Dieting vs. Exercise for Weight Loss

Dieting vs. Exercise for Weight Loss - Two groundbreaking new studies address the irksome question of why so many of us who work out remain so heavy, a concern that carries special resonance at the moment, as lean Olympians slip through the air and water, inspiring countless viewers to want to become similarly sleek.

And in a just world, frequent physical activity should make us slim. But repeated studies have shown that many people who begin an exercise program lose little or no weight. Some gain.

To better understand why, anthropologists leading one of the new studies began with a research trip to Tanzania. There, they recruited volunteers from the Hadza tribe, whose members still live by hunting and gathering.

Providing these tribespeople with a crash course in modern field-study technology, the researchers fitted them with GPS units, to scrupulously measure how many miles each walked daily while searching for food. They also asked them to swallow so-called doubly labeled water, a liquid in which the normal hydrogen and oxygen molecules have been replaced with versions containing tracers. By studying these elements later in a person’s urine, researchers can precisely determine someone’s energy expenditure and metabolic rate.

The researchers gathered data for 11 days, then calculated the participants’ typical daily physical activity, energy expenditure and resting metabolic rates. They then compared those numbers with the same measures for an average male and female Westerner.

It’s long been believed that a hunter-gatherer lifestyle involves considerable physical activity and therefore burns many calories, far more than are incinerated by your average American office worker each day. And it was true, the scientists determined, that the Hadza people in general moved more than many Americans do, with the men walking about seven miles a day and the women about three.

But it was not true that they were burning far more calories. In fact, the scientists calculated, the Hadza’s average metabolic rate, or the number of calories that they were burning over the course of a day, was about the same as the average metabolic rate for Westerners.

The implication, the scientists concluded, is that “active, ‘traditional’ lifestyles may not protect against obesity if diets change to promote increased caloric consumption.” That is, even active people will pack on pounds if they eat like most of us in the West.

The underlying and rather disheartening message of that finding, of course, is that physical activity by itself is not going to make and keep you thin. (It’s worth noting that the Hadza people were almost uniformly slight.)

The overarching conclusion of that study, which was published last week in the journal PLoS One, is not really new or surprising, says Dr. Timothy Church, who holds the John S. McIlhenny Endowed Chair in Health Wisdom at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana and who has long studied exercise and weight control. “It’s been known for some time that, calorie for calorie, it’s easier to lose weight by dieting than by exercise,” he says.

People stick with low-calorie diets more readily than they continue with exercise to drop pounds.

And another newly published and fascinating review, by Dr. Church and others, goes some way to explaining why. Its main point: As in the Hadza study, human metabolism appears to be less revved by activity than was once believed.

“There’s this expectation that if you exercise, your metabolism won’t drop as you lose weight or will even speed up,” says Diana Thomas, a professor of mathematics at Montclair State University in New Jersey, who led the study.

But she says close mathematical scrutiny of past studies of exercise and weight loss shows that that happy prospect is, sad to say, unfounded. One of the few studies ever to have scrupulously monitored exercise, food intake and metabolic rates found that volunteers’ basal metabolic rates dropped as they lost weight, even though they exercised every day. As a result, although they were burning up to 500 calories during an exercise session, their total daily caloric burn was lower than it would have been had their metabolism remained unchanged, and they lost less weight than had been expected.

The problem for those of us hoping to use exercise to slough off fat is that most current calculations about exercise and weight loss assume that metabolism remains unchanged or is revved by exercise.

So Dr. Thomas has helpfully begun to recalibrate weight loss formulas, taking into account the drop in metabolism. Using her new formulas, she’s working with a group of volunteers at Pennington, providing them with improved predictions about how much weight they can expect to lose from exercise.

The predictions are proving accurate, she says, and although her forecast is for less weight loss than that under the old formula, the volunteers are pleased. “It’s better to meet lower expectations,” she says, “than to be disappointed that you’re not losing what you supposedly should.”

She is perhaps her own best advertisement. In the past few years, she’s shed 70 pounds and, using her formulas for how many calories she’s actually burning each day thanks to a daily walk, has regained none of it. ( nytimes.com )


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Having Your Coffee and Enjoying It Too

Having Your Coffee and Enjoying It Too - A disclaimer: I do not own stock in Starbucks nor, to my knowledge, in any other company that sells coffee or its accouterments. I last wrote about America’s most popular beverage four years ago, and the latest and largest study to date supports that earlier assessment of coffee’s health effects.

Although the new research, which involved more than 400,000 people in a 14-year observational study, still cannot prove cause and effect, the findings are consistent with other recent large studies.

The findings were widely reported, but here’s the bottom line: When smoking and many other factors known to influence health and longevity were taken into account, coffee drinkers in the study were found to be living somewhat longer than abstainers. Further, the more coffee consumed each day — up to a point, at least — the greater the benefit to longevity.

The observed benefit of coffee drinking was not enormous — a death rate among coffee drinkers that was 10 percent to 15 percent lower than among abstainers. But the findings are certainly reassuring, and given how many Americans drink coffee, the numbers of lives affected may be quite large.

Updating the Evidence

In decades past, experts repeatedly warned that a coffee habit could harm health and shorten lives. And, indeed, the new study did find that when the data were adjusted only for age, the risk of death was greater among coffee drinkers.

But when the researchers took into account other health-related characteristics among the participants, like smoking, alcohol use, meat consumption, physical activity and body mass index, those who regularly drank coffee lived longer.

“Coffee drinkers shouldn’t be worried,” said Neal Freedman, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute who directed the study. “Their risk is quite similar to that of nondrinkers.”

Coffee drinkers who were relatively healthy when the study began were less likely than nondrinkers to die of heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, infections, injuries and accidents.

The study, published in May in The New England Journal of Medicine, examined data on 402,260 adults in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. They were ages 50 to 71 and free of heart disease, cancer and stroke when the study began in 1995. By 2008, 52,515 had died. Dr. Freedman and his co-authors examined why they died in relation to how much coffee they said they drank when the study began.

The risk of death gradually dropped as the number of cups the participants drank increased to four or five. At six cups or more each day, there was a slight rise in death risk, compared with that at four or five cups. But the chances of death remained lower than among people who drank no coffee.

Reflecting practices of the mid-1990s, the researchers considered a cup of coffee to be 8 to 10 ounces. The gargantuan cups now often served would count as more than one cup, Dr. Freedman said. Several of these extra-large cups can cause restlessness, irritability, sleeplessness and anxiety (and might enable me to fly without an airplane).

Contrary to previous belief, at usual levels of consumption, coffee is not any more of a diuretic than the equivalent amount of water. Up to six cups a day can be counted toward one’s recommended liquid intake.

Effects on Health

Coffee is a complex substance that contains more than 1,000 compounds that may affect health. Caffeine, a stimulant, is the most studied and sought after. The amounts in coffee can vary greatly, from about 70 milligrams in a shot of espresso to about 100 milligrams in eight ounces of brewed coffee.

But there can be wide variability in caffeine levels, even in similar beverages. As Jane V. Higdon and Balz Frei of Oregon State University reported in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, when the same type of coffee was purchased from the same store on six different days, the caffeine content varied from 130 milligrams to 282 milligrams in an eight-ounce cup.

Nor is caffeine is the only compound in coffee important to health. In the new study, little or no difference was found in death rates among those who drank predominantly caffeinated coffee or decaffeinated coffee. Other substances — like antioxidants and polyphenols — probably also play a health-related role, the researchers noted.

