Boost Your Metabolism: A few thing that really work!

One of the most common fitness questions is "How can I boost my metabolism and burn more body fat?". Well, here are some great tips for doing exactly that...

From eDiets.com:

You've blamed your metabolism your whole life, right? Well, as you get older, your metabolism really does make it difficult to burn calories as efficiently as you did when you were younger.

Metabolism is the amount of calories you burn at rest, or the amount of energy your body uses to function. The average 30-year-old woman burns 1,150 to 1,250 calories daily, while the average 30-year-old man uses 1,600 calories. After age 30, your metabolism slows down. The drop is slight -- only one-half of a percent a year -- but it adds up. Continue to eat the way you did in your 20's, and you'll be consuming more calories than your body can use. Those extra calories become fat.

Menopause, extreme dieting or inactivity can slow the calorie burn even more. The good news is you can rev up your metabolism. The best way is to exercise. Any activity, from washing dishes to running a marathon, speeds up the rate at which you burn calories. Not only does the exercise itself burn calories, but a good workout creates muscle, which burns calories more quickly than any other tissue.

A University of Maryland at Baltimore study showed that after a 16-week strength-training program, the resting metabolic rate of healthy 50- to 65-year-old men jumped 7.7 percent. And a University of Colorado study found that post-menopausal women who regularly swam or ran for at least 45 minutes five days a week maintained the same resting metabolic rate as younger, pre-menopausal women.

Here are some simple tips on how to crank up your internal flame:

# Don't overdo calorie cutting. Putting yourself on a very-low-calorie diet is a surefire way not to lose. Your body is programmed to defend your usual weight. So if you suddenly drop 1,000 calories from your diet, your resting metabolic rate (the number of calories your body burns to maintain basic bodily functions) will automatically slow down, because your body now assumes that you're starving.

So how many calories should you consume? Depending on your level of activity, you can safely lose anywhere from half a pound to two pounds a week if you multiply your current weight by 11. (For example, if you're 120 pounds, aim for around 1,320 calories a day.) Unless you're less than five feet tall, don't let your daily calories dip below 1,200. Research shows that women who consume less than this amount see their resting metabolic rate plummet by as much as 45 percent.

# Eat breakfast. Believe it or not, it may be the most important meal of the day as far as metabolism (and weight loss) is concerned. Breakfast eaters lose more weight than breakfast skippers do, according to studies. Your metabolism slows while you sleep, and it doesn't rev back up until you eat again. So if you bypass breakfast, your body won't burn as many calories until lunchtime as it could. That's why it's smart to start the day with a solid 300-to-400-calorie meal.

Aim for a breakfast that has plenty of high-fiber carbs. High-fiber carbohydrates take longer for your body to digest and absorb than fats; thus they don't cause rapid changes in your blood sugar, so your hunger is kept at bay longer.

# Pile on the protein. Research shows that getting plenty of protein can boost your metabolism, causing you to burn an extra 150 to 200 calories a day. Protein is made up mainly of amino acids, which are harder for your body to break down than fat and carbs so you burn more calories getting rid of them.

But, make sure that 10 to 35 percent of your total daily calories comes from protein. So if you're on an 1,800-calorie diet, 360 to 630 of those calories should come from lean sources of protein, such as fish, chicken, low-fat cheese, yogurt and legumes. Aim to have a serving of protein, such as nuts, a small can of tuna or a piece of low-fat string cheese, at every meal and snack.

# Nibble all day. It sounds counterintuitive; why would you eat continually if you wanted to lose weight? But eating five to six mini meals rather than three larger meals every day keeps your metabolism humming 24/7. It will also prevent you from going without food so long that you become so hungry you overeat. Try not to let more than four hours elapse between meals and make sure each meal includes protein, for an extra metabolic boost.

If you eat a high-fiber breakfast of cereal and fruit, have a midmorning snack, such as yogurt and fruit; lunch (try four ounces of chicken or fish on top of a leafy green salad); another snack, like a banana and a piece of low-fat cheese, in the late afternoon; and a light dinner (think four to six ounces of turkey, salmon or another lean source of protein with steamed veggies).

# Skip alcohol. Thinking about having a cocktail -- or two -- before dinner? Think again. Having a drink before a meal causes people to eat around 200 calories more, several studies show. Drinking with dinner isn't such a good idea either: Other research has found that the body burns off alcohol first, meaning that the calories in the rest of the meal are more likely to be stored as fat. If you do have a cocktail craving, stick to wine, which packs only 80 calories a glass -- or minimize the calories by drinking a white-wine spritzer (two ounces of wine mixed with two ounces of seltzer).

# Drink milk. Load up on low-fat dairy: Women who consumed milk, yogurt and cheese three to four times a day lost 70 percent more body fat than women who didn't eat dairy in a study published in the American Society for Nutritional Sciences Journal of Nutrition. The reason: Calcium, along with other substances in dairy, actually revs up your metabolism, according to study.

Women reap the largest fat-burning benefit when they consume three servings of dairy and 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day, research shows.

# Pump iron. Experts say weight training is the best way to crank up your resting metabolic rate. As you get older, your resting metabolic rate drops, but weight training can rev it right back up again.

A pound of muscle burns up to nine times the calories a pound of fat does. In fact, a woman who weighs 130 pounds and is muscular burns more calories than a sedentary 120-pound woman of the same height. Regular strength training can increase your resting metabolic rate anywhere from 6.8 to 7.8 percent. That means that if you weigh 120 pounds, you could burn around 100 more calories a day, even when you're just watching TV.

Don't think you have time to hit the gym? You can get great results with only two 15-minute lifting sessions a week. Research, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, found that doing just one set of 10 reps reaps about the same muscle-building benefits as three sets, as long as they're performed to muscle fatigue.

Bonus: Weight training also gives your metabolism a short-term boost. When women lift weights, their metabolisms remain in overdrive for up to two hours after the last bench press, allowing them to burn as many as 100 extra calories, according to a study published in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

# Rev up your workouts. Adding interval training -- bursts of high-intensity moves -- to your workout is a great metabolism booster. "Studies have shown that people who do interval training twice a week [in addition to cardio] lose twice as much weight as those who do just a regular cardio workout," says obesity specialist Aronne. You can easily incorporate interval training into your workout by inserting a 30-second sprint into your jog every five minutes or by adding a one-minute incline walk to your treadmill workout. "Since your body is working harder, it's a more intense workout -- and you therefore burn more calories," says Westcott. On other days, shake up your routine with 40 minutes of cross-training. Ideally, aim for two 20-to-40-minute interval-training sessions and two 20-to-40-minute cross-training sessions a week.

# Break up your exercise routine. Whenever possible, slice each of your workouts into two smaller sessions. For example, do a 15-minute weight-lifting session in the morning, then do your 30-minute walk on your lunch hour or at night. You'll burn an extra 100 to 200 calories that day. Don't have time? Just add in some stair climbing or short walks throughout the day. Even small bursts of activity are enough to get your metabolism revved, according to a study in the scientific journal Nature. For five minutes out of every hour, get up and do something, even if it's just walking around your office. You can end up burning a couple of hundred extra calories.

# Get some shut-eye. Skimping on sleep can derail your metabolism. In a study at the University of Chicago, people who got four hours of sleep or less a night had more difficulty processing carbohydrates. When you're exhausted, your body lacks the energy to do its normal day-to-day functions, which include burning calories, so your metabolism is automatically lowered. There are easy ways to get a good night's sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Schedule your workouts earlier in the day; exercising within two to three hours of bedtime can keep sleep at bay. And try soaking in a hot bath, since studies show that warm water makes it easier to fall asleep.

# Chill out. Long-term stress can make you fat, studies have found. When you're chronically stressed, your body is flooded with stress hormones, which stimulate fat cells deep in the abdomen to increase in size and encourage fat storage. This is toxic weight, because fat deep within your belly is more likely to increase your risk for heart disease, diabetes and cancer. And stress hormones spark your appetite, making you likely to overeat.

Learn more at eDiets.com...


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Low-carb Foods: Worth the Price?

Many of the high-priced "low carb" specialty foods you see in the grocery store are really not worth the money...

From DrWeil.com:

Low-carb foods seem to be everywhere and are now options in almost every food category, from breakfast to dessert to snack foods. While "good" carbohydrates (whole grains, beans, vegetables, nuts, fruits and low-fat dairy products) are good for you, low-carb foods are not always healthier - or healthy at all. Many have unhealthy trans or saturated fats, and can be as high or higher in calories than the original versions. Plus, they can carry a hefty price tag for little difference. Tomato sauce, for instance, is already a low-carbohydrate food; paying more for a low-carb version could simply be a waste of money.

