8 Foods You Should Eat Every Day

Discover the Unexpected Sources

When scientists first discovered the power of antioxidants to destroy cell-damaging free radicals, the hunt was on.

They knew these preventers of cancer and heart disease were in colorful fruits and vegetables and nuts, but researchers are now uncovering them in new, unexpected places. "The number and variety of these kamikaze substances we find in foods continue to grow," says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, of the American Dietetic Association.
And that's a good thing, experts say, because upping your antioxidant intake from as many sources as possible is more beneficial than getting them from just a few highly publicized foods. "Don't just eat blueberries every day and think you're covered," says Joe Vinson, PhD, an analytical chemist at the University of Scranton who specializes in measuring antioxidant levels of foods. "When you eat a diverse diet, you get the entire spectrum of benefits they deliver." Check out 8 places your antioxidants are hiding.

1. Whole grain pasta

Whole grain versions of pasta (whole wheat should be listed as the first ingredient) have three times more antioxidants than enriched or refined varieties, found Vinson's study at the University of Scranton. His team compared the enriched or refined with the whole grain versions of three spaghetti brands.
"Many epidemiological studies show that the consumption of whole grains can reduce the risk of heart disease," he says. "We used to think this was because of the fiber sweeping out the cholesterol, but it's looking more like it's the polyphenols' positive effect on blood pressure and other markers of heart health that deserve the credit." The concentrations of antioxidants in whole grain flour used to make wheat pasta are comparable to those found in fruits and veggies.

2. Popcorn

Popcorn has 4 times more polyphenols—powerful cancer-fighting plant compounds—than the average amount found in fruits, says Vinson, who tested several whole grain foods to measure antioxidant levels. "When air-popped at home, it's a 100% whole grain food, so it's not a complete surprise that it's packed with polyphenols," he says. (Just make sure you're buying the good stuff, because most microwavable popcorn is a toxic rip-off.)

3. Eggs

Eggs aren't commonly considered a rich source of the antioxidant lutein (which protects your eyes from macular degeneration and cataracts) because they have low concentrations of it, relative to top sources such as spinach.
However, scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University discovered that the lutein in egg yolks is absorbed more effectively than that in spinach, possibly because the yolks' fat helps our bodies process the antioxidant much better. So even though one egg has only about 5% of the lutein found in just 1/4 cup of spinach, we absorb it three times more effectively, explains Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, coauthor of the Tufts study. "Spinach and other leafy greens are still the best sources, but whole eggs are another easy way to get more lutein," she says.

4. Beans

A 2004 study conducted by the USDA found that certain varieties of dried beans contain high levels of antioxidants, but Americans commonly eat more canned beans, observes scientist Mark Brick, PhD.
To find out if canned have as many antioxidants as dried, Brick and a team of researchers at Colorado State University measured the phenolic and flavonoid contents of several types of canned commercial beans for a 2009 study published in Crop Science. The scientists found that while all canned beans contain antioxidants, small red beans have the highest levels, followed closely by dark red kidney and black beans. In fact, darker canned beans have as much as three times more phytochemicals—plant compounds that wipe out free radicals to protect your cells and repair DNA damage—than white kidney and great Northern beans.
Remember to rinse canned beans first (they're packed in a high-sodium liquid), and to look for ones in BPA-free cans, such as Eden Organic.

5. Yogurt

Love yogurt? You'll love this stat: Just 1 cup of low-fat plain yogurt provides at least 25% of the daily value for riboflavin—the same that's in 1 cup of boiled spinach.
While not an antioxidant itself, riboflavin (a B vitamin) is critical in promoting antioxidant activity. Without it, the antioxidant glutathione—which is already in our cells—cannot destroy free radicals, which may lead to an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions. Because riboflavin is water soluble, it remains in the body only a few hours and must be replenished daily; yogurt does the trick.

6. Canola oil

Heart-healthy canola oil (which is less expensive and milder tasting than olive oil) is rich in the antioxidant alphatocopherol, according to Maret Traber, PhD, of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. Just 1 tablespoon contains 16% of the DV.
Alphatocopherol is one of eight antioxidants in vitamin E, which scientists have found keeps the fats in "bad" LDL cholesterol from oxidizing and forming free radicals, potentially leading to cardiovascular diseases and other chronic conditions. Turns out, though, we aren't getting enough of this potent antioxidant. Close to one-third of women have low concentrations of alpha-tocopherol, say researchers who looked at data from a national nutrition survey conducted by the CDC.
Easy fix: Use canola oil when baking or anytime you need a neutral-tasting oil for sautéing.

7. Organic milk

Switch from regular milk to organic and you'll be rewarded with a stronger dose of antioxidants, including vitamin E and the carotenoids beta-carotene and lutein, says Gillian Butler, PhD, coauthor of a recent British study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
Butler's findings show that the antioxidants in milk from cows raised on organic or grass-fed diets are about 40 to 50% more concentrated than the milk from conventionally raised cows. These cows eat more grass, and the pasture itself provides more antioxidants than grain feeding even if the feed is augmented with supplements.
If you're not a frequent milk drinker, look for cheese and butter from grass-fed cows; they also offer more antioxidants than conventional varieties, says Butler. (Not to mention grass-fed cows are treated a lot more humanely than these 8 Cruelest Foods You Eat.)

8. Natural sweeteners

The average American consumes 130 g of added refined sugars each day. If you cut excess sugar and use natural sweeteners like molasses, honey, brown sugar, and maple syrup instead of refined whenever possible, you can add the equivalent of antioxidants from an extra serving of nuts or berries to your daily diet.
That's according to researchers at Virginia Tech University who examined the antioxidant content of several natural sweeteners and found that molasses (particularly dark and blackstrap varieties) had the highest amounts. Their study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, showed that honey, brown sugar, and maple syrup also contained significant levels of antioxidants.
While the university study looked at commonly available commercial honeys (usually refined from clover nectar), earlier studies have measured antioxidants in a variety of honeys and found that darker types tend to have significantly higher polyphenol counts. For example, buckwheat has an antioxidant level 8 times higher than clover, which is also outranked by sunflower and tupelo honeys.
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Here are Some Nutritious Snacks for Watching SuperBowl?

There's something about watching football (especially when your team is losing) that makes you want to snack; maybe you like to nibble on something salty and crunchy, or something deliciously sweet.
Some people say you shouldn't eat while you watch TV. I don't think that snacking while watching the tube is a bad thing, just don't turn into a mindless munching zombie. That's how you wolf down too many calories.
The best football snacks are lower in calories, high in vitamins and minerals, and preferably, not too messy. Here are some favorites:

Raw Vegetables

Fresh raw veggies are good because you get a nice satisfying crunch and tons of nutrition. If you like a little extra flavor, serve them with a little veggie dip or salad dressing. Carrot sticks, celery, broccoli and cauliflower are all good choices, but try raw green beans or asparagus for a nice change.

Popcorn

Popcorn is good too, because it's high in fiber. Nix the extra butter. Try air-popped popcorn. If you like a little salt, use some butter or olive oil spray -- just enough so your salt sticks to the kernels. You can also buy low-fat microwave popcorn, or save yourself some money (and avoid ingredients you can't pronounce) and make your own microwave popcorn with a paper bag. One teaspoon of vegetable oil or a couple of teaspoons of butter is enough fat for one-half cup of kernels.

