Surfing to Get in Shape

Can chromium picolinate really help you burn fat and build muscle? How long would you have to chop wood to burn off the calories in an average-sized chocolate brownie with nuts?

The answers--probably not, and 57.56 minutes--are just a tiny taste of the info you can get from surfing https://www.phys.com, a free health-nutrition-fitness Web site hosted by publisher Conde Nast. The site features articles on fitness, weight loss and nutrition, as well as Q&As;, chat rooms and an encyclopedia of health and fitness terms.

I tried one of these interactive tools to help me clean up my eating act. I typed in my stats--age, weight, current diet and level of sloth--and received my ideal diet, complete with sample menu. I also got a gentle rap over the knuckles for my current eating habits: too much candy, not enough fruit.

The site is fun but levelheaded, stresses senior editor Marissa Rothkopf. All the material is checked by experts. “We take a scientific approach to our articles. We would never endorse one of these flash-in-the-pan diets,” she says. Phys.com has nothing very good to say about the “5-Day Miracle” or the “How to Lose Weight by Changing the Way You Breathe” diets.

Darn.