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Fit For November: FitSugar Must Haves

FitSugar — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:30:00 PST

For me, November marks the beginning of the holiday season. I love Thanksgiving, but admit I find all the celebrating of the season a little stressful. Even as the month turns darker and cooler, I have it helpful to focus on my health. Check out my must haves to help you stay healthy and happy this month.

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Is Ice Cream Addictive? The Truth About "Addictive" Foods

Self — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 06:58:37 PST

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

You've heard the ice cream calling your name from the freezer (or is that just me?) - but are you actually addicted to the stuff? A new study takes a look at how eating ice cream literally affects your brain.

Researchers Kyle Burger and Eric Stice of the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene studied how the brain responds to eating ice cream over time, and made a fascinating discovery: the more ice cream you eat, the more you need to eat in order for your brain to send signals that it's enjoying the treat!

Burger and Kyle surveyed 151 teenagers with healthy body weights about their food cravings. Then they showed the teens pictures of a chocolate milkshake while scanning their brains to see how strong their cravings were. Then they gave the teens real milkshakes while scanning their brains again. The results? The teens who reported eating the most ice cream in the few weeks prior to the study enjoyed the shakes the least, according to scans that tracked activity in the brain associated with reward. "Our results provide novel evidence that frequent consumption of ice cream, independent of body fat, is related to a reduction in reward-region responsivity in humans, paralleling the tolerance observed in drug addiction," the researchers say in the study. In other words: the more you have it, the more of it you need in order to experience pleasure from it.

So is it possible to be chemically addicted to food, like this study and other recent studies suggest? Bloomberg reported that 28 scientific studies and papers on food addiction were published as of November 2011, in an article that compared processed foods and sugary drinks to cocaine. Self contributing editor Janis Jibrin, a registered dietician, believes the answer is "yes." "This study is consistent with other research that shows there is definitely something about the brains of people who report being addicted to foods," she says.

"It seems to be twofold - if you eat these sugary, high-fat foods regularly, you build up a kind of tolerance and you need more and more to get the same hit," Jibrin says. "Some people might also have a genetic predisposition to food addition, and then we live in an environment where it's so easy to access these types of food."

Read on for more reasons why we become addicted to high-fat, high-sugar foods.

Are Your Birth Control Pills Safe?

Shape — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:06:17 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Last year during my annual exam, when I complained to my doctor about my terrible PMS, she was quick to pull out her pad and give me a prescription for the birth control pill Yaz. "You're going to love this," she said. "All of my patients that are on it think it's the best. It's even helped some of them lose weight!"

Less PMS and not having to worry about my weight? I was sold, even though I'd only intended to talk to her about lifestyle and/or diet modifications since my birth control needs were already taken care of. Before I stopped into the pharmacy, however, I looked up the pill online (Paging Dr. Google!). The results were anything but the lovefest I'd been promised. In fact, the information I found scared me so badly that I never filled that prescription.

Am I Normal? Your Top Six Sex Questions Answered

It quickly became evident that I wasn't the only woman concerned when Yaz and it's sister pill Yazmin, two of the most popular pills on the market, came up for review by the FDA after reports that the manufacturer may have hid and minimized critical health risks. But is the hysteria warranted?

Find out how safe birth control pills are after the break!

5 Ways to Banish Postholiday Bloating

Self — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:04:38 PST

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

Feeling sluggish after the busy holiday season? You're not alone. According to a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine, the average American gains a pound between November and January.

But rather than wallow in the aftermath of too many cocktails and Christmas cookies, we turned to fitness expert Angela Parker, who offered these easy tips to banish postholiday bloating fast:

Sweat your ass off! Give yourself a daily 60-minute sweat session three days in a row. No walking - go running or spinning.
If you want to shrink fast, stick to egg whites, fish, chicken, and veggies.

Read on for more ways to banish postholiday bloating.

Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge Rock Bikinis For a New VS Campaign

Allie Merriam — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:30:42 PST

Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge are both moms-to-be, but they had no trace of growing baby bumps in these new Victoria's Secret images. The girls, along with fellow Angels Candice Swanepoel, Jasmine Tookes, and Edita Vilkevièiûtë, were photographed for the new swim catalog by Greg Kadel on Bora Bora last year.

Lily and Alessandra are the latest Angels to announce their pregnancies. Last year, Miranda Kerr welcomed her son, Flynn, and the year before, Karolina Kurkova became a mom. This will be newlywed Lily's first child with Kings of Leon rocker husband Caleb Followill, while Alessandra and her fiancé, Jamie Mazur, are already parents to 3-year-old Anja. Both Lily and Alessandra were pregnant while walking in the November VS runway show. Alessandra was afraid people would find out she was expecting, explaining, "When I first found out I was pregnant I thought, 'Oh my gosh I don't think I'm going to be able to walk on the show,' and I didn't tell anybody . . . A week before, I told my booker, 'I don't think I'm going to be able to fit into the clothes because I gained a few pounds already,' but we were just quiet."