Their findings should reassure people concerned about possible harm from substances long used to remove caffeine from coffee. Fear of these chemicals prompted many manufacturers to switch to the Swiss water method for removing caffeine.

But how coffee is brewed can make a health difference. Two prominent chemicals in coffee beans, cafestol and kahweol, are known to raise blood levels of cholesterol and especially artery-damaging LDL cholesterol. These substances are removed when coffee is prepared through a filter, but remain in espresso, French press and boiled coffee. Single-serving coffee pods, like those used in a Keurig, contain filters.

Even though coffee can cause a temporary rise in blood pressure, the new study, like those before it, found the risk of heart disease to be lower among otherwise healthy coffee drinkers. Other benefits suggested by recent studies include a reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes, liver disease and Parkinson’s disease. Some research has found a reduced risk of depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease among coffee drinkers.

People who engage in strenuous physical activities can also benefit, but only if their coffee contains caffeine, which helps muscles use fatty acids for energy and blunts the effect of adenosine, extending the time before muscles fatigue. Post-exercise soreness is also reduced and recovery time shortened.

Whether coffee poses a risk to pregnant women remains controversial. A causal relationship between coffee consumption and miscarriage has not been demonstrated at caffeine intakes of less than 300 milligrams a day, but some studies have found increased risk of low birth weight associated with consuming more than 150 milligrams a day.

Keep in mind, too, that caffeine is a drug. Some medications, including Tagamet, Diflucan, Luvox, Mexitil, estrogens and antibiotics like Cipro and Levaquin, interfere with the metabolism of caffeine and can increase its effects.

In other cases, caffeine can enhance the effect of drugs like aspirin and acetaminophen (a benefit for pain relief). Caffeine can be toxic if used with prescribed doses of the antipsychotic medication clozapine. ( nytimes.com )

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The hair diet: A glass of bitter and a juicy steak - the surprising menu for achieving shiny Kate Middleton-style locks

The hair diet: A glass of bitter and a juicy steak - the surprising menu for achieving shiny Kate Middleton-style locks - Achieving shiny Kate Middleton-style hair, if you believe what the TV adverts tell you, is as simple as switching your brand of shampoo. But we all know it’s not quite as easy as that.

Just as your skin and eyes lose their lustre after a stressful week or a few sleepless nights, so your hair is hugely affected by your diet and lifestyle.

Although the hair that grows out of your head is dead, the living part of the hair — the follicle — is very much alive.

Lush locks: A full, shiny mane like the Duchess of Cambridge's can be achieved through a good diet

These tiny hair-making organs operate deep inside the skin. They are surrounded by blood vessels that bathe them in nutrients and help them produce a substance called keratin. Eventually, all that keratin gets pushed out of the follicle, through an opening in the scalp, forming a strand of hair.

If you’re not eating a balanced diet — and not supplying the follicles with the nutrients they need — your hair will pay the price. It will become finer and lighter in colour, and the cuticle (the outermost layer of each hair) will fray more easily, so the hair becomes rough in texture and more prone to split ends.

As a dermatologist, I know dietary deficiencies and imbalances can affect the health of your hair before you see it and I can tell you which foods to eat to help it grow strong, shiny and healthy.

Don’t worry about buying organic all the time, but try to choose organic fruit and vegetables (particularly those you don’t peel — apples, grapes, peaches, lettuce and tomatoes), as pesticides used on normal varieties may remain on the fruit’s skin and can limit the goodness you are putting into your hair.

It is also worth paying extra for organic meat and dairy to avoid the hormones and antibiotics used in large-scale farming which your body can absorb. Fluctuating hormone levels (even on a small scale) can leave hair dull and lifeless.

STRENGTHEN YOUR HAIR

Eat more foods that are high in an amino acid called cysteine. These include pork, poultry, eggs, red peppers, garlic, onions, Brussels sprouts, dairy products, oats and broccoli.

Cysteine is the main amino acid that forms keratin. It is also a good idea to boost your intake of a natural substance called silicon, which has been shown to be essential for stronger hair, nails and bones.

Strengthen your hair further by eating wholegrains, green beans, spinach, lentils, and the occasional glass of bitter (which contains more silicon than lager).

MAKE IT THICKER

Make sure you eat enough iron and zinc (both are found in red meat such as beef or lamb, as well as lentils, kidney beans, pork, turkey and spinach).

Zinc is essential for keratin production and people with low levels of zinc may have fine, weak or brittle hair or even lose their hair altogether.

Super food: Eating more vegetables like broccoli can strengthen your hair

Meanwhile, anaemia as a result of iron deficiency is one of the most common causes of thinning hair, particularly in women. Studies show that as many as 25 per cent of pre-menopausal women become iron deficient.

Aim to make lean red meat your main course twice a week and incorporate other zinc or iron-rich foods into your diet daily.

It’s a good idea to avoid over-eating large sea fish, because although fish is an important source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids, some can contain high levels of mercury, which leads to hair loss.

BANISH THOSE GREY HAIRS

If you’re worried about greys, the answer could be as simple as eating a handful of almonds every day.

Recent research shows hair follicles don’t actually stop producing melanin (the pigment that colours hair) with age as we thought, but instead lose the ability to keep the pigment they do make.

BAD HAIR DAYS

Only seven per cent of women love their hair, according to a recent Dove survey

However almonds boost the body’s ability to produce the enzyme catalase, which maintains your natural hair colour for longer. In a recent study, people who ate three ounces of almonds a day for four weeks ended up with nearly 10  per cent more catalase in their blood than those on a normal diet.

A selection of brightly coloured fruit and vegetables can also help to slow the process, as the antioxidants fight free radicals, which damage pigment-producing cells. Berries, tomatoes, asparagus, spinach, pumpkins and peppers are the richest in colour-boosting vitamins.

Because it takes months for each hair to grow to full length, even a hugely improved diet can’t promise an instant transformation, but rest assured the goodness will be working away at your roots.

By taking care of your hair as it grows and protecting it from the sun and harsh styling, you should be on course for beautiful, shiny hair by summer. ( Dailymail.co.uk )

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Slip, slop or scare tactic?

Slip, slop or scare tactic? - Has the sun smart message gone too far? A number of scientists say yes.

Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. In fact, two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the time they are 70. In response to these alarming figures, The Cancer Council put the spotlight on skin cancer with the slip, slop, slap and sun smart campaigns run over the past few decades.

But, the flip side of slip, slop, slap (and wrap) is that Vitamin D deficiency is increasingly common in Australia and contributes to serious illness.

Slip, slop, slap ... are we out of date? Photo: iStockphoto

With one in three Aussies now insufficient in Vitamin D scientists are calling for a review of the sun smart message, saying there is a dangerous dark side to staying out of the sun.

"The negative publicity regarding sun exposure during the past 30 years has resulted in a vitamin D deficiency pandemic," says Dr Michael Hollick author of The Vitamin D Solution.

Biochemist and author Lyle MacWilliam, who was recently in Australia to talk at a Health Sciences convention, agrees. He expressed serious concern at the current vitamin D recommendations in Australia and says that they are "seriously out of date."

"I respectfully submit that the governments of Australia and New Zealand have been remiss in keeping abreast of the emergent science on vitamin D and disease prevention," he says.

