You can now log as you go with the new Fitbit iPhone app! Fitbitters have been talking about the power of logging food and activities when achieving and setting goals. With the new Fitbit iPhone app, the power of logging your activities and food can be carried around with you wherever you go — even when you are offline. With the ability to log your meal while you’re out, you can keep track of every meal with no hassle and nothing gets forgotten. The Fitbit iPhone app allows you to log food, water, activities, and your weight with a new, easy-to-use interface. Keep track of your last synced data while you’re out, and look back on the past 14 days of steps to compare. You’ll also be able to view your goals and see your progress with each one, including your Food Goal. The new Fitbit iPhone app is completely free, and can be downloaded by going to the app store and searching for Fitbit or by going there directly by clicking here. This is Fitbit’s first iPhone app and we’re excited to invest in creating the right tools to support all day fitness for our customers. We’ll be updating and refining the app over the next few months, including adding Ultra support to the app, so be sure to “like” us on Facebook or check out our blog for the latest news. Let us know what you think by mailing us at welovefitbit@fitbit.com, or rate the app directly at the Apple app store.
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Fitbit’s iPhone App is Now Available!
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Fitbit/~3/myF95zXhpnY/
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October 19 2011, 8:45pm | Comments »
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Paypal arbitrarily blocking donations to Diaspora*
http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2011/10/18/paypal-arbitrarily-blocking-donations-to-diaspora.html
Hi folks — We’re sorry to say that PayPal has frozen our account, so we’re currently unable to process contributions by credit card. We’re working as fast as we can to resolve this, and will have an alternative up ASAP. In the meantime, if you are able to contribute via Flattr, please do. PayPal is notorious for arbitrary blocking of legitimate donations. We’ll get this sorted out as quickly as we can.
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October 18 2011, 8:42pm | Comments »
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HEH: Math joke from Anna, the bartender and civil engineering student: an infinite number of math…
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/instapundit/main/~3/ohoH22oluS0/
HEH:
Math joke from Anna, the bartender and civil engineering student: an infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one tells the bartender he wants a beer. The second one says he wants half a beer. The third one says he wants a fourth of a beer. The bartender puts two beers on the bar and says “You guys need to learn your limits.” Did I say “heh?”
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September 20 2011, 3:13am | Comments »
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Exercises for the Terminally Busy
Post written by Leo Babauta. I’ve been out walking all day in New York City with my daughter, and haven’t found any time for my usual workouts in between museums and fabulous restaurants. And yet fitness doesn’t require hours of your time every day. I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite quick exercises. It’s not meant to be a complete fitness program, but something to sneak in when you’re too busy to get a longer workout or a visit to your gym. If you’re working hard, or stressing out over all the things you have to do for your family, don’t worry. I’ve got you covered. If any of these exercises is too easy, rest for 30-60 seconds and do a second one. If that’s still too easy, add something with weight. Exercises for the Terminally Busy 1. Bodyweight squats. These are some of my favorites. Sit back, then squat down like you’re sitting on a toilet seat, until your thighbones are about parallel to the ground. Stand up and flex your glutes, repeat as many times as you can. Rest 20-30 seconds, do a second set, then another. If that’s too easy … 2. Jump squats. Same as above, but explode into a jump as high as you can from the squat position. Land lightly on the balls of your feet and go straight back into the squat. Do as many as you can — aim for 20-30 reps, 3-5 sets. 3. 