Fit's Hits: Healthy Cooking, Marathon Nutrition, and Gifts For Yogis

Susi May — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:45:12 PST

Healthy one-pot meals to excuse-proof your home cooking.
If you're looking to drop pounds, don't ditch these foods.
We found it: the perfect temperature for a refreshing night's sleep.
Marathoner Ryan Hall gives nutrition advice for before, during, and after racing.
Fifteen options to find the perfect gift for the yogi in your life.
Try these everyday habits to prevent workplace weight gain.
Must-try workout: P90X - it's so dang effective!
Get some fitness advice from your fellow FitSugar readers.
Two ways to get rid of the muffin top and whittle your waist.

Gear Review: Motorola's MotoACTV Fitness Tracker

Leta Shy — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:55:36 PST

Is getting fit one of your New Year's resolutions for the coming year? Whether you're just diving into a new regimen or need a better way to track your workouts, you'll love the new MotoACTV fitness tracker from Motorola.

Released in November, the MotoACTV promises to be your constant fitness companion, and with good reason. It can track calories burned, pace, speed, steps taken, and GPS route out of the box, and holds up to 16 GB of music and workout data. All features that will make anyone's workouts better, so I was happy to test out the 8 GB version that Motorola recently sent over ($250; the 16 GB version goes for $300).

The MotoACTV is slightly bigger than the iPod Nano, and like the Apple product, it has a simple interface making it completely intuitive as soon as you power it on. You can use it as a pedometer, and the home screen shows the time, steps taken, and calories burned for the day. By swiping left and right you can navigate to four more screens with different options. Five tactile buttons and one designated back button on the touch screen work all the main functions, which I appreciated since having easy-to-feel buttons made pausing music or finding my way back to my workout screen much faster than if I were fumbling my way through touch screens. And after entering your height and weight stats, the MotoACTV tracks the amount of calories you burn throughout the day, including your basal metabolic rate. When on the workout screen, you can choose between five styles - running, cycling, walking, elliptical, and step machine - and what type of workout you want (like racing against a previous personal best or setting a time and distance goal). During a workout a pleasant voice keeps you updated on certain milestones and how long you have left in your workout.

Keep reading for more on how the MotoACTV performs.

Experts Say This Is the Most Effective At-Home Workout

Self — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:17:01 PST

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

Between infomercial-style ads for Pajama Pants and Ab Rollers, perhaps you've seen advertisements for P90X DVDs. Or maybe you have a friend who suddenly looked a bit more taut and toned, who casually referenced the muscle confusion-based fitness craze.

The point is P90X is undeniably a major exercise movement. But does it work? A recent study by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) says yes. And here's why.

First, it's obvious why ACE bothered to do this study. The organization loves to investigate the latest greatest fitness trends and, according to them, over three million copies of P90X were sold as of November 2010. And that was a year ago. Who even knows where that number is at now?

Everyone from famously buff Sheryl Crow to Bruce Springsteen has trained with creator Tony Horton, which lends him credibility upfront (especially if you're a Bruce fan from Jersey!). The concept behind this type of "muscle confusion" is that the body burns more fat and builds more muscle if you mix up your exercises so regularly that it never gets comfortable with any single one. For one thing, you're dodging that dreaded plateau.

"The basis of muscle confusion is to keep the body from becoming too efficient at performing individual and sets of exercises," explains Alice Burron, MS (Exercise Physiology), American Council on Exercise National Spokesperson and ACE Personal Trainer. "This type of inefficiency burns more calories because the muscles haven't yet adapted to the new workload. Overall more calories are burned, and as a percentage, then, more calories are burned from fat. That is, if a proper caloric intake is maintained in tandem with the workout."

Find out just why P90X is so effective after the break.

A Water Bottle Makes a Perfect Gift

Jenny Sugar — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:32:04 PDT

I can't believe stores are already putting up holiday lights and decorations. It may seem crazy to think about in November, but getting a jump start on gifts for your family, friends, and co-workers is one way to enjoy a stress-free holiday. If you don't know what to get the person who has everything, how about a reusable water bottle? They're good for the planet because they reduce plastic waste, and they also encourage the people you care about to stay hydrated. Buy one of these water bottles and fill it with energy bars, a gift card to their favorite gear store, or a gift certificate for a massage or fitness class.

Bumpers Are Officially Bumped

LilSugar — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:15:25 PDT

Bumpers begone! The American Academy of Pediatrics has updated their sleep guidelines, officially advocating against the use of crib bumpers for the first time. According to the new findings, bumper pads unequivocally should not be used in cribs because the pads don't prevent injuries, but can cause suffocation, strangulation, or entrapment. Bumpers have been falling out of favor within the medical community for the last several years, with antibumper sentiment gaining major momentum stemming from an article in the September 2007 issue of The Journal of Pediatrics, Deaths and Injuries Attributed to Infant Crib Bumper Pads, and this new AAP report SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Expansion of Recommendations For a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment will likely be the final nail in bumpers' coffin.

Keep reading to see what bedding companies are doing in light of the new recommendations.