>3 reasons your workouts aren’t working

>

• by SHAPE Magazine, on Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:28am PST

Your time is valuable, and for each precious moment you put into your workouts, you want to ensure you get the best possible return on your investment. So, are you getting the results you want? If your body isn’t as lean or toned as you’d like, it may be that you’re committing some key training mistakes, which can sabotage the efforts of even veteran exercisers.

Of course, you probably know the more obvious mistakes to avoid. For instance, skipping your warm-up may cause you to fatigue early, preventing you from realizing your potential. Furthermore, leaning on the stair climber or elliptical trainer may allow you to stay on longer, but it drastically reduces the challenge to your lower body as well as the number of calories you burn. But what about the less obvious errors you may be making? Here, we’ll discuss some of the more subtle — yet no less serious — faux pas of fitness and the strength-training exercises most frequently flubbed, and show you how they can be fixed with nearly effortless corrections.

THE TEN FAUX PAS OF FITNESS

People make small but costly mistakes when exercising every day, and one tiny change can have a huge impact on their results, says Los Angeles–based trainer Ken Alan, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise. Thanks to Alan and the panel of training experts who weighed in on these faux pas and fixes, you’ll error-proof your exercise and see tremendous payoffs, and the time you invest in your workouts will be smart and well-spent. We begin with five errors often made in your approach to exercise, then we’ll take a look at five moves frequently flubbed.

THE APPROACH

1. The faux pas Getting married to your strength routine
The facts If you do the same routine over and over, your muscles will simply adapt; you’re likely to hit a plateau because each exercise stimulates only a limited number of muscle fibers. However, if you challenge your muscles from a variety of angles by adding or alternating moves periodically, you’ll get significantly more fibers into the act and develop more tone and strength.

The fix For each muscle group, learn an additional 2 or 3 exercises, trying new angles and equipment. (If you can’t get instruction from a trainer, there are plenty of books and videos organized by routine for each body part.) For instance, if you usually do the dumbbell chest press on a flat bench, try it at an incline. If you normally use the chest-press machine, try the dumbbell chest press or the bench press with a barbell. Expand your repertoire enough so that you can change your entire routine every 6–8 weeks.

2. The faux pas Performing your reps too quickly
The facts If you zoom through your repetitions when strength training, you’ll be using momentum instead of muscle power. You won’t get the same stimulus for muscle building, and you won’t burn as many calories. You’ll also be more susceptible to training injuries such as torn muscles or connective tissue.

The fix Take 6 seconds to perform each repetition: 2 seconds to lift the weight and 4 seconds to lower it. (Since you have gravity to help you lower the weight, you need to slow down even more on this phase in order to give your muscles a sufficient challenge.) Our experts agree that slowing down is the single most significant change you can make to get better results from strength training.

3. The faux pas Exercising too hard, too often
The facts If you don’t rest enough between hard cardio or strength workouts, you’ll stop making progress and may even lose some of the fitness you’ve gained. You’re also likely to burn out on exercise.

The fix To keep your muscles fresh and your motivation high, alternate shorter, tougher cardio workouts (for instance, 20 minutes) with longer, easier days (40–60 minutes). Don’t go all-out more than twice a week. Keep in mind that the more intensely you train, the more time your body needs to recover. It’s a good idea to do a couple of tough workouts and take 1 day completely off each week. On the strength-training front, take at least 1 day off between sessions that work the same muscle group.

7 more reasons your workout isn’t working can be found here.

Read More

Wikio

3 reasons your workouts aren’t working

• by SHAPE Magazine, on Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:28am PST

Your time is valuable, and for each precious moment you put into your workouts, you want to ensure you get the best possible return on your investment. So, are you getting the results you want? If your body isn’t as lean or toned as you’d like, it may be that you’re committing some key training mistakes, which can sabotage the efforts of even veteran exercisers.

Of course, you probably know the more obvious mistakes to avoid. For instance, skipping your warm-up may cause you to fatigue early, preventing you from realizing your potential. Furthermore, leaning on the stair climber or elliptical trainer may allow you to stay on longer, but it drastically reduces the challenge to your lower body as well as the number of calories you burn. But what about the less obvious errors you may be making? Here, we’ll discuss some of the more subtle — yet no less serious — faux pas of fitness and the strength-training exercises most frequently flubbed, and show you how they can be fixed with nearly effortless corrections.

