Photo: Mike Baird, Flickr

Obviously, exercise is good for you, but just how much it benefits you depends on many factors, including your gender and your race, according to a long-term study led by the University of Northern Carolina.

Researchers have been tracking exercise and cholesterol levels in 15,000 African American and Caucasian men and women since the late 1980s. In all groups, adding an hour of mild exercise or a half an hour of moderate exercise a week increased levels of 'good' cholesterol, the heart-healthy HDL kind. However, the increased activity lead to lower levels of LDL ('bad') cholesterol only in women, not men. Additionally, the only group to exhibit improvement in all cholesterol levels were African American women. Caucasians who exercised more saw a decrease in harmful triglycerides, but African Americans didn't show the same result.

The reason for the differences? Researchers aren't sure, but they suspect it has something to do with hormonal differences between the sexes and genetic difference between races. Furthermore, the method of research -- questionnaires -- means the results might not be entirely accurate.

If you're a woman, this is even more motivation to step it up, because it's evidence that even a small change can make a big difference. But regardless of your race or gender, regular exercise is vital to your heart health and overall well-being -- so get moving!

Need more motivation? Find out how Michelle Obama sculpts those smokin' arms.

Frank Fife, AFP/Getty Images

South African running sensation Caster Semenya is making headlines all over the world today, but it's not because the 18-year-old wowed the world by taking home the gold metal in the 800-meter competition at the World Track and Field Championships in Germany yesterday. Rather, the reason Semenya's such a hot topic is because many people are wondering: Is she really a he?

As the International Association of Athletics Federation recently confirmed, the speedy super athlete has to undergo extensive gender verification tests, and while one would think it'd be ridiculously easy to make the final call, it's actually quite complex -- Semenya has to be examined in painstaking detail by a number of professionals, including a gynecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist and a gender expert, and it could be weeks before the final report is revealed.

IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told ESPN.com that it's "a medical issue, not an issue of cheating," and the tests are being carried out to prove that Semenya doesn't have an intersex condition or a hormone imbalance that could give her an unfair advantage over her female competitors.

South Africa team manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane would not confirm or deny that Semenya was having such a test, but did say "We entered Caster as a woman and we want to keep it that way. Our conscience is clear in terms of Caster. We have no reservations at all about that."

Click on the video below to see Semenya respond to whether she is male or female.



Semenya isn't the first female athlete to face questions about her gender. German high-jumper Dora Ratjen, who broke the world record in 1938, was later revealed to be a man named Hermann, and the gold-medal winning Polish runner, Ewa Klobukowska was found to be a man after failing a chromosome test in 1967. And more recently intersex German tennis player Sarah Gronert chose to undergo surgery to have her male sex organs removed and compete against women.

Lucille Roberts is a New York City-based women's gym, but 63-year-old Amnon Kent is one of about 10 men with a membership to the facility. Most of the men had memberships to the gym before it stopped letting men join more than 10 years ago, but not Kent. In fact, he joined just four years ago, after accusing the gym's manager of gender discrimination.

Kent's membership at Lucille Roberts poses some interesting questions. For one, having a male at a women's-only gym creates the requirement for a totally separate men's locker room (even though Kent says he prefers to shower at home). Does that raise the rates for the other members? And then, the more obvious issue -- if a woman joins a gym specifically because she's not comfortable working out around men, does the facility have an obligation to keep men out?

Of course, there's one other big question -- why on earth would a man want to work out at a women's gym? Kent insists it's convenient and he's just there to work out and not to gawk, although he admitted, "Once in a while, if there's a pretty girl, I'll look at her."

If you're a woman, do you feel more comfortable working out with only females? Or do you think it's discriminatory to restrict membership to one gender?

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Men and women are different, there's no arguing that. And around our house, it's never more apparent than when there's chocolate in the house -- I'm forced to eat it; he isn't.

OK, so not forced. That would imply I'm not in charge of what I eat. But it's really, really hard for me to resist sweets, which is why I don't buy them. He, on the other hand, is like a kid who still has Halloween candy left at Easter. In January, Bev told us that there's a reason for this: Our brains are wired differently. Men can say no to their favorite foods, but women can't stop thinking about them.

Clearly, when it comes to willpower, men have the upper hand. But according to "Newsweek," there are several ways that men and women differ when it comes to dieting. For instance, men might have stronger willpower, but nutritionally, women are smarter. "With women, they're very eager to learn," says American Dietetic Association spokesman Jim White. "They look for nutrients, read food labels and focus on healthy cooking and healthy meals."

