I also heard “there are starving children in Africa so clean your plate.” Yes, the clean plate club. To this day, I still feel guilty leaving food behind. But although I cleaned my plate growing up, it was home-cooked food and reasonable sized portions.

Today, America is majorly afflicted with PORTION DISTORTION. Serving sizes are now over 50% larger then it used to be! Remember when an 8 oz latte was a small and 20 oz didn’t even exist? Well now a 12 oz is a small. So guess what, if serving sizes are too big and you tend to eat all of what’s put in front of you, guess what, your pants are going to be tight if they’re not already.

I hear people all the time saying they eat healthy yet they don’t know why they can’t lose weight. Well even too much healthy food can pack on the pounds. I found this great portion size tool that I want to share with you all. You can click through each food group and see what the proper portion size is. If you hate counting calories or points and your most recent juice cleanse lead to a binge (shocking!) maybe simply downsizing can help you start to lose weight.

Check it out by clicking here: http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-portion-size-plate

- By Sarah Currie, MS RD

In summary, 50 obese people were put on strict diets of 500 calories per day for 10 weeks.  The primary focus of the study was to track the hormones involved in appetite regulation. By the conclusion of the 70 days, only 34 of the participants remained (I too would drop out if someone only let me eat 500 calories a day!); all of which had lost significant weight.

Then about a year after the study concluded, hormone levels in many of the participants indicated that their bodies were trying to become fat again despite maximal efforts to keep the weight off.  Why?  Think about it this way – If someone has weighed 300 pounds for many years, it is impossible for it (weight) to come off and remain off after only 10 weeks of an extremely low cal, starvation diet! The body wants the weight back as its been operating like that for a long time.

I fear such studies as this one provide our increasingly obese population just another excuse not to change their diet & exercise habits. As many of you probably know, it is really stinking hard to lose weight and it’s even harder to keep it off permanently. That is why the goal with my weight loss clients is manageable weight loss and then work to maintain. Let the body adapt. Let the person’s behavior change.

Tara Parker-Pope, author of the NY Times article highlighting this study, does a great job of looking at obesity from various angles. She suggests we should give overweight people a break, that biological and genetic factors can dictate one’s habits and weight.

While I agree with her arguments to some degree, I currently view the biggest problem as deriving from our societal environment. Some people simply do not want to work very hard to lose weight and keep it off. They have succumbed to the quick-fix mentality of the diet and fitness industry promising overnight results without realizing that hey first need to figure out how and why they got so overweight in the first place.

For example, if you were raised in a household that ate ice cream every night after dinner, is that behavior likely to change by quitting cold turkey?  No!

Many barriers to weight loss exist – work, family, life, injury – I see it every day in my practice. But many or all of these barriers can be overcome if the root of the problem is understood and people are provided with the correct tools to help them succeed.

But Sarah also warns that digesting  too much of the vitamin can actually be harmful. “Consuming excessive levels of Vitamin A—usually from supplementation—can cause liver abnormalities and reduced bone mineral density,” warns Currie. Additionally, long-term use of large amounts of Vitamin A might cause fatigue, irritability, mental changes, anorexia, stomach discomfort, nausea, vomiting, mild fever, excessive sweating and other unpleasant side effects.”

To read the article in its entirety, visit Men’s Fitness Magazine by clicking here.

BELLA Magazine launched in January 2011 with a focus on beauty, health and wellness. Courtney Hall is the magazine’s editor.

Click here for more information on BELLA Magazine and visit www.physeq.com for more information on our Outdoor Workout Class .

Offering further proof of this correlation came earlier this week, when New York Times Health & Fitness writer Gretchen Reynolds authored a supremely interesting article on a study conducted by Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics at McMaster University in Canada. This study, conducted over the period of one year, compared the lifespan of mice that were given the opportunity to exercise against those that were not.

The results are astounding! The mice that were not given an opportunity to regularly exercise all died within one year, due to what is identified as “malfunctioning mitochondria.”  The results for the mice that were allowed to run on a wheel three times per week is in sharp contrast. According to the article, those mice, “had full pelts of dark fur, no salt-and-pepper shadings. They also had maintained almost all of their muscle mass and brain volume. Their gonads were normal, as were their hearts. They could balance on narrow rods, the showoffs.” These mice also far outlived their non-exercising counterparts.

So what does this study mean for humans?