"In light of emergent research ... both Canada and the United States have recently moved to increase the recommended daily intake (RDI) for vitamin D to 600 IU per day - a level most experts contend is still too low. In contrast ... the RDI for Australia and New Zealand has not budged an inch. It remains at a miniscule 200 IU per day - a level far too low to provide any serious amount of protection."

It is widely known that Vitamin D helps to prevent brittle bones. But, it also improves immunity, susceptibility to infection and helps to ward off depression. In addition to this, recent studies suggest vitamin D can help to prevent cancer.

A four-year, double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial found that post-menopausal women who supplemented with 1,100 IU/day of vitamin D and 1,500 mg/day of calcium reduced their risk of dying from all cancers by more than 66 per cent.

"Vitamin D could be the single most effective means of preventing cancer - even outpacing the benefits of a healthy lifestyle," MacWilliam says.

Similarly, Dr Hollick says: "If you had to choose a single nutrient that would help you ward off heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, dementia, influenza, bacterial infec­tions, depression, insomnia, muscle weakness, fibromyalgia, osteomalacia, osteo­ar­thri­tis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, and hypertension, it would be vitamin D."

To obtain sufficient blood levels of vitamin D, MacWilliam says it needs to come from sunlight. "You cannot obtain sufficient vitamin D through the diet - that is unless you are prepared to consume 3 or 4 tins of sardines or eat 50 to 100 eggs each day," he says.

While he recommends vitamin D supplementation (particularly during winter months when the sun isn't as strong) he says it is best absorbed through sunshine and people need around 10-20 minutes of regular unprotected full-body exposure when the sun is high in the sky (late morning or early afternoon). Only after this time should we be slapping and wrapping.

Contrarily, the Cancer Council currently says most people can get sufficient vitamin D from "a few minutes of exposure to sunlight on [your] face, arms and hands or the equivalent area of skin on either side of the peak UV periods (10am to 3pm)"

The stark difference between the two recommendations is not lost on Ian Olver, chief executive of Cancer Council Australia.

"My basic comment is this: when there are large differences between American and Australian government [regulations] it suggests we're not dealing with a black and white situation," he says. "If it was then we'd be doing the same thing."

Olver says that the grey area reflects different countries’ interpretations of current data.

"We need to do more research to [determine] the accuracy of measurement of vitamin D, what the levels should be and precisely how much and the intensity of sunlight you need."

Having said this, he does agree that it is a tricky topic to tackle.

"Our concern is if you tell people [to go out in the sun] - and we don't want people vitamin D deficient, you do need sunlight - it's still a grey area of how much.

"Is it ten or fifteen minutes? The data isn't definitive. What is definitive is the number of people who get skin cancer and die."

Currently, over 1800 people in Australia die of skin cancer each year and skin cancers account for 80 per cent of all newly diagnosed cancers.

It is for this reason Olver says he is wary of "diluting the sun smart message especially in summer".

He notes that a lot of people still get sunburnt regularly and says that the amount you need is variable depending on the colour of your skin and where in Australia you live.

"The angle of the sun and [intensity] is different even between Queensland and Tasmania," he says.

For the time being the science and scientists remain divided.

"We're keen to keep looking at the literature and refining the message," he says. "Until the literature is strong enough that we find where the balance point is, I don't think making extreme statements on either side is helpful." ( watoday.com.au )

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13 Things Diet Experts Won't Tell You About Weight Loss

13 Things Diet Experts Won't Tell You About Weight Loss - "Good Morning America" is teaming up with Reader's Digest on a special series, "13 Things Experts Won't Tell You." This month, Reader's Digest unveils the secrets to weight loss, as outlined in the new book, "The Digest Diet," a new, healthy-living plan that lists foods, exercises, and lifestyle tips that help you release fat fast.

1. You have to eat fat to beat fat.

While too much of the wrong fat (certain saturated fats in highly processed meats and trans fat found in some cookies and crackers) is bad for your health and waistline, a diet rich in the right fat -- good unsaturated fats -- can help both.

Good fats, like monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) in olive oil, nuts, and avocados have proven to be powerful reducers of belly fat. Other sources of good fat are the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs); found in fish and its oil, and in many nuts and seeds, PUFAs help release fat, too. A Dutch study found that consumption of PUFAs lead to a higher resting metabolic rate (the calories used just to live), as well as a greater DIT, or diet-induced calorie burn. PUFAs are also burned faster than saturated fats in the body.

What's more, fats help you feel full—they have 9 calories per gram compared to 4 for protein or carbs. So a small nibble of something yummy, like a handful of nuts or some peanut butter on whole wheat crackers, can help you feel full for hours.

2. A daily dose of chocolate can trim your waistline.

If you're like us, you welcome any new excuse to add more chocolate into your life. To release fat, here's the trick: Go heavy on the cocoa and light on sugar. Cocoa contains more antioxidants than most foods and is good for so many things, including -- when consumed in moderation -- weight loss.

In a June 2011 study from the Journal of Nutrition, researchers looked at the effect that antioxidants found in cocoa had on obese diabetic mice. (Since a diabetic's lifespan is, on average, seven years shorter, they were looking for any antiaging promise that increasing dietary intake of this flavonoid might give.) Their findings: The mice lived longer. The cocoa reduced degeneration of their aortic arteries, and it blunted fat deposition.

To add more cocoa into your diet, buy unsweetened cocoa and add it to shakes, coffee, and other recipes.

3. Dairy promotes weight loss.

Unfortunately some myths persist that dairy sabotages weight loss, but science proves this couldn't be further from the truth. Research shows that those who have deficiencies in calcium hold a greater fat mass and experience less control of their appetite. What's more, studies have found that dairy sources of calcium -- like yogurt, low- or nonfat cheese, and milk -- are markedly more effective in accelerating fat loss than other sources.

In one study out of the University of Tennessee, researchers showed that eating three servings of dairy daily significantly reduced body fat in obese subjects. If they restricted calories a bit while continuing with the same dairy servings, it accelerated fat and weight loss.

4. Losing weight early and fast is best.

Besides giving you a great psychological boost right out of the gate, losing weight quickly may also help you keep it off longer. To those of us who are used to hearing that slow and steady wins the race, this news is a little shocking and counterintuitive.

In a 2010 University of Florida study, when researchers analyzed data on 262 middle-aged women who were struggling with obesity, they demonstrated that shedding weight fast lead to larger overall weight loss and longer-term success in keeping it off.

5. Exercise alone is not an effective weight loss tool -- you have to pair it with the right diet.

Thinking you can eat whatever you want as long as you work it off later is actually a pretty dangerous mind-set, particularly if you look at the current research. Exercise alone leads to a very modest decrease in total body weight: less than 3 percent!

I learned this lesson the hard way. From 1998 to 2006, I was the executive editor of Fitness magazine. Studying the fitness research and trying the trends were all part of my job. For years, I believed that I could eat anything I wanted because I was exercising so much. But the more I exercised, the hungrier I was. And the more I ate, the more I needed to exercise to maintain a healthy weight. Here's what happened: I saw a steady increase in my body weight of a pound a year.

6. The difference between being overweight and a healthy weight may boil down to one move: fidgeting.

Research shows that people who are naturally lean—you know the sort: They seem to eat all day, whatever they want, and never gain a pound or an inch—automatically, even subconsciously, find ways to move to make up for any extra calories they may be ingesting.

Believe it or not, spontaneous physical activity (SPA) like fidgeting, bending, brushing your hair, doing dishes, etc. can burn 350 or more calories a day, according to Mayo Clinic research.