Food manufacturers reduce carbohydrate counts in a variety of ways: adding more water; removing sugars and starches used as filler; using artificial sweeteners instead of sugar; or replacing white flour with soy or wheat gluten (typically a good move, except there may be additional processing and additives used to improve flavor and texture). My recommendation if you are watching your weight: look at the total calories and fat, not just the carbs in foods, and opt for the healthier "good" carbs.

Learn more at DrWeil.com...


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Study: Many Diet Studies Lack Key Data

This is just more evidence that many of the "studies" diet-makers tout to support their claims really aren't that accurate...

From HealthDayNews:

Scientific studies that claim to support the effectiveness of weight-loss plans often leave out key facts that can influence the results, claims a new analysis of hundreds of diet studies.

Many of the reports omit key mitigating details about the dieters themselves -- things such as medication use, health status, ethnicity and even age.

"We had not expected such poor reporting quality," said study author Cheryl Gibson, a research associate professor of medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Her team published their findings in the Feb. 22 issue of Biomed Central Medical Research Methodology.

Studies of weight loss are plentiful, since 97 million adults are overweight or obese in the United States, Gibson pointed out. To stem the obesity epidemic, much research has focused on the role of diet, exercise and genes to maintain a healthy weight.

"We wanted to look at the reporting quality of those studies that looked at diet and exercise for weight loss," Gibson said.

To do so, she and her colleagues analyzed 231 articles in medical journals focused on the weight-loss effects for obese individuals of regimens that either included restricting diet, restricting diet plus increasing exercise, or exercise only. They also looked at studies whose main endpoints included changes in body composition, fat distribution, metabolism and aerobic fitness. The studies were published between 1966 and 2003.

Gibson's team looked closely at how the articles reported the physical, background and health characteristics of the study participants. As a guide, they used the Consolidation of the Standard of Reporting Trials Characteristics (CONSORT). This is a list of 21 different elements considered essential for a study to be validated by experts and editors of medical journals.

Gibson's team especially focused on age, gender, general health information, use of medication (other than drugs used to control weight), ethnicity and female participant's menopausal status.

Their findings: 92 percent of the studies did not report medication use, while 34 percent ignored the health status of the persons. Ethnicity was not mentioned in 86 percent of the studies; ages were missing in 11 percent.

Eight percent of studies didn't say whether women were pre- or postmenopausal; 4 percent didn't differentiate men from women when reporting results.

Besides the lack of detail on ethnicity and other factors, Gibson found the end of study sample size was often not listed, making it impossible to determine the diet dropout rate.

Missing data like this is important, the study authors conclude, because "inadequate reporting can create difficulties of interpretation, and lead to biased results."

"As researchers we need to do a better job of reporting our studies," said Gibson. "For other researchers to replicate a study there needs to be more attention to detail to enhance the reporting quality of the trials." Replicating studies helps researchers prove a particular method or approach or medicine truly works.

One expert took the study conclusions as call to do better.

"She makes a good point," said Dr. Michael Dansinger, director of obesity research for the atherosclerosis research lab at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. "We have gaps to fill in reporting of obesity research studies and we should view her work with an open mind and an effort to improve."

"By identifying these gaps, we can identify areas for improvement," he said.

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Overtraining: Preventing and avoiding it

From eFitness.com:

What is the difference between being just a little tired or on a down-cycle, and being legitimately run down or overtired? It’s important to know if you want to stay injury free.

Nothing will put a stop to your fitness goals more quickly than not being able to recognize when you’re legitimately run down and overtired. One of the biggest challenges to achieving your fitness goals is consistency. If you’re repeatedly getting sick, run down and overtrained it becomes very difficult to stay injury-free. So, how do you keep the consistency of regular exercise, without over doing it and becoming sick or injured?

Amateur and professional athletes alike are constantly battling with the problem of overtraining. Being able to juggle just the right amount of training, with enough sleep and rest, and the proper nutrition is not an easy act to master. Throw in a career and a family and it becomes near impossible.

Overtraining is the result of giving your body more work or stress than it can handle. It occurs when a person experiences stress and physical trauma from exercise faster than their body can repair the damage. This doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, regular exercise is extremely beneficial to your general health and fitness, but you must remember that it's exercise that breaks your body down, while it’s the rest and recovery that makes you stronger and healthier. Improvements only occur during rest.

Remember stress can come from a multitude of sources. It’s not just physical stress that causes overtraining. Sure, excessive exercise may lead to overtraining, but don't forget to consider other stresses, such as family or work commitments. Remember, stress is stress, whether it’s physical, mental or emotional. It still has the same effect on your health and well-being.

Reading The Signs

There are no tests to determine whether you are overtrained or not. However, there are a number of signs and symptoms that you should be on the lookout for.

To make it easier for you to recognize them I’ve grouped them into both physical or psychological signs and symptoms. Suffering from any one or two of the following signs or symptoms doesn’t automatically mean you are suffering from overtraining. However, if you recognize a number, say five or six, then it may be time to take a close look at the volume and intensity of your workload.

Physical Signs and Symptoms

- Elevated resting pulse / heart rate
- Frequent minor infections
- Increased susceptibility to colds and the flu
- Increases in minor injuries
- Chronic muscle soreness or joint pain
- Exhaustion
- Lethargy
- Appetite loss
- Insatiable thirst or dehydration
- Intolerance to exercise
- Decreased performance
- Delayed recovery from exercise
- Psychological Signs and Symptoms

- Fatigued, tired, drained, lack of energy
- Reduced ability to concentrate
- Apathy or no motivation
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Headaches
- Insomnia
- Inability to relax
- Twitchy, fidgety or jittery

Generally the most common signs and symptoms to look for are a total loss of motivation in all areas of your life (work or career, health and fitness, etc.), plus a feeling of exhaustion. If these two warning signs are present, plus a couple of the other listed signs and symptoms, then it may be time to take a short rest before things get out of hand.

The Answer To The Problem

Okay, you feel run down and totally exhausted. You’ve got no motivation to do anything. You can’t get rid of that nagging knee injury. You’re irritable, depressed and have totally lost your appetite. Sounds like you’re overtrained. What do you do now?

As with most things, prevention is by far better than cure, so lets start by having a quick look at a few things you can do to prevent overtraining.

Only making small and gradual increases to your exercise program over a period of time.

Eating a well-balanced, nutritious diet.

Ensuring adequate relaxation and sleep.

Being prepared to modify your training to suit environmental conditions. For example, on a very hot day, going to the pool instead of out in the sun. Being able to monitor other stresses on your life and make adjustments. Avoiding monotonous training, by varying your exercise as much as possible.

Not exercising during an illness.

Most of all, be flexible and have some fun with what you do. While prevention should always be your aim, there will be times when overtraining will occur and you’ll need to know what to do to get back on track.

Your first priority is to put your feet up and take a rest. Anywhere from three to five days should do the trick, depending on how severe the overtraining is. During this time forget about exercise, your body needs a rest so give it one. A physical rest, as well as a mental rest. There’s no point in beating yourself up mentally over losing a few days of exercise.

Try to get as much sleep and relaxation as possible. Go to bed early and catch a nap whenever you can. Make sure you increase your intake of highly nutritious foods and take an extra dose of vitamins and minerals.

After the initial three to five days rest, you can gradually get back into your normal exercise routine, but start off slowly. Most research states that it’s okay to start off with the same intensity and time of exercise, but cut back on the frequency. So if you would normally exercise three or four times a week, cut that back to only twice a week for the next week or two. After that you should be OK to resume your normal exercise regime.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to have a rest whether you’re feeling run down or not. It will give both your mind and body a chance to fully recover from any problems that may be building up without you even knowing it. It will also freshen you up, give you a renewed motivation and help you look forward to your exercise again. Don’t underestimate the benefits of a good rest.

Learn more at eFitness.com...


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Study: School programs can cut childhood obesity

A new study from Canada shows that teaching kids to exercise at a young age in school can help lower their chances of becoming overweight or obese. If your child's school doesn't have a physical activity program you may want to start a petition to change that...

From the Toronto Star:

Catch kids at a young age and you can change their eating and exercise habits, a new study says.

Grade 5 students in schools with a program that promotes both physical activity and healthy eating were less than half as likely to be overweight or obese as those in schools offering only healthy food choices or nothing at all, according to the study released today in the American Journal of Public Health.

"This research points to evidence that establishing healthy behaviours at a young age is possible, and schools can play an important role in reducing childhood obesity and promoting healthy living," said Dr. Paul Veugelers, a professor of public health sciences at the University of Alberta and the study's lead author.

The study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information is one of the first to evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition and healthy living programs in schools, at a time when childhood overweight and obesity rates are two to three times what they were 15 years ago.

