Science-based Tips on Weight loss, Fitness, Health, and Nutrition from a Ph.D. Scientist
Do you use your phone before or during your workouts? Well it could be affecting your workouts–and fitness–way more than you’d guess.
In today’s video, I go over a study looking at how using social media affects your ability to lift weights.
Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:
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Feeling too lazy, sore, or sick to work out? Well there’s something else you can do instead: mental training! In today’s video I go over the highlights from studies showing how just imagining exercising can make you fitter.
And bonus, these findings apply to other motor skills as well, like dancing and playing instruments!
Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:
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Have you ever wondered which exercise is best for your specific situation and goals?
Today I have a video for you where I go over the best type of cardio (high vs low intensity) for you depending on your:
I also talk about how long you would have to walk to burn the same amount of calories and fat as running, and I show you how the calories burned from an exercise doesn’t tell the whole story.
Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:
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If you’ve watched my past videos, then you may know by now that dieting can cause overeating for all sorts of different reasons. In today’s video, I go over a study showing that breaking your diet can also cause you to overeat. And I talk about who is most susceptible to this reactive binging.
Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:
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You guys really liked my last resistant starch video and I got lots of requests for another, so here is a long-awaited followup! In today’s video, I go over studies looking at how eating resistant starch affects your body composition: that is, what percent of your body is fat versus lean mass like muscle. I also go over how to get more resistant starch in your diet!
Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:
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Today’s video answers another question I get a lot: does intermittent fasting really make you lose weight? Specifically I’m talking about intermittent fasting throughout the day (aka time-restricted feeding), where you eat for part of the day and fast for the rest of it.
In the video I go over 5 studies on intermittent fasting, with a variety of fasting windows: 8 hours (aka 16:8), 6 hours (18:6), and 4 hours (20:4) and including studies on both morning and nighttime eating windows.
Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:
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Study links & links mentioned in the video:
I have been really into hemp lately.
(For cooking, that is!)
A few months ago I ordered some hemp protein powder to experiment with adding extra protein to my smoothies–I’ve been weightlifting more and more lately, and want to give my muscles the best possible chance to grow!
And something crazy happened: I actually enjoyed the taste of it in my smoothies. I’ve never liked a protein powder before. But I love how hemp actually has a nice earthy flavor, almost like avocado or something. And then the addiction began: I picked up hemp seeds too. (Because who doesn’t want more omega-3?)
So I started trying to find ways to incorporate hemp seeds & protein powder into more and more things. And I’ve been loving raw desserts in this heat lately and was craving chocolate (more than usual!)….
And voila, hemp brownies were born!
My favorite hempy concoction thus far. I’ve made them at least 10 times in the last 3 months–the only other things I make that much are my favorite salad (which I will post someday, I promise) and my favorite smoothie.
Ingredients:
Directions:
I’ve been talking about intuitive eating for quite awhile now, and I thought it was finally time I make a post all about it. Specifically, what it is (my take on it, at least), and especially, whether it can help you.
Intuitive eating is a term coined by the authors of this book, but the idea has been around in different forms for a lot longer than that. There are scientific studies from before 1995 and in more recent years showing that following the tenets of intuitive eating lead to weight loss, treat disordered eating like binge eating, reverse obesity, heal relationships with food, reduce depression and anxiety, and improve self esteem and body image.1,2,3
The basic principle of intuitive eating (and related ideas) is simply:
Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full.
That may sound too simple, too good to be true, or just something you’ve tried before that hasn’t worked. But it can be tricky to get right, especially with society’s attitudes about food these days. We start out doing it as kids, but somewhere along the way, most of us lose the ability.
Maybe because we learned to use food to deal with our emotions, maybe because of our culture’s obsession with dieting as THE way to lose weight, maybe because we’re taught that desserts, carbs, sugar, etc. are “bad”.
If you’ve tried dieting, followed meal plans with scheduled eating times and portions, overeaten or undereaten, or felt guilty for eating, chances are you’ve fallen out of tune with your ability to eat when hungry and stop when full. I know I did, completely–hunger and fullness were almost irrelevant in my eating behavior for 10 years.
Intuitive eating is all about undoing this: getting back in tune with our hunger signals, and learning not to let external or psychological factors determine when and how much we eat. As a result, it involves effortlessly maintaining a healthy weight, improving your health, and healing your relationship with food and your own body.
No more calorie counting. No more food scales. No more portion control. Just reaching your goal body by eating as much as you want, when you want it. Channeling all that time and mental effort that you were once spending on food into the rest of your life: your relationships, your work, your hobbies.
If it sounds too good to be true, don’t worry… I thought so too. Until it worked.
So, I’m starting a series of blog posts all about how to get started with intuitive eating, no matter how unattainable it might feel for you. I was stuck in a restricting/dieting and binge eating cycle for over 10 years, so I think I qualified as one of the more hopeless cases out there… so I’ll be sharing what worked for me, and incorporate tips from scientific research on it.
Maybe you already do intuitive eating, and still can’t lose weight. I still have advice for you coming up, and part of that involves tweaking what and how you’re eating (notice I didn’t say how much)!
So stay tuned for posts every other weekend on how to eat intuitively or troubleshoot your intuitive eating. If you’re looking to lose weight, escape disordered eating habits, or improve your physical and psychological health, this series is for you.
Some of the posts I have planned so far are:
And more! (I’ll add a table of contents with links as the posts come out)
If you’d like to keep up, sign up below to get email notifications when I post! 🙂
(There are many more studies on the benefits of intuitive eating, but this is a quick sampling of some)
Miche, Ph.D. 