FitSugar

5 Diet and Fitness Myths That Pack on Pounds

Prevention — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 03:06:50 PDT

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

Don't let one of these rumors prevent you from reaching your weight loss goals.
By Diana Kelly, Prevention

Sorry, Journey, but it's finally time to stop believing . . . In weight loss myths at least. Believing popular misconceptions can keep you from taking the right course of action to reach your goals, says Julia Valentour, MS, program coordinator and media spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise. Blaming a plateau (or a gain) on any of these half-truths will keep you stuck in your rut and derail your motivation. Here, five of the most pervasive diet-related rumors and the real scoop on how to hit your goal weight for good.

1. "I exercise every day, so I can eat whatever I want."

The sad truth: Even if you work out religiously, going to yoga several times a week and sweating it out in Spinning, it's not a license to eat as much as you want and still expect to lose weight. This may seem obvious, but the desire to reward a workout well done is natural; after all, you endured those endless vinyasas - you deserve an extra slice of pizza (or three), right? Not if you're trying to lose weight.

"You can outeat your workout," says Valentour. Even though you burn calories and fat when you exercise, it's often not as much as you think - or what the readout on the treadmill tells you. Use Prevention's Daily Calorie Calculator tool to see how many calories you should eat each day.

Valentour recommends eating 250 fewer calories per day and aiming to burn an extra 250 calories a day; that creates enough of a calorie deficit to achieve an average weight loss of a pound a week.

6 Lamest excuses for not losing weight

2. "It's harder for women to lose weight than for men."

OK, this one has some basis. Biologically, men are built with more lean muscle mass (the compact, tight muscles that keep metabolism humming) than women are - meaning his metabolism is working at a 5 to 10 percent higher rate (even if he's the same height and weight as you) when you're lying on the couch together. Annoying, isn't it?

Another biological challenge women face is that we generally have more body fat than men do, and our bodies are more inclined to store it. On top of that, women lose about 1/2 pound of calorie-burning muscle mass a year during peri-menopause and sometimes a pound a year during menopause. With the deck stacked against you, why bother trying to fit back in your skinny jeans?

You can do something about these problems, but it's going to take some work - and sweat. Add strength training to your fitness routine at least twice a week to shed fat and build lean muscle mass that will fire up your resting metabolism.

Get more tips on how to lose weight like a guy

Prevention clears up three more myths after the break.

Can You Debunk Diet Myths?

FitSugar — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:00:00 PDT

Losing weight is hard, but finding misinformation about dieting is frighteningly easy. Although I spend a lot of time debunking diet myths on FitSugar, I also never cease to get questions from readers wondering about the latest facts and fads. Can your separate truth from fiction? Take my true or false quiz to find out.

Source

Take the Quiz

Do You Avoid Eating Late at Night to Prevent Weight Gain?

Leta Shy — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:18:46 PDT

On one hand, knowing how to eat right can be simple - eat when you're hungry, and stick to nutritious foods that fill you up and keep you satisfied. But another component of playing the weight loss game is when you eat, and that's when things can get complicated.

While studies have proven that eating late at night doesn't automatically lead to your body storing more fat, a new study in mice has found a link between when you eat and weight gain. Researchers looked at two groups of mice, both of which were fed the same amount of a high-fat diet, and found that the mice who were only allowed to eat during an eight-hour period during the day ended up gaining less weight than the mice that were allowed to eat the same amount of food any time during the day and night.

Researchers believe that the difference in weight gain is due to the fact that the body's organs operate at peak efficiency at different times, so everything from your liver to your muscles may be burning more calories and working harder depending on the time of day or night. Frequent eating throughout the day and night, they say, may throw off your body's metabolic cycles, so you may be more successful with weight loss if you stop eating at a certain point during your day (even if you are eating the same amount of food).

This newest study is just one more piece of information in the late-night eating debate, but the theory hasn't been tested on humans yet. And it's important to note that this study doesn't prove the myth that you shouldn't eat past a certain time to avoid your food turning into fat - the study is just saying that restricting when you eat to a certain time period may help regulate your metabolic cycles. In any case, what's your take on the issue: do you avoid eating late at night to prevent gaining weight?

