Fat
Latest
Bello's belly-fat scanner should inspire you to get on the treadmill
We've known for years that weight is never a perfect measurement of how healthy you are, since muscle weighs a lot more than fat. Subcutaneous fat around the waist is a big issue, and an indicator of a number of metabolic issues, including diabetes and heart disease. That's why Olive Healthcare has built Bello, a body fat scanner designed to analyze the timber around your waist and help you deal with it.
A nanoparticle-coated skin patch could treat obesity and diabetes
A new study out today in ACS Nano presents an interesting and effective way to reduce fat stores in the body. Researchers at Columbia University and the University of North Carolina showed that a patch loaded with nanoparticles could reduce fat, increase energy expenditure and ameliorate type-2 diabetes in obese mice.
Samsung explores measuring body fat through your phone
You can already measure your heart rate and step counts on your smartphone, but Samsung thinks it can kick things up a notch. One of the company's recently published patent applications would use electrical impedance to measure your body fat levels. All you'd do is grab your phone, and four sensors (installed in the phone or a case) would do the rest. The feature makes sense given Samsung's ongoing health kick, and it wouldn't be surprising if this eventually turns up in a Galaxy handset you can buy. With that said, there's no guarantee that it'll either show up or work as well as planned. Phone-based health sensors aren't entirely accurate, and Samsung might not want to detect something as important as body fat unless it can give you reliable numbers.
Microsoft vs. Motorola decision sees Droids banned in Germany over FAT patent (updated)
The latest development in our neverending saga of worldwide patent warfare is a decision by a Mannheim judge banning Motorola's Android devices on the basis that they violate a FAT storage patent owned by Microsoft. FOSSPatents' Florian Mueller tweets that it is the third victory by Microsoft over Motorola, and Microsoft has already issued a triumphant statement of victory which you can read after the break. There's more details about patent EP0618540 on the site -- it deals with common name space for long and short file names -- including a note about an email from Linux creator Linus Torvalds being cited as prior art. Motorola has been swinging its own patents around as well, but most recently a case to ban the Xbox 360 was delayed. We haven't heard from Motorola or Google on this ruling yet or what their response will be -- entering into a licensing agreement or changing the storage system used on their phones are possible options. Microsoft will have to put up a 10 million euro bond to enforce an injunction if it chooses, we'll check back once the other shoe drops. Update: We've just received Motorola's response -- brief but to the point:"We are in process of reviewing the ruling, and will explore our options including appeal. We don't anticipate an impact on our operations at this time."
Biodiesel can be harvested from leftover food, kids no longer have to clear their plates
The best dishes always contain 30 per cent fat minimum. This doesn't merely ensure a level of hearty satisfaction (Windows 7 Whopper anybody?), it also means the leftovers contain plenty of the greasy good stuff, which can be cleverly harvested and metamorphosed into biodiesel. The technology behind this process has been around for a while, but now British firm Greenergy claims it is ramping up commercial production. The firm's CEO reckons each of his new £50million ($80million) biodiesel plants will digest a sufficient volume of waste pies, fries and taramasalata to "fill out a cruise ship every year". Mmmm, pie.
Cameraphone app analyzes your meal, disgusts you with factual calorie counts
It's a hard truth that's easy to swallow: our cubicle-dwelling lifestyles often get the best of our waistlines. We try to diet, but without a never-ending pile of Cheetos and Chicken McNuggets next to our laptops, we feel so very, very, very....alone. Luckily a Japanese company has developed a software companion to keep us company on our slimming endeavors: it's an app that will analyze a photo of your meal and tell you how many calories you're about to consume. While it can't actually prevent the food from hopping down our throats (2.0, maybe?) it will allow your meal's calorie content to be socially networked with your friends' meals' calorie contents, creating a weird long-distance eating competition with other connected dieters. But hold the Pad See Ew -- while it's good at figuring out Japanese staples, it's "not so good on stuff like Thai food." [Photo courtesy tnarik's flickr]
TUAW Fitness: An Apple a day makes the weight go away
I've struggled with my weight for a long time. In my free-wheeling post-college days I lived with my two best friends, sitting around playing video games, drinking beer and eating Taco Bell. I put on a lot of weight in a short amount of time with that diet and exercise schedule, topping out at 260 pounds. I decided enough was enough, and I strapped on my running shoes, straightened up my eating habits, and lost almost 90 pounds. In the years that have followed, my weight has gone up and down several times, and I'm at the point now that I need to get serious about losing weight again. According to my BMI, at 6'3" I should top out at 199 pounds, and right now I'm at 225. This time my weight loss should be easier since I have 3 secret weapons: my iPhone 3GS, my Mac and my AppleTV. Read on for my weight loss plan and how these Apple products will help me achieve my goals.