7. Ditch the long cardio sessions. The best way to burn fat is with interval training.

Nod your head if you do the same workout over and over. You just hit that treadmill, elliptical, or jogging path and you put in your time. Unfortunately, this exercise strategy can actually backfire when it comes to weight loss and fat burning.

Aerobic exercise demands that you increase your energy output. Because our body is always trying to stay in balance, this type of movement may actually act as a biological cue to make you eat more, which can sabotage weight-loss efforts.

Besides that, research shows that continuous aerobic exercise isn't nearly as effective a weight-control strategy as surprising your body with aerobic interval training (short bursts of heart-pounding work, also known as HIIT, or high intensity interval training) or strength training (push-ups, squats, anything that builds muscle and power).

8. TV time is OK -- but make it a sitcom.

We're not recommending you ditch your exercise routine and sit on your couch popping handfuls of chips. But TV isn't the weight loss devil that many experts make it out to be, particularly if you use it to make you smile and laugh.

Here's why: Stress takes an enormous toll on your health (research shows it can increase belly fat and slow down weight loss), and laughing is the perfect stress-relieving, fat releasing antidote.

What's more, it's a pretty potent calorie burner in its' own right. When British researchers looked into the number of calories burned by intense laughing and compared it to the calorie burn of other daily activities (strength training, running, even vacuuming), they found that an hour of intense laughter can burn as many calories—up to 120—as a half hour hitting it hard at the gym!

9. The real reason you're craving junk food? You're thinking too hard!

If you're like many office workers, your desk job gives you a double fat increasing whammy: Not only are you sitting, inactive, at a desk for most of the day, but this type of mental, knowledge-based work actually makes it more difficult to control appetite and may make us eat more calories and fat.

Research suggests that because brain neurons rely almost exclusively on glucose as fuel, intense mental work leads to unstable glucose levels. Since the work requires glucose for maximum brainpower -- well, we naturally reach for more fuel.

To outsmart this fat increaser, it's important to fuel up on hunger-fighting foods high in filling fiber, protein and calcium. So the next time you feel that hunger pang, reach for a fat-free Greek yogurt or baby carrots with a tablespoon of peanut butter instead of a bag of chips.

10. A glass of wine a day is an effective fat releaser!

So many people have asked me if it's okay to have a drink when trying to lose weight. Good news: Many studies clearly show that a small glass of red wine a day is good for your health. Now numerous animal studies are highlighting its great promise as a fat releaser.

In one large study of more than 19,000 middle-aged women of normal weight, those who were light to moderate drinkers had less weight gain and less risk of becoming overweight than those who drank no alcohol. And in another separate animal study done in 2006, the researchers found that resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant found in red wine, improved exercise endurance as well as protected against diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.

11. All sugar isn't evil when it comes to weight loss.

It's no secret that America has a sugar problem: According to the American Heart Association, we eat 22 teaspoons a day on average. (They recommend six for women and nine for men.) While cutting back on sugar consumption all around is a smart, healthy move, you should also consider swapping some of your sugar for honey.

Honey has also shown great promise in animal studies for reducing weight gain and adiposity (fatness) when substituted for sugar. It's a nutritious fat releasing alternative that also boasts antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. It may improve blood sugar control, is a great cough suppressant, and it boosts immunity.

12. Skimping on sleep can negate your calorie cutting.

How long you sleep directly affects your body mass. One study found that dieters who got 8 1/2 hours of sleep nightly lost 56 percent more body fat than they did when eating the same diet but got just 51/2 hours of sleep a night. Other Columbia University research revealed that people may eat 300 extra calories a day when they get a few hours less sleep than usual.

Sleep deprivation interferes with the hormones leptin and ghrelin that regulate appetite. That means you'll feel hungrier and are more likely to indulge in poorer eating behaviors. Also, you may look for more energy in the form of unhealthy snacks!

13. Your secret weight loss weapon may be a good HEPA air filter.

More and more research reveals that the toxins, chemicals, and compounds riddling our food supply and self-care products are contributing to the nation's collective fat creep.

And air pollution is a particularly bad fat increaser: A 2011 study from the College of Public Health at Ohio State University found just that: Exposure to fine particulate matter (air pollution) induced insulin resistance, reduced glucose tolerance, and increased inflammation, leading researchers to mark long-term exposure to air pollution as a risk factor for diabetes. And as we know, diabetes and obesity are close cousins (80 to 85 percent of those diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are obese). ( Good Morning America )

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Everything you know about dieting is wrong

Everything you know about dieting is wrong, say US scientists who have devised a new formula for calculating calories and weight loss that they hope will revolutionize the way people tackle obesity.

Obesity rates have doubled worldwide in the past 30 years, coinciding with a growing food surplus, and the ensuing epidemic has sparked a multibillion dollar weight loss industry that has largely failed to curb the problem.

Everything you know about dieting is wrong: US scientists

Current standards in the United States, where two thirds of people are overweight or obese, advise people that cutting calories by a certain amount will result in a slow and steady weight loss over time.

But that advice fails to account for how the body changes as it slims down, burning less energy and acquiring a slower metabolism, researchers told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.

The result is a plateau effect that ends up discouraging dieters and sending them back into harmful patterns of overeating.

As an example, researcher Kevin Hall offered up his large vanilla latte, purchased at a popular coffee shop. When he asked, the barista told him it contained about 240 calories.

"The notion was if I drank one of these every day and then I replaced it with just black coffee no sugar, then over the course of a year I should lose about 25 pounds, and that should just keep going," Hall told reporters.

"People have used this sort of rule of thumb to predict how much people should lose for decades now, and it turns out to be completely wrong."

Hall, a scientist with the US National Institutes of Health, said his work aims to "come up with better rules and better predictions of what is going to happen when an individual changes their diet."

He and colleagues said their scientific model is aimed to help doctors and policymakers, while a "back-of-the-envelope calculation" for consumers means cutting small amounts of daily calories, but expecting to cut more over time.

"If I want to lose 10 pounds of weight eventually, I have to cut 100 calories per day out of my diet," Hall explained.

"You'll get halfway there in about a year, and then you will eventually plateau, (reaching the goal) after about three years," he added.

"For folks abroad that works out to about 100 kilojoules per day per kilogram. The contrast is the old rule of thumb predicts twice as much weight loss after a year, and it gets worse after that."

The new model gives dieters one calorie goal for short term weight loss and another for permanent weight loss. Exercise is also calculated in to help set realistic goals.

Tests on small numbers of adults who were fed strictly controlled diets showed the model was accurate, though real-life situations are harder to predict.

Study co-author Carson Chow, also with NIH, said the daily calorie cut needed for weight loss was actually smaller than researchers anticipated.

"It is essentially one cookie different a day, so a 150 calorie cookie leads to a seven kilogram (15 pound) difference in weight. That is huge in my opinion," Chow said.

Their model was first published in The Lancet in August 2011, and a link is available at http://bwsimulator.niddk.nih.gov.

"People can plug in some information about their initial age, their height, their weight, some estimate of their physical activity level," Hall said.

Add in a goal weight and the "model will simulate what changes of diet or exercise that person would have to do to achieve that goal weight, and then even more importantly what they need to do permanently maintain that weight loss."

Since The Lancet article appeared, the notion has not exactly taken the world by storm, in part because it's not primed for public use, but is mainly aimed at doctors and researchers with adult American patients for now.

