FitSugar

5 Reasons You Have an Inch to Pinch

Jenny Sugar — Sat, 19 May 2012 19:27:09 PDT

Women tend to gain weight in a few special spots - our thighs, tush, face, breasts, and of course, our tummies. If you suffer from a mushy middle, here are some possible reasons why.

How to Avoid Gaining Weight While Dating

FitSugar — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:41:52 PDT

Being in a relationship is so exciting that spending so much time together can cause your healthy lifestyle to fly out the window. You may even adopt some of your partner's unhealthy habits. That can add up to some extra pounds on the scale, so here are some tips to prevent weight gain while dating.

Remember that eating an extra 500 calories a day will make you gain a pound in one week, so be conscious of how much you're eating. Just because your guy has three slices of pizza, that doesn't mean you should too. Guys need more calories, so remember to eat appropriate sized portions, even when dining together.
You don't have to eat just because your partner is. Guys tend to inhale their meal, and then an hour later they're eating again. It can be tempting to join in if food is in front of you, but don't nosh unless you're truly hungry.

Keep up with your regular exercise schedule. When you're in a relationship, you don't want to sacrifice the things that are important to your own well-being, so make time for your 20 to 60 minutes of exercise a day. Get up early before work or steal away during lunchtime so you don't feel like it's taking away from time spent with your loved one.
Or better yet, exercise together. Meet at the gym after work, play tennis or racquetball, take salsa dance lessons or a Vinyasa yoga class, or join a dodgeball team.
Spend more time being active together instead of sitting on the couch. You don't have to be really athletic, but you can tour a museum, take a walk in the park, hike in the woods, or go for a bike ride.
Sign up for a healthy cooking class together so you can both learn new ways to make delicious dishes that are full of nutrients but not full of saturated fat, cholesterol, and empty calories.

Most Common Snacking Mistakes That Lead to Weight Gain

Jenny Sugar — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:24:03 PDT

Snacking between meals is a great way to keep hunger at bay and fuel your important calorie-burning workouts. If you often enjoy a midmorning or late-afternoon snack, read up on the common mistakes that people make when it comes to eating between meals that can cause the numbers on the scale to go up.

Source: Flickr User VegaTeam and Thinkstock

Ways Your Boyfriend Is Helping You Pack On the Pounds

Jenny Sugar — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:24:47 PDT

Are you finding yourself unbuttoning the top button of your pants around your boyfriend and the reason is not that you're about to get busy? Truth is, relationships can lead to weight gain. If your man likes to eat, drink, cook, or lounge about, spending time with him can affect your eating and exercise habits. Here are six health pitfalls you might experience in your relationship.

He brings you sweet treats and takes you to new restaurants. If your honey is a food lover, he'll probably love sharing edibles with you. You can and should enjoy yourself, but be sure not to go overboard. Split desserts, and when he's excited to share bites with you, enjoy a spoonful or two without inhaling the entire plate.
He's into wine and cocktails. Many dinners together involve cracking open a bottle of wine or ordering cocktails. It's fun to let loose every once in a while, but if you make it a habit, it's not only bad for your health to enjoy more than one drink a day, it's also adding unnecessary calories to you diet. Enjoy a glass of wine instead of splitting an entire bottle, and when it comes to cocktails, sip low calorie wine spritzers or a gin and tonic.
His idea of cooking is ordering takeout. He may think a healthy meal consists of veggies on a pizza, but if you're constantly eating fast food or takeout, you're probably downing foods that are major calorie, fat, and sodium bombs. If he's not a chef by any means, spend time cooking together so you can show him some tips.

Keep reading for other ways your man is adding fluff to your waistline.

Spring Weather Forecast: Weight Gain?

Jenny Sugar — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:58:41 PDT

Warmer, sunnier weather is thankfully blowing in, and with all that celebrating of the sun brings the risk of packing on a few extra pounds. Find out how Spring weather can cause you to gain weight, so you can be proactive and prevent it from happening.

Forget the gym; I'll take a walk instead. The gorgeous weather can't help but inspire us to get outside and enjoy it, but replacing your intense gym workout with a leisurely walk around the block doesn't exactly burn the same amount of calories. To prevent weight gain and loss of the muscle tone you worked so hard to achieve, make sure your outdoor workouts are just as intense as the indoor ones you've been doing all Winter.

Ooh, the outdoor patios are finally open. When you stroll downtown and see all the restaurants opening up their outdoor patio seating, you can't help but want to grab a seat yourself and enjoy breathing in the fresh, cool air as you enjoy a delicious meal. This is fun to do every once in a while, but don't let the warmer weather inspire you to do it all the time. It's easy to get carried away when perusing a decadent menu, and difficult to guesstimate just how many calories you're consuming when someone else prepares your meal. This means you're at risk of overdoing it on the calorie front, which spells out weight gain. Enjoy patio dining occasionally, and when you do, follow these calorie-saving tips.

Read on for more reasons Spring weather can cause weight gain.