THE TEN FAUX PAS OF FITNESS

People make small but costly mistakes when exercising every day, and one tiny change can have a huge impact on their results, says Los Angeles–based trainer Ken Alan, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise. Thanks to Alan and the panel of training experts who weighed in on these faux pas and fixes, you’ll error-proof your exercise and see tremendous payoffs, and the time you invest in your workouts will be smart and well-spent. We begin with five errors often made in your approach to exercise, then we’ll take a look at five moves frequently flubbed.

THE APPROACH

1. The faux pas Getting married to your strength routine
The facts If you do the same routine over and over, your muscles will simply adapt; you’re likely to hit a plateau because each exercise stimulates only a limited number of muscle fibers. However, if you challenge your muscles from a variety of angles by adding or alternating moves periodically, you’ll get significantly more fibers into the act and develop more tone and strength.

The fix For each muscle group, learn an additional 2 or 3 exercises, trying new angles and equipment. (If you can’t get instruction from a trainer, there are plenty of books and videos organized by routine for each body part.) For instance, if you usually do the dumbbell chest press on a flat bench, try it at an incline. If you normally use the chest-press machine, try the dumbbell chest press or the bench press with a barbell. Expand your repertoire enough so that you can change your entire routine every 6–8 weeks.

2. The faux pas Performing your reps too quickly
The facts If you zoom through your repetitions when strength training, you’ll be using momentum instead of muscle power. You won’t get the same stimulus for muscle building, and you won’t burn as many calories. You’ll also be more susceptible to training injuries such as torn muscles or connective tissue.

The fix Take 6 seconds to perform each repetition: 2 seconds to lift the weight and 4 seconds to lower it. (Since you have gravity to help you lower the weight, you need to slow down even more on this phase in order to give your muscles a sufficient challenge.) Our experts agree that slowing down is the single most significant change you can make to get better results from strength training.

3. The faux pas Exercising too hard, too often
The facts If you don’t rest enough between hard cardio or strength workouts, you’ll stop making progress and may even lose some of the fitness you’ve gained. You’re also likely to burn out on exercise.

The fix To keep your muscles fresh and your motivation high, alternate shorter, tougher cardio workouts (for instance, 20 minutes) with longer, easier days (40–60 minutes). Don’t go all-out more than twice a week. Keep in mind that the more intensely you train, the more time your body needs to recover. It’s a good idea to do a couple of tough workouts and take 1 day completely off each week. On the strength-training front, take at least 1 day off between sessions that work the same muscle group.

7 more reasons your workout isn’t working can be found here.

Read More

Wikio

3 reasons your workouts aren’t working

• by SHAPE Magazine, on Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:28am PST

Your time is valuable, and for each precious moment you put into your workouts, you want to ensure you get the best possible return on your investment. So, are you getting the results you want? If your body isn’t as lean or toned as you’d like, it may be that you’re committing some key training mistakes, which can sabotage the efforts of even veteran exercisers.

Of course, you probably know the more obvious mistakes to avoid. For instance, skipping your warm-up may cause you to fatigue early, preventing you from realizing your potential. Furthermore, leaning on the stair climber or elliptical trainer may allow you to stay on longer, but it drastically reduces the challenge to your lower body as well as the number of calories you burn. But what about the less obvious errors you may be making? Here, we’ll discuss some of the more subtle — yet no less serious — faux pas of fitness and the strength-training exercises most frequently flubbed, and show you how they can be fixed with nearly effortless corrections.

THE TEN FAUX PAS OF FITNESS

People make small but costly mistakes when exercising every day, and one tiny change can have a huge impact on their results, says Los Angeles–based trainer Ken Alan, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise. Thanks to Alan and the panel of training experts who weighed in on these faux pas and fixes, you’ll error-proof your exercise and see tremendous payoffs, and the time you invest in your workouts will be smart and well-spent. We begin with five errors often made in your approach to exercise, then we’ll take a look at five moves frequently flubbed.

THE APPROACH

1. The faux pas Getting married to your strength routine
The facts If you do the same routine over and over, your muscles will simply adapt; you’re likely to hit a plateau because each exercise stimulates only a limited number of muscle fibers. However, if you challenge your muscles from a variety of angles by adding or alternating moves periodically, you’ll get significantly more fibers into the act and develop more tone and strength.