Also, if a dieter enters an extreme weight goal, the number of calories the model returns may be much too low to be realistic or healthy, so it needs an expert's interpretation.

"It's not particularly user friendly... but it is still relatively informative," said Hall, who maintains hope that some day his message will be heard.

"There is a lot of inertia behind these old rules of thumb," he said, adding that he was heartened by an editorial in December in the journal of the American Dietetic Association that commented on the idea of a weight loss plateau and mentioned the new simulator.

"It's going to take some time to get the public and the professional community aware that there is a new way of doing things, and we actually have some tools that weren't available before." ( AFP )

READ MORE - Everything you know about dieting is wrong

Nine Strategies for Lasting Weight Loss

Nine Strategies for Lasting Weight Loss - Though there's enough dieting advice out there to fill a dozen refrigerators, modest goals and a slow course will increase your chances of losing weight and keeping it off. So be extra wary of programs that offer quick weight-loss solutions.

If you are serious about losing weight, aim to change habits, not deprive yourself by slashing calories. Physical activity, sensible eating, and a realistic, committed approach to lifestyle change are all critical components of long-term success.

Ready to begin your journey? Start with these 9 tips:

Set realistic goals

Though you may want to see your weight plummet 4 to 5 pounds a week, experts advise a weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week. It may take longer to reach your goal that way, but the weight you lose is much more likely to stay off. Setting modest goals you know you can reach, like losing 5 to 10 percent of your current body weight, will benefit your health. Also, once you achieve your first goal, you will have more confidence. Then you can create a new goal for further weight loss if you need to.

Seek emotional support.

Losing weight takes time, commitment, and resolve. Don't go it alone. Seek support when needed from your partner, family, and friends. Ideally, look for people who will listen to your concerns, make the effort to understand your feelings, spend time exercising with you, and share the priority you've placed on creating a healthier lifestyle.

Maintain a sensible calorie intake and regular meal pattern.

Eating too few calories can be as much of a problem as eating too many. One result is constant hunger. Also, drastic calorie reductions only serve to decrease important muscle tissue, thereby lowering your metabolism. This approach almost always backfires. If it's the one you choose, you'll likely find yourself raiding the kitchen in the late afternoon or evening. On an 1,800-calorie meal plan, for instance, you should aim to have 300 to 500 calories at your meals. This leaves room for 2 snacks of 100 to 200 calories in between. Eat every 3 to 4 hours to keep hunger at bay.

Combine food groups for best blood sugar control.

Eating some protein and small amounts of fat along with wholesome carbs can help keep you feeling satisfied and away from the cookie jar. Examples might include:

• One or two eggs with a whole-grain English muffin
• Salad with tuna and a little olive oil
• Hearty bean soup
• Oatmeal with a handful of walnuts
• Low-fat cottage cheese with almonds and sliced fruit

Eat high-fiber foods that are wholesome and satisfying.

High-fiber foods will keep you full without breaking your calorie budget. Eat bean soups, lots of cooked vegetables, salads, and whole grains, such as brown rice, barley, and whole-grain breads and cereals. Also, include some healthy fat in your meal plan, such as you get from avocado, nuts, or olive oil.

Consider the scale.

Studies show that most long-time "losers" get in the habit of weighing daily or weekly. Stepping on the scale each day can help you catch a weight gain slip before it gets out of control. Just don't be an emotional slave to the scale. Keep in mind that weight can fluctuate daily because of fluids or hormones.

Keep a food journal.

Keeping track of your daily eating habits is another way to stay on track. It also allows you to solve problems with eating that arise. Start by writing down everything that you eat and drink for at least 3 days. Also, include the time you eat it and any special circumstances that might seem relevant. Little things can add up. Are you drinking some calories that you are not aware of? Picking at leftovers? Going long periods without eating? Do you eat most of your calories in the latter part of the day? Are you getting enough healthy fat and protein? Are your carbohydrates coming from wholesome sources or are they refined, such as you get when you eat a lot of white bread and pastas instead of fresh vegetables and whole-grain foods?

Be positive.

Don't approach losing weight with a diet mentality. You are changing your eating habits for health, weight control, and quality of life. Feeding your body nutritious food is truly a gift you are giving yourself.

Exercise.

If you want to trim down, you will need regular exercise most days of the week. Walk briskly, swim, bike - work up to anything that will get your body moving for at least 30 to 60 minutes a day. Plus, working with light weights at least twice a week can help keep your muscles from wasting and your bones from shrinking. Always check first with your doctor before you increase your activity level.

Losing weight isn't just a matter of looking good. It's also about staying healthy. Carrying extra pounds puts you at risk for developing many diseases, especially heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer ( myoptumhealth.com )

READ MORE - Nine Strategies for Lasting Weight Loss

Ten Ways to Rev Up Your Metabolism

Ten Ways to Rev Up Your Metabolism - Even before you start exercising, you can use plenty of tricks to eliminate visceral fat, improve your flab-burning metabolic process, and start losing weight fast.

1. Don’t Diet!

The Men’s Health Diet isn’t about eating less, it’s about eating more—more nutrition-dense food, to crowd out the empty calories and keep you full all day. That’s important, because restricting food will kill your metabolism. It makes your body think, “I’m starving here!” And your body responds by slowing your metabolic rate in order to hold on to existing energy stores. What’s worse, if the food shortage (meaning your crash diet) continues, you’ll begin burning muscle tissue, which just gives your enemy, visceral fat, a greater advantage. Your metabolism drops even more, and fat goes on to claim even more territory.

2. Go to Bed Earlier

A study in Finland looked at sets of identical twins and discovered that of each set of siblings, the twin who slept less and was under more stress had more visceral fat.

3. Eat More Protein

Your body needs protein to maintain lean muscle. In a 2006 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “The Underappreciated Role of Muscle in Health and Disease,” researchers argued that the present recommended daily allowance of protein, 0.36 grams per pound of body weight, was established using obsolete data and is woefully inadequate for an individual doing resistance training. Researchers now recommend an amount between 0.8 and one gram per pound of body weight. Add a serving, like three ounces of lean meat, two tablespoons of nuts, or eight ounces of low-fat yogurt, to every meal and snack. Plus, research showed that protein can up post-meal calorie burn by as much as 35 percent.

4. Go Organic When You Can

Canadian researchers reported that dieters with the most organochlorines (pollutants from pesticides, which are stored in fat cells) experienced a greater than normal dip in metabolism as they lost weight, perhaps because the toxins interfere with the energy-burning process. In other words, pesticides make it harder to lose pounds. Other research hints that pesticides can trigger weight gain. Of course, it’s not always easy to find—or to afford—a whole bunch of organic produce. So you need to know when organic counts, and when it’s not that important. Organic onions, avocados, grapefruit? Not necessary. But choose organic when buying celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale or collard greens, cherries, potatoes, and imported grapes; they tend to have the highest levels of pesticides. A simple rule of thumb: If you can eat the skin, go organic.

5. Get Up, Stand Up

Whether you sit or stand at work may play as big a role in your health and your waistline as your fitness routine. In one study researchers discovered that inactivity (four hours or more) causes a near shutdown in an enzyme that controls fat and cholesterol metabolism. To keep this enzyme active and increase your fat burning, break up long periods of downtime by standing up—for example, while talking on the phone.

