Research

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 80 percent of American adults don’t get the recommended amount of exercise needed to enjoy fit, healthy lives. We surveyed over 2,000 employed, unemployed, and retired Americans to find out how they felt about mandatory in-office workouts and the on-the-clock exercises that would inspire them to set aside the time to take care of their bodies and careers.  Read More. 

The runner’s high is an almost-transcendent state. Your muscles burn, your blood pumps, your arms and legs move in perfect sync. Sweat trickles down your face, but you hardly notice. You realize you’re thirsty, and you barely break stride as you grab your reusable water bottle and take a swig of – germs.That’s right.
Thousands of moisture-loving bacteria may be crawling on your favorite refillable drinking container. Read More.

Humans, as it stands today, are not made to order. Parents can’t choose how short or tall their child will be, nor can they pick their hair color. Doctors can’t yet program an unborn son or daughter to excel in athletic or academic pursuits. These dreams today may eventually be the future or a plotline examined in Hollywood movies, but there’s no such thing as an on-demand body. Read More. 

How do you spend most of your workday? If you have an office job, chances are you spend several hours a day sitting down. Not only does prolonged sitting come with many health risks, but also sporadic exercise breaks may not be sufficient to counteract the health impact of daily inactivity. We provided two participants with a treadmill desk to use daily for 45 days, starting at 30 minutes of walking a day and increasing to 180 minutes. Read More. 

The American obesity epidemic has displayed an ability to hold our attention like no other. Constantly dominating headlines and spurring endless debates and discussions, it seems that this health crisis is here to stay. In fact, 40 percent of American adults and nearly 20 percent of adolescents are now obese, according to a report released at the end of 2017. We surveyed over 1,000 Americans to learn more about their relationship with their weight and to understand how much happiness men and women are able to derive from their fitness goals. Read More. 

Stepping into the gym can be a bit daunting. The eyes of weightlifters and cardio junkies can plant seeds of insecurity, especially for beginners. For those who don’t sweat it alone and instead join in on a fitness class or enlist guidance from a personal trainer, the worry then lies in what the professional thinks of the amateur. We collected responses from over 500 current or former fitness instructors and personal trainers to hear what they really thought about their clientele. Read More. 

When it comes to being in a relationship, some things are better together. Traveling takes on a new life, exploring hobbies can help you learn more about each other, and even cooking together can be a bonding opportunity. To learn more, we polled more than 1,000 people about how they integrate their partners into their workout routines. Read More. 

In a world where almost everyone has the power to be a food critic, it’s easy to be overly analytical of the job your waiters and waitresses do attending to your table and serving your meals. But what if waiters had a forum of their own about their experiences with patrons? For an inside peek at what it’s like to be on the serving end of the restaurant business, we surveyed over 350 current restaurant staff members to get their take on the good, the bad, and the downright ugly about the people they’ve waited on. Read More. 

Wedding preparations stress aesthetic perfection: From picking a dress to planning the table settings, matrimony entails plenty of pageantry. And in the weeks before they say, “I do,” many couples turn a critical eye toward their own bodies as well. We surveyed nearly 3,500 individuals about their attempts to alter their waistline in preparation for a wedding and studied the efforts of brides, grooms, members of the bridal party, and other wedding guests. Read More. 

Social media can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it provides endless entertainment, connection, and even real-time news for millions of users. On the other, it can be a tool for comparison and fuel body image issues. To get a better idea of how the social media and fitness worlds collide, we scraped over 446,000 Instagram posts that included the hashtag #workout along with related tags like #CrossFit, #fitness, and #training. Using these data from October to December 2018, we found which states were the most active on social media and when posts and likes peaked. Read More. 

Driving down nearly every street in America, the options are endless. You can “Eat Fresh,” “Have It Your Way,” or even “Live Mas.” The number of street corners filled with golden arches and fast service has even led some to dub the U.S. the “Fast Food Nation.” Hitting up a fast-food joint may be cheap and convenient, but are we truly aware of how many calories we’re putting into our bodies? We asked over 970 people to estimate the calorie counts for various items to see how accurate their perceptions were. Read More. 

Most of us would cringe at the thought of a gym goer walking around making lewd comments and excessive noise, since people’s unsettling and unsanitary practices can have a negative effect on the entire gym. Every paying member of the facility should be entitled to work out confidently, freely, and stress-free. We surveyed 1,004 people who work out at the gym at least once a week to find out their most common pet peeves and how they try to deal with these issues. Read More. 

If you’ve ever gotten that sinking feeling of dread leaving work when you realize you’re going to need to stop at the grocery store before making your way home, that might have something to do with how much time the average shopper spends perusing the aisles for food and drinks on a regular basis. Read More. 

Gone are the days of culinary conservatism: Americans are eating more adventurously than ever before. Perhaps it’s because we Instagram all that’s edible , or our dependence on dining out makes us eager for more variety. Whatever the reason, few consumers bat an eyelash at novel dishes anymore: From poke bowls to sushi burritos, new food trends are thriving. Read More. 

The “revenge body” – a fitness transformation following a breakup – has long been covered by the tabloids. From Katie Holmes to Britney Spears and Jennifer Aniston to Khloé Kardashian, plenty of stars have reportedly adopted workout regimens designed to inspire regret in their exes. Yet, research suggests that the revenge body phenomenon extends well beyond Hollywood: Celebrities aren’t the only ones getting fit after a failed relationship. Read More. 

You don’t need anyone to tell you that you should work out, but it might be nice if someone said where you were supposed to fit gym time into your already hectic schedule. Sure, someone somewhere suggested biking to work or leaving work during your lunch hour to try and wedge in a few minutes on the elliptical, but is any of that realistic enough to turn into your long-term fitness routine? Read More. 

There’s a new wave of diet trends in the U.S. Some, such as the ketogenic diet, have gained enough traction that chain restaurants are even adding specialized menu items to feed this growing need. Although these eating habits may seem unorthodox, some people believe they’ll lead to a healthier life. Read More. 

Physical activity is hardly dainty: Sweat is proof of athletic effort, the natural result of hustling. But when your workout concludes, how conscientious are you of your hygiene? Do you meticulously wipe down the machine you were using? Are you fastidious about laundering your exercise attire, or do you wear the same gear for several workouts in a row? Read More. 

Regardless if it’s Jan. 1 or a particularly optimistic Tuesday in September, it’s important to set goals and resolutions whenever we feel inspired. And wellness and health-based initiatives can be bolstered by specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals. During various times of the year, such as birthdays, New Year’s celebrations, or around significant events, we set intentions to become healthier and better versions of ourselves. Read More.