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds have such a tasty combination of crunch, flavor and salt. Raw nuts and recently-roasted nuts and seeds have healthy fats, which is good, but it's not a case of 'a little bit is good, so more is better.' Nuts and seeds are high in calories, so if you need to watch your weight, you'll also need to watch your portion size. Pour a small serving in a dish -- don't take the whole can of nuts.

Fresh Fruits

If you need your sweetness fix, grab an apple, pear, peach or nectarine. Or poor some berries into a bowl and add some almond milk and a few nuts. Fruits are good for you because they've got vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Better Chips

If you really love your chips, and you have the time, try making your own healthier versions. You make pita chips with a little olive oil, low-fat baked tortilla chips or try some non-fat microwave potato chips that don't suck. Serve with fresh salsa, homemade guacamole or hummus.

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8 Habits that are Messing with Your Metabolism

You exercise, and you try to eat right. But unfortunately you may still be slowing down your calorie burn—and your weight-loss efforts—without even realizing it. Lauren Slayton, M.S., R.D., author of The Little Book of Thin explains the little-known metabolism wreckers that are holding you back—and how you can burn more calories ASAP.

You Don't Drink Enough Water

"Your body needs fluids to perform all of the functions it needs to," says Slayton. And when it's not performing those functions as well, it's not burning as many calories. Something else to keep in mind: A lot of the calorie burn from drinking water comes from your body working to bring cold water to 98.6 degrees—so drinking hot water with lemon or hot tea all the time won't be as good at boosting your metabolism as cold water will.

You Aren't Taking Vitamin D Supplements

"When you're low in vitamin D, you lose weight slower and your levels of the hormone ghrelin, which makes you hungry, are higher," says Slayton. Since it can be difficult to get enough vitamin D from your diet, she recommends taking a supplement from November through March—when you won't be getting as much of the nutrient from sunlight—to help you drop pounds more easily.

You're a Cardio Queen/King

You know that exercise is crucial for keeping your metabolism fired up, but if you swear by running or indoor cycling—and only running or indoor cycling—you're not building the lean muscle that'll really give your metabolism a boost, says Slayton. Start incorporating strength training into your workouts to up your calorie burn even more.

You Have a Midnight Snack Habit

There's a lot of emphasis on how important it is to eat regularly so as not to slow your metabolism down, but there's also research that suggests going several hours without eating could be better for you, metabolically speaking. "What I usually suggest for clients is a period of 12 hours without food," says Slayton. "You're hurting your metabolism if you're having a midnight snack and a breakfast before your workout at 7 a.m."

You Cut Caffeine Out of Your Diet

Caffeine gets a bad rap, but it can actually give your calorie burn a slight boost, says Slayton. No one's suggesting you start pounding the stuff, but if you're already drinking green tea or coffee most days, keeping it a part of your routine could help your metabolism run at top speed.

You Skimp on Sleep

People who are sleep-deprived on a regular basis tend to weigh more than those who get a good night's rest most nights. Why? Research shows it can throw the hormones that control appetite out of whack, making you hungrier and causing you to eat more. Slayton recommends logging at least seven hours a night.

You're Constantly Stressed

It's not just unpleasant to be anxiety-ridden—it's also bad for your metabolism: "Cortisol's a big stress hormone, and when that's activated, your body's more likely to be in fat-storage mode," says Slayton. On edge lately?

You're Consuming Too Many Pesticides—and Eating Off of Plastic

"If you really feel like you're doing everything right and not seeing progress, it's worth looking at where you're getting your food from and what's being sprayed on your food," says Slayton. Some of the chemicals in plastics and pesticides are endocrine disruptors called obesogens, which can set you up for weight gain.
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Top 6 Diet-Boosting Foods.... Buy these foods to help you slim down and feel younger in days

Do you want to jump start your weight loss program? There are certain foods that can help you do just that. And these are not foods that are expensive or hard to find. With one quick trip to the grocery store, you can buy everything you need to make positive changes and rev up your weight loss potential.

To get a list of the best diet-boosting foods, I talked to diet expert Elisa Zied, M.S. RD, CDN. Elisa is the author of Younger Next Week, a comprehensive guide to help you look and feel younger in seven days.  Sound too good to be true?  It’s not.  In her book, Zied provides a no-nonsense approach to simple changes you can make to boost your energy and feel better about your body.  She gave me this list of foods that you can use to jumpstart your diet.

6 Best Diet-Boosting Foods

1. Oats and oatmeal (unsweetened): Oats are high in fiber and provide carbohydrates that are broken down slowly and gradually released into the bloodstream to keep blood sugar levels steady.  Oats also pack in protein that - along with fiber- fills you up and can help you feel satisfied.  This may prevent overeating. Lastly, oats and oatmeal have a high water content, so it can contribute to your daily fluid needs and keep you hydrated. Pair oats and oatmeal with fruit like fresh berries, unsweetened applesauce, nuts/seeds, or low fat milk.
2. Whole grain, high-fiber cereal. Cereals like shredded wheat are a convenient way to get fiber and a little bit of protein.  They are also low in sodium to help discourage bloating that can come from consuming too much salt.  Like oatmeal, whole grain cereal is a great “cluster food.”  Cluster foods help you incorporate ingredients like fruit, nuts, seed and low fat milk to boost your levels of beneficial nutrients. 
3. Nuts.  Nuts are not only delicious but they also pair well with oatmeal or whole grain cereal and you can sprinkle them in salads or on cooked veggies. They’re loaded with healthy fats (mostly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) as well as essential protein and fiber to help fill you up.  In Younger Next Week, you’ll find a list of the nutrients in several types of nuts.  Almonds, for example are a good source of riboflavin, copper and phosphorus.  And you’ll get plenty of vitamin E and magnesium when you consume hazelnuts. 
4. Eggs. Eggs are a great source of both high-quality protein and heart-healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Eating eggs has also been linked with reduced calorie intake because they fill you up and satisfy you. This may happen because of the protein they contain, but if you can maintain a reasonable calorie intake, it can protect you against weight gain as you age.
5. Cruciferous vegetables.  Veggies like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, cauliflower are very low in calories and water-packed to keep you hydrated. Their fiber content also helps to keep you full. Although all vegetables provide nutrients and beneficial substances, cruciferous vegetables standout because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. Some studies suggest they may protect the heart and have anti-cancer properties.  Eating vegetables like Brussels sprouts at the start of a meal is a great way to fill up and can leave less room for higher calorie items that you want to limit – including dessert.
6. Raspberries.  These bright red berries are versatile and loaded with nutrients. One cup is an excellent source of fiber, vitamin C and manganese. Raspberries are also a good source of vitamin K and selenium. Raspberries, like other fruits and veggies, are high in water content, so eating them can help you stay hydrated. They pair well with low-fat yogurt, work well on top of whole grain cereal or oatmeal, blend well into a smoothie and can be eaten and enjoyed solo.

See how many of these foods you can throw in your cart on your next healthy grocery shopping trip. Even if these foods are not familiar, give them a try. Need preparation ideas? Pick up a copy of Elisa’s book.  Younger Next Week is packed with recipes, meal plans and other tips for looking better and feeling great about your body.

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7 Weird Things That Promote Weight Loss And get this: One of ‘em is chocolate!

If you want to shed pounds, you know the best way to do it: healthy eating and exercise. That being said, we’ve learned about some pretty interesting—and, well, seriously strange—weight-loss tricks via research over the past year. Check them out…

Whiffs of Peppermint

Smelling peppermint on the regular may help lower hunger levels and calorie intake, per a study we reported on in December.

