 29, 2024 — What could explain the observation that self-reports of exercise predict less of a benefit for men than women? In the Journal of the American College of Cardiology researchers nimbly leap to a conclusion that women get greater gains in mortality risk reduction from “equivalent doses” of physical activity. But would men exaggerate their self-reports? When […]

More Exercise but Less Physical Activity

November 24, 2023 — What is the difference between exercise and physical activity? Does it really matter? A recent review in Current Nutrition Reports suggests that this is a distinction that makes a difference. Oxford tells us that exercise is “activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness.” But physical activity is “any form […]

The Blinding Distraction of BMI and Weight Loss in Obesity

July 20, 2023 — Obesity care is suffering from a blinding distraction – BMI and weight loss. It’s not hard to find critiques of this. The American Medical Association recently cautioned physicians against the misuse of BMI as a surrogate for health and obesity. PLOS One has a new paper telling us BMI may not necessarily increase mortality independently […]

How Much Does It Matter When You Exercise?

February 24, 2023 — The headlines make us dizzy. “For a longer life, afternoon exercise may be best,” says the Washington Post. “Morning Workouts May Lower Your Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke,” according to Verywell Health. However, BBC offers yet another view with a headline saying, “Best exercise time may differ for men and women.” Despite the wild variations […]

The Essential Value of Exercise in NAFLD

February 17, 2023 — NAFLD – the accumulation of fat in the liver without excessive alcohol use – is one of the key reasons that obesity is a real and chronic disease. It is one of the common complications of obesity, and it is rising in parallel with obesity – most disturbingly in children. Of course, losing weight is […]

Exercise from the Ministry of Silly Walks to BMJ

December 22, 2022 — More 50 years ago, John Cleese ran the Ministry of Silly Walks for a skit on Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He interviewed a grant applicant who had a silly walk and told Cleese that “with government backing I could make it very silly.” Now this little exercise has made it from the Ministry of Silly […]

Angels Dancing Make for Good Exercise

December 17, 2022 — Do angels dancing on the head of a pin get good exercise? We’ll have to get back to you on that one. But we can say that thinking about the value of exercise for overcoming obesity is worthwhile. In the International Journal of Obesity over the last few weeks an excellent conversation about this has […]

Take the Stairs for a Longer Life?

December 9, 2022 — We have four levels in our home – three sets of stairs to climb. So this new study in Nature Medicine yesterday definitely has our attention. Digging into observational activity monitor data from the UK Biobank, Emmanuel Stamatakis and colleagues from all over the world found that short bursts of vigorous activity – like quickly […]

The Mythical Race Between Diet and Exercise

December 3, 2022 — You can’t outrun a bad diet. It’s a clever turn of phrase that resonates. But like many things that resonate about diet, exercise, and obesity, it might be a little too clever. In a very gentle way, David Allison, Dennis Bier, and Julie Locher point this out in a brief commentary appearing this week in […]

The Social Dimension of Physical Activity

November 28, 2022 — How important is the social dimension of physical activity? Recent modeling research published in PLOS One suggests that it’s critical. Ensela Mema and colleagues developed a mathematical model to estimate both social and non-social influences on physical activity across the population. They found that social influences were critical for maintaining physical activity or reducing sedentary […]