When I worked a local gym, I was often approached by members asking me why they were not getting results anymore. One of the first questions I would ask is “How’s your diet?” The member, telling me what they thought I wanted to hear, usually said something like “I don’t eat bread anymore.” If I asked about fast food, I would sometimes hear “I’ll eat the burger without the bun.” 

This is a common practice because many people think bread is a high fat item. Let’s take a look: The average slice of bread contains 15 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of protein, and only 1 gram of fat!

According to a recent New England Journal of Medicine study funded by the National Institute on Aging, obesity is "socially contagious" and can spread easily from person to person.  

The study found that social ties seem to play a strong role in obesity, even more than genes.  The chances of becoming obese went up 57 percent if a friend is obese, 40 percent if a sibling is obese and 37 percent if a spouse is obese. In the closest friendships, the risk almost tripled. This may explain why men gain weight when their pregnant wives or girlfriends gain weight. 

Are you at risk for a heart attack?  Check out the interactive tool to measure your chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years.

Your chance of a heart attack is determined by information you enter to calculate your risk score. The calculation is based on the Framingham Heart Study which studied the progression of heart disease and its risk factors for the past 50 years.

The information you submit include the most important risk factors for heart disease, which are as follows:

Want to improve your gluteus maximus, otherwise known as the muscles in your glutes, butt or buttocks? According to Wikipedia, "The gluteus maximus is the largest and most superficial of the three gluteal muscles. It makes up a large portion of the shape and appearance of the buttocks. It is a broad and thick fleshy mass of a quadrilateral shape, and forms the prominence of the nates."

Power-lifting exercises are known to significantly strengthen the gluteus maximus including squats and the dead lift. The leg press also uses the gluteus maximus.

It is quite a leap to say something is “always the best”. Since walking is a recreational activity being embraced by more and more people, this topic seems to be popping up often. For some, walking is very challenging. For others it’s not hard at all.

We cannot answer this question until we assess the situation. If a person is severely deconditioned, walking is a good challenge for him. A severely deconditioned person is one who has little endurance or muscle strength due to illness, injury, or years of inactivity. For everyone else, walking has a very slight effect on your aerobic fitness level.

• Protein: 10-20% of daily calories
• Fat (good and bad):  No more than 30% calories
• Carbohydrates: About 60% of caloric intake.

However, if trying to lose fat, it’s recommended that you consume about 20% fat and 20% protein.

Nintendo is planning to enter the fitness arena using its very popular Wii game console.  The company is working on a program tentatively called "Wii Fit" that will hit the market the first half of 2008.

Wii Fit is designed to build on the sweat inducing success of Wii Sports.  The sports games are controlled by moving around a motion-sensing remote control instead of a joystick with buttons.  So for a tennis game, players actually stand before the TV screen and use the control as a tennis racket. As a result, players burn calories because they are actually moving around instead of sitting down with a joystick and just moving their fingers. 

Drinking too much sugar sweetened beverage such as soft drinks isn't good for your health.  According to thirty (30) recent studies, drinking sweetened beverages, primarily soft drinks, promotes weight gain and obesity in children and adolescents. 

Soda is the biggest intake of sugar for most children and adolescent diet. Experimental studies have proved that soft drinks causes weight gain because it doesn't provide satiety (life normal foods), which bypasses the body's natural control of regulating calorie intake.  As a result, this causes over consumption of calories for the body.

Every day someone comes up with a new weight loss gimmick.  Whether it’s a new diet, exercise, pill, book, video tape, scientific break through or TV show, everyday we are bombarded with new information. 

We are constantly reminded of the reality of our health.  It’s true that Americans are in trouble when it comes to healthcare.  We are unhealthy as a nation, our healthcare system is broken and the future looks bleak for how we will handle it. 

For years researchers have proved that physical activity protects against many cancers such as colon, breast and pancreatic cancer.  However, researchers are now finding that physical activity after cancer is diagnosed also increases the change of cancer survival.

A research study, conducted by Homes et al, with a group of 2,987 women survivors of stage 1-3 breast cancer showed that the women who were more physically active had a significantly lower rate of cancer mortality and total mortality than inactive cancer survivors.

So how healthy or unhealthy is your diet?  Attached is a Healthy Eating Self-Test (PDF form) that you can print out and complete to determine how you are doing. The test allows you to rate your diet based on 14 different parameters ranging from your eating practices when it come to breakfast, whole-grain bread / cereal, fruits and vegetables, meats/protein, dairy products, etc. 

Below the test (in the PDF form) are eating guidelines the you can follow to improve your health.