Dr. Tarnpolsky is not yet certain. So in the meantime, we recommend clicking here to read the full article and then head outside or to the gym for some exercise of your own!

I had the opportunity to train a lot of Physical Equilibrium clients on weekends from Memorial Day – July and than also throughout all of August and into Labor Day.  Many of these clients I have been training in both the city and the Hamptons for a few years now, but I did pick up a few new exercisers this summer.

When in the Hamptons, I train clients on the beach and at the Lift Gym’s Hampton location in Wainscott. It is a great little space – bright and open with bamboo floors and new equipment.  It also happens to be next to the famous Levain Bakery so we have wonderful scents wafting onto the fitness floor.

On a personal note, I had a productive summer of not only working with clients but also doing all sorts of fun fitness activities.  Currently, I am training for the NYC Marathon so I got a lot of long runs in during my down time in the woods and on the beach.  I also cross-trained by riding my bike with visitors, swimming in the ocean and even doing yoga on my deck.

I also found a new sport that I really enjoyed, Stand Up Paddle Boarding, or SUP as its enthusiasts call it.  After just one lesson with a private instructor, Rick from Main Beach Surf Shop,  I went out and bought a used paddleboard so that I could continue to practice my skills.  I took clients as well as my brother out on Bridge Pond and Georgica Pond towards the end of the summer to share this wonderful sport!  It is a great total body workout, but also relaxing and peaceful at the same time.

Now that I’m back full time in NYC, I’ll be missing the late afternoons outside and the delicious farmer’s market and local food.  I’m already getting ready for summer 2011, so I hope to see you out East!  Thanks everyone for a wonderful summer!

Physical Equilibrium registered dietitian Sarah Currie recently authored an article for the Web site Livestrong.com entitled A Meal Plan for Triathletes.  Livestrong.com is a blog dedicated to being “the  most valued online source of inspiring, relevant and useful health-related information.”

In the article, Sarah states that, “Whether you are preparing for a sprint, Olympic, half ironman (70.3 miles), or ironman distance triathlon, your nutrition plan should take as high a priority as your training plan.”  Additionally, Sarah provides readers with an easy way to calculate how many calories an athlete should consume daily while training.  For all of Sarah’s triathlon training nutritional tips, click here to read the full article.

Grace Coddington; Courtesy of Getty Images

Grace has been training with Physical Equilibrium for over a  year – in both Manhattan and the Hamptons.  And in case you haven’t guessed, that “gym on 57th st” mentioned in the article is indeed Physical Equilibrium.  Good luck Grace on your new film!

But what I find most fascinating is the reference to the study in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine that found students to be “sharper” on tests and cognitive functions after completing aerobic exercises than there counterparts who were less active. I personally have always found my mind ro be clearer and that I’m more alert after a good aerobic session – despite being physically tired . This study proves that I’m not the only one!

What do you think about this study?

• In the first paragraph, John states that he has “exercised like a farm animal” for “years.”  This is the first problem. You can workout really hard, but if you aren’t tailoring your workouts appropriately, the workouts will only get you so far
• John cites a survey that recently found that Americans report exercising more now than in 1980.  This is probably true if, and only if, exercise is defined by how often people actually go to the gym or complete planned exercise programs. I would imagine that as a country we are actually A LOT lazier now than we were in 1980 – thanks to all the computer work, driving, and video games that have taken over our lives.
• Of COURSE you eat more on days that you workout. DUH! You wouldn’t be able to get through strenuous workouts if you weren’t eating enough or skipping meals. 
• You need both EXERCISE and DIET modification to lose weight. It is very difficult to have success by utilizing one without the other. Of course, you can negate everything you just burnt off in the at gym if you aren’t careful, but if you eat a doughnut after working out it’s a lot better than not working out and eating a doughnut
• Weight gain is common among people who start new exercise programs….BUT, we don’t know if the people in the exercise study actually lost inches or body fat as the study only looked at scale weight.  I prefer to measure circumference and body fat – which is also a critical measure of success
• If you are only running 20 minutes, you should not be drinking Gatorade that has 130 calories.  I recommend drinks with calories ONLY if you are exercising over 60 minutes.  Your body has enough fuel stored for roughly 90 minutes of exercise so unless you can’t eat for a while or have not eaten much before a workout, you only need water during workouts

What did you think of the article?  I’m interested in hearing your perspectives.