FitSugar

Megan Fox Understands the Dangers of Extreme Dieting

Jenny Sugar — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:58:20 PDT

After ditching her vegan diet four months prior, Megan Fox showed off her new, softer look at the Friends With Kids premiere. Her strict no meat, eggs, or dairy diet also excluded bread, sugar, and cups of joe. It's great to see this photo of Megan looking healthy and radiant, but it's also reminded me of the dangers connected to extreme dieting.

For starters, when you deny your body certain food groups, you risk not meeting your daily essential vitamin and nutrient requirements. From how you look to your overall health can be affected. Brittle hair, nails, and bones, skin problems, anemia, diabetes, and heart problems are just a few of the complications a person may experience when a diet results in vitamin deficiencies. Extreme dieting may also mean you're not eating enough calories, which can result in quick weight loss. But dangerously low calorie consumption also slows your metabolism. Your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto energy stores, so when you stop dieting and go back to a regular diet, you end up gaining weight.

Your daily life can also be affected by extreme dieting. Not consuming enough brain-boosting foods or calories makes it difficult to concentrate, reduces energy levels, and weakens your immune system, making you more susceptible to missing work or school. Strict diets also affect your social life. You may worry about what others will say when they see you not eating basic food groups, so you skip out on plans involving food. Not to mention, very strict diets are impossible to maintain long-term, and if insane cravings take over, you'll end up binging and gaining weight.

Hollywood often associates beautiful with thin, so it's no wonder many of us try whatever it takes to slim down, so tell me . . .

Weekend Watching: Super-Skinny Me, the Race to Size Zero

FitSugar — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 02:00:00 PST

These days, so many activities are described as extreme, and unfortunately dieting is not exempt from this categorization. Two British journalists decided to explore the realities of extreme dieting by subjecting themselves to the techniques used by celebs, and they captured the highlights of their journey (or demise) on film for the BBC documentary Super-Skinny Me: The Race to Size Zero.

To read what this fascinating documentary is all about, just

The hour long program is the conceptual inverse of Super Size Me, instead of eating and eating these women diet, fast, and exercise, exercise, exercise. These women work so very hard to drop enough weight to fit into UK size zero, the equivalent of a US size four, and they have six weeks to reach their super-skinny goal. They try the Master Cleanse (aka lemonade diet), protein shakes, watercress soup with nothing else, and colonics (the scene is actually quite graphic and very unglamorous). This extreme relationship to food truly disrupts their lives and relationships, and one becomes borderline bulimic; although, I do believe the supervising physician does a good job of intervening.

Even more interesting than the actual dieting is the epilogue of the show when we catch up with the journalists two weeks and five weeks after their experiment is over. The pounds return quickly for one woman, perfectly illustrating the dangers of yo-yo dieting and the other journalist is still wrestling with her food issues. It is so sad to see.

This hour-long program really hammers home how unhealthy, both mentally and physically, extreme dieting truly is. I do fear some women will still find the final super-skinny results appealing and block out the dangers of this type of dieting.

This program is fascinating and totally worth an hour of your time. It airs tonight, Dec. 2, on BBC America at 10:00 p.m. EST/PST. Watch it and let me know what you think.

Source

Ditch the Extreme Dieting: It's Bad for Your Bones

FitSugar — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:30:00 PDT

Are you on an extreme diet that limits your caloric intake dramatically? Then you may want to stop following it, for the sake of your bones.

Recent research out of Ohio University has found that women who follow strict exercise and diet regimens may harm their body’s ability to form new bone, which can lead to osteoporosis later in life.

The problem is that most women feel if they do not see signs of undernutrition, such as a disruption in menstruation, then they are fine calorie wise, which is not always the case. Appetite, as it turns out, is not a good indicator of how much female athletes should eat, and neither is a regular menstrual cycle. A good rule of thumb for eating while exercising is very simple: The more you exercise, the more you need to eat to stay healthy.

Source

Here Comes the Bride! How to Detox Your Way to the Altar (Healthfully)

Michele Foley — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:01:00 PDT

Many a bride wants to look her best on the big day. And depending on her determination, she may even go to extreme measures to do so. Before you shell out major bucks on a juice cleanse or put yourself on a deprivation diet, follow these tips and tricks on detoxing naturally before the wedding.