Microsoft and TomTom settle Linux patent suit, Linux not necessarily in the clear
Well, that was fast -- just a month after Microsoft set the open-source world on fire by claiming that TomTom's use of Linux violated its FAT filesystem patents, the two companies have settled, with TomTom paying the always-popular "undisclosed amount" and letting MS license four of its navigation patents for free. What's more, TomTom has also agreed to remove certain functionality from its PNDs within two years. That's huge -- not only did TomTom's attorneys calculate that the total cost of this settlement was less than the cost of a trial and a potential loss, the overwhelmingly one-way nature of the deal implies they felt they were holding a bad position. Since we don't know if that was more to do with the navigation patents or the FAT patents, we can't really say what's going to happen next, but Microsoft's made no bones about the fact that it thinks Linux violates all sorts of its IP, and cruising to an easy settlement in a month like this just might encourage its legal department to go digging for gold in troubled economic times. We'll see.
Weight Fat Checker makes no bones about what it's here to do
Sure, this device is borrowing not a little from the look, feel and color scheme of the Wii Fit, but the Weight Fat Checker is a little more direct in its naming schemes. A handheld body fat meter unearthed somewhere in Japan, we don't know anything about its pricing or availability, but we assume we'll never probably seen one in the flesh. Regardless, we're pretty sure it'd make a fine gift for anyone you want to cross of your faves list a.s.a.p.[Via Joystiq]
Obesity experts frown on Wii Fit's fatty-labeling, Nintendo apologizes
Video games can occasionally be the source of some pretty disheartening self-realizations -- like the time Rock Band revealed that you've been lied to your entire life about your angelic singing voice, or when Vampire Rain made you realize that you have incredibly poor taste in video games. However, something tells us these revelations are a bit less heartbreaking than those about to be unleashed by Nintendo's latest best-seller, Wii Fit -- especially when the heart in question is the fragile, butter-soaked heart of an overweight child.Or an average-weighted child, for that matter. You see, Wii Fit measures the user's Body Mass Index (BMI), a weight/height ratio commonly calculated by physicians, though the use of BMI measurements in children is criticized by many dietitians for its frequent inaccuracy. Nintendo recently issued an apology following an incident involving the hurtful labeling of a "solidly built" 10-year-old girl. So, it's like an electronic, $90 version of our fifth-grade gym teacher? We're sold!
Wii Fit has a broad definition of fat
Don't take Wii Fit's weight assessments to heart.According to an angry poster at DISBoards, the game recently labeled a ten year old child in the UK as overweight, even though she's 4'9" and weights only six stones (84 pounds). Ouch. We're no doctors, but from what we can tell by browsing around the 'net, that's actually underweight. Assuming the poster isn't lying and that all the information was entered in correctly, we're surprised that Wii Fit would make such a mistake. We know that BMI calculations aren't always accurate in classifying someone's health, but that just seems ridiculous.The relative of the girl said that the child was pretty devastated by Wii Fit's assessment, and her family had a hard time convincing her that she wasn't fat.While we don't appreciate Wii Fit's attempt to make people look like mini-Skeletors, the message is clear: take this game with a grain of salt. Wii Fit isn't a doctor or nutritionist -- it's just a game. So don't let it launch you into a hunger strike, or turn you into an anorexic. %Gallery-4745%[Via CVG]
UK McDonald's chief blames game industry for obesity
We're used to scientists, the government and even beverage companies taking the game industry to task for contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic. But now there's a new, even more unlikely source using gaming as an obesity scapegoat -- McDonald's.Talking to the London Times, McDonald's UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said games are part of a "lifestyle element" that has led to a rise in childhood obesity. "There's fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they'd have been burning off energy outside," he said.To be fair, Easterbrook didn't lay the blame completely at gaming's feet. "The issue of obesity is complex," he said, while also acknowledging that the government, the food industry, and good old personal responsibility have their part to play in solving the problem. Still, any organization that serves a "deluxe breakfast" with 59 grams of fat should be very careful when shifting the blame.
