The founder of the Dukan Diet, Dr. Pierre Dukan, is under fire for an ethics violation in France for his recent remarks suggesting there be an exam that 17 year old French students must pass by keeping thin.

Dr. Pierre Dukan, whose Atkins-like diet has been credited for the famous figures of Kate Middleton and Gilsele Bundchen, faces a disciplinary hearing for ”remarks, which could harm teenagers already struggling with obesity or anorexia,” according to a complaint filed Sunday by the French College of Physicians. (more)

The remarks are a breach of France’s medical ethics code and if he’s found liable it could result in disciplinary action by the board.

In a second complaint, the French College of Physicians said Dukan was more focused on making money than on medicine — another ethics breach. Dukan has sold more than seven million copies of his dieting books, the BBC reported.

The report goes on to say that there are possible dangers associated with the Dukan Diet and that it sets people up to fail.

There’s a real danger to health if people stay in the restrictive [attack] phase. But the biggest danger is it sets you up to fail.

Although the Dukan Diet has been controversial, and has come under fire before, it hasn’t seemed to stop people from trying it. There is a loyal following of #dukandiet chat on Twitter every couple minutes.

SINGLE GIRL DINNER – @singlegirldin
@seoxcookie Here’s more about oat bran from the Dukan Diet website: http://t.co/CJidlDYg

John – @BossCoachGuy
I have been on the Dr Dukan diet (twitter dukandiet) for 40 days and lost 15 pounds!

Have you tried the Dukan Diet? Do you think it’s dangerous, or is the French Medical Board just over reacting?

Wahoo Fitness has a cool new iPhone heart rate strap and monitor called the Blue HR that works on iPhone 4s by connecting to the phones built-in Bluetooth Smartready Technology.

The strap works by synching with your iPhone 4s and gives users real time heart rate data and delivers it to the free Wahoo Fitness app with no dongle or adapter required.

The open API of the BlueHR allows other popular Apps, such as RunKeeper, MapMyRide, 321Run, Cyclemeter and endomondo to work with the device seamlessly.

With the Wahoo Blue HR and your favorite fitness App, you now have your heart rate data, your playlists, your phone, GPS maps and more– all in one device!

All I can say about the Blue HR is, it’s about time someone thought of this – now I can ditch my Polar and just bring my phone with me on my outdoor workouts- sweet!

You can find out more about the Blue HR over at Wahoo Fitness

Type 2 diabetes sufferers have some good news today as breaking research is showing that the disease can be reversed and cured by a new weight loss surgery.

The successful studies were conducted at two locations; The Cleveland Clinic and The Catholic University of Rome and Weill Cornell Medical College with a goal of getting blood sugar levels down below 6 percent.

Forty-two percent of the bypass patients reached the goal after one year compared to 37 percent of the banding patients and only 12 percent on medical therapy.

It’s interesting to note that 44-percent of participants in the study needed daily insulin injections before surgery, and none of them did after.

After two years none of the patients on drug therapy reached the goal of normal blood sugar levels while 75 percent of those who underwent bypass did and as did fully 95 percent of those undergoing the bilopancreatic diversion. The authors of the study say these patients have achieved “complete diabetes remission.” (more)

The surgery looks promising, but keep in mind it comes with risks and a hefty $25,000 dollar price tag so it’s not for everyone.

Not everyone is as cool and coordinated as the guys from OK Go on their video for Here It Goes Again – most people fail on treadmills, a lot.

Sure, it looks easy to hop on a fast moving treadmill and do a few wacky stunts to impress your friends -but in reality- most attempts end up in pain, property destruction and ultimately, embarrassment when your friends post your crash and burn on Youtube.

Expert’s Tip: If you’re going to attempt any of these stunts, which I don’t recommend, face your treadmill away from the wall!

If you’ve got overuse injuries, tired joints or chronic soreness when you workout you may want to take your fitness routine gravity free.