300 lunges. You can do walking lunges if you have space, or just alternate legs and stay in the same spot. Try to rest as little as possible. If this is too easy, do 400 meters of lunges. If this is still too easy … 4. Jump lunges. Same as lunges, but jump up and switch legs in the air, land lightly on the balls of your feet, go right into the lunge. 200 reps, in as little time as you can. If you’re not in good shape, start with 50 or 100 reps. 5. Pushups. If you’re in decent shape, see how fast you can do 100 pushups. Last time I tried I barely did it in under 5 minutes. You might be much faster. If pushups are too hard, do some of them on your knees. You can also just do sets of 10-20, and repeat this througout the day as you can find time. 6. Stairs. Walk up the stairs as often as you can. If this is too easy, run up them 2-3 stairs at a time. Go up and down and do several sets if you can. 7. Burpees. Squat, put your hands on the ground, thrust your feet out behind you so that you’re in pushup position, do a pushup, jump your feet so that you’re back in squat position, jump up in the air as high as you can. Repeat. See if you can do 20 or 30, or at least 10 if you’re not in great shape. Do 3-5 sets. 8. Pullups. Set up a pullup bar in your house, or find a tree branch outside you can reach. Do as many as you can, do 3-5 sets. Or just do as many as you can every time you walk by the bar. If you can’t do pullups, try jump pullups. Or do negatives — use a chair to get yourself at the top of the pullup position (chin above bar), then lower yourself to the bottom position (arms fully extended) as slowly as you can, and repeat as many times as you can. 19. Hindu squats and Hindu pushups. You’ll have to do a Youtube search to find the method for these, but they’re excellent. I also love dive bomber pushups, Spiderman pushups, and mountain climbers. Again, do as many reps as possible, 3-5 sets. 10. Jumps. Mark a spot on the wall about a foot higher than your highest reach, then jump and touch that spot as many times as you can. Repeat 3-5 sets. 11. Bounds. Run by bounding (leaping as far as you can). Alternate this with jumps and squat jumps. 12. Handstand pushups. Stand with your back to the wall, put your hands on the ground about 6 inches from the wall, then walk your feet up the wall until you’re in a handstand position, but with your feet leaning on the wall. Try to do a pushup so that your head almost touches the ground, and push your arms straight again. See how many reps you can do, repeat for 3-5 sets. If you can’t do a full rep, just do a partial rep — bend your arms a little. You’ll get stronger with practice. 13. If you have the equipment, other good workouts would include kettlebell swings, dumbbell snatches, sandbag throws and sandbag cleans, and fireman’s carries of your spouse. 14. Rounds. If you find the above exercises easy, try combining several exercises in as many combinations as you can — for example, do 15 squats, 10 pushups, 5 pullups. That’s one round. See how many rounds you can do in 5 or 10 minutes. There are tons of ways to combine the above exercises. — Comment on G+ Tweet
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August 15 2011, 7:07pm | Comments »
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Celebrate your fitness achievements
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Fitbit/~3/UjLkZ27isvw/
Ever hit your step goal and let loose a fist pump? We’re big believers in giving credit where it’s due, so we’ve cooked up a way to help celebrate your milestones with you. Cue the trumpets, Fitbit now has badges! You’ll now receive badges for hitting daily milestones. Get your first badge for hitting 5,000 steps. Let’s not forget the name of the game is total cumulative steps––it’s all about how much you’ve done over time. You’ll also earn badges for racking up major mileage with your trusty tracker.
Badges will appear on your Fitbit.com dashboard once you’ve hit certain targets. You can share them with friends on Fitbit.com as well as by posting them through your Facebook or Four Square account. Badges are pretty cool. One of the biggest achievement we have is when you have achieved 3,000 miles which is nothing short of amazing. It’s approximately the distance of San Francisco to New York! If you’ve received the 3,000 miles badge, please let us know on Facebook or Twitter or email us at welovefitbit@fitbit.com. We’d love to hear how you did it and salute you — virtual fist bump!
