April 5, 2020 — Cease and desist. That’s our reaction to a rise of inane headlines about how to lose weight in the midst of a public health crisis. Smelling the potential for great clickbait, one reporter reached out to an expert in obesity, asking: Do we have a fatdemic coming our way? The DietDoctor offers up Six Tips […]
February 29, 2020 — What is the first thing people do when they resolve to shed some excess weight? Often they head to the gym. Self-help articles are full of suggestions for the best way to exercise for weight loss. Unfortunately, that stuff is mostly misleading. The relationship between exercise and weight is complicated. As we’ve written before, exercise […]
February 13, 2020 — Which is more important? Aerobics or weights? Which type of fitness activity might do more to help you maintain a healthy body weight? An important new study in Obesity this month confirms that this is a false choice. Aerobics, weights, and weight go together. The combination of both aerobic and strengthening exercise helps more with […]
February 12, 2020 — Poking fun, just for fun, USA Today this week has a feature on the laziest cities in America. These are smaller cities with working class demographics. Three of the top five are in Alabama: Gadsden, Anniston, and Dothan. Also in the top five are Texarkana, Texas, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The gist of the article […]
February 5, 2020 — We’re guilty. Like many others walking down the street, it seems we can’t do it without the aid of our phone. Can that same phone help with weight? A new study in Obesity says yes. A little bit. In the short term. Mobile apps can indeed help. A Meta-Analysis Xue Cai and colleagues analyzed data […]
December 29, 2019 — Can fathers have a significant effect on physical activity in the lives of their daughters? This is an important question. Because right now, girls entering secondary school often don’t have fundamental movement skills that predict lifelong physical activity. Though we have plenty of data to say that fathers more often participate in physical activity with […]
November 10, 2019 — Can we talk? Well, if you’re not in our buddy club, maybe not. More and more it seems like we have difficulty in listening to people who don’t think like us. If you haven’t noticed this in politics, you’re not paying attention. But we also see it happening in the study of obesity, nutrition, and […]
October 26, 2019 — Does jumping rope help teens with obesity? We’re honestly not too sure. But a study that suggests it might is certainly stimulating some excellent dialogue between scholars. And it points to some surprising questions. For instance: does jumping rope for 75 minutes, twice a week over 12 weeks make teens grow taller? Think better? Become […]
October 25, 2019 — Any number of people want to sell you magic steps to prevent dementia. Lumosity had to pay a two million dollar fine in 2016 because it “preyed on consumer fears about age related cognitive decline.” But that hasn’t stopped the company. It’s just being more careful about falsely promoting its game to prevent dementia. Nonetheless, […]
October 13, 2019 — The fitness industry is booming. But is it promoting fitness and health? Or is it promoting an unhealthy preoccupation with body image? Writing for The Lily, Nicole Chung reflects on this dilemma. Becoming a fitness instructor, she got herself into great shape. However, she found that her body image issues grew worse than ever as […]
