Currently viewing the tag: "exercise"

Mitochondrial AnarchyHe’s back.  Well, actually I never went anywhere, but it’s been a few months since I added to the blog.  In the mean time hundreds of pounds were lost by people I worked with directly, an invited commentary was submitted to a journal, and I have performed dozens of calorimetry, blood sugar, and food experiments.

Sometimes it’s necessary to isolate from all the bias and do the boring thinking part.  It’s far easier to hype, but at the root of all innovations is a break from status quo.  Like trucks drafting on the highway, it’s quite easy to get sucked Read Full Article →

calories burned with kettlebell swings - boost metabolismYou can’t out-exercise your mouth.

It is a fundamental truth and a brilliant evolutionary strategy.  Exercise has many interesting impacts, both positive and negative, but if you’ve been chronically obese, I want to encourage you not to start here. Not only are you putting your heavy, out of shape body into an increased risk of injury, but until you’ve been successful in the one exercise that ALWAYS works, you’ll simply eat your way through any progress.

What is this magical exercise? Isometrically clench your teeth in the presence of fattening foods and excess calories.  It’s necessary to control appetite, not “fuel Read Full Article →

Irisin transforming fat to BATWe take a quick break from our macronutrient discussion to talk about some really exciting news in the hypothermics world that showed up in the last two weeks. It’s great when new data shows that old thoughts might be wrong.  This one comes from researchers at Harvard Medical School (and a host of other institutions).(1)  These scientist discovered a new hormone, irisin, named after the greek goddess iris – the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods.

What is most exciting is that this hormone could be another piece of the “calorie” controversy – the irritating paradox of calorie Read Full Article →

BAT, Brown Adipose Tissue, Thermal diet and weight lossWe learned in Part 1 that not only do human infants start out with more fat than any other species, a higher percentage is brown adipose tissue (BAT). Women, in general have more than men and as Humans age, BAT seems to dwindle. It’s likely if you have ever been obese, you have less BAT then your skinny friends.Custom gummibåt

I have dozens of papers here on BAT. My interest with BAT began after Tim and I discussed it at length and started exchanging ideas and data. Honestly, I came to my conclusions from the complete opposite (but complimentary) approach – it was much more of a 30,000 ft level view on the subject. Read Full Article →

cold exposure and weight loss... do we put on more fat for insulation in the winter?I fly a lot and on my recent trip to California, the fasten seat belt sign came on and within a few minutes, the plane ride became bumpy. The Captain announced over the intercom that he was going to asked the (uniformed) flight attendants to stop service until things cleared up. The sign went off a while later and peanuts, pretzels, and drinks were flowing (I resisted the urge). It happened more than once on this particular trip. Read Full Article →

Losing weight is on top of everyone's New Year's Even Resolutions, but what are you going to DO about it?Each year losing weight or getting fit creeps into the top ten list of New Year’s resolutions and each year we get fatter as a nation and a world. Even though we spent more than $46 billion in 2009 on diet and exercise, it seems we aren’t making progress; let’s face it we EXCEL at fat. Read Full Article →

I don’t know how I woke up one day and had swelled from 170 lbs to 230 lbs. I might have actually weighed more at my top, but I stopped keeping track of it and I rarely wanted to measure anything. As a scientist, that tells you a lot about the denial I lived in for years.  It wasn’t as if I had completely ignored the weight either. I had been on MANY diets over the previous 20 years. Pritikin, Graprfuit, The Zone, Sugar Busters, South Beach, Body for Life, Hilton Head, Atkins…they all worked so long as I stuck to the plan. Read Full Article →