Your Dishware—If It’s the Right Color

A study published last month found that using red plates could help you eat less. (Home goods stores probably have some awesome after-Christmas sales right now!)

Cold Hard Cash

 

Paying with bills instead of a credit card may help you pick out healthier foods, according to research reported on in the fall.

Chocolate

Now this is the kind of food news we're really sweet on: A new study found that eating chocolate is associated with lower levels of abdominal fat. This held true even when researchers considered other factors that could have influenced study participants’ fat levels and location, such as how often they worked out and how healthy their diets were overall.
Researchers writing in the journal Nutrition studied 1,458 adolescents up to age 17. Participants reported what they ate during two nonconsecutive days, and afterward, their weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, and skin fat levels were measured. The conclusion: Higher chocolate consumption was linked to lower levels of belly bulge.
Counterintuitive, right? The study results are actually similar to those of a 2012 study that found adults who indulge in chocolate two times a week have lower BMIs, on average, than chocolate abstainers. Researchers in the new study didn't speculate as to why chocolate eaters had slimmer waists—and caution that you can't make any conclusions based on these findings alone—but authors of the 2012 research theorized that the magic ingredient could be antioxidants. Dark chocolate in particular has lots of these inflammation-fighting chemicals, and antioxidants may play a role in metabolic functioning.
Still, you obviously can't go crazy with the sweet stuff and maintain a healthy weight. The key is moderation—and choosing the right type of treat.

The Temp in Your Bedroom

If only you could work off the calories from that froyo you had earlier while passed out on the couch. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it may not be that far off: Turning down the thermostat while you sleep could help rev up your metabolism, according to a new study conducted by the National Institute of Health Clinical Center. For the study, 31 healthy people slept in either a 75-degree room or a 66-degree room. Researchers found that the colder sleepers burned more than 7 percent more calories than the warm sleepers—likely because their bodies were working to raise their core body temperature to a stable 98.6 degrees, says study author Francesco Saverio Celi, MD, MHSc, of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease.
If you lowered the thermostat to 66 degrees at bedtime, you could burn an extra 100 calories over the course of 24 sleeping hours, according to study results. That might not sound like much, but it adds up—in theory at least.
See, researchers don’t yet know whether your body compensates for these calories in another way—like by making you hungrier or less amped to work out when you’re awake, says Celi. Still, if you’re trying to lose a few pounds, it can’t hurt to turn down the temperature before you crawl under the covers. Just make sure you don’t pile on the blankets or wear your warmest pajamas at the same time: You can’t expect to see results unless you tough it out in the cold, says Celi.

Low-Cal #FoodPorn

 

Sticking pics of low-cal grub on your fridge—and having a look before you snack—may help you eat less while dieting, suggests results from a study we told you about last month.

The State of Your Desk

Spend time in a tidy workspace versus a messy one, and you’ll be more likely to choose a healthy snack, says a study we reported on last summer. One point for organization!
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Best Motivators for Exercise

Getting motivated to exercise isn't easy and it usually starts from within.  Having reasons to exercise, whether it's to lose weight, feel good about yourself, improve your health or look good at a wedding is essential.  Internal motivation is great, but there are tools you can use to make exercise more interesting and fun.  Being able to see how hard you're working, with a pedometer or a heart rate monitor, or having support, from a friend or personal trainer, can be just the nudge you need to keep going.  The following tools, tips and gadgets will help you stay motivated to exercise.

1. Pedometer

Pedometers are one of the best ways to stay active throughout the day.  If you've never used one, they're simple and easy.  You simply clip it to your belt and it records your steps throughout the day.  What makes this so motivating is that you can see in black and white just how much (or how little) you're moving.  You can set goals based on how many steps you currently take, working to add more steps each day.  The more you move, the more calories you burn and the easier it is to lose weight.  You can also try a pedometer app to your smartphone to track your steps, mileage and more.  Below are a few resources to get you started.

2. MP3 Player

Music is incredibly motivating when it comes to exercise.  In fact, one study, published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, found that listening to your favorite song can decrease feelings of fatigue, making exercise more comfortable.  The right song at the right moment can give you the extra energy you need to finish your workout strong and the right MP3 player can add even more to your workouts.  If you use a smartphone, there are apps that find music at certain tempos.

3. Personal Trainer

Hiring a personal trainer isn't just for Hollywood celebrities.  In fact, a personal trainer can do wonders for your workouts and having an appointment and someone to hold you accountable can be an invaluable addition to your motivational resources.  Not only do you get custom workouts that fit your fitness level, likes and dislikes and schedule, you have someone there to support you, answer questions, track your progress and keep you on track with your workouts.

4. Heart Rate Monitor

Intensity is one of the most important aspects of your workout, especially if your goal is to lose weight.  There are a variety of ways to monitor your intensity and you can always use a Perceived Exertion Chart to keep track of how your workout feels.  However, a heart rate monitor gives you instant information about how hard you're working and it isn't subjective, like perceived exertion.  You can look down at your watch, see your heart rate in beats per minute and instantly know exactly where you are in your target heart rate zone.

5. Exercise Variety

Another key to being motivated is having choices. If you feel like you have to get on the treadmill every time you workout, there will come a day when you can't stomach the idea and skip your workout completely.  Successful weight losers find activities they enjoy and cultivate a number of interests so that they always have a choice. For example, If you get tired of the gym or can't exercise outside, having workout videos at home can give you more options.  Don't feel like you have to do the same workouts day after day.

6. Workout Buddy

Having a workout buddy, whether it's a friend, a family member or a pet, can give you that extra motivation you need to show up for your workouts.  It's not easy finding a workout buddy who can exercise at the same time, day and fitness level, but one way to start is by asking a friend to meet you for a walk, a pickup basketball game, tennis, etc. once a week.  You'll find you naturally establish a pattern to your workouts that works for both of you.

7. Rewards

Rewarding yourself for completing your workouts is a must if you want to stay motivated.  We often use things like guilt or shame to motivate ourselves, but postive reinforcements often work even better.  Having something to look forward to can help you stay on track with your workouts and  enjoy your success, something many of us don't do very often.  Try schedulng a small reward each week you complete your workouts and a bigger reward at the end of the month. Some ideas:

• Schedule a Massage or other spa treatment
• New workout gear or clothes
• A vacation
• New workout music
• Exercise equipment
• An evening reading your favorite book
• Lounging in the hot tub after your workout

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New Year, New You: 10 Top Fitness Resolutions

1. Be Determined to be Successful

Someone once wrote: "Be Determined to Be Determined" -- which is similar in tone and even more pointed. Unless you start with this resolution, you chances of success are not good. Your ability to comply with the following resolutions will be hit and miss. Be determined.

2. Make Time for Exercise

Being in shape involves two essential elements: Lean weight and muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness. For this you need to do exercise, which differs from general physical activity in that exercise is generally an organized process and not random movement. Even so, non-exercise physical activity is also very important (see below).

3. Stick to a Diet and Nutrition Plan

How to eat well is not difficult. Eat mostly plants -- fruit and veg, whole grains, beans and seeds -- plus some low-fat protein of your choice. And don't overeat. That's it, there are no secrets, you just have to do it. Ultimately, it should not be a "plan" but a way of eating for life.

