Lots of experts say it's stupid to forbid yourself from eating certain foods – that denying yourself something you really want to eat can ultimately lead to binge eating and eventual weight gain. So dessert isn't on this list — it's OK to indulge sometimes! But some foods really do deserve the axe — especially if you are trying to lose weight. In which case, avoid these foods (when you can!) to fend off cravings and hunger, and support your efforts to slim down.
1. Any Snack That Only Contains Carbs
When you eat crackers, dry cereal, bread, or rice cakes alone, your body converts the carbs to simple sugars, and sends it directly into your blood stream. In response to the sugar rush, your body produces extra insulin, which helps your body absorb the sugar ASAP. The problem: You end up with low blood sugar and the same hunger pangs that led you to carb it up in the first place. You then may be inclined to reach for sugary foods with no nutritional value to satisfy your need for instant energy, says Dr. Charlie Seltzer, M.D., a weight-loss specialist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.It's not that carbs are off-limits entirely. That'd be crazy — and it's no way to live! The point is that snacks containing a combination of carbs, healthy fats, and protein take longer to digest, and will, therefore, tide you over for longer. Another thing: When you treat snacks as balanced mini meals, they contribute to a balanced diet (instead of just holding you over between full balanced meals). Try a slice of bread with nut butter, or whole grain crackers with low-fat cheese, suggests Rachel Harvest, a registered dietitian affiliated with Tournesol Wellness in New York.
2. Frozen Meals
To make fresh ingredients last extra long in your freezer, food manufacturers often load frozen meals with sodium, a natural preservative, Harvest says. Sodium makes you retain water, which bloats you up – so you won't look and feel your best regardless of how much weight you want to lose.Also: When food manufacturers try to squeeze a meal's worth of calories into a teeny tiny box, every bite ends up containing lots of calories by design, Harvest adds. While large portions trick your brain into thinking your body is full, the measly portions found in freezer meals are inherently unsatisfying, even though they contain plenty of calories. So skip them if you can, and supersize your portions of lower-calorie foods.
3. High-Fiber Snack Bars
Yes, everyone needs fiber — it keeps your digestive system churning and keeps you feeling full, even when you're cutting back on calories. What you don't need: Nearly one day's worth of fiber (about 25 grams) in one snack bar, with a diet that's otherwise devoid of it, Harvest says. "Fiber intake has to be consistent throughout the day to stave off hunger, improve digestive health, and not cause stomach upset." So ditch the bars, and try to include some kind of naturally fiber-rich produce — any fruit or veggie will do— in every snack and meal.
4. "Low-Fat" Foods
Research suggests that people tend to eat upwards of 30 percent more when they know they're eating a food that's low fat. The problem (besides overeating, which can thwart your weight loss goals fast) is that when food makers remove fat from food, they inevitably remove some of the flavor. To compensate, they often add sugar, which makes the product even worse for you.
5. Juice
It takes several oranges to make one 6-ounce glass of OJ, but when you drink juice, you consume all the calories from those oranges without the natural fruit fibers that fill you up. It's why "even 100 percent juice is just empty calories and another blood sugar spike," Harvest says.Another thing: Fructose, the natural fruit sugar that makes fruit and fruit juice taste sweet, tricks your body into gaining weight by blunting your body's ability to recognize when it's full, says Melissa Rifkin, a registered dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center in New York and a Rise nutrition coach. This makes you eat more, and increases your risk of developing insulin resistance and diabetes.
6. Artificially Sweetened Drinks
Goodbye, diet soda, and every other sweet-tasting drink that mysteriously contains zero calories! "There are some people whose brains are wired in a way that artificial sweeteners induce or enhance cravings," says Dr. Seltzer. "If drinking a Diet Snapple leads you to the Ben & Jerry's, then you'd certainly be better off with water or water with lemon." Or sparkling water: It's calorie-free, but carbonated, which makes your stomach feel full so you end up eating less overall.
7. Cereal Sold in a Value-Size Box
The same goes for super-sized snack packages. People consume up to 22 percent more when they eat from larger packages, according to a study conducted by researchers at Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab. When people know there is more food available, they subconsciously let themselves eat more of it. The same goes for food you buy on sale: you're more likely to consume more when food costs less, according to another study. That's not to say you should spend more on food to eat less overall — it's unsustainable (and silly). If you're going to spring for a value pack of any packaged food, measure out your serving instead of eating out of the bag so you don't fall pray to your own mind's games.
8. Booze
It's almost impossible to find a weight loss expert who recommends alcohol for weight loss. (Believe me, I tried.) While some cocktails have fewer calories than others, alcohol just doesn't support weight loss. It contains empty calories that don't fill you up or provide any nutrients; softens your resolve so you're more likely to overeat; and impairs your judgement, regardless of your weight loss goals. (It's why you drunk-eat pizza, not salad.) But it gets worse: "When alcohol is present in your body, it's considered a toxin that your body wants to get rid of, and becomes you liver's top priority," says Dr. Caroline Cederquist, MD, creator of bistroMD. When your liver is in hardcore detox mode, it can't burn fat as efficiently. Because that's a major buzz kill, skip the buzz altogether if you're serious about losing weight. Or at least cut back on the booze, big time.
Source: Elizabeth Narin 3-12-15
Cosmopolitan Magazine
Healthy Tips....... for Your Busy Lifestyle!
