Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Marathon Runners Are Just Junkies with More Discipline | If you drink, smoke, or do drugs and you have fitness-obsessed friends who occasionally give you a hard time for your vices, you may want to print out this story from National Geographic, just so you have it handy the next time you run into them while you're on your way to a bar and they're headed to the gym. According to new research in the August issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, "Hardcore runners who can't bear to skip a workout may be hooked in a way that's similar to heroin addiction." And it can be fatal, too! [National Geographic]

Land of the Fat and Lazy | You try to eat healthy whenever you can, you go the gym every chance you get, and yet you still feel like you're not doing enough to stay fit. Relax! You're fine! According to a new study published in the American Medical Journal—and despite the constant patter of dieting and exercise advice—"physical activity and healthy eating rates are down, while obesity is up." Consider this a fine excuse to skip the gym this evening, if you'd like one. [NYDN]

The quickest way to land a book deal? Become besties with Gwyneth Paltrow, obviously! A month after Gwynnie's bikini waxer inked a deal with Penguin Books. Now comes word that Tracy Anderson, the personal trainer Paltrow shares with Madonna, has landed a six-figure deal of her own with Grand Central Publishing. So if you can't afford the $900 a month membership fees to Tracy's gym, or even the $200 workout sessions she's offering at a depressing Midtown hotel, you'll be able to take advantage of her wisdom in a slim, paperback volume. Best of all, you won't need to exercise your body or your brain doing it.

In these dark times, we'll take good news from wherever we can, let alone spectacular news like this. Basically, any guilt you were harboring about not having been to the gym since the beginning of the new year you can replace with smugness, because scientists now say that exercise isn't going to make you thin. In fact, it might even make you fat! "Your appetite goes up when you start to exercise," according to one physiologist. "Your body is telling you it needs more calories, so you eat more." More

Spin Society | Apparently Linda Wells, Jane Rosenthal, Rosanna Scotto, and Caryn Zucker—the wife of NBC chief Jeff Zucker—all work out together at Soul Cycle on the Upper West Side. ("Our classes are candlelit so you can't look around at everybody even if you wanted to," says Wells.) Glam, new agey ladies who get together weekly to sweat a bit and swap a few stories from the front-lines of fashion and media? When you see this form the basis of a new NBC sitcom, now you know where the idea came from. [NYO]

Ever looked at ads for exercise devices that promise to morph your body into that of a teenage Korean gymnast on steroids and been vaguely tempted, notwithstanding the fact that the before and after pictures feature a "results not typical" disclosure in 3-point font? Especially since the transformation is always touted as fast and involving a very minimal time commitment? Well, exercise physiologist Carl Foster has come to save you from yourself. More

Impossible Physical Ideals for All! | These may be sad times economically, but there's encouraging news on the sexual equality front: At last, men are suffering from the same kind of crippling vanity as women, as evidenced by sales of men's fitness mags, gym attendance, and levels of manorexia and "muscle dysmorphia syndrome." Responsible, of course, are advertisers, and their increased use of "undressed male models" in ads. But we're sure the internet should somehow take credit too. [Times UK]

How to Avoid the Wrong Trainer | Television has misled us yet again: Apparently, you shouldn't hire a personal trainer based on his rippling physique and because you intend to have an affair with him to get back at your cheating husband. Or those shouldn't be the sole criteria, at least. [Newsweek]

In one of those patented "prove any thesis with the right selection of quotes" pieces, Page Six mag would like to remind you that the economic downtown is not just bad for your bank balance, it's also bad for your waistline. You see, regular personal training sessions and expensive memberships to pilates studios were preventing many New Yorkers from turning into big fat tubs of lard, but tighter budgeting is putting the squeeze on such luxuries. Darren Spedale, for example, is an investment banker whose bonus (please have a Kleenex at the ready) has been cut by 20%, so he can only pay for the basic membership at Equinox. The ignominy! At least some people have their priorities straight, like a 31-year-old freelance copywriter who lives in Brooklyn, who's planning to put her personal training sessions on a credit card. "I think being fat is probably worse than ­being in debt," she says, neatly symbolizing our fair city's manifesto.