4. Get Sufficient Sleep

Insufficient sleep can knock you around. It upsets hormones and subsequently metabolism and prevents you from following the three critical resolutions above. Sleep is another fitness fundamental and you must accommodate it.

5. Move More Around the Home

General movement energy expenditure is called 'non-exercise activity thermogenesis' or NEAT. This is the activity you do when you are not formally exercising. It can make a real difference to daily energy expenditure and calorie balance. Do more NEAT like gardening, housework, walking kids to school or shops etc.

6. Fewer TV and Computer Sessions

This relates to No 5 above. You need to sit less. The health hazards or prolonged sitting are being gradually documented: heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndromes all caused by excessive sitting. It's not what the body was designed for. Excessive sitting can negate some of your better exercise efforts if you get the proportions wrong. Sit less, move more in your leisure hours, and even at work if you can manage it.

7. Eat More Fresh Food, Less Packaged Food

Bodybuilders call this "eating clean," and it means emphasizing fresh produce, low-fat meats and dairy (or vegetarian equivalents), and avoiding packaged foods high in salt, sugars and fat plus additives and preservatives. If you do this, you will also see a useful fall in your supermarket budget if you choose wisely. It also means going easy on the fast foods and take-aways.

8. Do Cardio and Weights

For top of the line fitness, combine aerobic conditioning (cardio) with some form of resistance or weight training. Doing weight training as you lose weight will go some way toward maintaining muscle while you lose fat, which is the best outcome. Cardio will burn more fat than static weight lifting, so do both for best effect.

9. Aim for Achievable Fitness Goals

Don't overshoot with your goals. A sure way to get discouraged is to aim high and perform low. You need to nominate achievable goals. Depending on your base, you may need 6 months of exercise to develop a good, testable fitness level. Don't work too hard with high-intensity or high-volume programs to begin with. The secret is to use progressive programs as you get fitter.

10. Aim for Achievable Body Weight Goals

Same as above; 1-2 pounds/week weight loss is about right. If you do weights and hold on to or increase muscle, you may find you weight loss is not as rapid as you expect and may even stall. Take more notice of waist and hip, arm and leg measurements than measurement scale weights. Then you won't be fooled by the involvement of muscle.

Happy Fit New Year!

5 common Diet myths to get your eating on track

This article is by
by Rania Batayneh, MPH, with Eve Adamson, author of the One One One Diet
Don't let weight-loss myths sabotage your efforts. Just because something worked for your friend (or coworker or neighbor or second cousin) doesn't mean it always works. Here are the top-five weight-loss myths that not only stall your weight loss but can also make you gain.
Are you ready to look truth squarely in the eye?
Myth #1: Gluten is bad.
This is one of those fads everyone's talking about these days. "Quit gluten! Quit wheat! Wheat gives you a big belly and chronic diseases and makes you obese and practically kills you the second you eat a slice of bread or a bite of pasta!"
Slow down for a second.
I feel sorry for gluten. It's a nutritious protein that comes from rye, wheat, and barley. It's true that some people can't eat it, just as some people can't eat strawberries, peanuts, or cheese, but for most people, gluten is a perfectly safe and nutritious. The idea that wheat is somehow genetically modified beyond recognition, or that it's so starchy you can't possibly stabilize your blood sugar if you eat it is blatant exaggeration.
Giving up gluten is no guaranteed path to weight loss, and could even lead to weight gain. A few studies even report nutritional deficiencies in people on long-term gluten-free diets, especially among those who rely on a lot of packaged gluten-free foods. If you substitute gluten-free bread, cookies, tortillas, and cake for your gluten-containing favorites, you're going to be eating just as many carbs and just as much sugar.
There is one kernel of truth to the wheat bashing: People eat way too much of it. The only reason some people lose weight going gluten free is they eat more natural whole foods and get their formerly excessive carbohydrate intake back into balance. That's all great, but you don't have to give up gluten to do it.
Myth #2: Meat is bad, and dairy is really bad.
The other big food group that dieters tend to ban is animal products. I have no problem with people who want to eat vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons. A few studies have shown that vegetarians have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and a lower risk of heart disease than meat eaters. I hear your arguments. But weight loss is not necessarily one of the benefits.
Why? Because you can easily eat a junk-food diet and still technically be a vegan. Plenty of less-than-nutritious foods don't contain animal products. White bread; most types of sweeteners, including high-fructose corn syrup; margarine; and fried potato and corn chips are all vegan.
I've met plenty of overweight and even obese vegetarians and vegans. It's not the stereotype, but the reedy-looking celebrity vegans who write the books have careers that demand they stay in good shape.
Now let's turn our attention to dairy. Sure, eating huge hunks of cheese or heaping bowls of ice cream isn't healthy and is out of balance—not to mention very high in fat and calories—but you don't have to give up dairy altogether unless you have ethical or medical reasons to do so. One of my favorite foods is low-fat Greek yogurt, which is very high in protein compared to conventional yogurt, and has a rich, creamy texture. Cottage cheese can be a healthy snack or meal and a base for many delicious recipes. I often recommend string cheese as part of a healthy snack.
The bottom line is that you still need to stay in balance. You can't just cut out a food group and assume everything about your diet will be fine as long as you don't eat that one thing. That's not how it works.
Myth #3: Organic food is diet food.
I had a client once who told me that she didn't understand why she wasn't losing weight because she was eating all organic. She'd read in a book that the chemicals in food make us fat, and that if you just eat organic, you won't be fat.
"What did you eat today for breakfast?" I asked.
She paused. "A quarter of an organic cherry pie."
Hmmm.
The word organic is seductive, but it's also misleading. Organic means a food is grown without pesticides or other chemicals and is not genetically modified. But the label says absolutely nothing about the nutrient value of the food itself, or whether it's a good dietary choice, or whether it has excessive fat, sugar, or starch. No wonder she wasn't losing any weight.
Chemicals scare people—so much so that they can forget what losing weight is really about. I understand the concern. It's a toxic world. Many of my clients are concerned about the effects of toxins in foods and choose organic foods to avoid some of this chemical load. Our environment is contaminated with chemicals, and nobody can avoid them entirely. So while eating organic food might lighten your toxic load a bit, it's certainly no magic weight-loss bullet. Calories are calories, fat is fat, and sugar is sugar, even when it comes without the pesticide sprinkles.
Myth #4: Paid diet plans work best.
If I had a nickel for every client I've ever had who was a dropout from some paid diet plan, well, I'd have a lot of nickels. You're likely to find that you're highly motivated—at first. But when reality sets in and you get tired of eating the packaged foods or counting the points or not getting to have what you really want, that's when motivation flags.
Sure, there are success stories from these programs. But has anybody checked two or three years down the line? The percentage of people who keep the weight off is dismally small. Those fine-print disclaimers really are true: Losing weight and keeping it off through a paid diet program is not a typical result. Most people don't have that kind of success. They might lose weight, but most of the time, they gain it back.
In fact, a study from UCLA that analyzed 31 long-term studies found that although people can often lose 5 to 10 percent of their body weight on any diet, most people regain the weight and more within four to five years, and that dieting itself is actually a consistent predictor of future weight gain! My clients have told me that when they were on a paid diet program, they did great, but they didn't know what to do once they went off it. They didn't learn anything. So they yo-yo and end up gaining more weight in the long run.
Myth #5: Diet food helps you lose weight.
Diet foods are fake foods—or more precisely, fake "foods." Manufacturers use all kinds of food-processing tricks and chemicals to trick you into thinking you just ate a blueberry pie or a chocolate eclair or a regular cola, when all you really ate was artificial sweetener, filler, or even wood pulp.
If you eat this stuff, your brain might be fooled for a few minutes, but your body won't be. Fake foods cause all kinds of trouble in your body. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis tested 17 severely obese people to see how their blood sugar and insulin would respond to artificial sweeteners. When study subjects drank sucralose (a common artificial sweetener) before a glucose challenge test, they had higher blood sugar peaks and a 20 percent higher insulin level than when they drank just water before the test.
Fillers and chemicals that mimic natural flavors have similar effects. Your body feels full temporarily, but because it isn't getting the nutrients that should coincide with a full feeling, it gets confused, and you end up hungrier.
Then there are all those "fat-free" foods. Studies show that where a person might eat one real cookie, he or she is more likely to eat 10 fat-free cookies (because, hey, they're fat free, right?). That results in a calorie overload, not a calorie deficit.