It looked at 5,200 Grade 5 students in nearly 300 Nova Scotia schools and found only four per cent of those in a comprehensive healthy living program were obese, compared to 10 per cent in schools without such a program.

The children in the comprehensive program also ate more fruits and vegetables, had better overall diets and were more likely to be physically active than their counterparts.

Read more...


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Control Stress, Lose Fat

Did you know that high stress levels can increase your body fat? Studies have shown that people who have chronically elevated stress hormones -- like cortisol -- often gain weight much more easily and quickly. Learn how to control your stress response and you will most likely lower your body fat and improve your overall health...

From eFitness.com:

The Flight or Fight Response

Millions of years ago, our cavemen ancestors needed to react swiftly to any perceived threat. This flight or fight response was designed to provide quick energy for 5-10 minutes, enabling our forefathers and mothers to either do battle or run.

At the first sign of perceived danger, the human brain releases a substance known as corticotropin-releasing-hormone, or CRH. CRH travels to the adrenal cortex and stimulates the release of the hormones adrenalin and cortisol.

Immediately eyesight and hearing improve, lung capacity jumps, and thinking becomes more focused. The digestive system is temporarily shut down, and blood is shunted from the internal organs for emergency use elsewhere. Heart rate and blood pressure climb, and due to increased cortisol levels, more stored fuel (fat and glucose) is mobilized for quick action.

Production of insulin, the fat storage hormone, is also dramatically increased. Insulin overrides signals from adrenalin to burn fat, and instead, encourages the body to store fat (for future use) in the abdominal region.

This life-saving, emergency response plan was appropriate to an era when your biggest concern was surviving the day. But when was the last time you reacted to a stressful situation by actually fighting or running away? Unfortunately, the human brain cannot distinguish between a valid physical threat and ordinary, day-to-day stress. For many stressed-out individuals, the flight or fight response is triggered on an almost continuous basis.

Here's what we know so far:

Your body reacts to stress and prepares itself to run or fight by releasing certain hormones (adrenalin, cortisol, insulin). Your brain cannot distinguish between chronic stress and a life-threatening situation, and will react the same in both cases. In today’s world, physical threats are few and far between, but day-to-day stress is chronic, and can also trigger the flight or fight response.

Cortisol is the Culprit

As you sit in your car and stew over the wall of traffic in front of you, the deadlines at work you’ll never meet, and the bills you can’t pay, your brain begins to sense the onset of a threatening situation and sets the flight or fight response into motion.

You feel this as nervous tension or just plain anxiety. Your heart pounds, you want to jump out of your skin, but you can only sit. All that extra fuel (in the form of fat and glucose) that's designed to provide you with emergency energy, is now being mobilized for action, but goes unused and left behind, only to be re-deposited as fat. And to make matters worse, usually belly-fat.

High cortisol levels are associated with increased appetite and fat deposits, typically around the trunk and abdomen. Some researches theorize that this unused fuel (or fat) is generally deposited in the abdominal area because of its proximity to the liver (where it can be quickly converted to a usable form of energy).

The Adrenalin Antidote

As part of the body's short-term protective measures, Cortisol acts like the adrenalin antidote. Upon removal of the stressful stimulus, adrenalin levels quickly dissipate, but cortisol levels remain high, causing insulin production to surge as well.

In the face of prolonged or chronic stress, cortisol levels can remain constantly high, keeping you in a state of perpetual hunger. We can easily see how elevated cortisol levels can promote weight gain due to an overabundance of insulin. Insulin resistance, which affects 25 percent of all Americans, is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The average caveman was well served by a system that signaled him to eat after every emergency, and where total energy expenditure was not uncommon. Today true physical emergencies are rare, but this short-term protective mechanism, although somewhat outdated, still works, and the act of going out and obtaining food burns only as few calories as it takes to drive to the nearest supermarket or McDonald's (about one french fry).

The stress response is hardwired into the fabric of our lives. Ask the average man or woman off the street if he or she gets stressed out on a regular basis, and you’ll most likely hear an emphatic, "Yes!" So if we can’t eliminate stress, how can we combat the negative effects of the flight or fight response?

One of the most obvious ways to combat fat and the ravages of stress is with exercise. Exercise represents a triple threat to body fat. First, exercise burns calories and utilizes stored body fat as fuel. Second, working out increases the amount of lean muscle mass your body must provide with fuel on a 24-hour basis. More muscle means less fat.

Researchers from Yale University have now clearly demonstrated a third mechanism by which exercise reduces stores of body fat, especially around the belly. They've demonstrated that moderate to vigorous exercise, such as lifting weights, can offset the negative effects of cortisol and insulin.

With as little as 10 minutes of strenuous exercise the brain begins to produce beta-endorphins that calm you and decrease levels of the stress hormone. Many feel that strenuous exercise actually mimics a typical caveman-like physical reaction to a threat, and is the modern-day version of an appropriate reaction to the flight or fight response.

Don’t overdo it. Too much exercise can actually cause additional stress and associated symptoms. Be sure to get plenty of rest. Inadequate sleep increases cortisol levels and reduces leptin, a hormone that signals fullness.

Common sense dictates that you eat right, get plenty of sleep, and exercise, but now we have another weapon in the battle of the bulge; stress management. Be sure to not ignore the signs of being overstressed, of which being overweight is just one symptom.

Another victim of stress is the youth-promoting hormone Dehydroepiandrosterone or DHEA. DHEA is a naturally occurring feel-good hormone that’s been shown to decline under times of physical and emotional trauma, and may be another connection between stress and weight gain.

Researches have found that DHEA levels can be easily elevated during meditation, as well as by exercise. In a similar fashion to the beta-endorphins that are released during vigorous activities, DHEA production increases during meditation. This process reduces blood cortisol levels and combats the negative effects of stress.

Recognize symptoms and do something today, whether through exercise or other types of stress management techniques such as psychotherapy, hypnosis, taking up a hobby, or meditation. Take back control of your life.

Early warning signs of stress:

- Sudden weight loss or weight gain
- Tired but can’t sleep, excessive fatigue
- Speech difficulties, impatience
- Headaches, repeated colds or flu
- Nail biting, teeth grinding
- Low or high blood sugar
- Low or high blood pressure
- High cholesterol or triglycerides
- Ulcers and gastric disturbances
- Chest pains, muscle aches
- Lower back, shoulder, neck pain
- Menstrual problems, hair loss
- Forgetfulness, withdraw from social life

Learn more at eFitness.com...


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Study: Air pollution thickens the blood

Important news for anyone who regularly works out in a city or town with high levels of air pollution...

From bmj.com:

Air pollution, and especially particulate matter, thickens the blood and boosts inflammation, finds experimental research in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

This may help to explain why air pollution is associated with an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, and worsening respiratory problems.

The research team tested the inflammatory and blood clotting responses of human immune cell (macrophages) and umbilical cord and lung cells, six and 24 hours after exposure to particulate matter.

The results showed that clotting factors, which thicken the blood, were enhanced in almost all the cell types. The rate of death in immune cells also significantly increased, and exposure to the pollutants boosted inflammatory activity.

The authors say their findings suggest that particulate matter has the ability to alter cell function so that it promotes thickening or coagulation of the blood. And they point to a potential synergy between the factors that boost inflammation and blood thickening.

Ultrafine particles of inhaled particulate matter can enter the bloodstream, raising the possibility that their "thickening" effects on macrophages might have an impact on the plaques found on artery walls. Macrophages are a major component of arterial plaques.

Video game meets fitness video

From The Orange County Register:

Maya is one of the busiest personal fitness trainers in the United States.

Each day, she designs detailed workouts tailored for her hundreds of clients. No mere mortal can pull it off.

But then again, Maya is no mere mortal.

Maya is a virtual trainer who exists only in the world of Yourself!Fitness, a new hybrid of video game and fitness video that focuses on exercise at home.

The fitness game can be played on an XBox, PC and – beginning this month – on Sony's PlayStation.

Maya is sort of what happens when a modern mad scientist combines genes from Al Pacino's computer-generated movie star, "Simone," exercise instructor Karen Voight and Lara Croft.

Phineas Barnes, co-founder of responDesign, is one of the men behind Yourself!Fitness. Barnes said the idea for a personal training video game came to him two years ago when he noticed that his female relatives and female future in-laws were all talking about getting in shape for Barnes' wedding. He also took a mental note of how most electronic gifts, especially video games, were purchased by women for the boys and men in their lives.

What if there was a product that had qualities of a video game combined with the benefits of a fitness video that women could play?

Read more...


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15 Healthy Diet Basics

There are a few basic eating guidelines you should follow no matter what type of fitness or weight loss program you're on. If you incorporate the following 15 diet tips into your lifestyle you will, without a doubt, be healthier and fitter (and lighter!) within just a few weeks...

