FitSugar

Burn Office Calories

FitSugar — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:30:00 PDT

So what if you sit at a desk all day? There are hundreds of opportunities to burn calories from nine to five, and avoid job-related weight gain. According to Fitness magazine, there are some easy ways to stay fit and still keep your job. To see the list,

Activity	Calories Burned
Typing (120 minutes)	230
Heel raises while sitting at your desk (5 minutes)	19
Walk the stairs on your lunch break (15 minutes)	128
Touch up your makeup (5 minutes)	10
Clean your desk and drawers (15 minutes)	40
Stand while on the phone (30 minutes)	58
Desk stretches (15 minutes)	59
Go for a jog on your lunch break (20 minutes)	158
Bike to and from work (20 minutes)	118
Do some strength training with dumbbells (5 minutes)	15

Want a few more ideas on how to stay active during your workday? Check out these tips for working it.
Source

6 Best Ways to Flatten Your Belly By Summer

Prevention — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:33:32 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

By the Editors of Prevention

A toned, flat tummy is a goal many of us strive to achieve in time for bathing suit season, but endless crunches and ditching all your favorite foods until July 4th isn’t the right-or fun-way to do it. A sculpted core and trim tummy can be attained by incorporating small changes into your day, like holding in your abs while you walk and adding the right healthy fats to your diet. In our lean belly guide, you’ll get diet and exercise tips that will help you eliminate hard-to-reach ab flab and reveal a sculpted, sexy midsection. Here, learn 6 ways to flatten your belly by summer.

Make Time For Cardio
If you want to burn the most belly fat, a Duke University study confirms that aerobic exercise is the most effective in burning that deep, visceral belly fat. In fact, aerobic training burns 67% more calories than resistance training or a combination of the two, according to the study.

Top 10 Reasons Your Abs Exercises Aren’t Working

Fight Fat With Fiber
For every 10 grams of fiber you eat daily, your belly will carry almost 4% less fat. Thankfully, there are more enjoyable ways to increase your fiber than scarfing down a box of bran flakes: Two apples, ½ cup of pinto beans, one artichoke, or two cups of broccoli will all give you 10 grams of belly-flattening fiber.

More flat-belly tips after the break.

5 Ways to Make Your Day a Little Healthier

Leta Shy — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:06:14 PDT

You know you need to exercise and eat right to look and feel your best, but those two things are easier said than done. It helps to break things up, like with these simple steps to make your day a little healthier.

Resist the pastry case: You know that you need to eat breakfast to boost your metabolism and keep you revved up for the day, but that doesn't mean you should spring for the baked good staring back at you at the coffee shop. Instead of the Starbucks grab-and-go, make these healthy breakfasts ahead of time so you can get out the door fast.
Have a drink: Water's the best thing you can imbibe, but it's not the only healthy thing you should swig - and no, I'm not just talking about red wine. Try drinking water with lemon or green tea in place of plain water when you need a little boost; you'll get much-needed antioxidants and detoxing properties from both.
Load up on greens: Sneak them in everywhere - those green veggies are an important aspect of a healthy diet. Leafy greens, for example, pack a lot of your required daily nutrients in one serving, and can also help reduce your risk of many diseases. Make sure at least one of your meals has a substantial amount of greens to get the most benefit out of your veggies.

Read on for more tips.

Making Spring Cleaning Enjoyable and Efficient With These 9 Tips

LearnVest — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 03:05:37 PDT

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Spring is in the air.

OK, fine. It’s just the unseasonably warm winter.

But we’re looking ahead to one of our favorite seasons, and nothing will make us better prepared to enjoy it than some serious Spring cleaning.

Looking around and seeing your sparkling living room, free of dust bunnies at last, is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. And as we all know, happier people are less stressed and more productive, not to mention good for the economy. Besides, a clean house frees your mind to focus on more important things.

Ten Spring Cleaning Tools For Under $10

But because no one wants to spend hours scrubbing when the sun is finally starting to show its face, and the whole family just wants to be outside, we want to maximize your Spring cleaning - with expert tips that will save you time, toil, and money.

So we spoke with Melissa Homer, chief cleaning officer at MaidPro, for an efficient, organized, and - dare we say - fun start to a much fresher Spring.

1. Get Great Deals

The best part about keeping your eye out ahead of time is that you’ll have a chance to get the best deals on staples like soap and sponges. Create a Spring cleaning envelope to hold coupons for products you’ll need, and leave the envelope in your purse or the glove compartment of your car so it travels with you wherever you go. Go ahead and set up a filter or folder in your email to keep track of electronic offers and coupons, too.