Your diet sucks. No, not the odd cheese-curls-for-dinner days. We mean the average 400 calories a day you suck down through a straw. A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that around 37 percent of our total daily liquid calories come from sugar-sweetened drinks. And here's the really crazy part: Guzzling those beverages has a bigger impact on our waistlines than anything else we eat. "People don't reduce food intake when they drink their calories from soda and other beverages," says Barry Popkin, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. The silver lining is that cutting back on those oversweetened fluids can be an easy way to kick-start weight loss. Where to begin? This guide is a good place. Drink These Freely Tea We may live in the land of the Big Gulp, but for the rest of the world, tea is the most popular beverage after water. And for good reason: Hot or cold, it's calorie-free, and studies have found that compounds in green tea known as catechins rev your metabolism for up to 24 hours—meaning it actually helps you burn more calories. But when you load this naturally good beverage with sugar, you detract from those health benefits. So order unsweetened when you can, and check labels: Every four grams of sugar is the same as one cube or packetful. If you're up for brewing your own, try this recipe for iced cucumber green tea, from Maggie Moon, M.S., R.D., of the U.S. Tea Council. Boil a quart of cold water, then let it cool for 10 minutes before adding eight to 10 green-tea bags. This will extract the flavor and antioxidants without scorching the tea, which can make it bitter. Steep for one minute, then remove the bags. Peel and dice a cucumber, reserving eight to 10 slices for garnish. Peel and grate one tablespoon of fresh ginger. Distribute cucumber and ginger evenly among four glasses with ice. Top each with eight ounces of tea and garnish with cucumber slices. Coffee Like tea, unsweetened coffee is filled with healthy compounds and almost no calories. But if you're a fan of sugary coffee concoctions, you down 206 more calories a day on average than people who sip straight joe. Not ready to break up with your barista? Try an Americano (espresso plus water) or a café au lait with skim milk. If you can't skip cream and sugar, be stingy with them or use low-cal or fat-free versions. Go Easier On These Milk Researchers at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville found that having three servings of low-fat dairy per day can lead to weight loss of 10 percent or more. Dairy contains calcium and the amino acid leucine, which together promote fat burning, says Michael Zemel, Ph.D., director of the university's Nutrition Institute. And a study of overweight women at Northern Illinois University found that soy milk was just as effective as nonfat cow's milk in helping them shed pounds. But stick to skim or low-fat moo juice and light soy milk; otherwise, the calories add up quickly. Alcohol Happy hour is good for plenty of things, but weight loss isn't one of them. Savoring a drink every now and then does have perks, including reducing your risk of heart disease, but alcohol packs a lot of calories into a small glass, and it may even stimulate your appetite. And unlike the calories in fat, carbohydrates, and protein, those in alcohol can't be stored in your body, so they have to be used immediately. As a result, your body stops burning fat until the alcohol is processed—that's roughly an hour for every drink. Most wines ring in between 100 and 120 calories a glass, but you can stretch it out by adding club soda and ice to make a spritzer. If you can't stomach that, have a Bloody Mary—a six-ounce glass delivers around 76 calories. That's reasonable. Juice If it comes from fruit, it must be healthy, right? Not so much. Many juices have added sugars. And in terms of health benefits, you're always better off eating whole fruit instead. A medium orange has a mere 59 calories, and its 12 grams of sugar come with three grams of belly-­filling fiber. A typical eight-ounce glass of OJ has 110 calories, twice as much sugar as the fruit, and no fiber. For a healthier juice fix, try watering it down, says Lisa Jones, R.D., adjunct professor of nutrition at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Mix four ounces of your favorite kind with 32 ounces of water. You'll get the flavor with fewer calories. Diet soda No-cal pop may not pile on the pounds directly, but new research from Purdue University suggests that drinking these artificially sweetened beverages can screw with the brain's ability to measure caloric intake. Drink them often enough and you may actually start to crave sweets more. Plus, if you swig diet drinks all day, you're taking in fewer healthy liquids, such as tea. Get your carbonation fix with zero-calorie seltzer instead, or make your own with a home soda maker that carbonates your drink of choice.

Your diet sucks. No, not the odd cheese-curls-for-dinner days. We mean the average 400 calories a day you suck down through a straw. A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that around 37 percent of our total daily liquid calories come from sugar-sweetened drinks. And here's the really crazy part: Guzzling those beverages has a bigger impact on our waistlines than anything else we eat.

"People don't reduce food intake when they drink their calories from soda and other beverages," says Barry Popkin, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. The silver lining is that cutting back on those oversweetened fluids can be an easy way to kick-start weight loss. Where to begin? This guide is a good place.

Drink These Freely

Tea We may live in the land of the Big Gulp, but for the rest of the world, tea is the most popular beverage after water. And for good reason: Hot or cold, it's calorie-free, and studies have found that compounds in green tea known as catechins rev your metabolism for up to 24 hours—meaning it actually helps you burn more calories.

But when you load this naturally good beverage with sugar, you detract from those health benefits. So order unsweetened when you can, and check labels: Every four grams of sugar is the same as one cube or packetful. If you're up for brewing your own, try this recipe for iced cucumber green tea, from Maggie Moon, M.S., R.D., of the U.S. Tea Council. Boil a quart of cold water, then let it cool for 10 minutes before adding eight to 10 green-tea bags. This will extract the flavor and antioxidants without scorching the tea, which can make it bitter. Steep for one minute, then remove the bags. Peel and dice a cucumber, reserving eight to 10 slices for garnish. Peel and grate one tablespoon of fresh ginger. Distribute cucumber and ginger evenly among four glasses with ice. Top each with eight ounces of tea and garnish with cucumber slices.

Coffee Like tea, unsweetened coffee is filled with healthy compounds and almost no calories. But if you're a fan of sugary coffee concoctions, you down 206 more calories a day on average than people who sip straight joe. Not ready to break up with your barista? Try an Americano (espresso plus water) or a café au lait with skim milk. If you can't skip cream and sugar, be stingy with them or use low-cal or fat-free versions.


Go Easier On These

Milk Researchers at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville found that having three servings of low-fat dairy per day can lead to weight loss of 10 percent or more. Dairy contains calcium and the amino acid leucine, which together promote fat burning, says Michael Zemel, Ph.D., director of the university's Nutrition Institute. And a study of overweight women at Northern Illinois University found that soy milk was just as effective as nonfat cow's milk in helping them shed pounds. But stick to skim or low-fat moo juice and light soy milk; otherwise, the calories add up quickly.

