Got a few pounds to lose? Cancel the gym membership. An increasing body of research reveals that exercise does next to nothing for you when it comes to losing weight.
We understand and expect that getting in shape is going to require serious effort on our part. Since the days of the Green Goddess, we've known that the healthiest way to lose weight is through exercise. It's science, isn't it?
Well, science has some bad news for you. More and more research in both the UK and the US is emerging to show that exercise has a negligible impact on weight loss.
The Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profit medical research establishment in the US, reports that, in general, studies "have demonstrated no or modest weight loss with exercise alone" and that "an exercise regimen… is unlikely to result in short-term weight loss beyond what is achieved with dietary change."
It sounds faintly heretical, if not downright facetious. And it's a scientific discovery that most health professionals are, naturally, keen to downplay. After all, exercise is still good for us. It's just that, in defiance of decades of New Year resolutions, it's unlikely to make us slim.
"... you have to do an awful lot more exercise than most people realise. To burn off an extra 500 calories is typically an extra two hours of cycling. And that's about two doughnuts."
In what has become a defining experiment at the University of Louisiana, led by Dr Timothy Church, hundreds of overweight women were put on exercise regimes for a six-month period. Some worked out for 72 minutes each week, some for 136 minutes, and some for 194. A fourth group kept to their normal daily routine with no additional exercise.
Against all the laws of natural justice, at the end of the study, there was no significant difference in weight loss between those who had exercised – some of them for several days a week – and those who hadn't!
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Vocabulary
pounds = 1 pound = 0.45 kilo
cancel = stop (something we have started/organised)
used to = had the habit to, did something but doesn't do it now.
complain = be unhappy about, protest.
lose weight = If you are fat, you try to reduce your size and become smaller
size 18 = a large clothes size in the UK. (46 european/ Not France)
(18) stone = (114) kgs
heavier = more weight/ 2 kgs weighs more than 1 kg= it is heavier.
in vain = without success or results
shed = lose, get rid of
to head to = go to/ go towards
to pound the treadmill =in the picture you can see a treadmill. (a running exercise machine) to pound = to run very hard.
brisk = walking quickly, energetically
a fraction = a small percentage of, a little, (1/4 and 1/8 are fractions)
ought to = should
slimmest = the thinest
bunch = group of people ( familiar)
remained overweight = stay too heavy/fatter than should be
to get in shape = to become physically fit/become the right size through exercise
require = need
Green Goddess = famous exercise / fitness TV character (UK) Goddess is female God
emerging = is becoming known/apparent/ appearing/ coming to light
negligible = little
impact = effect, consequence
not-for-profit = their objective is not to make money
modest = little
regimen = diet regime/plan
unlikely = not probable
beyond = more than
keen to = anxious, eager, interested, 'enthusiastic'
to downplay = devalue, minimize, attach little importance, at the end of the day.
in defiance = in opposition to/ contrary to/ challenging/in disregard to
decades = a decade = 10 years, decades = 20/30 years.
slim = thin (with good shape)
defining = something which shapes/ defines/setting the standard.
experiment = a scientific process to discover truth/ test/ examination
led = managed by, controlled by.
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Scientists say they've carried out the first rigorous analysis of dance moves that make men attractive to women.
The researchers say that movements associated with good dancing may be a sign of good health and reproductive potential.
"When you go out to clubs people have an intuitive understanding of what makes a good and bad dancer," said co-author Dr Nick Neave, an evolutionary psychologist at Northumbria University, UK.
Dr Neave asked young men who were not professional dancers, to dance in a laboratory to a very basic drum rhythm and their movements with 12 cameras.These movements were then converted into a computer-generated cartoon - an avatar - which women rated on a scale of one to seven. He was surprised by the results.
"We thought that people's arms and legs would be really important. The kind of expressive gestures the hands [make], for example. But in fact this was not the case," he said.
We found that (women paid more attention to) the core body region: the torso, the neck, the head”
It was not just the speed of the movements, it was also the variability of the movement. So someone who is twisting, bending, moving, nodding."
Movements that went down terribly were twitchy and repetitive - so called "Dad dancing".Dr Neave's aim was to establish whether young men exhibited the same courtship rituals in night clubs as animals do in the wild. In the case of animals, these movements give information about their health, age, their reproductive potential and their hormone status
(Jake) The big question is: Do you agree with this research?