Beverage companies blame video games for obesity
On Monday, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom submitted a proposal that he hopes will curtail obesity by applying a financial deterrent to drinks with high fructose corn syrup - in other words, a surcharge on soda. (Amount of surcharge has yet to be defined.) Understandably aggravated by this measure is the American Beverage Association, who pulls out one of our favorite red herrings in its defense.Said Kevin Keane, senior VP of the ABA, "It makes no sense to single out any one single cause of obesity, which is a complex problem." As quoted by the International Herald Tribune, "Keane said that if Newsom really wanted to fight the fat, he would take on computer and video game companies, which Keane said lured children inside when they should 'be outside burning calories.'"Yes, folks, by this logic we shouldn't even bother to worry about soda causing obesity when video games - not Dance Dance Revolution or Rock Band drums, mind you, those other video games like BioShock and Spider Solitaire - are the bigger Cause of Fatness. In a wholly accurate scientific study, Joystiq editors reported feeling approximately 15 calories surge from our controller, through our hands, and into our bloodstreams for every double kill in Halo 3. We jest, of course, but continuing with Keane's logic, we must say it makes no sense to single out video games when the real problem of obesity is existence itself. If Mayor Newsom really wanted to fight the fat, he should combat our very existence. If he obliterates that, then there'll be no more obesity.Update: The ABA sends a response letter to Kotaku.[Image Source. Via OXM; thanks, PrivateRyan]
Tanita's body fat measurer doesn't require you to get up
Tanita's been known to mesh gadgetry with health before, but its latest creation really goes beyond the call. This body fat measuring system apparently enables patients to remain firmly glued to the bed / sofa / etc. rather than actually, you know, getting up and moving, when checking out just how out of shape they are. Truth be told, the device was designed to allow "bedridden or physically-handicapped people" to check up on their BMI without having to be uncomfortably repositioned, but it's still a device the lazy could love. Click on to the read link for lots more pictures -- if you can muster the will power, that is.[Via TokyoMango]
NTT DoCoMo handset is brutally honest about your weight
Sure, you can grab your Nike+iPod Sport Kit and try to work off a few calories, but will that contraption become your drill sergeant when you decide to call it quits five minutes in? For those that need constant motivation, NTT DoCoMo has you covered -- if you understand Japanese, that is. Reportedly, the firm was showing off a D903i equipped with software that can not only "check for bad breath," but it can also check your body fat and keep tabs on your heart rate. Granted, we can't confirm that the translations shown above are entirely accurate, but this type of honesty would never fly in the US, anyway.[Via GearFuse]
Sanrio offers up Hello Kitty body fat meter
For those of you still itching to get in on the Wii Sports exercise regimen, but are without any way to measure how many pounds you'll actually melt off, Sanrio's got you covered. Sure, you could waltz right into just about any retailer and pick up a vanilla scale, but the Hello Kitty body fat meter weighs your body in a whole new dimension of cute. Available in a trio of versions ranging from digital to analog to an actual "cooking" version, the device doesn't actually function any differently than the non-adorable varieties, but who wouldn't be motivated to shed a few pounds and have Hello Kitty smile back at you in celebration? The BF-071-KT scale (pictured) should be available in Japan soon for a price (¥6,000; $49) that only the passionate could appreciate.[Via UberGizmo]
BenQ's body fat-measuring phone patent
So there's nothing really cool or integrated about this -- and the concept of estimating body fat by measuring impedance is nothing new -- but the marriage of a cellphone with a function to remind us of what fat slobs we are is just too good of a patent app to pass up. The design really couldn't be any simpler; BenQ's basically just thinking about slapping a couple electrodes on the side of a phone that you'll touch to get a measurement. If only they had a device on there to measure BenQ's own weak pulse, they'd be all set.[Via Unwired View]