Alcohol Happy hour is good for plenty of things, but weight loss isn't one of them. Savoring a drink every now and then does have perks, including reducing your risk of heart disease, but alcohol packs a lot of calories into a small glass, and it may even stimulate your appetite. And unlike the calories in fat, carbohydrates, and protein, those in alcohol can't be stored in your body, so they have to be used immediately. As a result, your body stops burning fat until the alcohol is processed—that's roughly an hour for every drink. Most wines ring in between 100 and 120 calories a glass, but you can stretch it out by adding club soda and ice to make a spritzer. If you can't stomach that, have a Bloody Mary—a six-ounce glass delivers around 76 calories. That's reasonable.

Juice If it comes from fruit, it must be healthy, right? Not so much. Many juices have added sugars. And in terms of health benefits, you're always better off eating whole fruit instead. A medium orange has a mere 59 calories, and its 12 grams of sugar come with three grams of belly-­filling fiber. A typical eight-ounce glass of OJ has 110 calories, twice as much sugar as the fruit, and no fiber. For a healthier juice fix, try watering it down, says Lisa Jones, R.D., adjunct professor of nutrition at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Mix four ounces of your favorite kind with 32 ounces of water. You'll get the flavor with fewer calories.

Diet soda No-cal pop may not pile on the pounds directly, but new research from Purdue University suggests that drinking these artificially sweetened beverages can screw with the brain's ability to measure caloric intake. Drink them often enough and you may actually start to crave sweets more. Plus, if you swig diet drinks all day, you're taking in fewer healthy liquids, such as tea. Get your carbonation fix with zero-calorie seltzer instead, or make your own with a home soda maker that carbonates your drink of choice.

Best Holiday Weight Loss Tips

Stay Fit Over the Holiday Season and Beyond

Over Christmas, or indeed any extended holiday period, excessive eating and drinking and too little exercise can cause you pack on the pounds and lose fitness as well. You can do something about it. Apply these tips and maintain your fitness -- and keep those pounds off.

Weight Management and Fitness Tips

• Compensate, compensate, compensate! Successful weight losers and maintainers know how to use this technique, which is just common sense. The idea of compensation is simply to keep energy input (food) and energy output (activity and exercise) in balance so you don't put on the pounds.  It means that if you've eaten to excess one meal or day or week, or not kept up with your activity program on a daily or weekly basis, then in the next period, you 'compensate.' Eat light for the next meal or day, or exercise harder or more regularly the next day or week. You do have to understand that you have overeaten or under-exercised, and then to have the will to adjust in the next period. It may sound simple, but too few actually implement it. It allows you to enjoy some of the foods and relaxation you like without getting the whole metabolism out of balance. Compensate.
• Limit portions or limit meals, or both. You need to prevent overeating and over-drinking one way or another. The snack meals at morning and afternoon can pile on the calories. Control these, or compensate the next day or meal and cut back or even fast for that meal. Have several alcohol-free days each week.
• Cut back on fat, refined carbohydrates and sugars, and alcohol. This is food ceasier said than done when you want to enjoy yourself, but excesses of the three food categories are mostly where the excess calories and body fat come from. Reduce intake of fried foods, fatty cuts of meat, cheeses, fatty processed and packaged foods, pastries, sweets, cakes, pop and soft drinks, beer, spirits and wine and similar foods. Cutting back does not mean eating none of these; you are entitled to enjoy the festivities -- but be selective.
• Exercise or train five days each week, and make sure you move seven days each week. An hour of brisk walking expends about 300 calories. That's pretty much the equivalent to a big fancy slice of pecan pie, so you need to be active, very active during any period where you are tempted to overeat fancy foods. If you're on holidays, stay active because incidental, non-exercise activity is important. We all like to read and relax on holidays, but make time to get moving, even if it's recreational walking, skating or skiing.
• Do 2-3 workouts each week of at least 600 calories. Yes, this is asking a lot for most people on holidays, but you can reach this by jogging for about 50 minutes (at around 6 miles/hour pace), even in two different sessions. Or, you can do a weights session of 9 exercises of 3 sets of 12 repetitions, and do a 20 minute jog the same day to give you approximately the same energy expenditure.
• Play a lot; move more. Play with the kids, the grand kids, the nephews and nieces. Any type of activity that is not formal exercise is important because it helps keep your metabolism higher so you burn more calories during day-to-day activities.

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5 Easy Ways to Start Losing Weight NOW

A new Gallup survey found that a full 51 percent of adults are hoping to drop pounds—yet only about half of them say they are truly doing something to downsize. We get it: Embarking on a weight-loss plan feels so daunting. But it doesn't have to be; all it takes to get started is a few tiny lifestyle tweaks that get you on your way to reaching your goal. Here, five beyond-simple weight-loss strategies to get you started:
Start your day with oatmeal: Research shows it can help keep hunger at bay better than other cereals
Ditch the guilt: Recent research shows beating yourself up about eating something indulgent can sabotage your weight-loss efforts. Instead, look at treating yourself as a celebratory—not shame-inducing—event.
Ignore the scale: Numbers go up and down and stall in a plateau all the time, which can do a number on your motivation. A better idea: Focus on healthy habits rather than weigh-ins—it's likely to result in more pounds dropped, according to a recent study.
Don't drink your calories: Around 37 percent of the average person's daily liquid calories come from sugar-sweetened drinks. Stick to water, unsweetened ice tea, or black or skim milk-infused coffee.
Avoid eating later at night: People who usually eat dinner around 10 p.m. consume 248 calories more per day than people who eat earlier, according to a recent study.

7 Habits That Make You Fat

According to recent research, the average person makes 200 decisions every day that will influence his or her weight. And most of these decisions aren’t monumental choices, like “Should I become an elite marathon runner?” or “Should I move to Wisconsin and live entirely on bratwurst and cheese curds?” Most, in fact, are tiny little choices—habits, really—that over the long run, lead us down one of two paths: the road to ripped, or the freeway to flab.

And guess what? That’s great news! Because it means that you don’t have to run marathons—or even give up bratwurst—to start losing serious weight. You just need to break 7 very simple, common habits—tiny changes that have nothing to do with diet and exercise, but have everything to do with dropping pounds, looking great, and making a huge improvement in your health.

Fat Habit #1

Putting the Serving Dishes on the Table

Researchers at Cornell University found that when people served themselves from the kitchen counter or the stove, they ate up to 35 percent less food than they did when the grub was on the kitchen or dining room table. When there’s distance between us and our food, the scientists theorize, we think harder about whether we’re really hungry for more.

Fat Habit #2

Getting Too Little (or Too Much) Sleep

A sleep schedule is vital to any weight-loss plan, say Wake Forest University researchers who tracked study participants for 5 years. In the under-40 age group, people who slept 5 hours or less each night gained nearly 2½ times as much abdominal fat as those who logged 6 to 7 hours; also, those who slept 8 hours or longer added nearly twice as much belly fat as the 6- to 7-hour group.

People with sleep deficits tend to eat more (and use less energy) because they’re tired, says study coauthor Kristen Hairston, M.D., while those who sleep longer than 8 hours a night tend to be less active.