6. Drink Cold Water

German researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day (that’s 48 ounces) can raise resting metabolism by about 50 calories daily—enough to shed five pounds in a year. The increase may come from the work it takes to heat the water to body temperature. Though the extra calories you burn drinking a single glass don’t amount to much, making it a habit can add up to pounds lost with essentially zero additional effort.

7. Eat the Heat

It turns out that capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their mouth-searing quality, can also fire up your metabolism. Eating about one tablespoon of chopped red or green chilies boosts your body’s production of heat and the activity of your sympathetic nervous system (responsible for our fight-or-flight response), according to a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology. The result: a temporary metabolism spike of about 23 percent. Stock up on chilies to add to meals, and keep a jar of red pepper flakes on hand for topping pizzas, pastas, and stir-fries.

8. Rev Up in the Morning

Eating breakfast jump-starts metabolism and keeps energy high all day. It’s no accident that those who skip this meal are 4 1/2 times as likely to be obese. And the heartier your first meal is, the better. In one study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology, volunteers who got 22 to 55 percent of their total calories at breakfast gained only 1.7 pounds on average over four years. Those who ate zero to 11 percent of their calories in the morning gained nearly 3 pounds.

9. Drink Coffee or Tea

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, so your daily java jolt can rev your metabolism 5 to 8 percent—about 98 to 174 calories a day. A cup of brewed tea can raise your metabolism by 12 percent, according to one Japanese study. Researchers believe the antioxidant catechins in tea provide the boost.

10. Fight Fat With Fiber

Fiber can rev your fat burn by as much as 30 percent. Studies find that those who eat the most fiber gain the least weight over time. Aim for about 25 grams a day—the amount in about three servings each of fruits and vegetables. ( foxnews.com )

READ MORE - Ten Ways to Rev Up Your Metabolism

Eat clean, get lean

Eat clean, get lean - You won’t get a flat tummy with exercise alone. Cutting out toxic foods and sticking to a clean, natural, healthy diet are vital ingredients

Some of you may be familiar with my first book, Clean & Lean Diet, which was serialised in YOU last year. In it I explained that a ‘clean’ body is one that can deal effectively with everyday toxins and get rid of them successfully. A body can never be lean unless it’s clean, and toxins stop that happening. That’s because your body stores toxins in its fat cells. If you’re dieting, but toxic, your body will slowly lose fat, but these toxins will have nowhere to go other than back into your system. The result? You’ll feel tired, you’ll have headaches and you’ll struggle with your energy levels. This is why most of us feel rotten within a few days of starting a diet. Your body decides that it doesn’t like feeling that way, so it holds on to fat in order to store the toxins. So if you’re toxic, you’ll always find it hard to lose weight.

In my 14-day tummy-toning diet, I have simply adapted the clean and lean approach to an area of the body that thousands of women from all over the world have asked me to help them with. They want to know how to get a flat tummy fast and keep it that way. Ironically, many diets actually make us more toxic with all their low-fat/high-sugar foods, so the cycle of yo-yo dieting continues.

If you stick to ‘clean’ foods – meaning toxin-free foods that are unprocessed and close to their natural state – then you’ll lose weight easily and keep it off. So what are the clean foods that you should be eating? In a nutshell…

• They haven’t changed much from their natural state. For example, an orange in a bowl looks like an orange hanging on a tree, whereas a crisp looks nothing like a potato.
  
• They won’t need any added fake flavourings.
  
• They don’t last for months and months – clean foods will go off in the fridge or cupboard after a short while as they don’t contain preservatives.
  
• They don’t contain more than five or six ingredients.
  
• They don’t contain ingredients that you can’t pronounce or that you don’t recognise.
  
• They don’t list sugar as their main ingredient (or as one of their first three).
  
• They don’t make you feel bloated, gassy or too full.

SAY NO TO TOXINS

The four main toxins that cause our bodies to cling to fat are caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol and processed foods, and their initials spell c-r-a-p. So what I say is, ‘Cut the crap!’

• CAFFEINE

This is OK in small doses. A cup of coffee a day won’t do you much harm, and some studies suggest that it can even help with fat burning. The same goes for tea. Green tea – which also contains caffeine – is an even better fat burner, and I let my clients drink up to six cups a day (not in the evening, though, as it can stop you sleeping). The trouble with caffeine is that too much of it causes stress to your body. And too much stress dumps a ring of fat around your middle.

• REFINED SUGAR

Sugary foods raise your insulin level, which causes fat storage. Studies show that 40 per cent of the sugar you eat is converted straight to fat, and that’s in a slim person; if you’re already overweight, up to 60 per cent is converted straight to fat and stored around your stomach, waist and hips. If you eat sugar every day, you’ll always find it a struggle to lose weight and you’ll never have a flat tummy.Sugar also leaches vitamins from your body, and a body starved of vitamins becomes hungry. That’s why overweight people are always hungry – they don’t eat enough vitamin-rich food and are actually malnourished. Toxic foods such as sugar will never satisfy you or fill you up. Plus, sugar makes you tired, lowers libido and weakens the immune system.

Refined sugar is found in the white sugar you put in your tea, as well as the following:

• fruit drinks
  
• white, non-organic pasta, bread and rice
  
• alcohol
  
• cakes, sweets, biscuits, ice cream
  
• foods marketed as ‘low fat’, including cereal bars and energy drinks
  
• any ingredient ending in ‘ose’, such as sucrose, glucose, maltose, lactose, dextrose and fructose
  
• also avoid foods containing artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin and aspartame.
  

• ALCOHOL

Alcohol is full of sugar, and as a result makes you fat around the middle. It stimulates the production of the hormone oestrogen in your bloodstream, which promotes fat storage (specifically around your waist and tummy). In addition, the liver is a fat-burning organ, but when it’s busy processing alcohol it stops burning fat.

Alcohol also decreases muscle growth, leaving you podgy and out of shape. I see so many women with what I call a ‘wine waist’ – a thick waist and a swollen, squidgy tummy as a result of regularly drinking wine three or four days a week.

• PROCESSED FOODS

These go against every clean and lean rule there is. The less a food has been altered, the ‘cleaner’ it is and the better for our health and waistlines. Clean foods are very close to – if not the same as – their natural state, whereas processed foods are far
from it. They are usually made in factories, stripped of their natural goodness and pumped full of manmade preservatives and additives to make them look appetising and last longer.

Foods to avoid include:

• tinned foods
  
• white bread, pasta and rice
• processed meats
  
• breakfast cereals
• frozen ready meals
  
• frozen chips, wedges, etc
  
• packets of dried pasta
  
• packaged cakes, biscuits, muffins
  
• chocolate, sweets and crisps.

LET YOUR GUT DO THE WORK

If you want to lose weight around your stomach, it’s important that your digestive
system is functioning at its optimum ability, which is where probiotics and prebiotics come in. They work together to boost gut health and should be included in your diet, either by eating foods that contain them or by taking supplements. Unless your gut is as healthy as it can be, your stomach will always be fat.

Probiotics are live microorganisms, known as friendly bacteria, and are responsible for several important biological functions, including boosting your digestion, reducing levels of ‘bad’ gut bacteria and strengthening the immune system. They also help your body to absorb health-boosting nutrients from your food more efficiently. Prebiotics are
non-digestible ingredients found in certain foods that stimulate the growth of friendly
bacteria in the gut.

Probiotics are found in:

• sauerkraut
  
• miso
  
• fermented dairy products, such as acidophilus milk (make sure they’re low
  in sugar)
• natural yoghurt and yoghurt products (look for the words ‘live cultures added’ in the ingredients)
  
• some soft cheeses
  
• cultured buttermilk
  
• soured cream.
  