From the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter:

Developing healthy eating habits isn't as confusing or as restrictive as many people imagine. The first principle of a healthy diet is simply to eat a wide variety of foods. This is important because different foods make different nutritional contributions.

Secondly, fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes--foods high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, low in fat, and free of cholesterol--should make up the bulk of the calories you consume. The rest should come from low-fat dairy products, lean meat and poultry, and fish.

You should also try to maintain a balance between calorie intake and calorie expenditure--that is, don't eat more food than your body can utilize. Otherwise, you will gain weight. The more active you are, therefore, the more you can eat and still maintain this balance.

Following these three basic steps doesn't mean that you have to give up your favorite foods. As long as your overall diet is low in saturated fat and rich in high-fiber carbohydrates, there is nothing wrong with an occasional cheeseburger. Just be sure to limit how frequently you eat such foods, and try to eat small portions of them.

You can also view healthy eating as an opportunity to expand your range of choices by trying foods--especially vegetables, grains, or fruits--that you don't normally eat. A healthy diet doesn't have to mean eating foods that are bland or unappealing.

The following basic guidelines are what you need to know to construct a healthy diet.

1. Eat plenty of high-fiber foods--that is, fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. These are the "good carbohydrates"--nutritious, filling, and relatively low in calories. Fiber slows the absorption of the carbohydrates, so there's less effect on insulin and blood sugar. This will help you obtain the 20 to 30 grams of dietary fiber you need each day, as well as provide important vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals (plant chemicals essential to good health).

2. Limit your intake of sugary foods, refined-grain products such as white bread, and salty snack foods. Sugar, our No.1 additive, is added to a vast array of foods. High-fructose corn syrup--an increasingly common form of sugar, especially in soft drinks--now supplies nearly 10% of all calories consumed in the U.S. Many sugary foods are also high in fat, so they're calorie-dense.

3. Cut down on animal fat (high in saturated fat). This is the kind of fat that boosts blood cholesterol levels and has other adverse health effects. Choose lean meats, skinless poultry, and nonfat or low-fat dairy products.

4. Cut way down on trans fats, supplied by hydrogenated vegetable oils used in most processed foods in the supermarket and in many fast foods.

5. Eat more fish and nuts, which contain healthy unsaturated fats. Substitute olive or canola oil for butter or stick margarine. Cook with these healthy oils, and use them for salad dressings.

6. Keep portions moderate, especially of high-calorie foods. In recent years serving sizes have ballooned, particularly in restaurants. Choose a starter instead of an entree, split a dish with a friend, and don't order supersized anything.

7. Keep your cholesterol intake below 300 milligrams per day. Cholesterol is found only in animal products, such as meats, poultry, dairy products, and egg yolks.

8. Make sure to include green, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables--such as broccoli, carrots, cantaloupe, and citrus fruits. The antioxidants and other nutrients in these foods are regarded as increasingly important in helping protect against developing certain types of cancer and other diseases. Eat five or more servings a day.

9. Eat a variety of foods. Don't try to fill your nutrient requirements by eating the same foods day in, day out. It is possible that not every essential nutrient has been identified, and so eating a wide assortment of foods helps to ensure that you will get all the necessary nutrients. In addition, this will limit your exposure to any pesticides or toxic substances that may be present in one particular food.

10. Limit your sodium intake to no more than 2,400 milligrams per day. This is equivalent to the amount of sodium in a little more than a teaspoon of salt. Cut back on your use of salt in cooking and on the table; avoid salty foods; check food labels for the inclusion of ingredients containing sodium.

11. Maintain an adequate calcium intake. Calcium is essential for strong bones and teeth. Get your calcium from low-fat sources, such as skim milk and low-fat or nonfat yogurt. If you can't get the optimal amount from foods, take supplements.

12. Try to get your vitamins and minerals from foods, not from supplements. Supplements cannot substitute for a healthy diet, which supplies nutrients and other compounds besides vitamins and minerals. Foods also provide the "synergy" that many nutrients require to be efficiently used in the body.

13. Consider taking a basic daily multivitamin/mineral supplement, especially if you are a woman of child-bearing age (who needs extra folic acid, a B vitamin) or over age 60 (because of decreased nutrient absorption by the body).

14. Maintain a desirable weight. Balance energy (calorie) intake with energy output. Eating a low-fat diet will help you maintain--or lower--your weight, as will regular exercise.

15. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation. That is one drink a day for women, two a day for men. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits. Excess alcohol consumption leads to a variety of health problems. And alcoholic beverages can add many calories to your diet without supplying nutrients.

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Study: Organic veggies boost health of rats

Natural health experts have long recommended eating organically-grown fruits and vegetables for optimal fitness and health. Now a new study supports that advice...

From ABC News Australia:

A Danish study has found organically grown vegetables strengthen the immune systems and add more vitamin E to the bloodstream in rats.

Researchers at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences (DIAS) have found rats fed with organically grown vegetables are healthier than rats fed with non-organic greens.

The rats nourished with organic produce had more vitamin E, which is found chiefly in plant leaves and which acts as a powerful antioxidant that protects the body from cardiovascular diseases.

Research chief Charlotte Lauridsen said they also had less body fat and were calmer than their fellow rodents raised on non-organic food.

"We consider the results as a milestone that take us a huge step forward in our research," she said in an interview on Danish television station TV2, adding that it still remained to be seen if the results were relevant for humans.

The benefits of eating organically produced food to consumer health have yet to be clearly documented.

For Exercise Newbies: Start Slow!

If you've never exercised before, or if it's been more than 6 months since your last workout, you need to start (or re-start) slowly. This is very important. One of the biggest mistakes exercise newbies make is trying to do too much too soon. You might think that you're doing yourself some good but, in reality, you're setting yourself up to fail. When you push your unconditioned heart, muscles and ligaments too hard you quickly get injured, burned out or worse! Natural health expert Dr. Weil suggests the following tips for beginning an exercise program safely and effectively...

From DrWeil.com:

An essential element in keeping hearts healthy is exercise, especially aerobic/cardiovascular exercise.

# Start slowly, and gradually increase your intensity and/or duration. Studies have shown that as many as 25 percent of those who begin an exercise program stop within six weeks as the result of injury.

# Make sure your program includes aerobic/cardiovascular conditioning, which is important for strengthening the muscles of the heart and lungs, to burn fat, and to decrease the risks for chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Strength and flexibility training should also be included.

# Consider hiring a qualified professional to ensure that your experience is safe and effective. Whether it's a personal trainer, a Yoga teacher, a group fitness instructor or a dance teacher, ask for credentials to indicate their level of expertise.

Learn more at DrWeil.com...

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Splenda: Not a "Natural" Sweetener!

From Reuters News:

Splenda Ad Campaign Comes Under Fresh Fire

The marketing campaign for Johnson & Johnson's Splenda sweetener drew fresh criticism on Monday, as agriculture and public interest groups added their voices to charges it is misleading the public.

Splenda, an artificial sweetener enjoying surging sales growth, is marketed by J&J's McNeil Nutritionals unit with the line: "Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar."

The Sugar Association and several consumer organizations say that marketing pitch does not accurately represent the end product, as the sugar used to make Splenda is converted to sweetener, using chlorine.

"We feel that Splenda's marketing techniques are unfair to the entire agriculture industry," Richard Weiss, chief operating officer of the National Grange agriculture advocacy group, told a news conference on Monday.

"When farmers have to compete with chemistry pretending to be natural, it puts them at a disadvantage that affects their ability to provide quality products for consumers," he added.

A survey by consumer group the Center for Science in the Public Interest showed that of 426 Splenda users polled, 47 percent thought it was a natural product against 57 percent who believed it was an artificial sweetener.

"'Made from sugar' certainly sounds better than, say, 'made in a laboratory,"' said CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson.

"Splenda's artificiality may present a marketing challenge but that's not an excuse to confuse consumers and lead them to believe that Splenda is natural or closely related to sugar."

McNeil currently faces nine class action lawsuits from consumers, one from the Sugar Association and one from Merisant Worldwide Inc, the maker of rival low-calorie sweetener products including Equal and Canderel.

Andy Briscoe, president of the U.S. Sugar Association which represents producers and growers, said the budget for J&J's advertising campaign for Splenda had been estimated at $40 million a year, "more than 20 times the entire budget of the Sugar Association."

A spokeswoman for McNeil declined to give details of the advertising spend for Splenda. The company has itself filed a lawsuit against The Sugar Association, each of its members, and the public relations firm representing it, for false advertising and deceptive trade practices.

