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Skinny vs. Healthy: Where Do You Stand?

Heather Dale — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:10:55 PDT

In the recent issue of Health, actress Anna Paquin discusses Hollywood's distorted perception of what's considered healthy. She says:

"I think there’s also a really big difference between looking healthy and being healthy. People in this town have a weird tendency to say, if someone’s lost weight, "Oh my God, you look amazing." And you’re like, "I just had my tonsils out and didn’t eat for three weeks." Literally, I had my tonsils out last year. You’re on a liquid diet so, of course, you lose weight. But it’s not healthy."

Other celebs have also weighed in on this topic; Bethenny Frankel admitting to growing up with an unhealthy body image, and constantly obsessing over her weight. Hilary Duff admits that she let herself get too skinny between the ages of 17 and 19, eating nothing but steamed vegetables and broiled or grilled chicken. She soon realized that not giving your body enough of what it needs can be really dangerous.

Keep reading about the other side of this debate.

10 Eating Tips For Avoiding the Freshman 15

FitSugar — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:55:11 PDT

Going away to school can be dangerous on the waistline. The dorm dining hall is like a giant, all-you-can-eat buffet. And let's be real, the food choices at most campuses are not healthy. On top of that, many students don't have access to a kitchen, and will ultimately eat all of their meals out. It's no wonder most of us gain some weight when going off to college, though the infamous "freshman 15" is really more like 10 pounds. And don't be fooled - weight gain isn't reserved to first-year students only. The eating habits you develop during your first year away can stay with you through college and beyond.

Whether you're eating in a dining hall or cooking for yourself in your first apartment, a few simple strategies can help you avoid that first-year college weight gain. Here are my tips for eating healthy while you're away at school.

Don't skip meals, especially breakfast. Starting with a filling breakfast helps steady your metabolism throughout the day. Here are five ideas for quick but healthy starts.
Drink lots of water. At the dining hall, during lectures, throughout cram sessions, whenever! Skip the soda and carry a water bottle that you can refill throughout the day to prevent constipation and bloating.
Include at least three food groups in every meal. When choosing from the endless dining hall bounty, make an effort to get plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, lean protein, and calcium - not just pizza and chicken fingers. And the more color on your plate, the better.

For the rest of my top 10 healthy eating tips,

Control your portions. Just because you can fill your plate, doesn't mean you should. Familiarize yourself with what proper portions look like and stick to them.
Treat yourself occasionally. Go ahead and indulge, but don't go overboard. If you have a cookie after lunch, skip the ice cream after dinner. Here are some ideas for healthy sweet treats.
Avoid a fourth meal. In my dorm-room days, there were always late-night pizzas being delivered or roommates making mac and cheese at midnight. It's OK to fortify yourself with the occasional snack while studying, but make sure it's actually a snack, not the equivalent of a second dinner or dessert.
Stock healthy snacks. For those late-night study sessions when you do get hungry, keep your dorm room full of healthy snacks like nuts, pretzels, fruit, popcorn, and nutrition bars.
Pick your liquor carefully. Freshmen aren't supposed to drink! But if you do, remember that alcoholic beverages are full of empty calories, and sugary cocktails are the worst for both calories and hangovers.
Shop smart. If you live in an apartment, choose healthy foods when grocery shopping. Only shop the perimeter of a grocery store, or go to a farmers market instead. If you're worried about food going bad, buy items like frozen vegetables and fruit, yogurt, low-fat string cheese, and healthy frozen meals.
Exercise! OK, this isn't really a healthy eating tip, but it's an essential part of keeping the pounds off in college. Walk or bike to class, frequent the school gym, or join an intramural team and get moving!

What are your tips for incoming freshmen looking to avoid the traditional weight gain?

6 Whole Grains to Help Control Your Weight

FitSugar — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:00:00 PDT

Cheap and healthy are my go-to adjectives these days, and whole grains fit nicely within these requirements. Whole grains are heart healthy, fight belly fat, contain appetite-controlling fiber, and are low-glycemic carbohydrates, which means they can help to control your weight. Keep your hunger at bay and achieve a healthy weight by incorporating more of these carbs into your diet.

Speak Up: Do You Agree With Meghan McCain About Women's Weight?