The fix For each muscle group, learn an additional 2 or 3 exercises, trying new angles and equipment. (If you can’t get instruction from a trainer, there are plenty of books and videos organized by routine for each body part.) For instance, if you usually do the dumbbell chest press on a flat bench, try it at an incline. If you normally use the chest-press machine, try the dumbbell chest press or the bench press with a barbell. Expand your repertoire enough so that you can change your entire routine every 6–8 weeks.

2. The faux pas Performing your reps too quickly
The facts If you zoom through your repetitions when strength training, you’ll be using momentum instead of muscle power. You won’t get the same stimulus for muscle building, and you won’t burn as many calories. You’ll also be more susceptible to training injuries such as torn muscles or connective tissue.

The fix Take 6 seconds to perform each repetition: 2 seconds to lift the weight and 4 seconds to lower it. (Since you have gravity to help you lower the weight, you need to slow down even more on this phase in order to give your muscles a sufficient challenge.) Our experts agree that slowing down is the single most significant change you can make to get better results from strength training.

3. The faux pas Exercising too hard, too often
The facts If you don’t rest enough between hard cardio or strength workouts, you’ll stop making progress and may even lose some of the fitness you’ve gained. You’re also likely to burn out on exercise.

The fix To keep your muscles fresh and your motivation high, alternate shorter, tougher cardio workouts (for instance, 20 minutes) with longer, easier days (40–60 minutes). Don’t go all-out more than twice a week. Keep in mind that the more intensely you train, the more time your body needs to recover. It’s a good idea to do a couple of tough workouts and take 1 day completely off each week. On the strength-training front, take at least 1 day off between sessions that work the same muscle group.

7 more reasons your workout isn’t working can be found here.

Read More

What’s the Best Diet? Eating Less Food

By TIFFANY SHARPLES Tiffany Sharples Thu Feb 26, 2:15 pm ET

Low fat, low carb, high protein – there’s a diet plan of every flavor. And if you’re one of the millions of Americans who struggle with weight, you’ve probably tried them all, likely with little success. That wouldn’t surprise Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of a new study published in the Feb. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, whose findings confirm what a growing body of weight-loss evidence has already suggested: one diet is no better than the next when it comes to weight loss. It doesn’t matter where your calories come from, as long as you’re eating less. (Read about environmentally friendly food.)

“We have a really simple and practical message for people: it’s not so much the type of diet you eat,” says Sacks. “It’s how much you put in your mouth.”

In the analysis of 811 obese patients from Massachusetts and Louisiana, participants were randomly assigned to one of four heart-healthy diets: low fat or high fat, with either average or high levels of protein. All four regimens also included high amounts of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and substituted saturated fat, found in foods such as butter and meat, with unsaturated fat, found in vegetable oil and nuts. The participants were encouraged to exercise 90 minutes a week. (See the top 10 food trends of 2008.)

On average, the study participants lost about 13 lb. after six months of dieting, or about 7% of their starting weight, regardless of which diet plan they followed. At the one-year mark, the dieters had regained some of the lost weight, and after two years, average weight loss was about 9 lb. Only about 15% of participants were able to lose 10% of their body weight or more. Across the board, however, patients lowered their risk of diabetes and reduced blood levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing good cholesterol (HDL) and overall heart health.

Catherine Loria, one of the study’s co-authors and a nutritional epidemiologist with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, was encouraged by the findings. “People do have to choose heart-healthy foods,” she says, but “I think the beauty of the study is that they have a lot of flexibility in terms of the dietary approach.”

But that’s where the trouble begins. It’s hard enough to figure out what to eat. Eating less of it is even harder. Researchers had hoped to get study participants to eat 750 calories less than they expended each day – an objective that proved unsustainable. Dieters adhered to the initial plan for the first several weeks, but by the six-month mark, they were consuming only 225 calories less than they expended – about a third of the goal – according to a calculation based on overall weight loss. “It’s very difficult to reduce your calories enough to really sustain a lot of weight loss,” Loria says. (See pictures of facial yoga.)

One failure of most diet plans is that people get hungry and quit, says Sacks, who acknowledges that the sudden reduction of 750 calories in his study was perhaps too steep. “I think what that teaches us is that maybe it’s better to make a more gradual change in intake,” says Sacks. “That’s what I recommend to my patients: let’s try to pick a gradual or realistic reduction in calories that’s not going to make you really hungry a lot and that you can sustain day after day.”

