Can You Trust Your Fitness Device?

Technology is very cool and has amazing applications as it relates to our health and fitness. Fitbits and other devices are used to measure heart rate, steps, calorie expenditure, and other biometrics. Plus, they are extremely popular. But can you trust them? How accurate are they?

There are several studies out recently, and they all seem to agree. They are generally pretty accurate when used to measure heart rate and steps or distance. Most popular devices such as the Fitbit and the Apple Watch were within about 5% of heart rate and distance. That is pretty good!

Calorie expenditure is another matter. In various studies, it seems they are often as much as 30% off and some even much more. There are several reasons for this, but ultimately you should not rely on them to get an accurate reading of your calorie expenditures. There are many resources you can use along with your device to help get an idea or an estimate of your calorie burn.

If you simply do a search, you will find programs that will help you. If you want to get as good a number as you can, find an online program and use it and your device together. It should get you quite close and give you a general idea about how many calories you are burning.

Counting calories can be critical when trying to lose weight. You will lose weight when you burn up more calories than you consume. If you read about calories and weight loss, it is generally reported that one pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. In order to lose one pound then, you would want to burn up or decrease your input by 3,500 calories.

The problem with the 3,500-calorie number is that it is just way more complicated than that! If we are in a controlled setting (such as a laboratory), this number is probably really accurate. But counting calories or estimating how many you consume is at best an educated guess. Even the professionals are off as much as 25% and our devices may be off as much as 30%!

I believe it is still a good idea to try to understand how many calories you are consuming and/or burning up, but it is a guessing game. Hopefully, you can get to within about 10% to 20% with some education and help from your device. Chances are your device is really close on the distance and heart rate, but not so much on calories.

Do you have a Fitbit or Apple Watch? Do you think they’re accurate?

Wishing You an Amazing Life,

Dr. Curtis Brown

Attitude of Gratitude

 Last week, I had tried to get you to try a simple experiment. It was to simply stand in front of a mirror and get you to smile for three minutes a day. I know it sounds silly and I am not promising to cure you of all ailments, but if you did the challenge, I bet you felt a little better.

Motion leads to emotion. If you act a certain way, you will eventually feel that way. Something as simple as smiling can change your current mental state. I dare you to try it!

Another key to feeling less stressed (code word for fear) is to change your focus. Focus will lead to feelings. We become a summation of our thoughts. If you have a bunch of depressed or stressed thoughts, you will feel depressed or stressed. Every thought has some emotion tagged to it. If you change your focus, which is simply controlling your thoughts, you can change your emotional state.

Do a quick inventory of your emotional state for the week. Write down every emotion you had this week. Try not to edit it—just write them down as they come to mind. Hopefully, you have had a good week, but go ahead and do this little exercise. Try to determine what your primary emotion for the week has been. Honestly, I think mine has been frustration.

Now, the primary reason we feel frustrated or stressed is because our current situation doesn’t match up with our expectations or our blueprint for life. If we are feeling good, chances are our current situation matches up with our blueprint for life.

If things are not matching up with our blueprint for life, we can either change our blueprint (our expectations) or change our situation. Often, our situation can change simply by changing our focus. If we remained focused on the negative outcome or negative possibilities, chances are that our emotions well be negative. If, however, we focus on the positive things or possibilities (the glass is half full), we will tend to have positive emotions.

We all have a tendency to take a negative thought and go to the darkest corners in our minds with them. This is why solitary confinement is the worst punishment for prisoners. They are left alone with their thoughts.

You have to learn to control your thoughts. Most of the things people tend to worry over are outside of their control. They really have no influence over the outcomes. Take captive every thought you have and dwell on the good, the pure, the noble.

If you are having repetitive thoughts in your life that you really cannot control the outcome of, discipline your mind not to think about it. I have no control over the changes coming in healthcare. I can worry about it all, but it will not change the outcome. Now, I need to be aware of changes, but it will not help me to worry about Obamacare or Trumpcare. I have no control. So, when I am tempted to worry about it, I try to take control of my thoughts and focus on something else.