Tracy Anderson's Weight-Loss Tips For Brides-to-Be

Leta Shy — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:39:22 PDT

It seems like Tracy Anderson has trained half of Hollywood, and one of her biggest fans, Nicole Richie, even enlisted her to help her get in shape for her 2010 wedding. "Nicole worked out six days a week, she learned dance aerobics, she did her muscular structure work, and she did it in such a healthy beautiful way," Tracy says of her client's devoted wedding prep. If you want to look like a starlet on your wedding day, here are a few tips Tracy Anderson shared with us for brides-to-be who want to get in shape.

First, start early: Don't wait until the last minute to try and lose weight and then expect miracles, Tracy warns. "The thing that is most unfortunate is when a bride comes to me and has never done anything before and is like 'Oh my god, I have to lose 30 pounds in a month,'" Tracy says. She recommends you figure out your diet and exercise plan as soon as you start looking for venue locations, at the beginning of your wedding planning, so you don't end up resorting to juice cleanses or feeding-tube diets to lose pounds weeks before your big day. (Tracy jokes, "If I were the husband-to-be, I can think of nothing less sexy than my fiance installing a feeding tube to look 120 pounds thinner on the wedding day. I'd probably call it off!")

Read on for Tracy's diet and exercise recommendations for brides!

Skip Fad Diets and Make Healthy Eating a Habit Instead

Leta Shy — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:24:52 PDT

There's a reason why they're called yo-yo: those diets that have you subsisting on just a few calories a day inevitably lead to ups and downs on the scale. A recent study backs up what many people who've struggled with weight loss already know: when researchers put dieters on a deprivation diet of about 500 calories, it worked at first, with study participants losing an average of 30 pounds over eight weeks. But it wasn't sustainable: most participants ended up gaining, on average, 11 pounds back within the year of the study, even with continued dieter's counseling, and reported that they felt "hungrier and more preoccupied with weight."

So why is it hard to maintain weight loss on an extreme diet? It's not just because of all the temptation out there; deprivation diets cause the body to go into starvation mode, making you feel even hungrier while your body holds onto pounds instead of shedding them.

Instead of trying the next fad diet that alters your hormones, start a program you know you'll be able to stick with. Plan meals so you can cook more of them at home, make healthier but still tasty choices when dining out, and allow yourself small indulgences every day. For more ways to turn "dieting" into a lifestyle, read these 13 essential eating tips for weight-loss success.

Are Money Clubs the New Book Clubs?

LearnVest — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:15:41 PDT

Money clubs are a great and fun way to stay on top of your finances. With friends supporting you, you can conquer the world and money issues! LearnVest shares how you can start one.

Thea, 31, a lawyer, lives in Brooklyn, NY. Although her friends are, in her own words, “bright, savvy, awesome women,” many felt lost financially - much like she did. “In fact, almost all of them knew someone else who was in the same financially adrift boat,” she says.

That’s when she got the idea to start a money group.

“The first meeting was held in my studio apartment in Brooklyn,” she told LearnVest. She served pizza and Diet Coke as the group of women took turns airing their money issues and goals.

The women’s issues ranged from needing to pay down credit card debt after an amazing wedding to wondering how to invest in a 403(b) retirement account that she’d left empty for years. “We left that meeting,” she says, “with the same sense of empowerment we often feel in other areas of our lives, but that was usually missing when it came to our financial life.”

Although the women are still working through their money issues and goals, it is, as Thea puts it, “easier to take a journey with a group of amazing friends.”

Are Money Clubs the New Book Clubs?

There’s a reason Thea’s personal experience was so meaningful. Just like book clubs or wine clubs - or book clubs that double as wine clubs - money clubs are groups in which you can learn interesting stuff, discuss it, and get support from like-minded friends. And maybe even add alcohol to put people at ease.

In fact, while they’re now becoming popular again, money clubs have actually been around for a long time. Many groups of women in cities across the US meet up informally, but Candace Bahr, founder of the Women’s Institute For Financial Education, or WIFE, formalized the money club concept, creating the organization’s trademarked version back in 2004.

Read on for more.