The Slim Machine melts away a dress size in 60 minutes
When it comes to shedding pounds, we've seen everything from doing it the Nike+iPod way, the Dance Dance Revolution way, and even the Wii way, but the big downer on all of those methods is they actually require hustle to yield results. Sousan Allami, owner of Sousan's Body & Skin Care Center in Houston, Texas, has what appears to be a miracle-working machine that can literally melt off a few pounds in just 60 non-grueling minutes. The Slim Machine subjects an individual to "powerful massaging suction over problem areas," followed by you getting all wrapped up in strange oils and gauze and laying in the cell for an hour. The machine utilizes "hydro fusion" to reportedly burn away around 2,000 calories per hour without putting the person in any sort of discomfort, and a tester was actually able to fit a bit better into her garb after taking a one hour ride in the weight dropping gizmo. Still, a local nutritionist noted that all the machine is doing is ridding your body of water weight, which will most likely return within 24 hours, but if you're desperate to fit into that tux or dress and only have an hour to spare, $150 can now buy your way in.[Via Spluch]
Wii Sports Experiment sheds nine pounds
While some folks are struggling just to stay out of the hospital when getting too amped up playing their Wii, Mickey DeLorenzo, a 25-year-old living in Philadelphia, decided to meld exercise and gaming together and further substantiate the most obvious research study of the year. His Wii Sports Experiment started in December of last year and ran for six whole weeks, and while he sought to keep his eating habits constant, he devoted 30 minutes per day to Wii Sports and monitored his weight, BMI, calories burned per session, body fat percentage, heart rate, and physical soreness. Mickey started out at 182 pounds, and after a month and a half of Wii workouts, whittled his weight down to 172 pounds, which he found quite amazing considering that this was the first substantial loss he had attained in over two years, and he never even cut back on the Eat 'N Park cookies (or similar). Moreover, according to The American Council on Exercise, he went from the "acceptable" category to the "fitness" category, and seemed to gain a huge boost of self-esteem in the process. So if the Subway diet just doesn't mesh with your taste buds, and you're desperate to find an excuse to game it up instead of going for a jog, be sure to hit the read link for all the encouragement you'd ever need, and click on through for a bit of footage from the entire process.[Via SMH]
Body images in World of Warcraft
I know, I know, I mentioned the WoW Ladies just yesterday, but they talk about such interesting stuff over there. Today it's body images in WoW-- one of them, Tsuraibara, saw someone on the EU forums calling human female characters fat "couch potatoes," and couldn't believe what she heard.Personally, I'm with Tsuraibara-- I find the human females pretty darn attractive. I'm even one of those guys that plays a human female priest just so I can watch that holy body do its shadowy casting thing all day. Of course, I have a male gnome warrior, too, just because I love the look of a tiny bundle of doom charging Horde in PVP. Although I have to disagree with Tsuraibara about the Tauren females-- she plays two, and I don't think there's any way I could ever stand to look at one of those enough to get her past level 10. Elsewhere in the thread, someone sings the praises of Dwarf females, and I have to admit, while they're not classically attractive, the emotes especially make it seem like Dwarf females might be fun to hang out with. UD females are another matter entirely, though...Now, we're no Guild Wars-- I once attended a conference where a professor of game studies couldn't believe how those women ever made it out of a battle with so little armor on. But at the same time, this ain't no text adventure, either-- WoW's graphics are cohesive and defined enough to make judgements on what the "models" look like. Have you judged your characters or other characters' looks? Is it wrong to do so? And the other question brought up in the thread is interesting, too-- is it only the female characters that are judged? Or are male Night Elves and Orcs getting checked out, too?