But eating less, however simple it may sound, is hardly a one-man job. Some nutrition experts argue that the balance of responsibility needs to fall more heavily on society at large. Martjin Katan, a professor of nutrition and health at Amsterdam’s VU University, wrote an accompanying editorial that analyzed the merits of the diet study. He suggests that focusing on individual diet plans of any kind may be misguided, and that only community-wide change will truly be able to stem the tide of obesity. He points to a small town in France that tapped all of its residents to solve the problem – building more outdoor-sports facilities and creating walking routes, hosting cooking classes and even intervening with at-risk families. After five years, obesity among children was down to 8.8%, less than half the rate of neighboring towns. That success, he writes, “suggests that we may need a new approach to preventing and to treating obesity and that it must be a total-environment approach.”

It’s a useful lesson for American adults, two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese. Long-term weight loss has proved frustratingly elusive for many obese individuals, but study after study has shown that community and peer support help people take off weight – and keep it off. In this study, the participants who took advantage of group and individual counseling offered as part of the diets had far greater success than those who chose to go it alone. Over the course of two years, participants who went to at least two-thirds of the counseling sessions dropped about 22 lb., 13 lb. more than the average of the entire study population. “Losing weight and sustaining it for two years is difficult,” Sacks says. “To help people do that, they need some level of support to keep their motivation and focus.”

But the bottom line, according to most obesity experts, is to set realistic goals. Expect what is achievable: a 250-lb. person isn’t likely to slim down to supermodel proportions in her lifetime, but she may be able to lose 10 or 20 lb. A moderate 5% or 10% reduction in body weight can significantly improve health, by lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. For many doctors who work with obese patients, the goal is not thinness but well-being – and, ultimately for the patient, self-acceptance.

As for the secret to losing weight? There is none. “It’s basic physiology,” Loria says. “Eat fewer calories than you expend.”

See 9 kid foods to avoid.

See pictures of what makes you eat more food.

View this article on Time.com

Related articles on Time.com:

• What’s the Best Diet? Eating Less Food
• Do Diet Foods Lead to Weight Gain?
• Which Are Worse: Calories from Carbs or Fat?
• Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat?
• The Myth of Moderate Exercise

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090226/hl_time/08599188179500

Wikio

What’s the Best Diet? Eating Less Food

By TIFFANY SHARPLES Tiffany Sharples Thu Feb 26, 2:15 pm ET

Low fat, low carb, high protein – there’s a diet plan of every flavor. And if you’re one of the millions of Americans who struggle with weight, you’ve probably tried them all, likely with little success. That wouldn’t surprise Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of a new study published in the Feb. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, whose findings confirm what a growing body of weight-loss evidence has already suggested: one diet is no better than the next when it comes to weight loss. It doesn’t matter where your calories come from, as long as you’re eating less. (Read about environmentally friendly food.)

“We have a really simple and practical message for people: it’s not so much the type of diet you eat,” says Sacks. “It’s how much you put in your mouth.”

In the analysis of 811 obese patients from Massachusetts and Louisiana, participants were randomly assigned to one of four heart-healthy diets: low fat or high fat, with either average or high levels of protein. All four regimens also included high amounts of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and substituted saturated fat, found in foods such as butter and meat, with unsaturated fat, found in vegetable oil and nuts. The participants were encouraged to exercise 90 minutes a week. (See the top 10 food trends of 2008.)

On average, the study participants lost about 13 lb. after six months of dieting, or about 7% of their starting weight, regardless of which diet plan they followed. At the one-year mark, the dieters had regained some of the lost weight, and after two years, average weight loss was about 9 lb. Only about 15% of participants were able to lose 10% of their body weight or more. Across the board, however, patients lowered their risk of diabetes and reduced blood levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing good cholesterol (HDL) and overall heart health.

Catherine Loria, one of the study’s co-authors and a nutritional epidemiologist with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, was encouraged by the findings. “People do have to choose heart-healthy foods,” she says, but “I think the beauty of the study is that they have a lot of flexibility in terms of the dietary approach.”

But that’s where the trouble begins. It’s hard enough to figure out what to eat. Eating less of it is even harder. Researchers had hoped to get study participants to eat 750 calories less than they expended each day – an objective that proved unsustainable. Dieters adhered to the initial plan for the first several weeks, but by the six-month mark, they were consuming only 225 calories less than they expended – about a third of the goal – according to a calculation based on overall weight loss. “It’s very difficult to reduce your calories enough to really sustain a lot of weight loss,” Loria says. (See pictures of facial yoga.)

