Andy Galpin, along with Brian Mackenzie and Phil White, recently published a fascinating book about fitness and technology called Unplugged. I interviewed Galpin for Men’s Journal about how to properly use technology for health.
Taking Down Big Sugar
Here is my Men’s Journal profile of Gary Taubes, whose new book, The Case Against Sugar, is out now.
Weight Loss
In a long article this week, The New York Times basically suggested that diet and exercise are not effective strategies for keeping weight off once it’s been lost. Contestants on the eighth season of the reality show The Biggest Loser shed an impressive tonnage. Yet all but one gained weight back in the six years since the show. The reason, the article explains, is that the resting metabolism of the newly thinned person slows and continues to slow, causing them to gain fat. What strikes me about this piece is its failure to consider how the choices these contestants made might have contributed, or even directly caused, the slowing of their metabolisms and packing on of fat; instead their predicament is chalked up to “biology” (which is rumored to cause cancer, too). Even worse: the go-to response to the findings is that “we need to explore other approaches,” says Dr. David Ludwig, meaning drugs and surgery. I found…