Fat Habit #3

Not Multitasking While Watching TV

We don't need to tell you that too much TV has been linked to weight gain. But here's what you may not realize: You can have your TV and watch it, too. Just do something else at the same time. Washing dishes burns 70 calories every 30 minutes. So does ironing. Here's another thing to keep in mind: Cutting TV time even a little helps you burn calories, say researchers at the University of Vermont. In their study, overweight participants who cut their viewing time in half (from an average of 5 hours to 2.5) burned an extra 119 calories a day. “Nearly anything you do—even reading—uses more energy than watching TV,” says study author Jennifer J. Otten, Ph.D.

Drinking Soda

Researchers say you can measure a person’s risk of obesity by measuring his or her soda intake. Versus people who don’t drink sweetened sodas, here’s what your daily intake means:

½ can = 26 percent increased risk of being overweight or obese

½ to 1 can = 30.4 percent increased risk

1 to 2 cans = 32.8 percent increased risk

More than 2 cans = 47.2 percent increased risk

That’s a pretty remarkable set of stats. You don’t have to guzzle Double Gulps from 7-Eleven to put yourself at risk—you just need to indulge in one or two cans a day. Wow. And because high-fructose corn syrup is so cheap, food marketers keep making serving sizes bigger (even the “small” at most movie theaters is enough to drown a raccoon). That means we’re drinking more than ever and don’t even realize it: In the 1950s, the average person drank 11 gallons of soda a year. By the mid-2000s, we were drinking 46 gallons a year. A Center for Science in the Public Interest report contained this shocking sentence: “Carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet.”

Fat Habit #5

Taking Big Bites

Dutch researchers recently found that big bites and fast chewing can lead to overeating. In the study, people who chewed large bites of food for 3 seconds consumed 52 percent more food before feeling full than those who chewed small bites for 9 seconds. The reason: Tasting food for a longer period of time (no matter how much of it you bite off) signals your brain to make you feel full sooner, say the scientists.

Fat Habit #6

Not Eating Enough Fat

You don’t have to go whole hog on a low-carb diet to see results. Simply swapping a few hundred calories of carbs for a little fat may help you lose weight and reduce your blood-insulin levels, according to researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. People in their study who consumed just 43 percent of their calories from carbohydrates felt fuller after 4 hours and maintained their blood-sugar levels longer than those who ate 55 percent carbs.

Carbs can cause blood-sugar levels to spike and then crash, leading to hunger and overeating, says study author Barbara Gower, Ph.D. Fat, on the other hand, keeps you satiated longer. Some easy swaps: butter instead of jam on toast; bacon instead of potatoes; low-fat milk instead of a sports drink.

Fat Habit #7

Not Getting the Best Guidance!

Signing up for e-mails (or tweets) that contain weight-loss advice can help you drop pounds, a new study reveals. When researchers from Canada sent diet and exercise advice to more than 1,000 working adults weekly, they discovered that the recipients boosted their physical activity and ate smarter. People who didn’t receive the reminders didn’t change. Lucky for you, we publish the best diet and fitness guidance every single day.

Thanks for reading!

15 Terrible Snacks For Weight Loss

Attacking the snacks

From the Cheerio-toting toddler to the vending machine-loving employee, we're a nation obsessed with snacks. How obsessed? Most of us eat nearly 600 calories a day—that's roughly a third of our food—in snacks rather than meals, according to a 2010 study from the University of North Carolina. 

That's a lot of snacking, something that can make or break your weight loss efforts. “There is a right way and a wrong way to snack,” says Katie Ferraro, MPH, a San Diego-based registered dietitian at Ingrain Health. Done right, snacking can keep your appetite in check, fuel your workout, and give you valuable nutrients. Done wrong, and you're downing gut-busting snacks loaded with sugar and fat, says Ferraro.

And here's where it gets tricky—it's all too easy to be fooled into thinking seemingly healthy snacks are good for your waistline. Here are 15 weight loss-sabotaging snacks to avoid, and the tasty swaps to make instead.

Instead of: Strawberry yogurt

Reach for: Plain Greek yogurt with fresh strawberry slices

Some fruit-on-the-bottom varieties of yogurt contain 26 grams of sugar in a six-ounce container (that's the equivalent of three Oreo cookies). And while 12 grams of that comes from the milk itself, the rest is from the sugar-packed fruit flavoring. A recent study review published in the BMJ found that cutting back on sugar is associated with about a two-pound weight loss, while eating more results in a similar amount of weight gain. Stick to plain Greek yogurt for less sugar and a healthy dose of protein.

Instead of: ½ cup of trail mix with chocolate pieces

Reach for: A fruit-and-nut bar

The standard serving size of trail mix is a quarter cup, a measly amount that most of never come close to sticking to—especially when eating straight out of the bag (just two handfuls put you at 350 calories!). A fruit-and-nut bar, like KIND Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt or a LaraBar is great way to meet your craving for something nutty and slightly sweet, but in a single-serve package that you can’t overdo.

Instead of: An ounce of pretzels

Reach for: An ounce of salted, shelled pistachios

Pretzels pack 450 mg of sodium—that's nearly 20% of what you need in an entire day. Besides not being a good call for your heart, excess sodium can also make uncomfortably. Salted nuts, on the other hand, contain just a quarter the sodium. And if you're worried about the fat in the nuts, don’t be: While the pistachios do have 50 more calories per serving than the pretzels, they also contain twice the protein and three times the fiber to keep you fuller longer. Plus, people who added nuts to their diet lost more weight compared to those who snacked on pretzels, according to a recent UCLA study.

Instead of: ¼ cup of soy nuts

Reach for: ½ cup shelled, steamed edamame

While a quarter-cup of soy nuts is 130 calories, a single-serve packet of edamame (which can be steamed in the microwave and is available in the freezer section of your grocery store) is only 90 calories. Translation? You get twice the food for fewer calories. 

Instead of: A can of diet soda

Reach for: 12 oz of unsweetened sparkling water with fruit slices

Many people drink zero calorie sodas when trying to stave off hunger between meals. However, the artificial sweetener you're knocking back along with the bubbles has been linked to an increased risk of weight gain—the sweeteners may negatively impact your metabolism, as well as throw off your brain's ability to regulate your appetite, finds a 2013 study in Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism. If you’re really just thirsty instead of hungry, opting for sparkling H20 provides that filling carbonation, while adding fruit (orange, lemon, strawberries) adds a hint of sweetness with a boost of nutrition.

Instead of: Two rice cakes

Reach for: One cup of air-popped popcorn

Rice cakes have long been labeled a diet food because they’re low in calories and fat free. But they’re also sky high on the glycemic index, scoring 82 (pure sugar is 100). The glycemic index is a measure of how a food raises your blood sugar and insulin (the higher the score, the greater the increase). And according to Australian research, people who ate a diet lower on the glycemic index lost twice as much fat compared to those on higher glycemic diets.

One cup of air-popped popcorn is only 31 calories, has a lower glycemic index (55), and also counts as a serving of whole grains. Plus, you can jazz up plain popcorn with zero-calorie spices—like cinnamon, cumin, chili powder—to make it tastier. 

Instead of: A 16-ounce bottled smoothie

Reach for: A homemade smoothie

At first glance, the bottled smoothie might look like a good pick at only 150 calories. But look closer and you’ll see that that one bottle contains two servings (or 300 total calories), and, let's be real, most of us aren't just going to drink half the bottle. A better bet? Make your own and contol the calories yourself.