Read on for more.

Gym-Free Bikini Workout: Simple Activities to Tone Up Before the Summer

Anna Monette Roberts — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:47:33 PST

Dieting and exercise are obvious choices to help slim and tone you up for bikini season, but there are easy tricks to sneak toning exercises into your daily life. Here are five easy ways to get a full-body workout, without stepping foot in the gym.

Carry your groceries: To target the arms, carry a basket when grocery shopping rather than pushing a cart. Walking with the heavy basket, shifting it from arm to arm, and reaching up and down for groceries makes this a dynamic weight-bearing exercise.
Keep things tight: Whether you are standing in the shower, blow-drying your hair, walking down the street, or sitting at your desk, activate your ab muscles. Your abs are never intended to relax, so challenge yourself to tighten your core all day, especially if you have any nagging back pain.

See more bikini tips.

Burn 1,000 Calories an Hour With This At-Home Indoor Cycling Workout

Self — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:14:46 PST

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Self here on FitSugar!

On a recent visit to Cycle House in West Hollywood, I was amazed to discover how fast an hour-long indoor cycling class can pass when you're cycling alongside a high-energy, no-nonsense fitness instructor. It's no wonder celebrities like Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman are flocking to this new hot spot! Not only did I torch major calories, but I could barely get off the couch the next day.

"Every instructor is committed to creating the most effective interval-training, body-toning, heart-pumping, calorie-torching, challenging, fun rhythm ride workout that cannot be duplicated," says Cycle House Chief Ride Officer Nichelle Hines. "Indoor cycling allows you to craft a true training style that allows you to really shape and tone your body by adjusting speed and resistance while engaging the mind."

Luckily, you don't need to be a movie star to experience the Cycle House craze. All you need is a stationary bike to put the pedal to the metal. Says Hines, "I think the workout is so popular with the Cycle House client for one reason. It works!"

To burn 500 to 1,000 calories per hour at home, "find songs you like that inspire you" and "ride as much as you like as long as it feels good," says Hines. Incorporate these five moves into your regular routine at least twice a week for a full lower-body workout.

See the at-home cycling workout after the break!

Earn More Money By Changing Up Your Office Space

LearnVest — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:15:07 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Most of us spend about 40 hours per week at work - in other words, the majority of our waking hours.

And nearly all of those hours are spent sitting at our desks. It’s a definite problem - and not just because we’re missing happy hour or quality couch time at home.

There’s no shortage of discouraging research pointing out the evils of a sedentary lifestyle and claiming that sitting will actually shorten our lives.

But, conversely, making a few tweaks to the way you sit - and the space you sit in - all day has been proven to make you a happier, healthier worker, busy earning your killer salary.

And, scientists say, the happier you are, the more you tend to earn.

In an effort to make the time spent at our desks as productive (and as profitable) as possible, we’ve combed the research for the easiest, most effective tips to soothe your mind and body when trapped in a cubicle . . . or corner office.

Just follow these four steps.

1. Make It Comfy

When we say “comfy,” we mean “ergonomic.” It’s an unfriendly word for a friendly concept: basically it means “intended to provide optimum comfort and to avoid stress or injury.” Friendly, right? Besides, an awkward workspace can lead to major health issues, including disorders in your joints or tendons, so a little tweaking of your cubicle can go a long way for your well-being. Line up your body correctly by following these two principles:

Your feet should be flat on the floor and your elbows should be even with your desk. This can be achieved either through adjustable chairs or - if chairs are a hot commodity at your office - a combination of step stools and pillows.

Read on for more tips.

Ways to Ramp Up Workouts For Holiday Indulging

Michele Foley — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:35:54 PST

Confession: I've thrown in the towel when it comes to healthy holiday eating. Between the cocktail parties, office treats, and elaborate dinners, it seems near impossible! To compensate for my indulgences, I am ramping up my fitness regimen. (Recent studies confirm that regular exercise minimizes weight gain that comes from a fatty, high-calorie diet.) If holiday indulgences also have the best of you, see which kind of calorie-torching workouts will give you the most bang for your buck during this season of indulgence.