Prebiotics are found in:

• bananas
• berries
• asparagus
• garlic
• tomatoes
• onions
• spinach
• kale
• lentils
• kidney beans
• chickpeas
• black beans
• oats.

Vitamin C makes pro- and prebiotics more effective, so tuck into vitamin C-rich foods
every day, such as kiwi fruit, oranges, sweet potatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts and tomatoes.

If you would prefer to take pro- and prebiotics in supplement form, ask your local
health-food store for recommendations.

A probiotic should contain several different strands of bacteria, including lactobacillus bulgaricus, lactobacillus acidophilus, streptococcus thermophilus and ifidobacterium.

Probiotic supplements should always be kept refrigerated.Bodyism Ultimate Clean Probiotic Fibre contains the necessary pro- and prebiotics combined (£30 for 200g, available from victoriahealth.com, tel: 0800 3898 195).

Apart from helping you to achieve a flat tummy, the benefits of pro- and prebiotics include:

• lower ‘bad’ cholesterol levels
  
• increased vitamin absorption from your foods
  
• boosted immune system
  
• steady blood-sugar levels
  
• less constipation and diarrhoea
  
• reduced risk of bowel disorders
  
• possible reduced risk of cancer. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Eat clean, get lean

Is yours a spare tyre or a stress bulge? Finding out your tummy type is the key to getting a perfect midriff

Is yours a spare tyre or a stress bulge? Finding out your tummy type is the key to getting a perfect midriff - For many women, getting bikini ready means tackling one dreaded area in particular — our tummies.

Most of us still think the best way to achieve a washboard stomach is by doing hundreds of sit-ups. Not so, says A-list trainer and body guru James Duigan.

James, who sculpts supermodels Elle Macpherson and Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley among others, insists there is no ‘one size fits all’ method for getting a flat belly. Instead, he’s identified five key ‘tummy types’, all of which require a different approach to achieve successful toning.

Get a flat stomach: First you need to identify your tunny type

Once you’ve identified your type, you can transform it following James’ tailor-made plan and get that flat tummy fast.

THE SPARE TYRE TUMMY

The spare tyre: This is one of the easiest tummy troubles to eliminate because it's caused by eating the wrong foods and not exercising enough

HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE

These people are likely to lead sedentary lives, perhaps with jobs that keep them desk-bound. They may also have an emotional attachment to sugary foods.

Luckily, this ‘spare tyre’ is one of the easiest tummy troubles to eliminate as, according to James, it’s caused by eating the wrong foods and not exercising enough.

TYPICAL BAD HABITS

‘If you exercise very little, eat lots of sugar and refined carbohydrates in products like biscuits, cakes and white bread, or rely on starchy carbs like pasta and rice, you probably have an overweight tummy with accompanying fat on your legs and hips,’ says James.

MIDRIFF MAKEOVER PLAN

• Cut down on alcohol. ‘Alcohol is a fat bomb for the tummy — pure sugar which goes straight to your waist and stops you burning all other fat until the booze has been processed,’ says James. ‘Just a few glasses three to four times a week will lead to a “wine waist” — a thick midriff and podgy tummy. ‘If you want to drink occasionally that’s fine, but the bottom line is that you have to cut back on booze to get a flat belly.’
• Once you cut out alcohol for two weeks, it’s time to overhaul your diet. ‘In a nutshell, eat well and move more,’ says James. Avoid low-fat and so-called ‘diet’ snacks. ‘These pre-packaged products are often packed full of chemicals, refined sugar, salt and preservatives to give them flavour.
  
• ‘Ditch calorie counting in favour of a healthy diet full of unprocessed fresh foods such as fish, eggs, organic meat and vegetables. ‘Start the day with eggs and smoked salmon, or even grilled chicken and vegetables, and snack on sliced lean meats. ‘And don’t be afraid of eating good fats, such as avocados, nuts and oily fish. These encourage your body to burn midriff fat, giving you a flat tummy.’
• ‘Exercise is the key to helping this tummy type,’ says James. Simply going for a long walk, doing lunges, squats or dips at home or a yoga class will be beneficial. You don’t need a gym.

TOP TIP FOR THIS TUMMY

If you regularly reward yourself for a hard day with a piece of cake or deal with bad news with a biscuit, it’s important to remember that being beautiful is as much about how you feel as how you look. The starting point for any tummy transformation is feeling happy.

THE STRESS TUMMY

Stress tummy: These types are typically over-achievers with perfectionist personalities

HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE

Stressed-tummy types are typically over-achievers with perfectionist personalities. They are usually also susceptible to digestive conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which can cause bloating and make their tummies look far worse.

‘Stress tummies are easy to spot, as the weight is specific to the front of the midriff and the umbilical area,’ explains James. ‘When stressed, we produce cortisol, a hormone which encourages the body to cling on to fat around the stomach.’

Stressed tummies will also be fairly hard to the touch, rather than wobbly.

TYPICAL BAD HABITS

It’s likely you skip meals, abuse your adrenal system with too much caffeine and grab junk food for convenience.

MIDRIFF MAKEOVER PLAN

• Get an early night. ‘Stressed women nearly always sleep badly, which disrupts the production of leptin, the hormone which helps regulate appetite and metabolism,’ James explains. ‘This is why we eat more when we are tired and crave fat-depositing sugary snacks for an instant energy boost.’
• Combat exhaustion with a relaxation strategy of deep-breathing, meditation and long baths before bed to encourage a good night’s sleep and limit coffee consumption to no more than two cups a day.
• Don’t go for the burn when exercising. ‘Excessive cardio which increases cortisol levels isn’t the answer,’ says James. ‘Instead, yoga, long walks and resistance work with weights is perfect for sculpting and building up strength while calming the system.’
• Magnesium is a calming mineral to help soothe a stressed belly. James advises eating lots of magnesium-rich foods such as dark green leafy vegetables, Brazil nuts and seeds.

TOP TIP FOR THIS TUMMY

Stress-busting stretches and yoga poses at night time can help to lower cortisol levels, while chamomile teas or James’ own Bodyism Body Serenity supplement (£30 for 20 servings, bodyism.com) can also help the body unwind.

THE LITTLE POOCH

The little pooch: These women are likely to be busy mums or have demanding careers - hey may even be a gym junkie

HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE

These women are likely to be busy mums or have demanding careers. ‘They may even be a gym junkie, but stuck in a workout-and-diet rut, perhaps always eating the same foods and doing the same routine at the gym, which keeps you slim but leaves you with a lower belly that spoils your silhouette,’ says James.

TYPICAL BAD HABITS

‘Doing excessive crunches and using gimmicky gym items such as ab-rollers can place a strain on the hip flexors and the lower back, causing the tummy muscles to protrude so your belly sticks out,’ says James.

MIDRIFF MAKEOVER PLAN

• Good nutrition and plenty of fibre are essential to improve digestive conditions such as inflammation, bloating and constipation, which can make a pooch tummy worse. Green leafy vegetables, oatbran and wholemeal grains are good, natural sources of fibre.
• Sit-ups done incorrectly increase your lower back curve and accentuate the ‘pouch’ effect. Swap sit-ups for planks. Do these by lying face down on a mat, resting on your forearms. Push off from the floor, rising onto your toes and elbows, so your body is parallel to the floor from your head to your heels. Start off doing ten seconds and build up to a whole minute.
• It’s a common misconception that using weights bulks women up. In fact, the opposite is true. Using weights will burn serious amounts of fat in a short space of time, so try introducing circuits — repetitions of exercises like squats or lunges which work individual muscle sets.

