Unconventional advice fitness pros won’t tell you
When planes began returning to base riddled with bullet holes during WWII, the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) knew it had a problem.
How could they shore up the planes to better protect the crew?
The brightest minds at the USAAF immediately began looking for ways to reinforce the damaged areas.
They studied the areas riddled with bullet holes, particularly the wings and tail.
That is until Abraham Wald, a statistician and mathematician, made a key observation — they were only looking at the damage on returning planes.
They hadn’t factored in damage inflicted on planes that failed to return.
…
What you should know when the scale makes you say WTF
It’s that time of year when millions of us renew our focus on health and lifestyle changes we want to make for the coming year. Whether you choose to go on a diet, start exercising, exercise more, or some combination of new habits, the start of a new year is a great time to approach your goals with enthusiasm and vigor.
As with any goal, you’ll need to measure your progress. For those interested in losing weight, the bathroom scale often becomes a torture device — one that can make or break your day in a matter of seconds.
As…
Hint: intermittent fasting helps, and you don’t need to give up carbs
You may have heard the term metabolic flexibility recently. The concept isn’t new, but the idea has gained more traction on popular websites, as being metabolically flexible is becoming a key marker of health.
Metabolic flexibility’s formal definition is the ability of an organism to respond or adapt according to changes in metabolic or energy demand, as well as the prevailing conditions or activity. That’s a lot of scientific speak to say metabolic flexibility is how well your body can switch from using carbohydrates to fats for energy depending on what you’re asking from it at the moment (i.e., …
#6 something called optic flow
By this point in our evolutionary history, we all know walking is good for us. Yet, many of us still leave this fundamental component of health up to whatever we manage to squeak in while walking around the house, to and from work (if that’s even happening), or while running errands.
We may think we counteract the amount of time we spend sitting with a 30–60-minute gym session, but our bodies weren’t designed to sit all day and then push as hard as possible for a brief amount of time.
According to a study in Diabetes,
The average non-exercising person…
Without counting calories or joining a gym
We learn patterns of behavior around food from a very early age. As youngsters, we pick up on cues about what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat from our parents and caregivers. We also learn social behaviors around eating. Did you eat while watching television? Did you shovel food in your mouth while walking out the door? Were you allowed to leave the table if you didn’t finish?
Was dinner a long and laborious affair, or did you fill your plate and eat separately (my family ate dinner together only on Sundays)? Those in charge of…
I swear, I love all the good things about the “Texas culture,” but so often these days, I am embarrassed to tell others that this state is my home.
Growing up outside of Houston, I felt immense pride in my home state from an early age. Songs like “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and “The Yellow Rose of Texas” echoed through my classrooms. Field trips took us to Brenham to tour the Blue-Bell Ice Cream factory and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, uniquely Texas experiences.
Being from Texas meant I was special. I studied abroad in London and frequently answered whether I wore a cowgirl hat and rode a horse to school. …
#2 the mean is often meaningless
Every other day, we hear about a new study claiming one diet is superior for weight loss, insulin control, or other metabolic health markers. Intermittent fasting is best. No, eat low carb. Nevermind, it’s okay to eat carbs, but don’t eat them after 6 p.m. The headlines are endless, and it’s no wonder we’re confused.
How can so many clinical studies end up with such conflicting results? How is it the more time goes by, the more obese we’re becoming as a society? What’s going on with all this research?
It’s important to understand how even the best peer-reviewed research…
Let’s be honest about the look you’re after
Greek mythology has it that Sisyphus, an evil and deceitful ruler, twice cheated death. When Sisyphus died a third time, Zeus intervened to ensure Sisyphus’ antics didn’t encourage others to do the same. He sentenced Sisyphus to an eternity in Hades, pushing a boulder uphill.
The boulder rolls away from Sisyphus before reaching the top, consigning him to an eternity of useless efforts and unending frustration.
There are many versions of this tale. The details aren’t what matter as much as the moral. …
Here’s why it’s time to give front squats more love
My trainer recently added something he likes to call “death by front squats” to my weekly program. It’s as evil as it sounds. I could feel the soreness in my quads beginning while I was still at the gym. Finishing my set, I looked around and realized I’ve never seen anyone else doing front squats here.
It’s not like there isn’t competition for the squat rack. I cross my fingers every time I enter the weight room. It’s just that everyone is back squatting. There’s a lot to love about the back squat, including the fact you can load the…
What you should know about the next trend in dieting
Gwyneth Paltrow recently announced to her 7.4 million followers she’s in love with a new diet book called Intuitive Fasting (Paltrow wrote the Foreword). Written by functional medicine doctor William Cole, the book combines four of the most popular dieting trends in the last several years: intermittent fasting, keto, vegetarian/vegan, and intuitive eating.
The book bills itself as a flexible four-week plan where you experiment with different types of intermittent fasting while also following a low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet of mostly plant-based origin. After reading, I can assure you it’s anything but flexible.
Week one requires eating…