One failure of most diet plans is that people get hungry and quit, says Sacks, who acknowledges that the sudden reduction of 750 calories in his study was perhaps too steep. “I think what that teaches us is that maybe it’s better to make a more gradual change in intake,” says Sacks. “That’s what I recommend to my patients: let’s try to pick a gradual or realistic reduction in calories that’s not going to make you really hungry a lot and that you can sustain day after day.”

But eating less, however simple it may sound, is hardly a one-man job. Some nutrition experts argue that the balance of responsibility needs to fall more heavily on society at large. Martjin Katan, a professor of nutrition and health at Amsterdam’s VU University, wrote an accompanying editorial that analyzed the merits of the diet study. He suggests that focusing on individual diet plans of any kind may be misguided, and that only community-wide change will truly be able to stem the tide of obesity. He points to a small town in France that tapped all of its residents to solve the problem – building more outdoor-sports facilities and creating walking routes, hosting cooking classes and even intervening with at-risk families. After five years, obesity among children was down to 8.8%, less than half the rate of neighboring towns. That success, he writes, “suggests that we may need a new approach to preventing and to treating obesity and that it must be a total-environment approach.”

It’s a useful lesson for American adults, two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese. Long-term weight loss has proved frustratingly elusive for many obese individuals, but study after study has shown that community and peer support help people take off weight – and keep it off. In this study, the participants who took advantage of group and individual counseling offered as part of the diets had far greater success than those who chose to go it alone. Over the course of two years, participants who went to at least two-thirds of the counseling sessions dropped about 22 lb., 13 lb. more than the average of the entire study population. “Losing weight and sustaining it for two years is difficult,” Sacks says. “To help people do that, they need some level of support to keep their motivation and focus.”

But the bottom line, according to most obesity experts, is to set realistic goals. Expect what is achievable: a 250-lb. person isn’t likely to slim down to supermodel proportions in her lifetime, but she may be able to lose 10 or 20 lb. A moderate 5% or 10% reduction in body weight can significantly improve health, by lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. For many doctors who work with obese patients, the goal is not thinness but well-being – and, ultimately for the patient, self-acceptance.

As for the secret to losing weight? There is none. “It’s basic physiology,” Loria says. “Eat fewer calories than you expend.”

See 9 kid foods to avoid.

See pictures of what makes you eat more food.

View this article on Time.com

Related articles on Time.com:

• What’s the Best Diet? Eating Less Food
• Do Diet Foods Lead to Weight Gain?
• Which Are Worse: Calories from Carbs or Fat?
• Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat?
• The Myth of Moderate Exercise

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090226/hl_time/08599188179500

Wikio

What’s the Best Diet? Eating Less Food

By TIFFANY SHARPLES Tiffany Sharples Thu Feb 26, 2:15 pm ET

Low fat, low carb, high protein – there’s a diet plan of every flavor. And if you’re one of the millions of Americans who struggle with weight, you’ve probably tried them all, likely with little success. That wouldn’t surprise Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of a new study published in the Feb. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, whose findings confirm what a growing body of weight-loss evidence has already suggested: one diet is no better than the next when it comes to weight loss. It doesn’t matter where your calories come from, as long as you’re eating less. (Read about environmentally friendly food.)

“We have a really simple and practical message for people: it’s not so much the type of diet you eat,” says Sacks. “It’s how much you put in your mouth.”

In the analysis of 811 obese patients from Massachusetts and Louisiana, participants were randomly assigned to one of four heart-healthy diets: low fat or high fat, with either average or high levels of protein. All four regimens also included high amounts of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and substituted saturated fat, found in foods such as butter and meat, with unsaturated fat, found in vegetable oil and nuts. The participants were encouraged to exercise 90 minutes a week. (See the top 10 food trends of 2008.)

On average, the study participants lost about 13 lb. after six months of dieting, or about 7% of their starting weight, regardless of which diet plan they followed. At the one-year mark, the dieters had regained some of the lost weight, and after two years, average weight loss was about 9 lb. Only about 15% of participants were able to lose 10% of their body weight or more. Across the board, however, patients lowered their risk of diabetes and reduced blood levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing good cholesterol (HDL) and overall heart health.

Catherine Loria, one of the study’s co-authors and a nutritional epidemiologist with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, was encouraged by the findings. “People do have to choose heart-healthy foods,” she says, but “I think the beauty of the study is that they have a lot of flexibility in terms of the dietary approach.”