Focus will lead to feelings. Control what you focus on! If you want to take a deeper dive into this subject and other ideas for healthy living, take a look at my e-book, The Caleb Journey.

Wishing You an Amazing Life,

Dr. Curtis Brown

Stress Tip: Smile for a While

 How was your week? Was it a productive week or was it one filled with frustration and stress? If I had to guess, more people experienced frustration than enjoyment. I hope that is not true for you, but I know in our culture there is a tremendous amount of stress.

I believe stress is really a code word for fear. When I say that I am stressed, it usually means I am fearful something isn’t going according to my blueprint for life. Stress (fear) can lead to all sorts of physical ailments. I have seen people worry themselves into an ulcer and even heart attacks.

So, if you had a stressful week or even a stressful month (maybe even a lifetime of stress), I have some simple solutions to improve your attitude. These solutions are so simple they seem almost silly. The only side effect is happiness or less stress. This is not better living through chemistry! No medication is involved.

A few years ago, there was a study that took clinically depressed patients through a treatment for 30 days and at the end, they had a 100 percent cure rate. They had clinically depressed patients stand in front of a mirror and smile for twenty minutes a day for 30 days in a row. Now it had to be a big smile, but that was all they did. (Sounds crazy or too good to be true!)

The key takeaway is “motion can lead to emotion.” Think about it for a few seconds. If I asked you to describe someone who looked depressed, what would they look like? Chances are they are slouched over slightly, face downcast, and not slow moving. We have all experienced this state of emotion. Now, consider someone who is excited or happy. What do they look like?

Try a little experiment. Make yourself looked depressed for a minute or two and see how it makes you feel. Now, try making yourself look happy or excited. How did you feel? Could you notice any difference even slightly? So, something as simple as paying attention to your body can change your mental state.

I have a challenge for you this week. Simply stand in front of a mirror and smile—a big smile—for about three minutes a day. If you have a big meeting, maybe before you go into it, smile for a while. I know it sounds crazy, but what do you have to lose? Let me know how you do!

If you want to take a deeper dive into this subject and other ideas for healthy living, take a look at my e-book, The Caleb Journey. Here’s what people are saying:

“This was a productive, useable, comfortable plan for me to follow. This plan is obviously based on successful personal and professional experience and knowledge in the medical, nutritional and sports fields, as well as in the spiritual well-being realm.” —Harry Brewer

“This 3-week challenge focuses on your spiritual walk, teaches you about your own body, and offers recipes and actionable tips to help you not only lose weight, but also find true happiness again.” —Shayla Eaton

Wishing You an Amazing Life,

Dr. Curtis Brown

Brain Hack for Weight Loss

Read the first two in this series:

The Most Important Thing about Trying to Lose Weight
Understand Your Why

I really believe most of us can do just about anything when we put our minds to it. Now, I am not talking about crazy things that are physically impossible like flapping our arms to land on the moon. It is a matter of focus and what we focus on.

In recent blogs, I have written about the importance of deciding to do something and then having a compelling vision of your future. This compelling vision should help you overcome in times of struggles, and the struggles always come.

Today, I want to give you a simple brain hack to help you in your struggles in the moment. But first, let’s talk about some ways to prevent getting into struggles.

Why is it we often find ourselves dwelling on the things we are trying to avoid? Adam and Eve had acres of good trees to choose from, but they seemed to focus on the forbidden fruit.

My friend Rick Thompson tells a story about teaching his young son to ride a bike. He found an open parking lot on a weekend that was huge, but it had a couple of light poles in the middle of the lot. His son kept saying he was afraid he would hit the light pole. Now, there were literally acres of parking lot free from the light poles. But what do you think happened? His son went straight for the light pole!

The truth is our energy will flow to where we focus. If you are trying to lose weight and you are constantly thinking about food, where do you think you will end up? Probably at the refrigerator or the cabinet where the chips and cookies are.

