Posts by Craig Ballantyne
Social Support for Heart Health
For years, I’ve been preaching about the importance of having social support for weight loss. If you want to lose weight, you need to hang around – and stay in contact with – other folks who have the same goals as you.
Read MoreEvery Guy’s Diet Needs More…
The other day, one of my clients asked me why I eat so many fruits and vegetables, and why I tell him to do the same. After all, neither one of us is trying to lose fat.
Read MoreYour Metabolism Slows Down and Stays Down, Unless…
I have some bad news for you. According to scientists at New York’s Presbyterian Medical Center at Columbia University, folks who succeed in losing weight tend to wind up suffering from a lower than expected metabolic rate. This means that if you lose weight, you will burn fewer calories each day than someone of the same weight who was never overweight.
Read MoreThe Low-Intensity Cardio Lie
Once in a while, a study comes along that surprises me. For instance, I recently found one showing that cardio works for fat loss – as long as it is high-intensity cardio.
Read MoreChoosing the Right Weight
Going to the gym is intimidating enough. But not knowing how much weight to use for an exercise can make you feel even more uncomfortable. If you grab a weight that’s too light, you’ll waste your time. If you grab a weight that’s too heavy, you risk injury.
Read MoreBattle of the Ab Exercises
To get six-pack abs, most people think they’ll have to do hundreds of crunches. But crunches involve spinal flexion (rounding forward), and research shows that spinal flexion can lead to herniated discs. Knowing this has sent me on a long and exhaustive search for safe and effective ab training.
Read MoreThe Anti-Aging Effects of Exercise
Growth hormone is known as a “fountain of youth” in the anti-aging community because it helps build muscle and burn body fat. But research has shown that people who are overweight tend to have lower growth hormone levels.
Read More2 Fountains of Youth
Life extension is one of the most popular research topics in the world right now. You might have heard what scientists have learned about calorie restriction, for example. Many studies have found that if you cut calories from an animal’s diet, they can live longer. This works with mice, monkeys, and even household pets.
Read MoreH2O Weight Loss
The researchers looked at 173 overweight women (aged 25-50) who reported drinking less than one liter of water per day. These women were then instructed to increase their water consumption, and were studied for a year.
Read MoreStrange Internet Trend for Weight Loss
Nutrition bloggers have a strange habit. They like to take pictures of their meals and post them on their websites. But recent research has found that this might be giving them an unexpected benefit.
Read MoreThe Worst Thing You Can Do for Muscles
There are some things we should NOT do to our muscles. One of the worst is to stop moving them.
Swedish and American scientists teamed up to find out just how bad complete bed rest is for muscles. In the study, they subjected eight men to a three-day period of lower-limb suspension (for one leg only).
Read MoreHigh-Protein Diets for More Fat Loss
While the media focus on low-carb vs. low-fat diets, they tend to miss the point about high-protein diets. It’s well known in the fitness industry that higher protein intakes help with fat loss. For one thing, protein helps control appetite.
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