February 15, 2024 — Science has come a long way from simplistic assumptions about fat tissue as some sort of fuel depot for the excess calories a person consumes. In fact, adipose tissue is a very active endocrine organ that regulates the use and storage of energy in ways that new research is explaining. At a cellular level, new […]
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 […]
August 22, 2022 — Believe it or not, the amount of energy we’re chewing up when we eat is both significant and important to understand. It’s significant because chewing can raise the rate at which our bodies burn energy by 10 to 15 percent. Just last week, Adam van Casteren published a paper quantifying this for the first time […]
August 30, 2021 — Exercise for weight loss is a durable concept. Some advocates even push for food labels to describe the exercise necessary to burn calories in a food serving. But the premise for this is false. A new study in Current Biology explains the problem better than ever before. It turns out that when a person does […]
June 11, 2021 — One of the simplistic models of obesity relies on the notion of a balance between calories a person consumes in foods and drinks and those burned in physical activity. Some people even go so far as suggesting food labels should tell us how much we’ll have to exercise to burn off the calories in that […]
May 27, 2017 — Is that electronic leash on your wrist really doing anything? Can you rely upon fitness trackers for good information? A pair of recent studies add to the reasons you might doubt it. Heart Rate, Yes; Calories Burned, No Researchers from Stanford tested seven fitness trackers and published their result in the Journal of Personalized Medicine. […]
September 30, 2014 — Standing desks are hot. A new study shows that elementary school children with standing desks were burning more calories than children with seated desks. It’s a well controlled study. So the headlines say ”Standing Desks Effective in the Fight against Childhood Obesity.” Why not? After all, we know that “Your Chair Is Killing You.” Does […]