The Bible encourages us to dwell on what is good and pure and noble. Keep thinking about your preferred future. How will you feel when you drop the weight? How much more energy will you have? How will your self-image change? Write down your goals and benefits and review them daily. Get on the scale every morning and decide tomorrow will be better. Make it happen!

When you are in the moment of a struggle, and you must decide between pain versus pleasure, now versus later, what can you do to improve your odds? Most of us have patterns we have developed over the years. Our spouses and close friends can often predict how we will react to a certain situation. It is the same with temptations of all kinds. We have thought patterns that usually lead to a behavioral reaction.

The key is to interrupt the thought patterns. We have to disrupt the routines of our neuropathways. It usually takes some energy and action.

One of the things I will do is simply get up and move. Get a drink of water or take a look out of the window. Do something to change my focus.

Our energy will follow our focus. Change your focus. I heard of one guy who would pinch his nose and make a noise. It disrupted his neuropathway and changed his focus. It helps if you immediately think of something funny or otherwise good. This will start changing your neuropathways and with time, the temptation will lose its grip on you.

Decide, create vision, focus on the good!

Wishing You an Amazing Life,

Curtis Brown MD

Read Part 4: A Simple Key to Success.

The Most Important Thing about Trying to Lose Weight

I have had the privilege of helping thousands of people improve their health over my 25+ years of being a family doc. Unfortunately, I have also not been able to help many people. Oh, I can give them the necessary information and/or medications, but many people just seem unable to move the needle. They seem stuck in a rut or even worse, continue down a bad path to decline.

I have discovered a simple, basic principle that successful people have in common. It is so simple that many people will not believe me, but I know it is the truth. It is not hard to understand and yet so many are simply unable to do it.

The simple truth is people who lose weight or otherwise improve their health decide to do so! This is the foundation of making improvements in your life. You must first decide. It must become important to you.

People know they should do something. They know they could do something. How many times have you said, “I should lose weight or I should start eating clean or I should start exercising?” I have “should” all over myself at certain times in my life!

So, the simple dirty little truth to the reason you cannot lose weight is you have not really decided to do so. I know I will get a lot of push-back, but just hear me out.

I know weight loss is complicated and hard. Heck, I have been trying to lose the same 20 lbs. now for a couple of years. I know it is hard and I have planned and strategized to lose the weight and have had some success but not lasting.

The bottom line is I have chosen to be where I am today. The choices I have made have led me to where I am now.

We are basically binary people. Every decision we make is simply deciding between pain or pleasure. Think about it for a second. When you really decide something is important to you, you will find a way to make it happen. Now, I am not talking about unrealistic things such as swimming to Hawaii or flying to the moon.

The problem comes in the moment. When you are tired or stressed, your willpower is not as strong as it would be when you’re not so stressed or tired. In the moment, you chose to relieve yourself of the stress by eating something or doing something that is not so healthy for you over the long haul. You chose temporary pleasure to avoid the pain you find yourself in. Pain versus pleasure. This concept of pain versus pleasure is true in all areas of your life.

So, the first thing you must do is to decide your health is important to you. I found I have this natural tendency in me to judge myself by what I intend to do but to judge others by what they actually do! My intentions are turned into deeds, when I actually decide and take action. I really have not truly decided until I act. The road to good health is paved with good decisions and not good intentions.

If you truly decide to do something, I am betting you can find a way to make it happen. Next time, we will discuss more on how you move from good intentions to taking action.

Wishing You an Amazing Life,
Curtis Brown MD

Read Part 2: Understand Your Why.

Low on Energy? A Few Thoughts on Fatigue

One of the most common complaints I hear in my office is, “I have no energy. I just shouldn’t be this tired all the time.”

This seems to be pervasive in our culture.

