exercise

Interesting articles on the difficulties of weight loss, an effect of exercise, and how diet is necessary to lose weight, with consistent exercise required to keep it off.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.htm...

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/exercise-hormone-helps-keep-us-...

"First, the young men watched a rapid-fire lineup of photos with the faces and names of strangers. After a break, they tried to recall the names they had just seen as the photos again zipped across a computer screen.

"Afterward, half of the students rode a stationary bicycle, at an increasingly strenuous pace, until they were exhausted. The others sat quietly for 30 minutes. Then both groups took the brain-teaser test again.

Dr. Stephen Bloom, an obesity researcher at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said the study needed to be repeated under more rigorous conditions, but added, “It is showing something I believe in deeply — it is very hard to lose weight.” And the reason, he said, is that “your hormones work against you.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/health/biological-changes-thwart-weigh...

Interesting take on the quality of calories, not just quantity:

Good advice, and what I've found to be true... for real long-term change, persistance, patience, and permanent modifications are necessary (but that's not a bad thing!)

"It’s all about making healthy eating part of your lifestyle—and yes, that means for life! But listen folks, eating right is so much more than steamed broccoli and flavorless chicken breasts. These days it’s all about flavor and variety, and includes foods like chocolate and pancetta, and yes (I’m talking to you, Nina!), even glasses of wine.

Looks great!

"John Gunstad, an associate professor of psychology at Kent State University, and a team of scientists from several research centers analyzed memory tests taken by 150 people who weighed an average of 300 pounds. Many had several health problems, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and sleep apnea.

Of that group, 109 of them then had bariatric surgery — mostly gastric bypass surgery, which creates a smaller stomach and bypasses part of the small intestine. The other 41 obese patients did not have surgery.

Between my pitcher of coffee-per-day habit and triathlon training, maybe I'll live to 150... :o)

"I drink five to six cups a day religiously," says Gary Arendash, a researcher at the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, part of Florida State University. Arendash says he's convinced that caffeine is protecting his brain.

Who can cross the street more successfully, an athelete or a college student?

"Success varied. “Over all, there was an 85 percent completion rate,” in which students made it to the other side of the road without incident, said Laura Chaddock, a graduate student at the university and lead author of the study. Failure meant impact — thankfully virtual.

So the moral seems to be things are good in appropriate doses, where for exercise, "too much" may be somewhere north of 100 marathons and olympic-level training, and even then is potentially reversable (as shown in the rat experiment).  They don't mention whether these people were currently training, I'm guessing they were, since it doesn't say the subjects were told to rest.  Training intentionally stresses muscle (including heart) to strengthen it... my guess is that if they rested a few weeks and did another MRI the "fibrosis" would have nearly disappeared.