"McNeil contends in the lawsuit that the Sugar Association and other defendants have knowingly and intentionally made false claims about the Splenda brand that are baseless and that are designed to injure its reputation and goodwill," the company said in a statement.

Splenda currently has just over 50 percent of the U.S. market for low calorie sweeteners, based on dollar volume, according to data collected by trade data group IRI and made available to Reuters by McNeil.

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Best Butt Exercises: 3 steps to a better-looking butt

The 3 best butt exercises you can do -- and the only ones you really need -- are the dumbbell squat, dumbbell lunge, and bent-leg reverse kick-up. Do these on a regular basis and your butt will get stronger, tighter, and firmer!

From Raphael Calzadilla of eDiets.com:

I’m happy to provide one of my classic specialized butt routines. It will work the rear end and legs, but its main focus is on tightening my all-time favorite muscle group -- the glutes. If your goal is to get the butt you’ve always desired, then you’ve come to the right place.

I’ve designed a simple program that can be performed right in your own home. Many of my customized workouts are based on years of my own personal experience as well as trial-and-error with my training clients.

Several weeks ago, I wrote a "Wave Bye-Bye To Flabby Arms" article and introduced the tri-set. The tri-set refers to performing three exercises in a row without rest. The workout is challenging, so you must focus on impeccable form and concentrate completely on the muscles you’re working.

The Butt Stops Here Workout

1. Dumbbell Squat:

This exercise will have an effect on the entire leg, but the key is to focus on your glutes in the descending part of the movement. I’ve also found that women respond well to high reps for the legs and butt.

# Stand up straight with feet shoulder-width apart.
# Hold a dumbbell or cans in each hand with your arms hanging down at your sides and palms facing one another. (If you need an excellent set of dumbbells, check ours out by clicking HERE!)
# Maintain a neutral spine and a slight bend in the knees throughout the exercise.
# Lower your body by sticking your butt out, bending from your hips and knees and stopping when your thighs are parallel with the floor.
# Think about sitting back in a chair as you are lowering down.
# Slowly return to the starting position
# Exhale while returning to the starting position.
# Inhale while lowering your body.
# Don’t let your knees ride over your toes (you should be able to see your feet at all times).
# It helps to find a marker on the wall to keep your eye on as you lift and lower, otherwise your head may tend to fall forward and your body will follow.
# Push off with your heels as you return to the starting position.
# Beginners can perform this exercise without weights until they master the movement. It’s a very effective exercise that involves most of the muscle groups of the lower body, but if done improperly, it can lead to injuries -- so use precise form.

Perform 20 slow and controlled repetitions and immediately go to the next exercise.

2. Dumbbell Lunges

# Stand straight with your feet together.
# Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms down at your sides.
# Step forward with the right leg and lower the left leg until the knee almost touches the floor. This lowered position is where you should focus on feeling the glutes contract.
# Push off your right foot slowly returning to the starting position.
# Alternate the motion with the left leg to complete the set.
# Inhale while stepping forward and exhale while returning to the starting position.
# The step should be big enough that your left leg is nearly straight. Do not let your knee touch the floor.
# Make sure your head is up and your back is straight.
# Your chest should be lifted and your front leg should form a 90-degree angle at the bottom of the movement.
# Your right knee should not pass your right foot. You should be able to see your toes at all times.
# If you have one leg that is more dominant than the other, start out with the less dominant leg first.
# Discontinue this exercise if you feel any discomfort in your knees.

Perform 20 repetitions on each side and immediately go to the next exercise.

3. Bent Leg Reverse Kick Up

# Start this exercise on your hands and knees on a mat.
# Raise your left leg up until it is parallel with the floor with a slight bend in the knee. Support your weight with your arms and right leg.
# While contracting the butt, lift your left leg up and toward the ceiling maintaining a bend in the knee.
# Slowly return to the starting position.
# After completing the set on the left side, repeat on the right side.
# Exhale while lifting your leg.
# Inhale while returning to the starting position.
# To increase the difficulty, you may want to add an ankle weight to the working leg.

Perform 25 slow and controlled repetitions on the right side and then repeat on the left side.

All three exercises are considered one cycle. Beginners should perform one cycle on three alternate days of the week. Intermediate exercisers should perform two cycles on alternate days of the week, and advanced exercisers should perform three cycles. Wait one minute between cycles before repeating.

You still need to perform weight training or calisthenics for your entire body as well as cardiovascular exercise. However, if you incorporate the above specialty butt workout routine, you’ll see some great results.

Learn more at eDiets.com...

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The French Paradox: Quality Over Quantity

From DrWeil.com:

QUESTION: I have heard you mention that the French eat less but enjoy food more. However, a lot of French food is high in fat. Is it more healthful to eat less even if the food is higher in fat?

ANSWER: The French must be doing something right. For years, scientists on both sides of the Atlantic have been trying to unravel the "French paradox" - the finding that despite a high-fat diet, the French appear to have a lower rate of heart attacks than other Western countries, particularly the United States.

So far, no one has made an airtight case for an explanation of why the French enjoy such good heart health despite their diet. Theories that red wine may counteract what otherwise would appear to be a poor diet haven't been proved, although we know that components of wine are heart-healthy.

There is a question about the actual incidence of heart attacks in France - some may be reported as "sudden deaths" and not counted as heart attacks. But there is no argument about the much lower rate of obesity there. To me, that is the real French paradox.

French attitudes toward food are different from those in the United States:

• Their portions are smaller.

• They eat only at mealtimes. (Snacking is frowned upon.)

• They eat a wider variety of food.

• They don't skip meals.

And results of a 2003 study from the University of Pennsylvania show that overall they eat fewer calories, which helps explain why France has an obesity rate among adults of only 7 percent.

The notion that the French are gorging on high-fat foods requires a reality check, too. For example, on average, people in Toulouse, at the center of the foie gras (goose or duck liver) area of France, eat their local delicacy only six times a year.

And, without a doubt, the French do enjoy their food. Although they are picking up some of our bad habits, they still take time to enjoy food with family and friends. They have no guilt about indulging in really good meals and getting full pleasure from them. The French eat much less processed food than we do and generally have access to higher-quality ingredients. Their food - from fruits and vegetables to cheese and poultry - tastes better than ours. By emphasizing better food, they are able to be satisfied with less.

Overall, Americans are eating more low-quality foods and getting less satisfaction from them. The French do it better.

Learn more at DrWeil.com...

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Study: Fiber-rich diet lowers cholesterol as well as drugs

A new study confirms that eating plenty of fiber and vegetables lowers cholesterol just as much as statin drugs -- and without the side effects!

From Reuters:

A diet rich in fibre and vegetables lowered cholesterol just as much as taking a statin drug, Canadian researchers reported Monday.

They says people who cannot tolerate the statin drugs because of side-effects can turn to the diet, which their volunteers could easily follow.

David Jenkins of St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto and colleagues created what they called a diet "portfolio" high in soy protein, almonds, and cereal fibre as well as plant sterols — tree-based compounds used in cholesterol-lowering margarines, salad dressing and other products.

They tested their diet on 34 overweight men and women, comparing it with a low-fat diet and with a normal diet plus a generic statin drug, lovastatin.

Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jenkins and colleagues said the low-fat diet lowered LDL — the low-density lipoprotein or "bad" cholesterol — by 8.5 per cent after a month. Statins lowered LDL by 33 per cent and the "portfolio" diet lowered LDL by nearly 30 per cent.

The portfolio was rich in soy milk, soy burgers, almonds, oats, barley, psyllium seeds, okra and eggplant. The Almond Board of California helped fund the study, as did several food makers and the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

The researchers said nine volunteers, or a quarter of the group, got their lowest LDL levels from being on the portfolio diet.

The volunteers all felt full on the diets although the "portfolio" diet resulted in more bowel movements, the researchers say.

Flax oil & the importance of healthy fats

If you want to be fit and healthy -- and especially if you want to lose weight -- you HAVE to eat fats! Too many people make the mistake of cutting out all fat from their diet, thinking that this is the proper way to lower body fat levels. This is absolutely not true and is actually one of the most dangerous "diet myths" around. Simply put, your body needs fats -- especially healthy fats like those found in flax seed oil -- to function properly. Adding a few spoonfulls (per day) of flax oil to your diet is one of the smartest things you can do...

From eDiets.com:

Most people who are looking to get lean avoid dietary fat like the plague. This is one of those great myths that never seems to die. Dietary fat is absolutely essential in your quest to get lean, but it must be the right type and in the correct amounts.

One of the most amazing fats you can consume is flaxseed oil. The magical flaxseed has health benefits that will make you run out and buy some after reading this article.