I certainly don't dance like that! Do you? Does this article apply to your culture?
http://news.bbc.co.uk (Story) Wikipedia (Picture)
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Vocabulary.
carried out = do, make (a scientist carries out an experiment = a scientist does an experiment)
attractive = beautiful,
clubs = night club, disco
intuitive = natural feeling of
drum = instrument played/tapped/banged with hands to make beat/rhythm
converted = changed into
cartoon = mickey mouse, pluto etc. Not real people but drawn characters. My Jake 'photo' is a cartoon
to rate = to value, evaluate, to assess, to calculate, to rank.
a scale = 0-10 is a scale 1 is bad, 10 is excellent.
pay attention to something = to note, perceive with the eyes, to watch
Core = main, principle, (not arms and legs but chest/stomach)
twist = moving only half of your body, usually top half.
bend = if you touch your feet, toes, you are bending. (Not straight)
nodding = to move your head up and down
to go down = be seen, perceived.
terribly = very bad/badly
twitchy = not smooth, not 'cool' movement, a bit crazy
courtship rituals = to 'rules' of romance. i.e. First, we dance, we look at each other, we approach, we dance closely, we talk... (western cultures)
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What Is the Water Diet? Is it possible to lose weight just by drinking water?
Story / Pictures : http://www.ehow.com
The Water Diet, sometimes known as the Cold Water Diet, is one of the latest fads that appeal to dieters who want to melt away their fat. Compared to fasting diets and those that restrict caloric intake, such as the Rice Diet, the Water Diet doesn't limit food consumption, nor does it require exercise. The appeal of the Water Diet is that dieters can purportedly eat what they want and still lose weight.
What is the 'science' behind the water diet?
The theory behind the Water Diet is that when cold water is ingested, the body burns extra calories to heat the water up to a body temperature of 98.6 degrees F. The colder the water, the harder the body works to warm up the water. Therefore, even more calories would be burned if a dieter drinks very cold water. Additionally, drinking water in between or with meals gives dieters a sense of fullness, making them less likely to want to eat. Because the kidneys must work to process water, it is also said that the Water Diet results in toxins being flushed from the body.
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Vocabulary
diet = a plan to reduce weight, a plan to stop eating too much
to lose weight = to reduce the size of your body/stomach, reduce fat
latest fad = newest fashion, thing, buzz
to appeal = attract, interest
dieters = people trying to lose weight (see above)
melt away = lose easily, simply
fasting = stop yourself from eating
to restrict = to limit, to control food eaten
intake = (technical) a measurement of what you eat, the amount you eat
consumption = the eating of food
nor does it require = and it doesn't need
purportedly = apparently, supposedly, seemingly
theory = argument, belief, idea (scientific)
ingested = eaten
burn (calories) = when you do exercise (running, playing tennis) you burn/use calories; because of this you lose weight.
to heat up = to make warm/hot
The --er, the --er = the more, the more (The more the water is cold, the more...)
therefore = and for that reason, in consequence, so
a sense of fullness = a feeling of eaten enough/well
likely = probable, possible
kidneys = part of body: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidney
flushed out = leave the body
The theory behind the Water Diet is that when cold water is ingested, the body burns extra calories to heat the water up to a body temperature of 98.6 degrees F. The colder the water, the harder the body works to warm up the water. Therefore, even more calories would be burned if a dieter drinks very cold water. Additionally, drinking water in between or with meals gives dieters a sense of fullness, making them less likely to want to eat. Because the kidneys must work to process water, it is also said that the Water Diet results in toxins being flushed from the body.
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Vocabulary
diet = a plan to reduce weight, a plan to stop eating too much
to lose weight = to reduce the size of your body/stomach, reduce fat
latest fad = newest fashion, thing, buzz
to appeal = attract, interest
dieters = people trying to lose weight (see above)
melt away = lose easily, simply
fasting = stop yourself from eating
to restrict = to limit, to control food eaten
intake = (technical) a measurement of what you eat, the amount you eat
consumption = the eating of food
nor does it require = and it doesn't need
purportedly = apparently, supposedly, seemingly
theory = argument, belief, idea (scientific)
ingested = eaten
burn (calories) = when you do exercise (running, playing tennis) you burn/use calories; because of this you lose weight.
to heat up = to make warm/hot
The --er, the --er = the more, the more (The more the water is cold, the more...)
therefore = and for that reason, in consequence, so
a sense of fullness = a feeling of eaten enough/well
likely = probable, possible
kidneys = part of body: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidney
flushed out = leave the body
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