FitSugar

15 Seconds to a Healthier You

FitSugar — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:15:00 PST

It's not always the hours we spend at the gym that make the largest impact on our health, but it can be the small things we do in a few minutes (or even seconds) that matter most.

Take 15 seconds to measure your waist. All you have to do is wrap a measuring tape around it (about belly-button level). For women, having a waist of 35 inches or more is a key indicator of abdominal obesity if your body mass index is less than 25. For men, it's 40 inches. Abdominal obesity unfortunately ups your risk for heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and even cancer, so if you fall above those numbers then you should really think about losing a few inches.

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Should Mall Santas Lose a Few?

FitSugar — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:30:00 PST

A mall in England has ordered its Santas to slim down before greeting children this holiday season. The mall will be running a month-long boot camp for overweight Santas who will be working there leading up to Christmas. Officials hope this will send a message to kids that while Santa's belly shook like a bowl full of jelly then, it's called abdominal obesity now and it's unhealthy.

I think it is a rather interesting concept. I am on the fence about how I feel about modernizing Santa. I mean I always loved Santa as much as the next kid, but I never personally had any aspirations to look like him.

What do you guys think about requiring mall Santas to lose a few pounds before the holiday season gets into full swing?

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7 Reasons to Try Interval Training

FitSugar — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:11:00 PDT

Interval training is the ultimate fitness mashup, blending the speeds of both the tortoise and the hare. The benefits of this workout - pushing your pace, then slowing down to recover just so you can push your pace again - will certainly motivate you to play with your speed. If you haven't already added them to your cardio workouts, here are seven benefits of interval training.

Whittle your middle
While cardio exercise is necessary to lose fat all over your body, according to research published in the International Journal of Obesity interval training targets your waistline. Adding bursts of speed can help you lose stubborn abdominal fat, which is a boon for bikini season and your overall health. Having a waist size over 35 inches if you're a woman puts you at a higher risk for heart disease and some cancers. Curious how your middle measures up? Check your waist-to-hip ratio here.

Got a need for speed?
The most obvious benefit, but still worth noting, is interval training will make you faster. Picking up your pace when training with intervals helps to increase your speed whether you run, bike, or swim. If you're working towards a personal record for an upcoming race, don't skip your speed work. Here are interval workouts for biking, swimming, and running. Triathlon anyone?

Keep reading to learn five more reasons to kick it up a notch.

5 Surprising Reasons You May Be Gaining, Not Losing

FitSugar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:30:00 PDT

So you've really been trying hard to get in daily exercise and eat as healthy as possible but yet you're still not losing weight like you thought you would be. Don't give up, your new routine may not be at fault. WebMD outlined some interesting (and lesser known) reasons you may be gaining and not losing weight, and they may surprise you. Here are highlights:

You Might Be Gaining Weight Because of Lack of Sleep: The body functions best when well rested. "When you don't get enough sleep, your body experiences physiological stress and, biochemically, you store fat more efficiently," says Michelle May, MD, author of Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don't Work.
You May Be Gaining Weight Because of Stress: "Stress response, whether it is 'fight-or-flight,' juggling too many responsibilities, or coping with financial pressures, triggers a biochemical process where our bodies go into survival mode," explains May. "Our bodies store fuel, slow down metabolism, and dump out chemicals [cortisol, leptin, and other hormones] which are more likely to cause . . . obesity in the abdominal region."

There's three more reasons so

A Big Waist Means Big Health Troubles

FitSugar — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:30:32 PDT

When it comes to measuring your overall health, a simple measuring tape proves to be a more important tool than the scale. While neck circumference is gaining popularity as a new way to gauge a person's health and fitness level, a new study sponsored by the American Cancer Society again confirms waist size is the leading indicator for health risk beating out body mass index (BMI), the standard measurement for obesity. Excessive abdominal fat increases your risk for a wide variety of chronic and deadly health problems, including respiratory illness, heart disease, and cancer.

The new study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that folks with large waists have a greater risk of death than others with normal waist measurements - nearly double - even when those with a large waist circumference have a normal BMI. The upper end of healthy waist measurements is 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women. The study followed 100,000 subject for 10 years and found that even with a normal BMI, four extra inches around the waist increased the risk of dying from between 15 percent to 25 percent.

American's middles have been steadily growing, with the average waistline increasing around one inch every 10 years since the 1960s. Grab a measuring tape and check your health. Use our hip-to-waist ratio calculator to assess your risk level.

Exercise No Good For Weight Loss?

FitSugar — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:30:17 PDT

A couple of years ago the Cardio Free Diet introduced popular culture to the concept that exercise and weight loss were incompatible. Recently we learned that exercise doesn't boost fat-burning. Now Time magazine's new cover story investigates the seemingly detrimental relationship even further. A thumbnail sketch of the article: exercise makes you hungry, so you eat more and don't lose weight.

Should you give up the treadmill forever? Learn more.