Healthy Baking Mistakes That Cause Weight Gain

Jenny Sugar — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:03:00 PDT

If you're a conscious eater who happens to have an enormous sweet tooth, you can bake your cake and eat it, too, as long as you use healthy recipes. Cookies, muffins, pies, and brownies can definitely be made with a nutritional twist, but if you're not careful, your healthy treat could still cause major weight gain. Avoid these mistakes in the kitchen to avoid needing a bigger apron.

Source: Flickr User Matthew Dan4th, Thinkstock, and Flickr User Pen Waggener

How I Gained 30 Pounds in College (and Then Lost It)

Jenny Sugar — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:08:40 PST

In college, I was no stranger to the "Freshman 15." In fact, all that newfound freedom to eat whatever and whenever combined with the all-you-can-eat dining hall and late-night pizza runs made it the "Freshman 30." Now that I've been at a healthy weight for a while, I can look back on all the mistakes I made. I'm sharing these mistakes now in the hopes that I can help someone else avoid the sadness and insecurity that comes with weight gain.

Good-bye, Home-Cooked Meals
With no one to cook me healthy, balanced meals, or tell me to eat my broccoli and not a brownie sundae for dinner, I quickly made my own - unhealthy - meal decisions. This included ordering take-out, devouring junk food, and eating way more food than I did when home.

Is That Cookie Vegan?
My school population was 90 percent hippie, and I was already a vegetarian, so it's no surprise that becoming vegan was my next move. I didn't miss milk or eggs at all. Why miss it when there's decadent vegan ice cream, dairy-free cheese, and even a pizza place downtown serving vegan pizza? I was a total junk-food vegan and must have gained 10 pounds on vegan cookies alone. The late-night candy runs for Swedish fish didn't help either.

No, I Don't Need a Bowl - I'll Eat Out of the Bag
Chips, cookies, crackers, cereal; I ate a lot of my snacks with no plates or bowls because I was too lazy to do the dishes, which often meant polishing the entire package in one sitting.

Carrot Cake Counts as a Vegetable
I may have been vegan, but I hardly ate vegetables, unless you count tomato sauce on pizza, carrot cake, and greasy french fries. My diet was based around these four food groups: pasta, bagels, cereal, and cookies. Come to think of it, I hardly ate fruit either since it wasn't that easy to find on campus (or rather, not that appealing).

Continue reading to see the other reasons I gained weight, and more importantly, how I lost it.

How Your Bowl of Cereal Is Making You Fat

Jenny Sugar — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:43:36 PST

A bowl of cereal makes the perfect breakfast. It's fast, easy, and inexpensive, and the right bowl of cereal is a good source of fiber, calcium, and protein. But if you make the wrong choices, your cereal may actually be contributing to weight gain. Avoid these mistakes when it comes to your morning bowl of cereal.

Your bowl is too big: Depending on the box of cereal you choose, a serving size is about three-quarters to one-and-a-quarter cups. If you use the biggest bowl you have and just mindlessly pour, you could be devouring over 400 calories instead of the usual 120 to 200 - and this is just the cereal alone!
You're a little nuts: Sliced almonds, pecans, and walnuts offer healthy fats and protein, but they're also pretty high in calories. Two tablespoons of walnuts is almost 100, so be mindful about how nutty you get.

Keep reading for more ways your cereal bowl can cause weight gain.

Fat-Proof Your Life

Health — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:06:06 PST

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Health.com here on our site.

By Maridel Reyes

It's true that there are certain times in your life when extra poundage seems to appear out of nowhere . . . and settle on you. In fact, experts have honed in on the exact moments when you're most vulnerable to weight gain.

"Life transitions, having a baby, and going through menopause cause many women to pile on pounds," says Susan Albers, PsyD, author of But I Deserve This Chocolate!: The 50 Most Common Diet-Derailing Excuses and How to Outwit Them. "But with planning and prep, you can stay thin."

We asked top experts for their strategies to help you ward off weight creep - and even shed pounds - at these tricky stages. Solutions ahead.

Getting married

Heavier ever after? It can be the flip side of wedded bliss: "Six out of 10 of my clients come back heavier after the honeymoon," says celebrity fitness and wellness guru David Kirsch.

Health.com: 25 Diet-Busting Foods You Should Never Eat

Young newlyweds pack on an extra six to nine pounds in the five years after getting hitched compared to singletons, according to research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And most of that gain happens in the first year of marriage.

"Couples start to mirror each other's eating habits," explains Albers. "You might be matching him calorie for calorie without realizing it."

Learn how to keep the pounds down postmarriage and in the mommy years, after the break.

How Long Did It Take Your Man to Get His Postpartum Body Back?

Rebecca M Gruber — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:01:12 PST

David Beckham is one of the lucky ones! Just seven months after baby Harper's birth, the dad of four showed off (almost!) every inch of his toned and tattooed body in one of the steamiest ads to air during the Super Bowl. Wait . . . a postpartum dad showing off his body? Considering that the average dad-to-be adds 14 pounds to his frame during his wife's pregnancy, that's something to be commended! And while we usually talk about the lengths new moms go to lose the baby weight, only 30 percent of new dads say they actually diet with their partners to lose the sympathy weight, making the soccer superstar one of the few.