7 Diet Myths Debunked

Shape — Thu, 05 May 2011 04:45:49 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. Wondering if all those weight-loss tips are true? Here are seven common diet myths debunked!

Some "diet facts" are repeated so often that women can be pretty convinced that they know everything there is to know about fat, carbs and hunger. But when you peel back the platitudes and look at the research, the truth about eating healthy food-and what fills you up and what trims you down can surprise you. Find out the real truth about these common diet myths.

13 Health Gimmicks You Can Stop Wasting Money On

Business Insider — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:15:21 PDT

Consumers have a tendency of falling for the next big health gimmick. Save your money on health duds with these Business Insider tips.

No matter how many times we're told otherwise, Americans' obsession with get-healthy-quick schemes will likely never die. Too bad most of these fads aren't worth their weight in salt - or your hard-earned dollars. We've put together a list of some of the worst budget-sucking health trends that still persist today.

Coconut Water

Coconut water may be nature's version of Gatorade but some brands have already caught fire for over-hyping its nutrient content. Vita Coco agreed to settle a $10 million class action lawsuit over an independent study that showed the drinks didn't pack near as many electrolytes as advertisements implied. Some coconut waters are also loaded with added sugar, which will do nothing to help your waistline.

Alternative: Pick up your own young green coconuts on the cheap from an Asian produce market. Just crack them open with a cleaver and pop in a straw.

"All-Natural" Foods

30 percent of Americans bought more natural foods in 2011, according to a Rodale study. But what are we really paying more for? There's no clear cut regulation on what makes food "natural," which means just about any company can slap that label on its packages, add a fancy green theme and jack up the price.

Says Andrew Schrage of MoneyCrashers: "Before buying any food that is touted as being 'all natural,' take a look at the ingredient list before you check out. Keep in mind that butter and salt are indeed natural ingredients. So stocking up on natural foods may not achieve anything other than increasing your grocery bill."

Read on for more.

5 Crazy Fit Female Vegetarian and Vegan Athletes

Leta Shy — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:36:00 PDT

There's a myth that vegans don't get enough nutrients, but then there's athletes like ultramarathoner Brendan Brazier, whose book Thrive explains how a plant-based diet helps improve performance and recovery when training, and superstar sprinter Carl Lewis, who credits a vegan diet for helping him win all those Olympic gold medals. Brendan and Carl are not the only ones to tout a plant-based lifestyle - check out how it has helped these five vegan and vegetarian female athletes stay fast and fit.

Sources: Getty, ruthheidrich.com

Foodie Friday Link Time: Green Up Your Breakfast Sammie

Susi May — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:47:13 PDT

Green up your breakfast: kale and avocado morning sammie - Healthy Happy Life
More than a snack food, here are five ways to prepare edamame - Vegetarian Times
Food myths: don't be duped by diet half-truths - HuffPost Healthy Living
Broccoli and raisins together? You betcha - Eating Bird Food
Give your St. Patty's Day menu a healthy upgrade with these recipes - Shape
Healthify your Irish soda bread with two tweaks to the traditional recipe - Daily Spark
Munch on! Healthy snacks to satisfy common cravings - Real Simple

Natural Selection: Egg Cycle Method May Be the Natural Way to Predetermine Baby's Gender

Rebecca M Gruber — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:34:51 PST

"Now you can try for a girl!" Those were the first words out of a friends' mouth after I gave birth to my second baby boy. Though I was taken aback at the time, I've come to expect it. I've been stopped by strangers on the street who seem to think I need to add a baby of the opposite gender to my brood in order for it to be complete. And it appears that I'm not alone.

Earlier this year, while appearing on The Tonight Show, Jay Leno asked a then-pregnant Jennifer Garner if hubby Ben Affleck was hoping for a boy this time. She responded, "At first I really thought so." But she added that he told her, "Well, we have girls. We know how to do girls; my girls love me. I'm the big guy in the house." That all changed on Monday when the couple welcomed lil Samuel to the family.

While most parents are simply happy to have a healthy child in their arms, there are countless myths about influencing the sex of a child, and science even allows parents to undergo procedures to predetermine a baby's gender. For those who wish to try for a baby of certain sex without medical intervention, the Egg Cycle Method is one way to do so. I spoke with Michal Naim, founder of Girl or Boy 4 U and an expert on the method, to see how and why it works.

