Fit at 40 may keep brain bright at 60

A new study has revealed that people who have a fit and healthy body at the age of 40 may be able to retain more brain volume when they hit 60. In individuals with low fitness levels, the blood pressure and heart rate responses to low levels of exercise are often much higher than in individuals with better fitness. The researchers found that people who had a lower fitness level or greater increase in diastolic blood pressure (bottom number) or heart rate a few minutes into the low-intensity treadmill test (2.5 miles an hour) had smaller brain tissue volume later in life. People, who had a larger increase in diastolic blood pressure during low-intensity exercise, also performed more poorly on a cognitive test for decision-making function later in life. Poor physical fitness could be associated with accelerated brain aging. Apart from the exercise tests, a higher resting systolic blood pressure (top number) at age 40 was associated with a smaller frontal lobe volume and a greater volume of white matter hyperintensity (an indicator of loss of blood flow with aging) on the later brain MRIs. Promotion of midlife physical fitness might be an important step towards ensuring healthy aging of the brain in the population. 

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Diet with friend to lose weight 

A new study has revealed that you are more likely to shed pounds if you diet with a friend compared to doing it solo. A survey was conducted and found that a whopping 89 per cent of 1,750 men and women surveyed had lost weight when they took up the challenge with someone else, reports femalefirst.co.uk. Those who had chosen to diet using the buddy system had lost on average eight pounds, compared to just six pounds for those who had tried to diet alone.  The survey also discovered that teaming up with a husband or wife was the top choice when it came to finding a partner to diet with. Having a friend is the perfect way to stay on track and hit the weight loss goals that you have achieved. Motivation is a major part of trying to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle, and three quarter of people said, that level of motivation were higher with the buddy system. The buddy system works so well as you can motivate and support each other — particularly when you come face to face with the foods that you crave. People who tried diets by themselves said that they were tempted by unhealthy snacks more often than when they had a partner doing it with them. They were also more likely to lie to themselves and be tempted to cheat about the amount of calories they were eating.

Don’t overestimate your dieting efforts 

If you are on a diet, skipping dessert can seem like a huge accomplishment, making you think that you’re well on your way to losing weight. However, new research says people tend to overestimate progress and underestimate setbacks when pursuing goals such as dieting or saving money. Authors of study Margaret C. Campbell of University of Colorado and Caleb Warren of Texas A&M University say: “Our studies provide strong evidence of a progress bias when consumers pursue goals. Consumers tend to think that ‘good’ behaviours impact goal pursuit more than equivalent ‘bad’ behaviours. This can make consumers think that they are doing fine when they really aren’t.” Across seven studies, the authors found evidence for the progress bias when consumers pursued goals such as saving money, losing weight, or winning a game. Consumers tend to believe they will succeed in achieving their goals and give more weight to behaviours consistent with their beliefs. For example, if you are on a diet, you are likely to think that not eating a donut makes a bigger difference than eating a donut. And you might think that saving $100 will get you closer to your goal of saving $100,000 for retirement than spending $100 will take you away from reaching your goal of saving $100,000. “People feel that they can stop working towards a goal before they really should. This is consistent with findings that exercise programmes often do not lead to weight loss because people tend to think they can eat more if they exercise more. The progress bias helps explain why consumers often have a hard time achieving difficult long-term goals such as managing their weight or saving for retirement.The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Research. — Agencies