FitSugar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:00:00 PDT

Her dad's presidential bid is over, but blogger and aspiring pundit Meghan McCain is still speaking her mind, and this time, it's got nothing to do with politics. McCain recently wrote a piece for The Daily Beast criticizing the never-ending criticism of women's bodies in the media. She wonders why, after all the progress women have made in the past few decades, is women's weight still a "socially acceptable prejudice"?

McCain, who wears an 8 or a 10, was prompted to write the piece after talk-radio host Laura Ingraham made fun of McCain's "plus-size" body. The senator's daughter used the opportunity to question why women's weight is even part of the political and cultural discussion:

Everyone from Jessica Simpson to Tyra Banks, Oprah Winfrey, and Hillary Clinton has fallen victim to this type of image-oriented bullying. . . . After Kelly Clarkson’s recent appearance on American Idol, the first commentary I read on the Internet was about her weight gain instead of her singing.

What do you think of McCain's point? Do you agree that women's weight is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice? Or do you think she is overreacting? Should we keep healthy weight in the forefront of our dialogue?

Source

Celebrity BMIs Suggest the Numbers Can Be Misleading

FitSugar — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:00:35 PST

When you're striving to achieve a healthy weight, it's natural to look for guidance about what exactly that means for your body. While the jeans test is telling in terms of your body's changes, your pants can't tell you how many pounds you might need to lose or gain to get to your best weight.

For years, we turned to the body mass index (BMI) formula for a clue about where we fall on the health curve, but the calculation doesn't differentiate between the weight of muscle from fat and therefore isn't as trusted as it used to be.

Health.com recruited its top two nutrition experts to calculate the BMIs of seven celebrities by analyzing their photos. The experts were told each celebrity's height measurements but used weight estimates, so their calculations aren't 100 percent accurate. Still, the results offer some surprising insight about the accuracy of BMIs. To see their approximate BMI calculations for celebs and athletes like Beyonce and Tony Romo,

Celebrity	Height	Estimated Weight (lbs)	Estimated BMI	BMI Verdict
Angelina Jolie	5'8''	118	17.9	Underweight
Arnold Schwarzenegger	6'2''	240	30.8	Obese
Beyonce	5'6''	130	21	Normal
Tom Cruise	5'7''	166	26	Overweight
Tony Romo	6'2''	224	28.8	Significantly overweight
Serena Williams	5'9''	150	22.1	Normal
Jennifer Love Hewitt	5'2''	120	21.9	Normal

Source

5 Things About: Healthy Weight Loss

FitSugar — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:30:00 PDT

I have received many questions recently about healthy ways to lose weight and I would like to preface this list of 5 things by saying fad diets and crazy fasts are not the way to go.

To lose weight you need to be in a caloric deficit, meaning you consume fewer calories than you are expending. Think of it like this: Calories in needs to be less than calories going out. It really is pretty simple.
To lose one pound a week you need to be in a caloric deficit of 3500 calories. The best way to do this is to combine eating less calories and burning more calories – that means exercise! Cardio is great for burning calories. See these posts for ideas to freshen up your cardio routine.
You should never eat less than 1200 calories a day. Eating less than 1200 calories slows down your metabolism, since your body thinks a famine is coming. It is not nice to tease your metabolism in this manner. Play nice and eat healthy well-balanced meals loaded with nutrient rich veggies, fruits and grains.
The longer it takes for you to drop the pounds, the better chance you have of keeping them off. Remember: slow and steady wins with race. This is why you should really think of losing weight as making a life style change rather than dieting. Once you lose the weight, you want to maintain all those healthy habits that helped you shed those pounds in the first place.
Losing 1 to 2 pounds a week is considered healthy. Losing more than 2 pounds a week is a serious shock to your body. This also means you are not starving yourself or depriving yourself. Fad diets, or diets that have you cut out an entire food group leave you feeling less satisfied and full which leads you to cheat on your diet and then give-up. Remember it is a life style change you are working towards and having a healthy relationship with all kinds of food.

Looking for more tips and encouragement? Check out these diet tips for they will surely help. Of course, reading FitSugar regularly should help too!

Good luck!

Ways to Slim Down Your BBQ

Jenny Sugar — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:37:59 PDT

It's officially barbecuing season, and with this comes tons of burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and beer. To avoid packing on the pounds this Summer, here are some ways to add a healthy spin to your barbecues.