LilSugar: What is the Egg Cycle Method?
Michal Naim: Egg Cycle Method (ECM) is a natural method that can be implemented to predetermine the gender of a child. It does not rely on diet or positions during intercourse, rather ECM focuses on the woman's body cycle and the time period in a woman's cycle that her egg receives and fertilizes an X or Y sperm.

LS: How does it work?
MN: The membrane surrounding a human egg emits ions, giving off an electrical charge. This charge attracts either the X or Y sperm during a woman’s menstrual cycle. This attraction changes from cycle to cycle. It is important for a woman looking to have a specific gender to conceive during the cycle in which her ovum will attract the appropriate chromosome. One cycle the egg might "accept" an X sperm, another cycle it might "accept" a Y sperm. I help women identify which cycle is the cycle that her egg will accept the gender of her choice and advise her on conceiving during that particular cycle.

LS: Are their limitations to ECM? Is every woman compatible with it?
MN: There are some limitations to ECM, dependent on each woman and her personal cycle. Not every woman qualifies for the ECM - actually one out of four women do not qualify for the method because I cannot map or read her cycle based on the previous pregnancies' information. Women with irregular menstrual cycles and women without previous pregnancies have lower chances to qualify or to be as successful.

LS: What is the probability of it working?
MN: Of the qualified women that follow my instructions, I have around a 90 percent success rate.

Do Popular Weight-Loss Diets Work?

Shape — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:15:48 PST

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

There's a mountain of evidence that suggests that fad diets don't function as permanent weight-loss solutions. So why do we continue to flock toward them when we know they're not very effective? After rounding up the top 10 searched diet plans on Yahoo! and noticing that almost every single one was a fad diet (such as the Atkins Diet, or HCG Diet), we wanted to know more about why we're drawn to these popular diet plans. So we went to Holly Herrington, a Registered Dietitian at the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at the Northwestern University Medical Faculty Foundation to get her take on these plans and whether they really work for weight loss.

Find out what - if any - fad diets work after the break.

How to Get Your Metabolism Moving

Health — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:03:06 PST

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

Does your metabolism grind to a halt after 35? Can certain foods rev it up? Answers ahead — and they're good.
By Paige Greenfield

Here's something to feel good about: your body is a calorie-burning machine. You'll even torch a few while reading this article. The point is, every single thing you do — from breathing to eating to sleeping — uses energy. The number of calories it would take just to lie in bed all day is called your resting metabolic rate. And just like your curly hair or warm personality, yours is unique.

"There are so many factors that determine your metabolic rate," says Janet Rankin, PhD, professor of human nutrition, foods, and exercise at Virginia Tech. Among them: your height and weight (bigger people burn more calories), your gender (women have slower metabolisms than men), your age (your metabolic rate declines as you get older), how much muscle or fat you have (muscle burns more calories than fat does), and your DNA.

Health.com: Little Ways to Lose Big Pounds

Although you can't rewire your double helix or switch back the clock, there's still plenty you can do to be a fast burner, Rankin says. All you need to do is remember these four research-backed truths.

Cardio Revs Your Metabolism For Hours Afterward
Resistance training often hogs the metab-boosting spotlight. It's no wonder, since a pound of muscle at rest fries three times as many calories as a pound of fat. However, cardio is every bit as crucial for keeping your metabolism humming.

New research explains why: In a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, people pedaled a stationary bike as hard as they could for 47 minutes.
The finding: They slashed 190 calories above their resting metabolic rate for 14 hours after their workout. Add that to the 519 calories, on average, the cyclists scorched from the workout itself, and that's one heck of a sweat session.

"If you do just two to three vigorous bouts of exercise per week for 45 minutes, you could lose a pound of fat every two weeks from the combination of calories expended during exercise plus what you burn afterward," says study author David Nieman, PhD, a professor of exercise science at Appalachian State University.

So how can you tell if you're pushing hard enough? Any sweat-inducing activity you can sustain for 45 minutes will do the trick.

More useful tips after the break.