If you simply search fatigue, you will get over 11 million results. There are also as many cures for fatigue as there are variations of this complaint. If you search for information on cures for fatigue, you will get over 9 million results. Clearly, this is an issue for many people.

There are many causes of fatigue. Most patients are convinced that their thyroid, blood sugar, iron levels, or hormones are low or not right. All you have to do these days is turn on your radio or TV and within fifteen minutes, you will probably hear a commercial for men about low T.

I do believe it is important to check on these things when appropriate, but rarely are these the cure for fatigue. Certainly, if you have low T or hypothyroidism, replacing these hormones can help with your energy, but most people have normal results.

Over the years, I have found the quickest fix for low energy for most people is to start an exercise program. “Motion is lotion.” You will simply feel better and have more energy. On the other extreme, if you are working out 7 days a week, taking a true Sabbath from your workouts will help.

I am also amazed at how little sleep many people get. We need to consistently get around 8 hours of sleep. Some people seem to do okay with 7 while other may need 9 hours of sleep. Those patients that routinely sleep less than 7 hours will usually push back against my suggestion for more sleep. They will usually say they have always only needed 5–6 hours of sleep. Of course, when asked how long they have been tired, they reject the association to lack of sleep to their fatigue even though they have been tired all those years.

Sometimes, the cure is more water. If you are chronically mildly dehydrated, it can cause fatigue. Our bodies are around 60% water. We need water!

Over the long haul, sugar is a zapper of energy. It will give you a quick burst of energy but usually leads to low levels of motivation and/or energy after the initial surge. Eliminate sugar and things that turn to sugar as much as you can.

I take a B-complex vitamin from Thorne Research called Methyl-Guard. It has B12, B6, and folate. I think it helps me. Whether it actually helps or if it is simply all in my mind, it works for me.

But the most common cause for fatigue that I have found in my 25 years of being a family doctor is stress. Stress comes disguised in many forms. Most people do not believe they are stressed. I think it is the “boiling frog” theory. They are so used to low levels of stress and as their lives get more complicated and stressful, they do not see the increase temperature of the water as they are slowly coming to a “boiling” point in their lives.

Our culture promotes stress. We have a tendency to get over involved in all sorts of things. Mostly, these are good things. Look at little league games these days. There was a time when a T-ball team would play 8–12 games in a season. Usually the kids would have the same hat and maybe T-shirt. Now, these kids are in $200 uniforms, and playing tournaments on weekends. It is nothing for an active T-ball team to play 35–50 games.

There is nothing wrong with T-ball. It is great for kids to be active and compete. What I see happening in our lives is lack of any margin. We cram as much as we can in our 24-hour day. When something unplanned occurs (and it always does), we have no margin, no breathing room, and that puts added stress to complete our scheduled activities such as work.

This often leads to stress in our relationships. Isn’t it true that we seem to take it out on those we love the most? Keeping our relationships healthy will dramatically improve our energy level. It will take energy to invest in those relationships, but we will get more back than we put in.

Another drain of our energy is the constant distractions that keep our minds buzzing with information. When was the last time you allowed your mind to be bored? With all of the technology that keeps us connected to our stressed-out world, we seemingly never disconnect. I believe one of the best “fixes” for fatigue is to disconnect and recharge your emotional batteries.

Disconnecting looks different from one person to another, but one of the keys is to allow your mind to get bored or at least not be distracted with all of the information we have available to us today. Take time to meditate. “Dwell on what is pure and noble.”

I have found exercise is one of the best ways for me to disconnect from the chaos and to recharge my emotional energy. Sometimes reading a good book will do the same thing. Take some time to figure out what it is for you that will help you stay emotionally energized. Plan for it and invest in it.

When your emotional energy is good, you will find your physical energy will follow. It may not happen simultaneously, but it will correlate. Allow your mind to occasionally be disconnected from all of the chaos we live in every day. The world will not stop rotating if you do not check in on Facebook or Instagram every day!

Wishing You an Amazing Life,

Curtis Brown, MD