There are two essential fats that your body is unable to produce, the omega-6 fat called linoleic acid and the omega-3 called alpha-linolenic acid. These fats, which are both in flax oil, are essential, because they actually help to form parts of the structure of your brain, eyes, ears, adrenals, joints and just about every cell in the body. When these two fats are deficient, body function declines. Plus, these essential fats help reduce body fat. Yes, you read that right -- they help reduce body fat.

According to The Complete Guide to Fats and Oils in Health and Nutrition by Udo Erasmus and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, clinical and physiological research has shown that the majority of diets are deficient in omega-3 fats and this deficiency can result in:

Coronary Heart Disease: Studies show that oils containing omega-3 can have a number of beneficial effects in the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease. Omega-3’s have been shown to reduce the cholesterol ratio, blood pressure, triglyceride levels and cardiac arrhythmia.

Cancer: Omega-3 has been shown to selectively kill human cancer cells in tissue culture studies, without harming normal cells. Clinical studies are confirming the potential of high doses of omega-3 to reduce tumor growth.

Arthritis: Several double blind studies have shown that when oils rich in omega-3 are taken as a dietary supplement, about two-thirds of patients are able to discontinue their non-steroidal drugs and a further 20 percent can cut down their drug use.

Skin Problems: Skin conditions such as psoriasis, acne, eczema, dry skin and other allergic conditions have all been shown to be partly related to omega-3 deficiency.

Stress: Omega-3 fatty acids are the precursors for the Series 3 prostaglandin's, which regulate immune function and are responsible for reversing the body's physiological response to stress. Some clinical studies have indicated a sense of calmness in response to omega-3 's.

Take a look at some other interesting facts about flax oil:

# Assists in the protection of the body against inflammation, water retention and lowered immune system.

# Shortens recovery time for worked-out muscles after high exertion.

# Assists in the healing of sprains and bruises.

# Increases the metabolic rate by stimulating brown fat cells, making it easier to lose body fat.

Lignan, a phytochemical that acts as an antioxidant, is found in flax. Populations that have high amounts of Lignan in their diet show low incidence of breast cancer and colon cancer.

It’s important to look for high quality flaxseed oil. Based on the fact that flax oil can easily be destroyed by light and oxygen, it should come in a dark or amber brown bottle. In addition, it should be refrigerated and never used for cooking. It can be combined in a protein shake or poured over your favorite food.

As with everything in the world of health, flax is not the sole answer to all your issues. It’s a great supplement, but you still need to train with weights, perform cardiovascular exercise and consume nutritious foods. Flax oil is marvelous fat and one more ingredient in your arsenal for great health and fitness.

Learn more at eDiets.com...


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Useful resources:

Learn more about Omega-3 fatty acids and flax seeds

Exercising While Pregnant

A very common question among pregnant women is "Is it safe for me to exercise?". Well, the famous Dr. Weil provides the following answer...

From DrWeil.com:

Exercise during pregnancy is definitely recommended, as long as the mom-to-be is healthy and her physician approves of the exercise. It can make you feel better physically and emotionally, help with weight control and speed recovery after the baby is born. My personal trainer Dan Bornstein recommends walking and yoga as the two most appropriate exercises for pregnant women. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends stationary cycling and aquatic exercises in a swimming pool as good non-weight-bearing exercises during pregnancy. Weight-bearing exercises such as walking or low-impact aerobics classes are also beneficial, as long as they are comfortable (bike riding outdoors isn’t a good idea since pregnancy-related changes in weight distribution, balance and coordination increase the risk of falling). Even early in pregnancy women may find that they tire more easily during exercise than they did previously. If this is the case, your best bet is to take it slow and discuss all effects with your doctor.

Learn more at DrWeil.com...

Lose the Last 10 Pounds!

Anyone who has gone on a long-term weight loss plan knows that, without a doubt, losing the "last 10 pounds" is the most difficult thing to do. This is because -- after weeks of regular exercise and dieting -- your body has adapted. It has become much more "efficient" and burns far fewer calories during exercise than it once needed to. The solution? Exercise at a higher intensity level! High-intensity exercise techniques - such as interval training - are proven to burn off body fat and help you to lose those last 10 pounds...

From MSN Fitness:

Studies show that losing those stubborn remaining pounds requires a significant increase in exercise intensity, one that enables you to reach and maintain 80 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate once or twice a week. When you reach that level, you give your metabolism an additional boost; moreover, the benefits of that boost last longer, so you burn more calories and fat at rest, not just during the workout.

While the idea of working out harder or faster or longer than you've become used to can be daunting, the process itself can actually be pleasurable if you approach it correctly. I like to incorporate "interval" training, which means picking up the intensity of the workout for short bursts, then recovering by continuing at normal speed. So if, for example, I'm walking for 30 minutes, I'll alternate three minutes of sprint-like (not really sprinting) intervals with three minutes of my ordinary pace. (Keep in mind that interval training can be applied to any aerobics activity, from swimming to jogging to cycling.)

If you're working out alone, try getting into a class, where you might be inspired to work harder by the other people around you. You can also try working out to faster music than you're used to; your body will probably want to keep pace with the rhythm all on its own.

Read more...

How to Boost Flexibility and Fitness

Flexibility is an extremely important aspect of overall fitness. If you want to improve the way your body feels, avoid injury and insure that you are able to move freely for life follow the flexibility tips below...

From eFitness.com:

Today, more than half the population over the age of 74 has difficulty performing activities of daily living, such as standing, walking, bending, reaching, grasping and climbing stairs. Don’t let that be your fate!

Here are some suggestions to help you get limber and balanced.

To improve your flexibility -- stretch. Daily stretching is recommended, but if that isn’t possible, you should at least stretch all the muscle groups worked after each workout. Perform two to three stretches per group and hold each one for 15–30 seconds. Always stretch to the point of mild tension, never pain.

Stretching can also help alleviate chronic pain and discomfort. The lower back is a great example. Most often, lower back pain is caused by tight hamstrings! Tight hamstrings can cause an exaggeration in the curve of the back, which leads to back pain. eFitness provides stretches for every muscle group. Use them often!

Use free weights. Machines provide artificial stabilization of the core muscles. That’s not to say that there isn’t a place for machines in your workout. But, if you use them on a regular basis, change it up. Working with free weights forces your core muscles to stabilize your body as you isolate the muscle group you're working on.

Get rid of the weight belt. Yup, that’s right! Unless you're a power lifter in need of additional assistance to offset an extreme load, the weight belt that you've been using for years could actually be doing you more harm than good. Your body has been relying on the belt's external support, and, as a result, your abdominal muscles have not been doing their job in stabilizing the body during your workouts.

If you've been using a belt, don’t just quit cold turkey. Wean yourself off by incorporating core exercises into your workouts, then gradually decrease use of the belt as the core muscles get stronger.

The fitball is an excellent tool for strengthening the abs and lower back. For variety, you can even perform a full-body workout on the fitball.

Try yoga. You guys may think that yoga is only for the ladies, but that isn’t the case. Yoga not only makes you more flexible but also improves your balance, because so much of the work requires core strength.

Learn more at eFitness.com...

Study: Cleaner teeth = healthier heart

A new study suggests that brushing and flossing your teeth regularly could reduce your risk of having a stroke or heart attack...

From the NIDCR:

Study finds direct association between cardiovascular disease and periodontal bacteria

Researchers report this week that older adults who have higher proportions of four periodontal-disease-causing bacteria inhabiting their mouths also tend to have thicker carotid arteries, a strong predictor of stroke and heart attack. The study, published in the current issue of the journal Circulation, was supported by four agencies of the National Institutes of Health.

According to the authors, these data mark the first report of a direct association between cardiovascular disease and bacteria involved in periodontal disease, inflammation of the gums that affects to varying degrees an estimated 200 million Americans. But the researchers say the findings are not proof that the bacteria cause cardiovascular disease, directly or indirectly.

"What was interesting to us was the specificity of the association," said Moïse Desvarieux, M. D., Ph. D., the study's lead author and an infectious disease epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Minnesota. "These same four bacteria were there, they were always there in the analysis, and the relationship seems to be pretty much, with one exception, limited to them."

Desvarieux stressed that although the new data further illuminate a long-standing scientific issue, they shed little light on the broader public health question related to cardiovascular disease. The 657 people in the study had their oral bacteria and carotid thickness evaluated at the same point in time. So Desvarieux said, "It's impossible to know which comes first, the periodontal disease or thickening of the carotid artery." The answer to that question is fundamental to establishing causality--in this case, whether chronic inflammation or infection could have led to the atherosclerosis of the carotid arteries.