The key to a gravity defying workout is to exercise in a manner where some, or all of your body weight is removed from the equation.

Options range from NASA treadmill technology to Circus acrobats  Cirque du Soleil and more traditional exercises like swimming:

• AlterG Treadmill – This treadmill generates a powerful lifting force that relives from 1-80% of the users bodyweight using Advanced Differential Air Pressure Technology (ADAPT).
• Floating Yoga – Fitness moves borrowed from Cirque du Soleil where participants use climbing silks and do foot locks and body wraps.
• Swimming – THe original gravity free workout that’s still the preferred rehab and Sports Medicine choice for no impact workouts.

Experts say if you adhere to the learning curve, going anti-gravity can be just the thing to relieve overused joints and revitalize an earthbound routine. (more)

The FDA advisory board recently reviewed the diet pill called Qnexa and voted 20 to 2 in favor of recommending the drug be approved for weight loss.

If you haven’t heard of the Qnexa pill until now it’s because the FDA has been a little gun-shy about recommending diet drugs after the whole Fen-Phen debacle where the drug got pulled from the market and the lawyers swooped in and sued everyone with a wallet.

I’m a little bit surprised that Qnexa got the approval nod since it shares the primary ingredient in Fen-Phen which is phentermine (thus the name).

Qnexa’s two main appetite suppressing ingredients are phentermine and topiramate that, in combination, have been expected to reduce body weight by up to 10% in clinical trials.

Qnexa vs Fen-Phen

Qnexa differs from Fen-Phen by including topiramate which was originally developed for treating seizures.

Is Qnexa Safe?

It’s too early to tell if Qnexa is safe enough for wide-spread use, and the FDA still has some concerns and calls for additional testing:

The drug’s adverse effects that concerned the advisory committee in 2010 still remain and no additional safety data about Qnexa have been submitted to the FDA by its manufacturer, Vivus. (more)

First Lady Michelle Obama will be making a special guest appearance on NBC’s The Biggest Loser in a special 2-part episode next month.

What’s her role in the show? It sounds like she’ll be welcoming guests to the White House and will be involved in a workout with the contestants in the East Room.

The reason for the appearance is to help promote the 2nd anniversary of the her “Let’s Move” campaign on physical fitness.

America will find out on April 3rd, when Mrs. Obama brings the Let’s Move! campaign to the airwaves with a star turn on NBC’s weightloss competition show. The cast, including hosts Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince, visited the White House to film on Feb. 16th. (more)

Presonally, I wish the show would have let Obama be a guest trainer for the day to ramp up the intimidation. Who would slack off when the First Lady is watching?

We found another cool iPhone fitness app today from Gain Fitness.

The newly updated Gain app builds on the July 2011 release of the original app by adding in some exclusive new features that allow for completely customized 4 week workout routines that show you exactly what to do, and even remide you when to do it.

How the Gain App Is Different

Most workout and fitness apps are strictly tracking and logging programs and don’t give much thought given to the actual workout being performed. Not so with the Gain app, version 3.0 of  this tool includes four powerful  planning and coaching tools to help assure your success:

• GAIN PLAN — Create custom 4-week workout plans that fit your schedule. GAIN Plan will optionally remind you when it’s time to workout, and it will track your progress and quantify your performance.
• HD MOTION IMAGES & DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS — Unclear how to perform an exercise? Simply watch our athletes in action.
• VOCAL CUES — You can optionally hear exercise names to guide you through your workout.
• EXPANSION PACKS — These intelligent bundles of advanced training methods and hyper-targeted exercises expand the capabilities of our main Workout Builder to help you reach your training goals.

CEO Nick Gammell describes the app like this…

“One thing that’s been clear since we first launched is that there’s a demand for highly efficient, personalized workouts that get maximum results in minimum time,” Gammell said. “Opening up the platform to Expansion Packs will be a key differentiator relative to competitors, and a key enabler of our business model. We’re opening our platform up to the fitness world, inviting all types of workout styles and activity types: Yoga, Weight lifting, CrossFit, MMA, boot camp, and functional training.”