But that’s where the trouble begins. It’s hard enough to figure out what to eat. Eating less of it is even harder. Researchers had hoped to get study participants to eat 750 calories less than they expended each day – an objective that proved unsustainable. Dieters adhered to the initial plan for the first several weeks, but by the six-month mark, they were consuming only 225 calories less than they expended – about a third of the goal – according to a calculation based on overall weight loss. “It’s very difficult to reduce your calories enough to really sustain a lot of weight loss,” Loria says. (See pictures of facial yoga.)

One failure of most diet plans is that people get hungry and quit, says Sacks, who acknowledges that the sudden reduction of 750 calories in his study was perhaps too steep. “I think what that teaches us is that maybe it’s better to make a more gradual change in intake,” says Sacks. “That’s what I recommend to my patients: let’s try to pick a gradual or realistic reduction in calories that’s not going to make you really hungry a lot and that you can sustain day after day.”

But eating less, however simple it may sound, is hardly a one-man job. Some nutrition experts argue that the balance of responsibility needs to fall more heavily on society at large. Martjin Katan, a professor of nutrition and health at Amsterdam’s VU University, wrote an accompanying editorial that analyzed the merits of the diet study. He suggests that focusing on individual diet plans of any kind may be misguided, and that only community-wide change will truly be able to stem the tide of obesity. He points to a small town in France that tapped all of its residents to solve the problem – building more outdoor-sports facilities and creating walking routes, hosting cooking classes and even intervening with at-risk families. After five years, obesity among children was down to 8.8%, less than half the rate of neighboring towns. That success, he writes, “suggests that we may need a new approach to preventing and to treating obesity and that it must be a total-environment approach.”

It’s a useful lesson for American adults, two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese. Long-term weight loss has proved frustratingly elusive for many obese individuals, but study after study has shown that community and peer support help people take off weight – and keep it off. In this study, the participants who took advantage of group and individual counseling offered as part of the diets had far greater success than those who chose to go it alone. Over the course of two years, participants who went to at least two-thirds of the counseling sessions dropped about 22 lb., 13 lb. more than the average of the entire study population. “Losing weight and sustaining it for two years is difficult,” Sacks says. “To help people do that, they need some level of support to keep their motivation and focus.”

But the bottom line, according to most obesity experts, is to set realistic goals. Expect what is achievable: a 250-lb. person isn’t likely to slim down to supermodel proportions in her lifetime, but she may be able to lose 10 or 20 lb. A moderate 5% or 10% reduction in body weight can significantly improve health, by lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. For many doctors who work with obese patients, the goal is not thinness but well-being – and, ultimately for the patient, self-acceptance.

As for the secret to losing weight? There is none. “It’s basic physiology,” Loria says. “Eat fewer calories than you expend.”

See 9 kid foods to avoid.

See pictures of what makes you eat more food.

View this article on Time.com

Related articles on Time.com:

• What’s the Best Diet? Eating Less Food
• Do Diet Foods Lead to Weight Gain?
• Which Are Worse: Calories from Carbs or Fat?
• Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat?
• The Myth of Moderate Exercise

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090226/hl_time/08599188179500

>21 Foods to Boost Your Immune System

>

Live Better

January 10, 2008

billaday on flickr.com

We know stress affects the immune system in a negative way, and many times we hold up during stress only to let down on vacation and get sick.

Use the following food strategies to boost your immune system for any trip:

Add Extra vitamin C to Your Diet

Adding extra vitamin C to your diet two or three days before you leave helps your immune system fight viruses before they make you sick and helps breakdown stress hormones.

It is best to double what you normally do. This can mean taking supplements or by eating the proper foods.

Foods packed with vitamin C include:

• Red bell peppers
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes
• Broccoli
• Citrus
• Sweet potatoes

If you have been taking a vitamin C supplement, double the amount and try to choose a supplement with flavonoids for optimal absorption.

