Things that make you go, hmm?

If you are of a certain age, this phrase may remind you of the Arsenio Hall Show, a talk show host in the 90s who would ponder ideas and refer to them as “things that make you go hmmm….”

I have been thinking about a few new studies and thinking hmmm a lot recently too. Here are a few of them.

Starting with the always popular theme of time.

Less gym time, same results

A new study says,

New research has shown one type of muscle contraction is most effective at increasing muscle strength and size — meaning we may able to cut our weights routine in half and still see the same results.

Edith Cowan University

First, this isn’t new. Everyone who goes to the gym has probably heard the phrase, if you can’t put it down, don’t pick it up. The study is referring to eccentric muscle contraction or the lengthening phase.

We all know the guy lifting super heavy weights at the gym and then dropping them – don’t be this guy. For two reasons, lifting in control is more effective and second, it is super annoying.

But, back to the study. They state that this is good news because you can cut your workout time in half because you only have to focus on lowering the weights. Not a bad idea.

But just wondering, how do you lower your weights if you don’t pick them up in the first place?

The only thing to take from this study is that if you want to get better results from your gym routine, don’t drop the weights.

Something everyone at the gym has been saying forever.

Calories and exercise

Another study on PACE, physical activity calorie labelling, found no evidence of success. This is where food is labelled with the time required to burn off those calories with exercise.

Does this surprise anyone?

Knowledge doesn’t equal action, what we know and what we do are not the same thing.

And can we please stop equating calories consumed with physical activity…

It is not a linear relationship. Food is more than calories and we are a complex system.

Processed Foods cause weight gain

I think we can agree that highly processed, high-calorie, high-fat, high-sugar foods with little to no nutritional value are fueling the obesity crisis.

But a new study, unfortunately, blames something they label “protein hunger” for weight gain. Not the fact that these are nutritionally empty high-calorie foods?

Most people eat more protein than they require, not less, and eating a diet high in empty calories is a recipe for gaining weight and poor health.

There are many good studies that show how unhealthy processed foods are for our health and our weight. Including one from the National Institute of Health that stated,

Participants in the NIH study ate an extra 17 calories (7.4 grams of food) per minute when they ate ultra-processed foods versus unprocessed foods. The researchers said the additives in ultra-processed foods, such as industrial oils and synthetic preservatives, make them softer and easier to chew and swallow.

NIH

Ultra-processed foods cause weight gain for many other good reasons too, including gut inflammation, and stimulating hunger hormones. This well-designed study looked at macronutrients and calories, matching them for each diet group, ultra-processed versus whole foods.

Even though the two diet groups were matched for macronutrients, sugar, sodium, and fibre. The participants could eat as much or as little as they wanted, and they ate more food when eating the ultra-processed diet.

The key to staying healthy is to stick to the basics. Eat real food, exercise regularly, and ignore most of the hype. If something looks too good to be true, you know it probably is.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

What things make you go hmmm…