Posts Tagged ‘physical activity’

Writing for the New York Times, Gretchen Reynolds purports to tell us the best time of day for exercise. Except that she doesn’t. Instead, she describes a study that is too small and too flawed to support the claims its authors make in Physiological Reports. And finally, buried at the end of her article, she […]

In the relationship between exercise and weight, one article of faith has held up for years. Exercise is a valuable tool for preventing weight gain. Though you can’t outrun a bad diet, experts are quite clear that exercise helps to maintain a lower weight. However, a new randomized study in Obesity asks a key question. […]

We seem to be living in boom times for home fitness – at least for the folks selling it. In 2019, people wondered if Peloton would be a flash in the pan. After a 2019 IPO at 29 dollars per share, its stock price dropped by more than 30 percent in early 2020. But that […]

When you’ve got something to sell and you know in your heart that it’s really great, you’ve got a problem. The temptation to oversell can be tough to resist. In health promotion, exercise is an obvious example. Over at the New York Times, Gretchen Reynolds is a huge fan. She writes the Phys Ed series […]

Sometimes an idea firmly plants itself in the popular imagination. Once there, it takes root and persists like a weed. It simply will not die. So it is with the idea that exercise is an excellent tool for weight loss. This is a lie that won’t die. A Nice Little Study Gretchen Reynolds at the […]

A tidy narrative attracts the human mind. When they ring true, generalizations are seductive. They wipe away the complex mess of real life. For example, the untidy reality of living through the pandemic lockdown leaves us eager to make sense of it. So a new paper describing a global survey of health behaviors in the […]

Are we ready for our Alexa smart speaker to tell us exactly how much body fat we have? Just in case we are, Amazon has some new technology to take us in that direction. It’s called Halo. Now for only $65 (discounted from a list price $99.99) we can get a smart band, an app, […]

This is an anxious moment. And this moment is dragging on with seemingly no end in sight. Seeing an angle to advance their agenda, some politicians like to talk about the mental health effects of dealing with COVID-19 as being worse than the virus. But we would prefer to stick with facts. So we pay […]

The fitness industry is a bit of a mess right now. That’s because, in many places, health clubs are not very healthy places to be. The great indoors is a great place to share the coronavirus. Especially if you’re sweating and breathing hard. But Jack Raglin, a kinesiology professor at the Indiana University School of […]

The common wisdom and scientific evidence holds that physical activity helps your brain function better. Too much sitting time supposedly gets in the way of good cognitive function But now, a new observational study suggests that sedentary desk jobs might be good for your brain. What gives? A Counter-Intuitive Observational Study The first thing to […]