TOP TIP FOR THIS TUMMY

Be kind to your tummy, reduce inflammation by drinking lots of water and eating easy-to-digest foods such as green vegetables and lighter proteins such as fish and chicken.

THE MUMMY TUMMY

The Mummy tummy: Women with these bellies have usually given birth in the past few years, and, being a typical mum, have little time for themselves

HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE

Women with these tummies have usually given birth in the past few years, and, being a typical mum, have little time for themselves. ‘After giving birth, the uterus drops and is much heavier than it was pre-pregnancy,’ says James. ‘It takes at least six weeks to return to its usual size, so don’t even think about trying to get a flat stomach until after then.

‘You need to re-train your pelvic floor and lower abs to increase blood flow and strengthen loose muscles.’

TYPICAL BAD HABITS

Rushing back to exercise too quickly. ‘I would suggest waiting around two to three months,’ says James. ‘Being stressed about getting rid of your baby weight will only make you cling onto it more. Give yourself a break!’

MIDRIFF MAKEOVER PLAN

• ‘Fish oil supplements turn on fat-burning hormones and turn off fat-storing hormones,’ says James. ‘Begin by taking three 1,000mg capsules a day with meals and build up to five. I’ve trained Elle Macpherson through two pregnancies and she takes these every day.’
• Try to eat good fats — found in sources such as nuts, oils and olives — every day. ‘Not only do they help you burn fat and absorb vitamins from food effectively, they also help combat tiredness — a big help for tired mums,’ says James.
• Gentle pelvic floor exercises (known as Kegels) act as a natural corset for the body to flatten your tummy from the inside out. Squeeze and clench your pelvic floor muscles 15-20 times, in five sessions a day.
• Steer clear of sit-ups. ‘After giving birth, the linea alba muscles — which run down the mid-line of the abdomen — separate and you need to allow them to recover,’ says James. ‘Crunches are the worst thing you can do, as they will force these muscles farther apart. Instead, breathe deep into your tummy while on all fours, then slowly exhale while doing a pelvic floor exercise.’

TOP TIP FOR THIS TUMMY

Daytime naps (try putting up blackout blinds) and stretching before bed are important ways to restore sleep hormones and boost fat-burning.

THE BLOATED TUMMY

Bloated tummies: These are often flat in the morning, but swell throughout the day with gas or indigestion

HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE

Bloated tummies are often flat in the morning, but swell throughout the day with gas or indigestion. Bloating affects both slim and overweight women. It is almost always caused by food intolerances and allergies, or sluggish bowels as a result of a poor diet.

TYPICAL BAD HABITS

You eat the same foods and may have done so for a lifetime without realising you’re intolerant to them.

MIDRIFF MAKEOVER PLAN

• ‘The most common intolerances I see are wheat and gluten (bread, pasta, pastries, pizza, cakes and cereals), alcohol, yeast (in muffins, beer and pastries) and processed dairy (cheese, milk, butter),’ says James. ‘Gluten in particular can inflame the bowel and make the stomach look bigger.
• ‘Experiment to work out what bothers your belly as you know your body better than anyone else. Try eliminating key culprits such as gluten for a fortnight to see if your bloating reduces, or worsens when you reintroduce foods. Focus on a diet with lots of fresh veg, meat, chicken and fish.’
• Sluggish bowels are often a result of eating the wrong foods in the wrong way. Make breakfast your biggest meal, as this is when digestion is at its peak, and avoid eating late at night which leads to bloating. Chew food properly and drink plenty of water to keep the digestive system moving.
• Bloating can be a sign of imbalanced gut flora. So to get your tummy really flat you need to repopulate it with friendly bacteria. Prebiotic and probiotic supplements are the simplest way. Natural sources include miso soup, sour cream and some fruit and veg including kale, garlic and onions. A healthy gut means a flat stomach.

TOP TIP FOR THIS TUMMY

Believe it or not, breathing can be the best thing you can do for this kind of tummy. Try this each morning: lay on your back, completely relaxed, and breathe deep into your tummy ten times. After eating, a walk will help the digestive process, too. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Is yours a spare tyre or a stress bulge? Finding out your tummy type is the key to getting a perfect midriff

Look good for the summer holidays

Look good for the summer holidays - Most of us try to lose weight and look our best before going away on a trip or holiday. We want family and friends to see us at our best and this means putting in some effort now. It is great to have a date to work toward as it makes us feel more motivated. My son is going to his university reunion soon and is really focused on looking good and is eating well and running every morning before work. I am hopeful that he will develop good habits that he will keep up always.

Ignore the quick fix diets

There are lots of common mistakes that people make when losing weight and number one is going for the quick fix. Having run a slimming club for 15 years I have found the best long term results are due to working with your body and making gradual changes that the body accepts and gradually getting into good habits.

Promises like "Drop a dress size in two days!" that sound too good to be true usually are.

When your body feels it is being starved, it stores extra fat around your middle so that you can survive longer in a real starvation situation.

The average woman needs 1,500–2,000 calories a day and if you drop below this your metabolism will slow down and you will feel tired and have no energy; and so will be less active and will not lose weight. You will eventually feel so hungry you have to eat. Extreme dieting can damage your immune system so while you might see extremely slim models in bikinis in the magazines, if this is not your natural body shape you will only make yourself unhappy and unhealthy trying to achieve this appearance. Think in terms of what is best for you. You want your body to be healthy to take you through the long journey of that is life. That means loving the body that you have got and taking care of it; and keeping it healthy and never comparing yourself with anyone else. Enjoy your own uniqueness.

The average man needs 2,400 calories to maintain his weight and so for gradual weight loss he would need to reduce his intake to 2,150 calories.

For a free copy of my healthy eating guide e-mail to guidean@ardenhealth.com


Beware eating out

Restaurants encourage us to eat and drink more than we really want. When you enter a restaurant there is an unmistakable understanding that you should be eating three courses. It is enough to make you feel really mean if all you really want is a salad and a glass of water.

Eating three courses in a restaurant may be nice as a treat or as a celebration meal but you will be using up a whole day’s supply of calories in one meal.

In the hot weather it is easier to eat ‘lighter’ foods such as salad and fruit. Healthy salad is a nice change and very often the body wants less hot food in hot weather. Always make your own, as many restaurant and shop bought salads contain lots of hidden calories to make them tasty. Anything containing croutons, dressing, mayonnaise or cheese probably contains more calories and fat than a regular sandwich.


Portion sizes

In some restaurants the portion sizes are getting larger and larger. As they compete for our business, coffee shops offer huge cups: Almost buckets. And this is excessive. Even the muffins are enough to feed four so share with your friends and just enjoy a little taste.


Ditch the snacks

Here's a sure-fire way to reduce your consumption of high-calorie snacks. Throw them out! If snacks are not around, you won't be able to eat them. Instead, buy healthy alternatives, such as fruit and nuts.


Get active

If you are having trouble fitting exercise into your schedule, don't stress over it. Consider scheduling exercise at more convenient times, such as in the morning or during lunch. Stop at the gym on the way home from work. Your body loves routine and if you just exercise for 10 minutes every morning you will soon feel more energetic and toned. ( naturalhealthlines.com )

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