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Did you know that women tend to eat more healthfully than men? And that women are more likely to choose foods to benefit their overall health and/or select foods for a specific health purpose (e.g. digestive health)? After the somewhat frustrating news Martha gave us about the difference between men and women when it comes to fitness, I'm glad to hear women have an edge somewhere.

According to a recent research study, both genders believe that nutrition plays an important role in health, but women came out on top in all categories studied. For example, 53% of women choose foods to benefit overall wellness, compared to 46% of men.

So c'mon guys ... consider it a challenge. Maybe by the next time this subject is studied, you'll have closed the gap.

[via Vital Juice Daily]

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This one's for the girls:

Women, you know how frustrating it is trying to take off just a few pounds while your man can lose them effortlessly Scientifically, men have some advantages: They tend to have more muscle and aren't hard-wired to store fat like we are. But those reasons are only part of the big picture. There are several things men do that enable them to be bigger losers than us.

AOL Body talks about these reasons in detail. Much of it comes down to the ways we deal with stress: Men are more likely to do something active, while we head to the kitchen -- and that box of chocolates. What's more, when we crave something, we hit the sugar, while men are more likely to chow down on some meat. And we beat ourselves up more, don't you agree?

So here's the challenge this week:

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It comes as no surprise to me that men and women tend to gravitate toward different foods. However, you might be surprised by some of the findings shown in a recent post over at Diet-blog based on a study of 14,000 Americans.

Predictably, men tended to eat more meat and poultry, and women ate more vegetables. However, men ate more Brussels sprouts and asparagus, and women ate more fresh hamburger while men leaned toward frozen. Several "risky" behaviors were also recorded, showing that men ate more pink hamburger and runny eggs while women ate more alfalfa sprouts.

Do you think our eating habits are predetermined, or are you influenced as you grow up by what those around you choose to eat?

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Moms who followed a "hearty" diet prior to conception are more likely to give birth to boys, according to a recent study. We touched on this here at That's Fit yesterday, but I thought I would go into some of the details I discovered.

The study found that, out of a group of women who followed a high energy diet (which generally included a daily bowl of breakfast cereal) around the time of conception, 56% had sons. Out of the group that took in fewer calories, including moms who skipped breakfast, only 45% had sons. The women in the first group not only consumed more calories, but but took in a large variety of nutrients.

Not everybody is sold on this theory, but there are some valid points to back up the findings.

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Guys can pack on a lot more weight than women before they experience weight discrimination, says a new study published in the International Journal of Obesity.

Researchers examined self-reported weight discrimination among adults ages 25 to 74. Women reported noticeable weight bias when they hit a body mass index (BMI) of 27, while men began to notice weight bias at a BMI of 35 or higher. A BMI of 27 applies to a five-foot, five-inch woman weighing 162 pounds, while a five-foot, nine-inch man weighing 237 pounds has a BMI of 35.

Now that is one significant difference in fat bias. I wonder what factors are at play here? Do overweight men wear their fat better than comparatively overweight women? I sure don't think so. The study was based on self-reports -- are men generally less sensitive or aware of weight discrimination? Is men's fashion better at hiding weight gain? Women are still bumping their heads against a glass ceiling in many professional arenas -- are they also ducking under a lower BMI ceiling of socially acceptable weights compared to men? Whatever the reasons, weight discrimination is simply wrong. What are your thoughts?

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Every time you smoke another cigarette, it's almost like loading a Russian Roulette revolver with another bullet. This dangerous habit markedly increases your chances of premature death, be it from cardiovascular complications or several types of cancer. Lung cancer is typically among those most closely linked to cigarette smoking, but the risk of head and neck cancers is also be increased.

A large study on smoking, conducted by the National Cancer Institute, revealed a strong association between smoking and malignancies of the neck and head. These cancers also include cancers of the nasal passage, larynx, pharynx, and oral cavity. An estimated 500,000 people are diagnosed with one of these types of cancer each year. While it was already known that smoking elevated the risk of these types of cancer, the study uncovered new information regarding gender.

Evidently, smoking may play a greater role in the development of head and neck cancers in women than in men. After examining an extensive amount of data, researchers found that 45 percent of these cancers could be attributed to smoking in men, 75 percent could be attributed to smoking in women.

The results of this study can be found in the October 2007 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cancer.