Anne Hathaway Dieting For Les Misérables - See Which Other Starlets Lost Weight For a Movie

Michele Foley — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:35:25 PDT

The Internet is abuzz over the alleged 500-calorie-per-day deprivation diet Anne Hathaway is on as she prepares for her portrayal of Fantine in the film adaptation of Les Misérables. While initial reports say Anne was ordered to drop 16 lbs. in just three weeks, her publicist says "the numbers are exaggerated," but that the actress is losing weight for the role. Anne also dropped weight for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada and the yet-to-be-released The Dark Knight Rises.

Anne certainly isn't the first - or the last - actress asked to lose weight for a movie. Keep reading to see which Hollywood starlets have taken extreme measures to slim down for a movie role.

Happy 26th Birthday Lady Gaga - How the Singer Keeps Healthy

Michele Foley — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:07:53 PDT

Lady Gaga turns 26 today, and to celebrate, we're taking a look at how the singer stays fit - I mean, look at those abs! - while living such a demanding lifestyle. While Gaga isn't without controversy (she's admitted to occasional drug and alcohol use), she remains extremely focused when it comes to her diet and fitness regimen.

She keeps a consistent workout schedule: Without fail, Gaga maintains the fitness regimen created for her by trainer Harley Pasternak. Even while touring, she works out five times a week for at least 25 minutes each day. The secret to Lady Gaga's killer abs? Lots of crunches. Harley starts her on a basic crunch and modifies that into reverse crunches, ending with a double crunch. If you want to get abs like the birthday girl, check out Lady Gaga's favorite ab exercises. When you've finished the ab routine, watch this video of Harley as he takes you through Gaga's butt workout.
She keeps a healthy diet: Besides following Harley's fitness routine, Gaga also subscribes to his 5 Factor Diet, which says to eat five times a day (two meals and three snacks) of foods falling into these five categories: lean protein, low-glycemic carbs, healthy fats, fiber, and a sugar-free beverage. The diet also allows for one cheat day a week. Some of Gaga's favorite foods to munch on are salsa with grain chips, tofu, turkey slices, hummus, and coconut water. Tonight, make yourself a Gaga-approved meal: check out Harley's recipe for five-spice halibut.
She believes in the healing power of yoga: A longtime yogini, Gaga even makes a habit to practice at local studios wherever her travels take her (Bikram and hot power yoga are her styles of choice). She has said, "Yoga makes me feel like I can do anything," and has called her longtime NYC-based teacher Tricia Donegan an inspiration, saying " . . . yoga heals me and so do you."

Source: Terry Richardson, Getty, Twitter

5 Easy Ways to Get the Whole Family to Eat Healthier

LilSugar — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:14:27 PDT

Vogue writer Dara-Lynn Weiss's controversial article about putting her 7-year-old on a strict diet is making waves. While the reaction to Weiss's extreme approach was mixed, most parents can agree that they would never ignore a doctor's recommendation to take action on their child's health and well-being.

Here are five easy kitchen and nutrition updates that every family can make, whether weight loss is a pressing issue or not.

Get More Greens: There's sure to be something that appeals to even the pickiest little taste buds with these five easy ways to make veggies more fun for kids.
Cook at Home More: We all know the feeling - in theory, we want to cook for our families, but in reality, there aren't enough hours in the day. Try to make a little extra effort this month, though. Your slow-cooker is a great place to start, as it allows busy moms to put together a meal in the morning and let the appliance work its magic while you're at the office or running carpool.
Eat a Healthy Breakfast: Ditch the sugary cereal or to-go granola bars and get the whole family's day off to the right start with a well-balanced, nutritionally-rich breakfast. All it takes is a little advance planning the night before to spice up your family's morning routine.
Don't Eliminate Dessert: But do give it a makeover. Jessica Seinfeld's mint chocolate chip ice cream is packed with pureed spinach and Greek yogurt, and 3-ingredient Smudgies are dairy and cholesterol free, contain no added sugar, and taste like an ice cream sandwich.
Make the Kitchen the Hottest Hangout in the House: Instead of keeping the kitchen off-limits to kids, invite them in to explore. Healthy cooking playdates are a great way to get your lil ones comfortable with trying new things, and adding a little adventure into what they're willing to eat. Keep cut-up fruit and veggies stored at kids' eye level so that they can help themselves to a healthy snack instead of the standby chips and cookies.