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
The Best Workout for Weight Loss, Heart Health
Exercise is clearly a key to fitness. But what hasn’t
been clear is whether the intensity of your workouts mattered.Researchers now
think they have the answer: Exercising vigorously makes a positive
difference.
According to a study published March 2 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, obese people who exercised briskly for 40 minutes per day, four days per week, significantly improved not only their cardiovascular health, but also lost weight and reduced their blood sugar levels. In comparison, those who exercised at lower intensity improved their health and lost weight, but didn’t reduce their blood sugar level.
“Improvement at the higher intensity — just walking briskly on a treadmill — was substantially better,“ says Robert Ross, PhD, lead author of the study and an exercise physiologist at the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “Participants were surprised at how easy it was to get to the higher intensity,”
About one-third of U.S adults over the age of 20 are considered obese, putting them at a much higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Exercise reduces that risk. Adults are currently advised by the federal government to exercise at moderate intensity for 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) per week or high intensity for 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) for the best health outcomes.
Intensity is measured by how hard a particular physical activity makes the cardiovascular system work, and it differs from individual to individual based on their level of fitness. For someone who isn’t fit, a brisk walk is enough to raise the heart rate to the optimal level for improving cardiovascular health. For someone who is fit, it takes a jog to get them to the ideal level, Ross says.
“Exercising at any intensity is good, whether it be a slower walk or brisk walk, but this study shows that if you want to improve all three — your waistline, your fitness level, and your blood sugar — then high intensity is your ticket,” Ross says.
The randomized controlled study, conducted between 2009 and 2013, monitored the physical activity and diet of 300 abdominally obese non-diabetic adults for six months. About two-thirds of the participants were women and one-third men. All had normal blood pressure.
The study broke the adults into four groups. One, the control group, was sedentary. A second group exercised at low intensity, for an average of 31 minutes per session. Another exercised at low intensity, for an average of 58 minutes. Another exercised at high intensity for 40 minutes. All of those in the three groups who exercised lost weight and improved their fitness. Only those in the high intensity group reduced their two-hour glucose levels. During the study, all participants ate a healthful, balanced diet (meaning 50 percent of calories from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fat, and 20 percent from protein), Ross says. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded the study.
“It’s an interesting study,” says Michael Emery, MD, medical director of the sports cardiology program at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine's Heart and Vascular Institute of Cardiology in Greenville. “It shows that you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck, in terms of cardiovascular fitness, if you run a mile at a high intensity rate, rather than walk a mile at a leisurely stroll.”
Whether the reduction in blood sugar levels in the high intensity participants was meaningful in terms of treating diabetes, Dr. Emery is less certain.
“It would have been interesting to know if the effect would have been more pronounced if there were a higher number of participants with high blood pressure or diabetes,” says Emery, who is also co-chair of the American College of Cardiology’s Sports Council. “It’s something where there could be more research.”
According to a study published March 2 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, obese people who exercised briskly for 40 minutes per day, four days per week, significantly improved not only their cardiovascular health, but also lost weight and reduced their blood sugar levels. In comparison, those who exercised at lower intensity improved their health and lost weight, but didn’t reduce their blood sugar level.
“Improvement at the higher intensity — just walking briskly on a treadmill — was substantially better,“ says Robert Ross, PhD, lead author of the study and an exercise physiologist at the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “Participants were surprised at how easy it was to get to the higher intensity,”
About one-third of U.S adults over the age of 20 are considered obese, putting them at a much higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Exercise reduces that risk. Adults are currently advised by the federal government to exercise at moderate intensity for 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) per week or high intensity for 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) for the best health outcomes.
Intensity is measured by how hard a particular physical activity makes the cardiovascular system work, and it differs from individual to individual based on their level of fitness. For someone who isn’t fit, a brisk walk is enough to raise the heart rate to the optimal level for improving cardiovascular health. For someone who is fit, it takes a jog to get them to the ideal level, Ross says.
“Exercising at any intensity is good, whether it be a slower walk or brisk walk, but this study shows that if you want to improve all three — your waistline, your fitness level, and your blood sugar — then high intensity is your ticket,” Ross says.
The randomized controlled study, conducted between 2009 and 2013, monitored the physical activity and diet of 300 abdominally obese non-diabetic adults for six months. About two-thirds of the participants were women and one-third men. All had normal blood pressure.
The study broke the adults into four groups. One, the control group, was sedentary. A second group exercised at low intensity, for an average of 31 minutes per session. Another exercised at low intensity, for an average of 58 minutes. Another exercised at high intensity for 40 minutes. All of those in the three groups who exercised lost weight and improved their fitness. Only those in the high intensity group reduced their two-hour glucose levels. During the study, all participants ate a healthful, balanced diet (meaning 50 percent of calories from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fat, and 20 percent from protein), Ross says. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded the study.
“It’s an interesting study,” says Michael Emery, MD, medical director of the sports cardiology program at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine's Heart and Vascular Institute of Cardiology in Greenville. “It shows that you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck, in terms of cardiovascular fitness, if you run a mile at a high intensity rate, rather than walk a mile at a leisurely stroll.”
Whether the reduction in blood sugar levels in the high intensity participants was meaningful in terms of treating diabetes, Dr. Emery is less certain.
“It would have been interesting to know if the effect would have been more pronounced if there were a higher number of participants with high blood pressure or diabetes,” says Emery, who is also co-chair of the American College of Cardiology’s Sports Council. “It’s something where there could be more research.”
c/o Everyday Health
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