Mine for Minerals

Activate your immunce system with beta glucan-, zinc- and other mineral-rich foods such as:

• Mushrooms
• Barbanzo beans
• Squash
• Deep greens (turnip or beet greens are the best)

Add Color to Your Plate

To help nourish the thymus gland, which is responsible for much of the immune-system function, eat two servings a day of foods rich in carotenes. Foods high in carotenes include colored vegetables and dark greens, such as:

• Yellow and orange squash
• Carrots
• Yams
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Collard greens
• Kale
• Berries
• Garlic

Boost Your Digestive Tract with Bacteria

The live active cultures of friendly bacteria in the following foods boost your digestive-tract health and are very helpful to the immune system:

• Yogurt or Kefir

http://www.coreperformance.com/daily/live-better/21-foods-to-boost-your-immune-system.html

Wikio

21 Foods to Boost Your Immune System

Live Better

January 10, 2008

billaday on flickr.com

We know stress affects the immune system in a negative way, and many times we hold up during stress only to let down on vacation and get sick.

Use the following food strategies to boost your immune system for any trip:

Add Extra vitamin C to Your Diet

Adding extra vitamin C to your diet two or three days before you leave helps your immune system fight viruses before they make you sick and helps breakdown stress hormones.

It is best to double what you normally do. This can mean taking supplements or by eating the proper foods.

Foods packed with vitamin C include:

• Red bell peppers
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes
• Broccoli
• Citrus
• Sweet potatoes

If you have been taking a vitamin C supplement, double the amount and try to choose a supplement with flavonoids for optimal absorption.

Mine for Minerals

Activate your immunce system with beta glucan-, zinc- and other mineral-rich foods such as:

• Mushrooms
• Barbanzo beans
• Squash
• Deep greens (turnip or beet greens are the best)

Add Color to Your Plate

To help nourish the thymus gland, which is responsible for much of the immune-system function, eat two servings a day of foods rich in carotenes. Foods high in carotenes include colored vegetables and dark greens, such as:

• Yellow and orange squash
• Carrots
• Yams
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Collard greens
• Kale
• Berries
• Garlic

Boost Your Digestive Tract with Bacteria

The live active cultures of friendly bacteria in the following foods boost your digestive-tract health and are very helpful to the immune system:

• Yogurt or Kefir

http://www.coreperformance.com/daily/live-better/21-foods-to-boost-your-immune-system.html

Wikio

21 Foods to Boost Your Immune System

Live Better

January 10, 2008

billaday on flickr.com

We know stress affects the immune system in a negative way, and many times we hold up during stress only to let down on vacation and get sick.

Use the following food strategies to boost your immune system for any trip:

Add Extra vitamin C to Your Diet

Adding extra vitamin C to your diet two or three days before you leave helps your immune system fight viruses before they make you sick and helps breakdown stress hormones.

It is best to double what you normally do. This can mean taking supplements or by eating the proper foods.

Foods packed with vitamin C include:

• Red bell peppers
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes
• Broccoli
• Citrus
• Sweet potatoes

If you have been taking a vitamin C supplement, double the amount and try to choose a supplement with flavonoids for optimal absorption.

Mine for Minerals

Activate your immunce system with beta glucan-, zinc- and other mineral-rich foods such as:

• Mushrooms
• Barbanzo beans
• Squash
• Deep greens (turnip or beet greens are the best)

Add Color to Your Plate

To help nourish the thymus gland, which is responsible for much of the immune-system function, eat two servings a day of foods rich in carotenes. Foods high in carotenes include colored vegetables and dark greens, such as:

• Yellow and orange squash
• Carrots
• Yams
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Collard greens
• Kale
• Berries
• Garlic

Boost Your Digestive Tract with Bacteria

The live active cultures of friendly bacteria in the following foods boost your digestive-tract health and are very helpful to the immune system:

• Yogurt or Kefir

http://www.coreperformance.com/daily/live-better/21-foods-to-boost-your-immune-system.html

>Let Protein Power Your Weight Loss

>

David Schipper November 24, 2008

Unhindered by talent on flickr

The heavier you are, the less efficient your body burns fat. That’s why it’s important for overweight individuals to eat protein-packed meals, according to a new Australian study.

The research states that people with higher body fat burn blubber better after consuming high-protein meals than when they skimp on the dietary component. Dr. Marijka Batterham, M.D., the lead researcher, suggests consuming about one third of your calories from protein and another third from carbohydrates.

In the study, which concentrated on breakfast and lunch, the protein-rich meals contained low-fat dairy, lean meat and eggs, along with bread and vegetables as carbohydrate sources.

Experts recommend that people looking to bulk up the protein in their diets choose their sources carefully—passing up bacon and butter in favor of foods like fish, poultry, low-fat dairy, beans, and nuts.

http://www.coreperformance.com/daily/news/let-protein-power-your-weight-loss.html

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