He and his colleagues noted that the public health information could come soon. "We will re-examine the participants in less than three years, and, at that point, we can better evaluate the progression of the atherosclerosis and, hopefully, begin to establish a time frame underlying the diseases," said Ralph Sacco, M.D., M.S., associate chair of Neurology, professor of Neurology and Epidemiology, and the director of the Stroke and Critical Care Division of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He also is an author on the paper.

The idea that oral bacteria shed from chronic gum infections, enter the circulatory system, and possibly contribute to diseases of the heart and other body organs once was widely accepted in medicine. The concept, known as the "focal infection theory," fell out of fashion by the 1940s, then resurfaced four decades later with the publication of new data proposing a link.

Since then, a major sticking point in advancing the research has been simply how to pursue the hypothesis. Lacking the scientific tools to track oral bacteria in the body over several decades to determine if they directly trigger heart disease, most previous studies pursued indirect evidence. These included various measures of oral and cardiovascular health, which researchers then extrapolated to the influence of the oral pathogens. Conspicuously missing from the debate has been a large, well-designed study that in some way directly evaluates the role of the oral pathogens themselves.

To fill this void, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research launched the Oral Infections and Vascular Disease Epidemiology Study (INVEST), a multi-disciplinary endeavor whose principal investigator is Dr. Desvarieux. The study, which is the source of the paper published this week in Circulation, will monitor the oral and cardiovascular health of a large, racially mixed group of people. All enrollees in the study live in a northern section of Manhattan in New York City and are age 55 or older. Participants are also members of the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS), a prospective cohort study supported by NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Sacco is principal investigator of the companion NOMAS study.

"Although more than 600 bacteria have been shown to colonize the mouth, each person tends to carry different proportions of these microbes," said Panos N. Papapanou, D.D.S, Ph.D., an author on the paper and professor and chair of the Section of Oral and Diagnostics Sciences and director of the Division of Periodontics at Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery. He noted that only a subset of bacteria tend to be dominant in dental plaque.

"We wanted to know during the baseline examination of the participants whether it was true that the greater the proportion of so-called 'bad' bacteria in the mouth, the higher the likelihood of a thickened carotid artery," added Papapanou, whose laboratory performed the periodontal microbiological analysis.

To get their answer, Desvarieux and colleagues collected on average seven dental plaque samples from a total of 657 older adults enrolled in INVEST who had not lost their teeth. The samples, taken from predetermined sites in the mouth, both diseased and healthy, were measured for 11 oral bacteria, including four bacteria widely regarded to be involved in causing periodontal disease: Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola. The other seven bacteria served as controls, as their role in periodontal disease was either neutral or has not yet been established.

Then, to evaluate their cardiovascular health, the participants received a carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) measurement and provided a blood sample to determine their C-reactive protein levels. C-reactive protein has been reported to be elevated in people with periodontal disease, and recent studies found that testing for this protein may be predictive of developing heart disease.

Controlling for several risk factors that might skew their data - such as smoking and diabetes, both of which are independently associated with these conditions - the scientists found the higher the levels of these periodontal-disease-causing bacteria, the more likely people were to have thicker carotid arteries. Interestingly, they noted no association between IMT, the periodontal pathogens, and C-reactive protein levels, suggesting the protein is involved in another cardiovascular disease pathway.

Next, the scientists wondered whether the broad association might be due to the four pathogens involved in causing periodontal disease, which combined accounted for only 23 percent of the bacteria in dental plaque. If so, the finding would provide added specificity to strengthen the case for the association.

"After re-analyzing the data, we found, with the exception of an oral bacterium called Micromonas micros, the relationship was limited to these four established oral pathogens," said David Jacobs, Ph. D., another author and a professor in the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

"In other words, it was exactly what we hypothesized," said Desvarieux.

However, he cautioned, "It now becomes crucial to follow the participants over time and see whether these baseline findings hold up and further translate into clinical disease."

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The study was supported by the NIH's National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and National Center for Research Resources.

13 Steps to Natural Heart Health

Heart disease is one of America's top killers. But healthy diet and exercise habits can help to lower your risk. Below are 13 of the most effective things you can do to reduce the major risk factors for heart disease: high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and excess body weight.

From eDiets.com:

1. Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables. Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables -- try five or more servings a day.

2. Eat a variety of grain products and complex carbohydrate foods. Focus on whole grains and legumes.

3. Choose low-fat and fat-free dairy products every day (two to three servings).

4. Eat a variety of protein foods. Don’t just include one protein type; balance your intake of lean protein sources such as fish, skinless poultry and lean meats. Include fish varieties that are high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel, trout and sardines. Vegetable protein sources count too.

5. Limit foods high in saturated fat and trans fat and/or cholesterol -- mostly found in products like full-fat milk, fatty meats, tropical oils, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, desserts, sweets and many packaged foods. If you use added fat, choose monounsaturated fats -- like olive oil and canola oil. By eliminating high saturated fat foods, you are also cutting down on cholesterol as well (cholesterol and saturated fats can be found in several of the same food items).

6. Eat plenty of fiber foods daily. Just to name a few, try bran, oatmeal, legumes, fruits and vegetables.

7. Manage your weight. You don’t need to be the perfect size "#!?" (you can fill that goal number in), but by reaching and maintaining your best weight, it will help. Obesity is a major factor contributing to heart disease.

8. Feed your body regularly. If you skip meals, you are more likely to overeat. By eating more frequently throughout the day, your blood sugar levels are controlled better; you speed up your metabolism and regulate your cholesterol levels.

9. Reduce salt intake -- put the salt shaker away. Try and keep your total sodium intake below 2,400 milligrams a day. By following a low-salt meal plan it will help control your blood pressure.

10. Exercise. The more movement the better. Exercise helps to improve blood flow, strengthen the heart muscle, reduce blood pressure and raise your good cholesterol (HDL).

11. Keep hydrated. Drink at least eight cups a day. Water is the best hydration fluid. Don’t forget, caffeine can actually dehydrate you.

12. Stop smoking and limit alcohol intake.

13. Enjoy life and be happy!

Learn more at eDiets.com...

The 10 Worst Snack Foods

There's no "nice" way to put it: snack foods are killing America! The huge amounts of sugar, refined flour, artificial flavors, colors, and other chemicals/toxins that the average American puts in his or her body on a daily basis is incredible. It's no wonder that rates of obesity, heart disease, and cancer are exploding. If you want to lose weight, get fit, feel your best, and enjoy your life you HAVE to remove these foods from your diet.

Avoid the following snack/junk foods at all costs...

From MSN Health & Fitness:

1. French Fries

Don't be reassured by the fact that McDonald's is changing its cooking oil. French fries are still starchy white potatoes cooked in hot fat and flavored with chemicals and sugar. Possibly the worst snack food on the planet.

2. Donuts

Fried bread. Need I say more? And if that wasn't bad enough, add a sugary cream filling and a glaze of more sugar on top. Any questions?

3. Chips (Potato or Corn)

These are really just a packaged version of French fries (see #1). However, you can do damage control on this one by switching to baked blue corn chips, available in health food stores. It's still not real food, but it beats the 7-Eleven version any day.

4. Soda

And sorry, this includes the diet kind. Absolutely nothing of any value here, and a whole lot of chemicals to boot.

5. Cupcakes and Snack Cakes

The creamy filling is fake whipped cream, and the rest of it is sugar, flour and flavoring. You've gotta be kidding.

6. Candy Bars

You might squeeze a gram or two of protein out of the nuts in some of them, but by and large they're a sugar orgy and a nutrition nightmare. Again, you can move slightly up the food chain by switching to one of the "energy" bars. Most are just candy bars disguised as health food but they often have 1/3 less calories, quite a bit more protein and a bit less fat. Don't confuse them with real food though.

7. Pork Rinds

Fried pork skin. Not a good thing!

8. Fat-Free Cookies

These are even more insidious because they pretend to be healthy. Remember, fat-free doesn't equal calorie free. Betcha can't eat just one!

9. Crackers

Trans-fats anyone? Most crackers are loaded with 'em. Read your labels carefully to find the few that aren't.

10. Pretzels

Surprise, surprise. Remember, just because something doesn't have fat doesn't make it good. This is just white flour, water and sugar masquerading as a healthy snack. Fuggedaboutit.

Runner up: Those creamy, carmelly, coconutty coffee mocha-latte-frappe drinks that are taking over the universe. I love my Starbucks too, but 20 ounces of caffeine, sugar, whipped cream and milk taken once or twice a day does not a lean waistline make!

And yes, the calories you drink count.

Jack LaLanne's Secrets For A Long, Healthy Life

From eDiets.com:

If there's a Fountain of Youth, it's hidden away in Jack LaLanne's back yard. At 90, this fitness pioneer shows no signs of slowing down. Jack has more energy and strength than most people half his age -- and he is busier and more successful than ever!