Instead of: One ounce of banana chips

Reach for: A banana

Banana chips appear to be a sound choice because they’re made from bananas—how bad could they be, right? Bad. They’re usually fried, meaning they contain eight grams of saturated fat (40% of your daily value) and 145 calories. A diet high in saturated fat has been found to disrupt the production of key hormones that regulate your appetite, which could make you feel hungry when you’re not, finds a study in the British Journal of Nutrition. Opt for a large banana, which offers only 121 calories and zero grams of saturated fat.

Instead of: A grande 2% pumpkin spice latte

Reach for: A grande non-fat latte 

While a pumpkin latte feels like the perfect fall snack, it’s not exactly bursting with pumpkin. Rather, it’s bursting with sugar, clocking in at 47 grams of sugar and 310 calories—and that’s without the whipped cream. To put that in perspective, an unsweetened latte contains 18 grams of sugar (from the milk). That means, the pumpkin drink packs 29 added grams of sugar, or more than seven teaspoons of sugar. Women are only advised to get six added teaspoons of the sweet stuff a day to prevent weight gain, according to the American Heart Association. Go for a skim latte instead, which contains no added sugar and only 130 calories.

Instead of: A chocolate pudding cup

Reach for: One ounce of dark chocolate 

When you’re craving something chocolate-y a pudding cup gets a good rep as a diet-friendly treat. But you’ll satisfy your craving more if you go for the real deal, an ounce of 70% (or higher) dark chocolate. It contains 168 calories (just a few more calories than the average pudding cup, which ranges from 120 to 150 calories), plus less sugar and carbs, and more satiating fiber. The chocolate also has antioxidant-packed cocoa, which, per a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, may be the reason people who eat it a few times a week are thinner than those who don’t. If portioning is an issue for you, Endangered Species Organic Dark Chocolate Chimp Mints ($50, pack of 64; amazon.com) come in .35 oz each (so you can have 3!), or try 1-oz Scharffen Berger 70% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate bars ($4;amazon.com).

Instead of: A handful of baby carrots

Reach for: A handful of baby carrots dipped in 2 Tbsp hummus

Sure, your mouth will be busy chewing like a rabbit, but once you stop munching, you're still going to be hungry. Carrots alone likely don’t have enough calories to keep you full for very long—so as good as your intentions are, your hunger may drive you to dip into the office candy stash soon after. Instead, pair them with a protein source like hummus, which will help slow digestion and keep afternoon cravings at bay.

Instead of: ½ cup of canned pears

Reach for: 4 dried plums

Even though it’s fruit, the canned pears are swimming in sweetened syrup, and they’re also low in fiber, with only one gram per serving. Eating four dried plums—aka prunes—provides a few less calories (91 in the dried plums versus 100 in canned pears) and ups your intake of fiber to three grams. Women should aim to get 25 grams of fiber per day—but most only eat half that—and increasing your intake by 10 grams a day is associated with a smaller waist circumference and weight, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Instead of: One serving of cheese crackers (27 crackers)

Reach for: A half of a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with a slice of avocado

Twenty-seven cheese crackers in a serving sounds like a sweet deal, but like all bargains, if it sounds too good to be true...well, you know how it goes. The crackers are high in simple carbohydrates like enriched flours, which spike blood sugar and create cravings (for more crackers). You can decrease that response and slow digestion with 100% whole grain bread, a source of protein, and healthy fats. Upping the intake of whole grains helped female dieters lose nearly two pounds more and decrease their body fat by one additional percentage point than a group that ate refined grains, according to a study in the Journal of Nutrition.

Instead of: ½ cup granola with one-cup skim milk

Reach for: One packet of instant oats

If you get hungry before lunch, you might want a second breakfast—and that’s okay! But granola is little more than sugar and fat, which is why this healthy-sounding snack can run upward of 360 calories. And people tend to eat bigger portions when the food is labeled healthy (like granola is), according to a recent French study. The instant oats, on the other hand, contain about 150 calories and can be easily whipped up in a cup with hot water. Oats also offer a surprisingly good amount of protein, plus slow-digesting fiber from whole grains.

Instead of: 100-calorie pack of cookies

Reach for: One-third cup of roasted pumpkin seeds

Smaller packages actually backfire, according to a study from Arizona State University, which found that people tend to eat more 100-calorie packs because they appear to be diet food. Besides, cookies—even diet versions—are almost always devoid of nutrients. Pumpkin seeds contain good fats and protein and can be pre-portioned out into individual bags to take to work. A one-third cup serving of roasted seeds is just 94 calories.

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10 Top Fat Burners at Gym! Burn More Energy with These Exercises

'Fat burning' has become a potent phrase in the fitness industry because it's easy to relate body fat to the use of fat directly as fuel. Your body's energy expenditure environment is somewhat more complicated than that, but in any case, burning body fat is a reasonable aim of any fitness program.
Ultimately, fat burning and energy expenditure are inextricably tied together. 'Do work' and this will count towards fat burning either directly or indirectly. All you need to be concerned about is moving, the more the better. Work done is a factor of time and intensity: How hard you work out, and how long you work out. Extend those two parameters and you will burn fat and lots of it.
Although weight training has certain advantages for muscle building and fat loss, moderate to high-intensity aerobic, continuous exercise (like running or cycling) over extended time is still king for energy expenditure and fat burning. Weight training and muscle building does increase your metabolism because muscle has a slightly higher metabolic rate that non-muscle tissue. 
You don't even have to exercise outside to get big benefits from this type of exercise. Here are ten great fat-burning exercises you can do in most gyms, especially in the winter when outside conditions are not favorable..
With all exercises, work up your fitness prior to doing an exercise or program that is too high in intensity or volume.
1. High-rep barbell hang-power-clean push press. Do this with a moderately light barbell at the hang position in front, dip and bring barbell to chest and thrust overhead before return to hang position. Do 15-20 reps in a set by 3-5 sets, one minute rest between.
2. Treadmill. Classic treadmill running, at moderate to high heart rate intensity, around 75-80% maximum heart rate. Use elevation setting if required. Try to do at least 30 minutes non-stop.
3. Rowing machine. As with the treadmill, choose a moderate to hard setting and try to row for 30 minutes non-stop.
4. Stationary Bicycle. Similar to treadmill and rowing machine: do 30 minutes at 75-80% of maximum heart rate.
5. Step-Ups. Use a moderately high step and do 30 steps (up and down) by three sets with one minute rest between.
6. Elliptical Trainer. For a break from impact, do 30 minutes at moderate to high intensity on the elliptical trainer.
7. Weighted Lunge. Hold a dumbbell of moderate weight at the sides and lunge forward, bending the front knee and extending at the hips. Lunge with alternate legs. Do 10 lunges with each leg for each set, and three sets with one minute break in between -- 60 lunges in all.
8. Step Machine. As an alternative,or for variety, use the step machine instead of the platform step-ups. Again, do 30 minutes non-stop.
9. Romanian Deadlift. The modified deadlift is a great energy expender. Start with a lift from the floor as with a normal barbell deadlift, and lower to just below the knees before raising the bar again to the standing position. Repeat for 20 repetitions. Keep the back straight. You will need to use a lighter bar than you would for your best deadlifts. Do three sets, rest one minute between.
10. Cable Woodchops. You can work up a sweat with the cable exercise with long repeats. Alternate upper arm for each set. Do 10 reps in a set with each arm.
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