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August 9 2011, 10:15pm | Comments »
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Interview with Scientific American on the complexities of salt science
I complained to Scientific American about one of its blog posts about salt, which I viewed as rather one-sided. The result was a conversation with Michael Moyer that ended up in the form of a Q and A. I did not have a chance to review it before it was posted, so please see addendum at the end). The Salt Wars Rage On: A Chat with Nutrition Professor Marion Nestle A researcher explains why there may never be a good study on whether excess dietary salt causes hypertension and heart disease By Michael Moyer | Thursday, July 14, 2011 Is salt bad for us? In just the past few months researchers have published seemingly contradictory studies showing that excess sodium in the diet leads to heart disease, reduces your blood pressure, or has no effect at all. We called Scientific American advisory board member Marion Nestle, a professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and the author of Food Politics, to help parse the latest thinking regarding salt and heart health.leads to heart disease, reduces your blood pressure, or has no effect at all. We called Scientific American advisory board member Marion Nestle, a professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and the author of Food Politics, to help parse the latest thinking regarding salt and heart health. [An edited transcript of the interview follows.] I understand this area is controversial. Hugely. Could you take us through some of the controversy? If you talk to any kidney specialist or anybody working on hypertension they will tell you that the first thing they do is try to lower the amount of salt their patients are eating because it helps with blood pressure control. But if you do a clinical trial where you try to put large amounts of people on a low-salt diet, you just don’t see much difference between the people who say they eat a lot of salt and the people who say they don’t eat a lot of salt. In clinical trials the relationship doesn’t show up. Why not? Two reasons: One that it’s impossible to put a population of people on a low-salt diet. Roughly 80 percent of the salt in the American food supply is in foods before people eat them—either in processed food or in restaurant food. Because so much salt is added to the food supply and because so many people eat out, it’s impossible to find a population of people who are eating a low-salt diet. They basically don’t exist. In the one comparative epidemiological study they did some years ago—the Intersalt study—they managed to find two populations of people in remote areas of the jungle someplace who weren’t eating a lot of processed foods and who weren’t eating in restaurants. They were on a low-salt diet, and they never developed hypertension. So in that trial did they put one group on a high-salt diet and put one on a low-salt diet? No, no, no. It wasn’t a comparative trial. They just looked at the amount of salt that populations were eating and the amount of hypertension that they had. Only in these two populations were there very low rates of hypertension. With everybody else the salt intake was so high that they couldn’t see any difference between high and higher. So except for people living in the jungle somewhere, there aren’t any populations on Earth that are eating a low amount of salt? Not anymore. Maybe we used to be, but not anymore. We have a global food supply, so it’s impossible to do a really careful study. What’s the other issue? Not everybody responds to a low-salt diet. There’s a proportion of people in the population who are sensitive to salt—if you lower their intake of salt, then their blood pressure goes down. There’s another (probably larger) percentage of the population who doesn’t respond. They are people who can eat as much salt as they want and still their blood pressure is low. So you have this curious anomaly where whenever you do a clinical trial you get these complicated, difficult-to-interpret results that don’t show much of an effect. But everybody who works with patients who have hypertension think they do better [on a low-salt diet]. And every committee, body, and group that has ever in my lifetime considered whether salt has anything to do with hypertension says, “yes,” and has recommended salt reduction as a public health measure. That’s the curious situation that we are in. There’s one other wrinkle and has to do with people’s taste for salt. Campbell’s soup, for example, just announced yesterday that can’t sell low-sodium soups and so they’re adding salt back. And part of the reason they can’t sell it is that if you’re on a high-salt diet, food that isn’t salty tastes terrible to you. And if you’re on a low-salt diet it takes three to six weeks to get accustomed to being on a low-salt diet and then everything you eat tastes salty. And so the more salt in the food supply the more salt people need to bring the flavor you associate with salt. That complicates things, too. So from a public health standpoint, if you want to deal with the percentage of the population that seems to be extremely responsive to a low-salt diet what you want to do is get the sodium level in the food supply as low as you can. And that makes the people who sell salty food go nuts. And it makes the people who like salty foods go nuts. They think the food tastes bland. And so there are different stakeholders in this system who have very different views and that accounts for the level of passion, I think, in a situation where the science is murky. Couldn’t you just make the case that people should eat fewer processed foods? Well what about restaurants? I’m a food professional. I eat out professionally. Well chefs need to make their food taste good—otherwise people won’t go to their restaurant. No, they need to make the food taste good by their standard. And chefs, because they’re dealing with a great deal of salt in their food, tend to raise the sodium level. It just goes up and up and up and up. As they get more used to a certain level of salt taste it no longer tastes salty to them and they have to raise it. So the pressure is to raise the salt in the food supply. And reducing it is very difficult. So you advocate regulation to limit the amount of salt in restaurants? Yeah, I do. Certainly for processed food. I think everybody would be healthier if they ate less salt. You can always add salt if you don’t think it’s salty enough, whereas I can’t take it away if it’s presented to me. And that’s the dilemma. And the ferocity of the arguments gets into the whole question of