As of the writing of this post there is no Android version of the Gain app, but we’ll let you know if that changes.

You can get the Gain Fitness 3.0  App from the iTunes store here.

Need an incentive to lose weight and go to the gym? How about some cold hard cash!

If you’ve been lacking motivation to workout, and you’re a risk taker, we came across an iPhone App that you’re gonna love called GymPact.

How GymPact Works

The concept behind GymPact is simple. The app helps you commit to working out by giving you a cash incentive of between .50 to .75 cents each time you check-in at your favorite gym.

If you commit to going to the gym 4 times a week, and follow through, you could earn up to $3 bucks… but there is a catch, if you don’t go to the gym, you can lose money – here’s how.

When you set-up the app you have to place a $5 dollar minimum wager on each gym session per week that you plan on attending.

Make it to the gym and workout, you make money from other app users who didn’t meet their goal. Skip your workout, lose your wager.

Any gym (other than home or office gyms) is eligible. You lose $5 for missed workouts (to be paid out in part to other users who have fulfilled their Pacts) and get cash rewards for fulfilling your Pact. Most commitment tools that involve real money motivate users only with the threat of losing their money. With GymPact, you stand to both lose money and earn money. (more)

Is GymPact for Real?

The idea of geting paid to workout sounds too good to be true, but we did some digging on twitter and found out the app is legit…

Matthew Cool – @MatthewCool
Congratulations, you’ve made your Pact last week of 5 days at the gym! That means you owe $0 and you’ve earned $3.30 via @gympact

You can download the GymPact App for free from iTunes right here.

Chances are if you’ve spent any time in a gym on a boring machine like a treadmill or elliptical trainer you’ve wished there were some alternatives to help relieve the boredom of your cardio routine.

Today is your lucky day, because I came across an interesting list of the 10 Best Cardio Machines You’ve Never Heard of over at Shape Magazine and I’m going to share what I found with you, and supply my own commentary about the picks on the list (both good and bad).

This list is called cardio machines, but in fairness about half of these machines will give you just as good of a strength training workout as they will a cardio workout.

10 Best Cardio Machines

#1 Krank Cycle – Developed by Johhny G. (the guy that invented the Spin bike) the KrankCycle is powered by your arms instead of your legs.

#2 Rope Trainer – A never ending piece of rope fashioned around a pulley that you can change the resistance and angle of attack on.

#3 Woodway Force Treadmill – A manual treadmill with a stationary post where you strap yourself into a harness and run at an angle like some sort of crazy superhero.

#4 Jacobs Ladder – A self powered revolving track of ladder rungs set on an incline rack.

#5 Underwater Treadmill – Just like it sounds, take a manual treadmill and submerge it in a pool.

#6 Versa Climber – Like a star stepper on steroids, climb with your arms and legs on an incline track.

#7 RealRyder Bike – Lean, turn and rock your core as you pedal inside just like a real road cycle.

#8 The Helix – The love child of an exercise bike and elliptical trainer results in a machine where you “surf”.

#9 Fan Bike – A human powered exercise bike where you create your own resistance by pedaling harder.

#10 Arc Trainer – Get your astronaut on while you stride like you’re weightless.

Expert’s Top 3 Picks

All of the equipment on this list will give you a great low impact cardio workout, but there are three machines that I recommend above the rest because of their effectiveness as a cardio and secondary strength trainer.

Jacobs Ladder – Increase coordination and core strength while working the large muscle groups of the back and legs.

Krank Cycle – Effectively trains the arms and back muscles while engaging the core for stability.

Rope Trainer – Interval training, core building and grip strength for your upper body.

Have you tried any of these cardio machines yet? Which is your favorite? Let us know your opinion in the comments.