Go for homemade guacamole instead of creamy dips: Avocados offer the healthy fats your body needs, which is a much better option than the saturated fats found in dairy-based dips. If you're worried about calories, whip up some homemade low-cal salsa, and throw in some fresh pineapple and mango for added vitamins.
Grill up some veggies: Use a grill basket, corn holders, or skewers and choose a variety of veggies to grill alongside your meat dishes. Load up your plate to fill you up and help prevent overeating high-calorie dishes.

Keep reading to learn more ways to save barbecue calories.

Nighttime Fasting: A New Way to Lose Weight?

Shape — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:09:52 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian with master's degrees in both nutrition science and public health.

If you couldn’t let anything cross your lips from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., but you were allowed to eat anything you wanted for eight hours a day and still lose weight, would you try it? That’s the apparent bottom line of a rat study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, which recently stirred up the weight loss pot.

Top 50 Summer Diet Foods for Weight Loss

Scientists put groups of mice on different diet regimens for 100 days. One group of rodents ate healthy food while animals in two of the groups chowed down on high-fat, high-calorie feed. Half of the junk food eaters were allowed to munch whenever they wanted to while the others only had access to feed for the eight hours they were most active. The conclusion: even though they ate a fatty diet, the mice who were forced to fast for 16 hours were almost as lean as those who ate the healthy fare. Interestingly, the round the clock junk food eaters became obese and developed health problems, even though they consumed about the same amount of fat and calories as the time-restricted junk food fed mice.

See if a nutritionist thinks nighttime fasting works after the break!

Dare to Detox? Sugar Editors Try 3 Popular Juice Cleanses

Leta Shy — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:48:13 PDT

Ever wanted to try a juice cleanse? The benefits of going on an all-juice cleanse may be debatable, but that doesn't stop many from trying it out. Take our own Sugar editors; whether it's to detox after an indulgent vacation or just to jump-start a healthier lifestyle, some around here have tried and tested the all-juice diet. Read on to find out more about the pros and cons of three popular juice cleanses and how hard (or easy!) each was to complete.

Shawn Johnson Talks Weight Loss and Learning to Love Her Body

espnW — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:05:26 PDT

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

By Shawn Johnson

Shawn Johnson is blogging for espnW throughout her training for the Olympics in London this summer. Follow hers other Olympic hopefuls' journeys on espnW.com.

Four years ago, I was standing on an Olympic podium, wearing a gold medal, and still thinking to myself how I could have been better. It had nothing to do with my performance - it was all how I looked. Back then, I always felt like I could have been a few pounds lighter. But the irony is, when I look back at the pictures, I look unhealthy and too thin. It's easy to get into a trap as an elite athlete, because you're made to feel that you're never perfect, that you can always be better. That's how you improve in your sport, but it's also tough because you aren't satisfied with yourself ever - it's second nature not to be. I'd always think, "Just get a little stronger, a little lighter," until it was completely ingrained in my mind.

Shawn Johnson takes us inside training camp

It's easy for people to blame gymnastics for this mentality, but I feel like the sport has improved a lot. The horror stories we heard from generations ago (think Joan Ryan's infamous book Little Girls in Pretty Boxes), you don't hear at all anymore. But I do believe it can improve further and that good nutrition could be a key to all of this, if it were only taught at a young age. Many gymnasts go into the elite level at 13 or so, and a 13-year-old isn't going to go to the library to read some book on nutrition! She needs to be given the right information on how to eat well. Otherwise, it's not until she's out of the sport that she realizes the damage she's done to her body by not eating enough over the past 20 years.

Shawn Johnson in the driver's seat

I see all the success we have as a country where the gymnasts aren't 100 percent healthy, and I imagine how amazing we could be if we were doing it in the healthiest way possible. I don't think it's a failure on anybody's part; the education just isn't there right now, and it's just not thought about in our sport. My parents have told me since I was little, "You're given your body for a reason. It's OK to be different. Being unique is a good thing." But I always struggled to believe it. I'm stocky, muscular and short, and I wanted to be thin and flexible so bad! My mom would say, "You're not made that way, and you're not going to become that, so you have to learn to accept and love the body you're in." Well, some people are born with that appreciation, and some people have to work really hard to get there. Put me in that second camp.

Read on for more on what Shawn Johnson has to say about body confidence and how she feels in her gymnastics leotard.