Intense cardio: If you're looking to melt away fat, walking mindlessly on the treadmill isn't the most effective way to go. New research says that intense workouts are the key to weight loss and speeding up metabolism. Skip the recumbent bike and choose a spin class, cardio kickboxing or dance class, or run continuously on the treadmill at a challenging speed. The idea is to keep the heart rate up and feel so out of breath that you wouldn't be able to carry on a conversation. Need guidance? Use the talk test to gauge the intensity of your workout.
Interval training: If going at a fast pace for an entire workout seems daunting, opt for interval training instead. Whether you're running, biking, or on the elliptical, alternate back and forth between moderate and beyond-fast speeds. A recent study in the International Journal of Obesity confirms that interval training is key when it comes to getting rid of belly fat. Interval training also increases the after-burn effect. This means that post-exercise, your body burns more calories, even at rest or sleep, after doing intervals than after doing a steady paced workout. Check these examples of interval workouts to do on the elliptical, treadmill, and more.
Circuit training: Circuit training is the best of both worlds: a workout that mixes strength training with cardio. (This also makes it an effective workout to do when time is short.) Even though it may not seem like it, building muscle is key to losing weight. Since muscle tissue requires more energy to exist than other tissues (like fat), it burns more calories overall. Mixing it in with cardio keeps the heart rate up, meaning you kill two birds with one stone. Check out this 30-minute circuit workout.

4 Surprising Things You Don't Know about Calories

Prevention — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:12:55 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Only 12 percent of Americans can estimate the calories they eat in a day! Find out why we're so clueless and get easy ways to stop calorie confusion.
By Mara Betsch, Prevention

You know what calories are, and you probably know that if you eat too many, you’ll gain weight. But do you know how many are in your favorite deli sandwich? Or how many calories you should really eat each day? Most Americans don’t. Only 12% can accurately estimate the number of calories they should consume in a day someone their age, height, weight, and physical activity, according to a 2010 survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation. So what is it about calories that keeps us baffled? Here are 8 reasons you’re confused about calories and the simple steps that will help you do the math.

8 Healthy Foods That Help Fight Disease

1. Portions Sizes Are Out of Control
You’ve all heard about the rapidly expanding serving sizes of restaurant and fast food portions, but just how bad are they? Portions sizes in restaurants may contain double or triple the calories of home-cooked meals, and studies show eating out is associated with a higher BMI. Unfortunately, those portions affect our waistlines. When there’s more food on the plate, people eat more-up to 30% more, according to an analysis of several studies.

Stop the confusion: Use this cheat sheet of portion sizes. We know it’s hard to look at your plate as decks of cards, tennis balls, and all the other, so start by measuring out your food servings at home and take a good look at what a half-cup of pasta looks like. Until the serving sizes are engrained in your brain, when dining out, aim to eat half of your meal, saving the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Comfort Food That’s Actually Good for You

2. Serving Sizes Are Deceiving
"There really aren’t standard serving sizes for packaged foods, which makes them confusing," explains Elisa Zied, RD, author Nutrition at Your Fingertips. She gives the example of cereal. A standard serving size of breakfast cereal is approximately 50 g, but depending on the cereal, that could mean a cup and a half of flakes or half a cup of heartier granola. Depending on the type of cereal you’re eating, just eyeing how much you put in the bowl, like most people do, can lead to inaccurate calorie counts.

Not only that, but larger-than-life snack foods may seem like single servings even though they often contain two to three servings per packet. Buy a 16-ounce bottled Coca-Cola, and the nutrition label reads 100 calories . . . for one of the two servings in the bottle. Drink the whole thing, as many people do, and you’re really getting 200 calories. Eat the whole bag of Austin Zoo Animal Crackers, commonly found in office vending machines, and you’re getting 230 calories, nearly two servings, instead of just one.

Keep reading to learn even more about calories!

Exercise Labels May Be More Effective Than Nutrition Labels

Leta Shy — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:50:10 PST

Calories in, calories out - it's not so much that it's confusing, but that it can be hard to keep track of it all. What if, instead, nutritional labels did all the work for you, by including the amount of exercise it would take to burn off all those calories in the food?

A new study found that when teenagers were shown just how many minutes of exercise it takes to burn off a can of soda, the number of people who reached for the sodas fell by 50 percent. In fact, the teens were less likely to buy the sodas if they were shown a sign saying that it would take 50 minutes of exercise to burn one can of soda off than if they were shown a sign that told them that the sodas were each 250 calories.

Thinking in terms of your workout can be an effective way of practicing healthy eating. After all, if you know how much sweat and energy it takes to burn 300 calories, you may be less likely to mindlessly reach for the office candy jar while you work.

Does calculating calories in terms of how much you exercise work for you?