personal responsibility and “nanny state” and all of these other enormous debates that really don’t get at the public health question. And the public health question is hard to resolve because the science is really difficult to do. Couldn’t you imagine a study where you look at sodium levels in urine, which is a direct measure of salt intake, and correlate that with hypertension? Yeah they’ve done that, and they don’t see any difference in hypertension rates. The reason is that the baseline [level of salt intake] is so high that it doesn’t make any difference. To suggest that people get down to 1,500 mg a day—the recommended level—would be really really hard, and that level may be too high. And it’s unclear that that’s the right level because you can’t do a really decent dose response, and because people vary so much. Will there ever be a good study? I don’t know! Is it possible that this represents the limits of science? It’s black hole event horizons and salt intake? It may be. It very well may be. Or the science that we have is completely adequate and we already have the answer. I was once at a sodium meeting at which there were a bunch of statisticians. And I left with the statisticians and they said that “anyone who thinks that salt has anything to do with hypertension is delusional.” And that was on the basis on the clinical trials that show so little. And yet every single committee that has dealt with this question says, “We really need to lower the sodium in the food supply.” Now either every single committee that has ever dealt with this issue is delusional, which I find hard to believe—I mean they can’t all be making this up—there must be a clinical or rational basis for the unanimity of these decisions. But that’s the thing—these committees should be able to point to the evidence that supports their recommendations. But they seem to rely so much on anecdote and individual experience. Or on some clinical trials that everybody argues about. Everybody argues about every clinical trial no matter what the conclusion. So I find the whole thing completely fascinating. I don’t think anybody can underestimate the difficulty of doing nutritional research. Because people aren’t eating just sodium. They’re eating sodium in food. And it may be that high-sodium diets are a marker for some other things in the food supply or it may be that the physiological differences are so profound that you just don’t get clean results. That human variation is so great. I don’t know the answer to that. I just know it works for me. That’s anecdotal. With an “n” of one. Addendum If I had been given the opportunity to review this before it was posted, I would have edited it carefully. Yes, this is the way I talk but I don’t think what I said reads clearly in print. In reading over this piece, I think it may give the wrong impression of my views on how expert committees decide on salt recommendations. The piece may give the impression that committees make dietary recommendations basied on anecdotal evidence, not science. That’s not true. They base their recommendations on their interpretation of the experimental and clinical evidence, including that from clinical trials. For example, the Advisory Committee for the 2010 Dietary Guidelines concluded that “a strong body of evidence has documented that in adults, as sodium intake decreases, so does blood pressure.” Was this committee delusional in viewing the evidence as strong? I don’t think so.
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July 15 2011, 9:01pm | Comments »
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Stop Lying – Steroids Make A MASSIVE Difference
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MuscleHack/~3/RKP5tHMzky4/
Have you noticed the growing trend over the last few years to defend steroid use? While taking roids is someone’s private business and nothing to do with me, what I DON’T like is steroid-users trying to say, “They don’t make much difference; we’re bigger because we train better”. Cut the crap! They make a HUGE difference in terms of muscle growth. Want me to prove it? Check out the following study, “Testosterone-induced increase in muscle size in healthy young men is associated with muscle fiber hypertrophy” Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Jul;283(1):E154-64. They wanted to find out if testosterone-induced muscle increase was due to fiber hypertrophy i.e. were the muscle fibers actually getting thicker just like natural growth? The conclusion was that they were (unsurprisingly). Results were also dose-dependent i.e. the more you took, the bigger the gains. The largest dose administered was 600mg, which saw significant increases in cross-sectional area of type 2 muscle fibers. Bear in mind that this sort of dose is low compared to what a lot of today’s bodybuilders use in conjunction with other steroids at the same time. This study was over 20 weeks and the participants DIDN’T EVEN TRAIN! The modern day YouTube commenter loves to state how steroids only work if your training and diet are good. Nonsense. You can gain muscle at an accelerated rate with some terribly inefficient programs if you’re on gear. But it is true that even more gains are to be had by training on steroids, than with steroids alone. It’s not unusual for new steroid users to gain 20-30lbs of muscle in a couple of months. Do you realize how much bigger you would look with an additional 20 or 30 pounds of muscle your frame!? If you want a study to show the difference between training and non-training with steroid-use, have a look at “The effects of supraphysiologic doses of testosterone on muscle size and strength in normal men. N Engl J Med. 1996 Jul 4;335(1):1-7“. This showed an average LEAN mass increase of 6.1kg or 13.5lbs in only 10 weeks! Let me stress again, if you want to take steroids, it’s none of my business. Just don’t try to say that they don’t make a lot of difference, or that most of your success is due to training and eating correctly when it clearly isn’t. The other issue I have is with bodybuilders or fitness models who claim NOT to use them at all. It gives people a false idea of what is possible for them, and how fast they can get there. I think it’s shameful to appear on the cover of magazines, or promote useless supplements while falsely claiming that you’re all-natural. However, if you: (1) Admit it (2) Admit that it’s making a big difference to your results …then I have no beef with you. It’s your body and you can do whatever you want with it. Just train, say your prayers, and eat your vitamins? I don’t think so…
Train With Intensity! Mark
Related posts:How People Get Fat & How To Stop It! Download Total Anabolism 3.1 FREE Now!