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Being a recovering personal trainer (no meetings involved, no "hello my name is Chris and I'm a personal trainer" introductions. It's great), I have quite a bit of experience helping kids lose weight. For a short period of time back when I was training, I was helping members of a teenage swim team gain a competitive edge. At least, that's the way their slightly overzealous coach explained it, but I digress. Anyway, in working with kids in this capacity, you learn quickly that a fitness goal -- as well as the ability to achieve that goal -- is never the same across the board. Body types are different, levels of determination vary, and it also seemed as though body fat reduction was affected by gender.

Now, after reading about a study published a little while back in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, it seems as though these observations of mine may have been right on the money. It turns out that the impact of exercise on body fat differs for boys and girls. This discovery comes after a study of 224 children (a random sample) aged between 7 and 10 from twelve different schools in the Republic of Ireland. Unlike the girls in the study, the boys who performed the least difficult exercises were found to be the fattest. Moreover, those who led a predominantly sedentary life (video games and the internet strike again) had the thickest waists. As stated, this was not the case for the girls in the study.

It's strange to think that we live in a time where kids are going to personal trainers, not just to improve their sports performance, but to simply get some exercise. I know I pointed to the internet and video games as the culprit behind the rising child obesity rates, but also to blame are poor diets -- not eating enough throughout the day and then eating far too much in one sitting. I don't for a second claim to be an expert on why kids are getting heavier, but these reasons just mentioned seem to make sense to me. What I do know, however, especially with this new research on the topic to support my belief, is that (redundancy in 3-2-1 ... ) everybody's body is different. Some people need more time than others to lose weight and fat, as evidenced by this study on boys and girls. It also speaks to the fact that the Body Mass Index (BMI) may be inadequate, by itself, to determine the extent of cardiovascular risk in children and adolescents, and possibly even adults.

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Men and women both can get high blood pressure, but how they each end up getting it is seldom the same. For men, the road to high blood pressure is usually shorter and much more rapid than it is with women -- something that doctors from the Medical College of Georgia Vascular Biology Center are studying with interest.

Men develop hypertension earlier than women and they generally tend to demonstrate an increase in blood pressure more rapidly, that is until women reach menopause. But, the researchers question whether these more "protected" years for women has so much to do with hormones. To find out, when testicles were removed (ahem...we're talking about in lab rats), blood pressure tends to drop a small amount. When ovaries are removed, blood pressure remains unchanged.

Hmmm.....

If it's not related to gender, why does it appear to be so related to gender?! The researchers are also examining nitric oxide levels in men and women, as well as a myriad of other possible reasons behind the disparity. Whatever the reason turns out to be, it seems that at/or around the age of 70, the playing field is completely leveled, as men and women share a similar risk for cardiovascular disease and hypertension by that point.

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When it comes to cravings, are you more of a sweet or salty person? It seems like a fairly frivilous question, but it could affect the gender of your future children. Seriously! It seems like an old wives tale but recent studies have proved that there might be some merit to this.

Here's the deal: If you crave things like salty snacks and red meat, your more likely to produce a boy. But, if you crave sweets and tend to eat more chocolate and sugary snacks, you're more likely to have a girl. Kind of gives meaning to the old nursery rhyme: Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what girls are made of; snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what boys are made of.

What do you think about these results?

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Only researchers would ask why people have sex, but they did, and the answer? Because it feels good. Out of the top 25 reasons men and women cited for doing the nasty, 20 were the same. This goes towards refuting the stereotype that women seek love from sex, while men just look for lust. "Meston and colleague David Buss first questioned 444 men and women - ranging in age from 17 to 52 - to come up with a list of 237 distinct reasons people have sex. They ranged from 'It's fun' which men ranked fourth and women ranked eighth to 'I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease' which ranked on the bottom by women."

One caveat: the researchers had college students do the ranking. Hmmm, I suspect college students might have a little more hormonal drive than the rest of the population.

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Alright, I have to say that I find it hard to accept that women feel more pain than men. However, according to this article, numerous studies have shown otherwise. I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong, but I don't know if the evidence provided sways my opinion very much.

The piece states that, not only are women hurting more than men, but that they rate the pain that they feel at much more intense levels than do men. It also says though, that studies are based on how each sex feels about their pain, rather than some sort of actual scientific measure. They give various theories on why girls and guys may feel differently about the aches that they experience, including possible genetic links. I think it may be more cultural. Perhaps men just don't want to admit that they're hurting?

In the end, I'm really not bothered either way about who lives with more pain. It's just a fact of life that everyone is going to experience it at some point. I guess I just find it hard to accept since women are the ones giving birth! What hurts more than that? But I suppose that IS the point of the study. Women know that they experience some huge, intense pain during childbirth and other situations. I guess it's just how we all (men AND women) deal with it that counts.

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