In this inspiring eDiets exclusive, the remarkable "Godfather of Fitness" takes time out of his busy schedule to discuss exercise, nutrition and the secrets to a long, healthy life.

"Most people only work at dying," Jack tells eDiets. "I teach people to work at living!"

Jack and his wife Elaine travel the world promoting health and fitness. But no matter how busy he is, Jack makes time to exercise at least two hours every day -- one hour with weights and one hour in the pool. Jack also follows a lacto-ovo vegetarian eating approach, though he occasionally eats fish for extra protein. In addition to using his famous juicer, Jack takes as many as 40 vitamin and mineral supplements a day.

Jack wasn't always the picture of health. The fitness legend suffered from a severe sugar addiction during his early teens.

"When I was 15 I got so sick that I had to drop out of school for six months," Jack says.

In an effort to help her son regain his strength, Jack’s mother took him to hear nutritionist Paul Bragg speak at the Oakland City Women’s Club. That lecture changed Jack’s life forever.

"He told me if I obeyed nature’s laws, I could heal myself," Jack recalls. "I went home and prayed that God would give me the willpower to adopt a healthy lifestyle."

Not only did Jack develop a healthy lifestyle for himself, but he has also devoted his life to helping other people do the same. Jack soaked up a lot of knowledge while a pre-med student in college and while attending chiropractic school. He actually developed much of the exercise equipment that is standard in most health clubs today. His awesome accomplishments include some of the pulley machines, weight selectors and the leg extension machine. Jack opened the very first commercial health spa... way back in 1936!

"I knew every one of my members by name," Jack proudly boasts. "If they missed two or more workouts, I would get in touch with them. I told them, ‘I don’t just want your money. I want you in here taking care of yourself.’"

In the black-and-white days of 1951, Jack became a household name by taking his message in front of the cameras for the first televised exercise program. Though critics predicted Jack would be off the air within weeks, his super-successful show ran for 34 years.

The Jack LaLanne Show is back by popular demand. Original episodes are broadcast twice a day on the ESPN Classic channel.

"They used to say I was a crackpot, but today I am considered an authority," Jack says with a smile. "I don’t brag about it, but I feel wonderful. I am so happy that the Good Lord blessed me enough to make me a pioneer in this industry."

Even though there are more health clubs than ever, Jack has some serious concerns about the state of the fitness industry. Since most people can’t afford a personal trainer, Jack worries that club members do the same thing every time they go to the gym. He stresses that it is very important for everyone to change his or her workout regimen every three to four weeks.

"By changing your workout, you are challenging your muscles," Jack says, echoing a sentiment shared by eDiets chief fitness pro Raphael Calzadilla. "It also helps to break through the boredom so you can enjoy exercise."

Jack is also very concerned by the state of the nation’s health. With so many Americans overweight and out of shape, Jack feels it is imperative that health education be taught in schools... starting with the kindergarten kiddies.

"I just bought a brand new Mercedes convertible -- do you think I would put sugar in the gas tank?" Jack asks, sounding a lot like eDiets VP of Nutrition Susan Burke. "The problem is that most people in this country take better care of their cars than they do their own bodies. The human machine also needs proper fuel."

Jack insists anything in life is possible if you make it happen!

"Who made you fat?" he asks. "God? The devil? Neither. You make it happen when you break nature’s laws!"

For eDiets readers struggling with their weight and self-esteem, Jack offers his top-3 healthy eating tips:

1. If man makes it, don’t eat it! Jack warns people to read the labels on everything... even canned fruits and vegetables.

2. Cooking kills! "Eat natural foods as much as you can," Jack says. He recommends eating at least six servings of raw vegetables and five pieces of fruit every day!

3. Use a juicer! One of the best ways to get adequate amounts of raw fruits and vegetables is to use a juicer. "The juicer is my most successful product," Jack says. "Nearly every day, I get letters from people who tell me that their health and energy levels have drastically improved since they started juicing."

Learn more at eDiets.com...

Obesity epidemic could cut U.S. life expectancy

From Reuters Health:

Life expectancy in the United States is set to drop within the next 50 years due to obesity, one of the world's top experts on the subject says.

"My colleagues and I believe that within the next 50 years, life expectancy at birth will decline, and it will decline as a result of the obesity epidemic that will creep through all ages like a human tsunami," Professor Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois said in London.

However, Olshansky declined to say by how it would drop. It is currently 80 years for females and 74.5 for males. He said his full research would be published within 6 weeks.

"There has been a dramatic increase in obesity among the younger generation and it is a storm that is approaching," he told an audience on Wednesday at the CASS Business School.

More than 30 percent of Americans are classified as obese, translating to around 59 million people. Being obese triples the risk of heart disease and produces a tenfold increase in the likelihood of developing diabetes.

U.S. life expectancy has increased dramatically since 1900, when the average age of death for men and women combined was 47 and most projections see life expectancy continuing to rise.

But Olshansky said the negative impact on life expectancy would likely hit when obese Americans reached middle age, which could further burden the country's state benefit system by reducing the number of people who are able to work.

Over time, however, it could reduce the pension burden if people died before reaching retirement.

According to a recent study by the Rand Corporation, if Americans continued to get fatter at current rates, by 2020 about 1 in 5 health-care dollars spent on people aged 50 to 69 could be due to obesity, 50 percent more than now.

Burn More Fat: 10 Surefire Steps

From eDiets.com:

(By Raphael Calzadilla, BA, CPT, ACE)

It came in like an explosion this past week. Email after email flooded my inbox -- most asking the same question.

The issue? How to reduce body fat by counting the number of calories burned during a workout.

After 13 years of training a variety of clients and after years of competitive bodybuilding, I’m here to proclaim that counting calories from exercise is a trap. It’s the most ineffective method to use when attempting to lower body fat.

I’m not suggesting it won’t work for awhile, but of all the methods available -- this is absolutely the least efficient way to go about it.

For example, a person might decide to lose some body fat by deciding to burn 300 calories per day on the treadmill. They implement this plan for two weeks and are amazed when the scale isn’t budging. So what happened?

There are several answers. The first is that their total caloric intake may still be too high. They just assumed a slight energy expenditure would take care of it.

What if the calories are low and they still aren’t losing? A variety of things could be happening. They may have lowered the calories too much and the body actually needs more food in order to burn body fat. Yes, that is absolutely a possibility. It’s also possible their carbohydrate ratios are much too high (75-80 percent) and they continue to spike blood sugar, which can prevent body fat loss. It’s also possible that fat intake is too low or too high based on their unique genetic predisposition to lose fat.

So, I know what you’re thinking, "OK, Raphael, if counting calories burned from exercise isn’t the best method, then how do I do it? How do I get rid of this Jell-O?"

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Determine a starting baseline of calories as well as grams of protein, carbohydrates and fats. The total calories should have you in a slight caloric deficit (slightly less than maintenance) and be spread over three meals and two to three snacks through the day. You may think it’s a hassle to calculate, but who says you have to? eDiets does that all the homework for you with our multitude of nutrition plans.

2. Work out a number of days per week that’s realistic for you. It doesn’t matter if it’s three, four or five. Just be consistent with it and try to keep it to no more than one hour.

3. For 14 days, don’t change any of the parameters of the diet or workout. For example, don’t just haphazardly eat less on a particular day or increase your exercise time on another day. Remember, the goal is to find out what regimen will get you to lose fat. Consider it a science experiment that must be approached with small changes.

4. After 14 days, you should have a scale weight loss of one to two pounds. I prefer body composition testing (also called body fat testing), but for those who insist on using the scale as a gauge, the one to two pounds after 14 days will be your goal.

5. If you have lost one to two pounds after 14 days, do nothing. The program is working.

6. If the scale hasn’t budged, then reduce calories by 150. No more than that. In most cases, we’re just on the brink of losing. Instead of a major drop in calories, you’ll approach it slowly with the goal of finding the precise formula.

7. eDiets nutrition support will assist you when you need to make any type of caloric change. So you’re not alone in this process.

8. The 150-calorie reduction should be used for seven to eight days. That will normally do the trick.

9. If after seven to eight days you still aren’t losing, then drop 50 additional calories and increase cardiovascular exercise by 10 minutes per session.

10. Chances are one of the above will work for you, but you need to be patient and to experiment slowly. Patience will be your friend in this process.

The method above may seem cumbersome, but I assure you it’s not -- particularly if you already have the eDiets nutrition program at your disposal. The upfront work has already been done.

After your fat loss begins to accelerate, you can then build in one to two treat meals or snacks during the week. Your metabolism will be revved at this point, so no harm will be done. After all, you still want to enjoy some of those great foods out there.

Now you have the formula. So what are you waiting for?

Learn more at eDiets.com...