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January 6 2011, 2:23pm | Comments »
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I Finally Found It!
http://www.findingmyfitness.com/2010/12/i-finally-found-it/
Since I realized in January of this year that I had gained back all of the weight I lost in Paraguay (about 30 lbs) I have been trying to get it back off. I would be OK for a week but would quickly lose steam. I couldn’t stop cheating. I lost and gained 10 lbs probably four or five times throughout the year, never getting below 300 again (my lowest recorded weight in Paraguay was 267).
Last Tuesday, I think that ended. A friend of mine linked me to an article plugging a book by a guy named Tim Ferriss called The 4-Hour Body. I read the article and was intrigued by the claims. There’s essentially not much more than adjusting your diet, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I started that evening. The gist is that you eat 3 or 4 times a day, but you eat only protein, legumes, and vegetables. Something from each category, as much as you feel like eating. The point is there’s absolutely no starving yourself. This is not a low-calorie diet, it’s simply a change in the types of food I’m eating. For example, this morning I scrambled two eggs with a bunch of peppers, onions, and some pinto beans. Essentially I have stopped eating white carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, etc.) and started eating legumes (lentils, beans) and piling on the veggies. This is rigidly adhered to for six days; on the seventh (Saturdays) I eat the way I used to. I found that it was very easy to eat this restricted diet without feeling that I was depriving myself. The legumes and protein keep you feeling satisfied. I even successfully – for literally the first time in my life – was able to say no to donuts TWICE last week. I don’t even crave the sweets we have in our area at work, and I think it’s because I don’t eat sugar anymore (except on Saturdays). I can’t even explain to you how revolutionary that is to me. That has literally never happened before in my life. Sweets have always been a challenge to me. Now they’re just only sometimes slightly annoying. You may be waiting for the results. Remember, the only thing I have changed this week was the type of food I ate. I didn’t even exercise this week (I should, I just didn’t). I was astounded when I weighed myself this morning. Last Tuesday morning I weighed 309.8 pounds. This week I weighed 303.8. It blows my mind that I lost six pounds this week only by changing the type of food I ate. I don’t understand it, but I accept it.
The changes that happen in my body due to what I read in this book are what is driving this blog idea in the first place. Part of what’s going to keep me accountable and excited about this journey will be sharing it with you. I hope you come back often. I’ll end by posting my numbers. In addition to weight, I’ll be taking measurements of my arms, legs, waist, and hips. I’m going to try to consistently update them. I know I’ve said that in the past and haven’t been consistent, but I’ve also never been as gung ho about fat loss as this. I’m definitely amped enough to go another week. As of December 21, 2010 Total inches: 199.7 Weight: 303.8 If you’re doing the protocol prescribed in The 4-Hour Body, I’d love to hear from you! Drop me a line in the comments and let me know how it’s working for you. -j (note: If you feel like you’ve read this article before, you probably read it on my personal blog, before I started this one)December 23 2010, 9:18pm | Comments »
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