Matt Metzgar

The Rat Race

Here is a gem of a paper I found, "Chronic Social Stress in a Changing Dietary Environment."

The authors hypothesized that modern living, with its many chronic social stresses (unlike hunter-gatherer living which we are designed for), alters weight regulation and food choices.  The authors actually set up a rat environment that was supposed to simulate our modern society.  The low-status rats became predisposed to weight gain and towards high-fat food choices.

It's great to see science addressing this issue.  Who wouldn't think that packing people into dense housing and putting them under ridiculous work hierarchies wouldn't affect their heath?

Overweight Adolescents Eat Less

Here's another neat study that shatters the fallacy that overweight people eat more.  This study looked at Greek adolescents and monitored their energy intake and energy expenditure. 

The authors reported that the energy intake of overweight adolescents was lower than the energy intake of their normal weight peers.  It also mentions that overweight adolescents ate more junk food, but that might be expected. 

The finding that jumped out at me was that "overweight children had a higher energy negative balance."  According to the calorie theory, if you are negative energy balance (calorie intake less than calorie expenditure) you should lose weight.  Yet this study does not show this to be true. 

Both this study and the one I blogged about recently show that just eating less is not the path to weight loss.  The key is instead to live at a high energy flux - eating a good amount of calories and expending a good amount of calories through exercise.  When a person is sedentary, the body's weight-regulating mechanisms do not work properly, and it is easier to gain weight.

Search Function

As this blog has grown, I've wanted to make it easier for readers to find older posts.  Hence, I added a search feature to the blog - it's at the bottom of the menu to the right.  Searching this site through the Google option works, but searching it through Google Blog Search option works even better.

Stone Age Power - Free E-Book

In 2002, I wrote a short book on diet and exercise from a Stone Age (evolutionary) perspective.  At that time, I sold the book via a website.  I have decided to now make the book available as a free pdf download.  There is also a new permanent menu link to this post.

Download the free e-book here!

Schwarzenegger's Lead Increases

With a month to go in the California Governor's race, Arnold Schwarzenegger has opened up a double-digit lead against his Democratic challenger Phil Angelides.  Apparently, Angelides strategy was to tie Schwarzenegger to our unpopular President Bush.  Yet either Californians aren't listening to his message or don't care as Angelides numbers continue to slip.

Now Angelides main campaign message is calling an end to the Iraq war, which strikes me as a pretty stupid campaign theme.  The race is for Governor of California, not Senator or Congressmen.  Congress and the President vote on the war efforts, not the nation's governors.

At any rate, in a month Schwarzenegger will be re-elected governor, I'll be happy, and Californians will truly be better off. 

Intermittent Running

For the past few weeks, I have been doing more "intermittent running".  It's basically stop-and-go running over the course of a mile or two. 

When I was running this week, I noticed a couple of "traditional" runners - running at a steady pace with no stopping.  I think intermittent running is superior to this kind of running for a couple of reasons.  First, it takes away the repetitive stress that comes with traditional running.  I try to add in even more spice when I run, such as jumping onto curbs or swerving back and forth some. 

Second, intermittent running allows you to reach faster speeds (even if it's only briefly) than traditional running.  This translates into more cardiovascular benefits.  I found an old study that shows this to be true.  This study compares traditional running versus stop-and-go running (in this case running for a minute and walking for three).  The effects on cholesterol levels and body fat were the same for each program, but only the stop-and-go running produced a significant increase in VO2 max (a measure of maximal oxygen uptake).

Intermittent running is most likely what our hunter-gatherer ancestors did.  They were of course trail runners, which is much different than running on flat ashphalt.   

The best "course" I ever had for intermittent running was a park trail back in Ohio.  The trail went up a sharp hill and through the woods and then came back down.  It was also very secluded - I rarely saw anyone else on it.  Even in the dead of winter I would slosh through the snow and run that trail.  I miss it - it was a genuine place to escape into nature for a short time.

Lean Men Eat More Than Obese Men

A common perception of the obese is that they eat far more than the average person.  However, studies have not shown this to be true.  There are also gender difference involved when studying this.

I found this older study that looked at the issue.  For males, lean men actually consumed slightly more calories per day than obese men.  For females, the reverse was true: obese females consumed more calories than lean women.

The factor leading to leanness for both men and women was exercise.  Lean men and women reported exercising 5-6 days per week, compared to 1-2 days per week for obese men and women.