Archive for December 2017
Health Coaches and Fit Pros Can Broaden Reach in Clinical Practice
Authors of a recent viewpoint published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association issued a call for clinicians to incorporate more nutrition counseling into their patient interactions to better help people improve health outcomes. The authors noted that our changing healthcare system offers clinicians more opportunities to engage patients in nutrition counseling, though few do.
Read MoreCan an AI App Help Us Eat Better? FitGenie Wants to Try
Because self-monitoring of dietary intake is critical to achieving weight and nutrition goals, demand is high for easy-to-use apps that make food tracking easier, help users interpret the results, and use data to set goals and develop meal plans. FitGenie is an innovative app that uses artificial intelligence to give people their own “nutritionist” that tailors meal plans and recommendations based on individual factors, according to the popular technology blog TechCrunch. And more apps are likely to follow.
Read MoreShould I Sprout Beans or Seeds Before Eating Them?
Question: Is there a nutritional benefit to sprouting beans or other seeds?
Answer: While I don’t want to discourage you from eating nutritious beans and seeds that haven’t been sprouted, sprouting or germinating seeds does change their nutritional profile and make them more digestible. All kinds of seeds make delicious sprouts.
These include
PURE Multicountry Nutrition Study Supports What We Already Know—Despite Headlines to the Contrary
Just what the wellness community needed—yet another study questioning what we thought we knew about nutrition and health.
When results of the massive, multicontinent “PURE” (Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology) nutrition study were published, headlines blared:
Take A Diet Break, Lose Weight
When you first start trying to lose weight, the math is straightforward: To lose 1 pound, create a 3,500-calorie deficit by eating less and moving more. But as the weight comes off, the body’s metabolism slows as it tries to maintain a “set point” weight, and the math stops working. People need a greater caloric deficit to keep losing weight. And for most people, the weight creeps back up over time.
Read MoreLose Weight, Save Money
A new report from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests
that people who are overweight or obese could potentially trade weight for cash.
Authors of the report produced a model linking body mass index, health outcomes and associated costs at various points in an adult’s life. For example, for a 40-year-old, having obesity (vs. normal weight) adds $15,024 in lifetime third-party payer costs, $16,400 in lifetime productivity losses and $31,447 in societal costs. For a person of that age, being overweight (vs.
Any Kind of Physical Activity Reduces Mortality Rates
Plenty of research encourages hitting the gym or going for a run as a means of keeping the grim reaper at bay. It turns out that any kind of physical activity—whether it’s achieved at the gym or at work—has protective benefits, according to a study produced by the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Read MoreSome Cancers Are a Weighty Issue
About 40% of cancer cases are related to overweight and obesity, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read MoreGet Up, Stand Up—For Your Health
We know that sitting long hours is a health hazard that can lead to early death. What’s been unclear is whether frequent breaks in sit time can reduce that risk even if total sit time remains the same. Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center looked into that question.
Read MoreMillennials Prefer “Activacations”
According to a recent survey produced by Hotels.com, most millennials prefer to lift weights instead of piña coladas while on vacation. Savvy fitness professionals can leverage this
information when marketing and promoting programs to this demographic.
Muscle Activation During Kettlebell Exercises
Understanding how different exercises affect the body is a prerequisite for designing optimal training programs. In a study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (2017; 31 [9], 2363–70), scientists looked at muscle activation during three kettlebell movements.
Read MoreOn This Day in Fitness History
The first-ever Winter Olympics were held January 25–February 5, 1924, in Chamonix, France. The event involved eight sports and just over 250 athletes.
Read MoreWeight Disparities in Children Worldwide
When it comes to childhood health, lots of emphasis is placed on the risks of being overweight or obese—and an estimated 124 million kids worldwide were in those weight categories in 2016, a tenfold increase since 1975. While this is of great concern, a new study has found that in the same year, 192 million boys and girls were moderately or severely underweight. The researchers believe that family income levels may play a role in a child’s weight.
Read MoreOlympic Support Coach Talks Winter Games
In February, thousands of athletes from around the world will descend on PyeongChang, South Korea, with dreams of stepping onto a podium. Among them will be members of the U.S. speed skating team, who have received support from the Under Armour Performance Team.
Dan McDonogh, 2012 IDEA Fitness Instructor of the Year and UA senior manager of performance training, knows what it’s like to ready the athletes for competition:
One Size Fits One
Ozzy Osbourne was curious and decided to have his genome sequenced.
“Given the swimming pools of booze I’ve guzzled over the years—not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol . . . you name it—there’s really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive,” he said in the Sunday Times of London in 2010.
“Maybe my DNA could say why.”
Social Support and Seniors
Fitness pros working with seniors deal with the physical and cognitive losses of aging every day. But what about the social support losses?
Read MoreMove 3 for Every 30
With most U.S. adults sitting 9–12 hours daily and the risks of inactivity becoming more apparent, the popular press and the scientific community concur that “sitting is the new smoking.” Indeed, there is mounting evidence linking sedentary lifestyles to cardiovascular diseases and all causes of mortality (Diaz et al. 2017).
Though the threat seems clear, one major question has puzzled researchers: Can people reduce their risks by taking short breaks in otherwise long periods of sitting still?