Nutrition Frenzy

Why some slimming strategies backfire — and fixes to help reach your goal

You save your calories for a big dinner
Yes, cutting total calories leads to weight loss. But bank most of those calories for the end of the day and your hunger hormones will go haywire, making you eat more. Middle-aged men and women who ate their daily number of calories in one supersize supper produced more ghrelin, a hormone that causes hunger, than when they ate the same number of calories in three square meals, found researchers at the National Institute on Aging.

Smarter move: Front-load your calories. Overeating at night keeps you from being hungry in the morning, setting off a vicious cycle in which you’re never interested in breakfast but always starving by dinner. The key is to rebalance your day so you don’t set yourself up for an evening binge. To get your appetite back in the morning, cut your evening meal in half. Then eat a breakfast of about 450 calories, such as a scrambled egg with low-fat cheese on a whole wheat English muffin with an 8-ounce glass of juice — an amount that should keep you satisfied until lunch, says George L. Blackburn, MD, PhD, associate director of the division of nutrition at Harvard Medical School and author of “Break Through Your Set Point.” Once your appetite adjusts, don’t go more than 5 hours without another meal of roughly the same size.

Read more by clicking the blue link above, like You graze instead of eating regularly scheduled meals.

Great general recommendations from THE USDA’s MyPyramid.gov. Discuss with your health care provider first before starting any change in diet or exercise.

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT
To maintain body weight in a healthy range, balance calories from foods and beverages with calories expended.
To prevent gradual weight gain over time, make small decreases in food and beverage calories and increase physical activity.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Engage in regular physical activity and reduce sedentary activities to promote health, psychological well-being, and a healthy body weight.
To reduce the risk of chronic disease in adulthood: Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, above usual activity, at work or home on most days of the week.
For most people, greater health benefits can be obtained by engaging in physical activity of more vigorous intensity or longer duration.
To help manage body weight and prevent gradual, unhealthy body weight gain in adulthood: Engage in approximately 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity on most days of the week while not exceeding caloric intake requirements.
To sustain weight loss in adulthood: Participate in at least 60 to 90 minutes of daily moderate-intensity physical activity while not exceeding caloric intake requirements. Some people may need to consult with a healthcare provider before participating in this level of activity.
Achieve physical fitness by including cardiovascular conditioning, stretching exercises for flexibility, and resistance exercises or calisthenics for muscle strength and endurance.

FOOD GROUPS TO ENCOURAGE
Consume a sufficient amount of fruits and vegetables while staying within energy needs. Two cups of fruit and 2½ cups of vegetables per day are recommended for a reference 2,000-calorie intake, with higher or lower amounts depending on the calorie level.
Choose a variety of fruits and vegetables each day. In particular, select from all five vegetable subgroups (dark green, orange, legumes, starchy vegetables, and other vegetables) several times a week.
Consume 3 or more ounce-equivalents of whole-grain products per day, with the rest of the recommended grains coming from enriched or whole-grain products. In general, at least half the grains should come from whole grains.
Consume 3 cups per day of fat-free or low-fat milk or equivalent milk products.

Most eating-related side effects of cancer treatments go away after the treatment ends. Sometimes side effects such as poor appetite, dry mouth, change in taste or smell,trouble swallowing, or significant weight loss may last for some time. If this happens to you, talk to your health care team and work out a plan to address the problem.

As you begin to feel better, you may have questions about eating a healthful diet. Just as you wanted to go into treatment with the necessary nutrient stores that your diet could give you, you’ll want to do the best for yourself at this important time. There’s very little research to suggest that the foods you eat will keep your cancer from coming back. But eating well will help you regain your strength, rebuild tissue, and feel better overall. And certainly, what you eat can help reduce risk for other cancers.

Suggestions for healthy eating after cancer

Check with your doctor for any food or diet restrictions.
Ask your dietitian to help you create a nutritious, balanced eating plan.
Choose a variety of foods from all the food groups. Try to eat at least 5 to 7 servings a day of fruits and vegetables, including citrus fruits and dark-green and deep-yellow vegetables.
Eat plenty of high-fiber foods, such as whole grain breads and cereals.
Buy a new fruit, vegetable, low-fat food, or whole grain product each time you shop for groceries.
Decrease the amount of fat in your meals by baking or broiling foods.
Choose low-fat milk and dairy products.
Avoid salt-cured, smoked, and pickled foods.
If you choose to drink, drink alcohol only occasionally.
If you are overweight, consider losing weight by reducing the amount of fat in your diet and increasing your activity. Choose activities that you enjoy. Check with your doctor before starting any exercise program.

To get the heart-healthy benefits of drinking wine without getting tipsy, tipple some grape juice instead.

Research shows that your blood will get two important benefits: More antioxidants will be circulating in it, and bad LDL cholesterol may cause less trouble because it’s more stable.

Two for You
Having extra antioxidants in your blood is always a good thing: They help guard your cells against the kind of free-radical damage that provides a toehold for disease. And more stable LDL is incredibly desirable, too, because stable LDL is less likely to oxidize and stick to artery walls.

Juice It Up
Grape juice has fewer antioxidants than wine, so you may need to drink more to get the same benefit. Sip real juice, not fruit-flavored drinks — you’ll get more nutrients and less sugar. And keep tabs on your intake, since juice is not a calorie freebie.

Grapes contain chemical cousins — pterostilbene and resveratrol — that work as a cleanup crew, mopping up nasty free radicals in your body so they’re less likely to cause problems such as heart disease and cancer.

Protective Phenols
In a study of mice, pterostilbene and resveratrol — phenolic compounds found mainly in grape skins — had an antioxidant-like knack for knocking out breast cancer cell processes. It’s early news though; researchers still need to examine how the grape compounds affect human cancer cells.

Great Grape Nutrients
But we already know that the resveratrol in grapes has heart-protective properties, regardless of its effect on cancer. And grapes have lots of other good things going for them — like anthocyanins, which attack disease-fostering inflammation, and vitamin C. So don’t wait for further evidence before improving your health with a juicy bunch.

Reverse Crunches are great for abs!

Here’s the ab exercise I do two times per day. Trying to describe them to friends is difficult, especially just by description.

Here it is:

From Erin Kurdyla at Self magazine:

The Move-Reverse Crunch

Lie down on your back, hands at your sides. Bring legs into your chest, knees bent 90 degrees. Squeeze a ball (towel) between your knees. Then contract abs to curl your hips off the floor, and slowly lower down to start. Repeat for 3 sets of 12.

Tip: Breathe!!!! During ab work it’s easy to forget about your breathing, but it’s important and makes the movements safer and easier. Remember to contract and exhale, release and inhale.

Great lists from Exercise at About.com.

First, figure out how much time you spend doing the following:

Sitting at a desk
Sitting in a car
Sitting in front of a TV
Sitting in front of a computer
Eating out at restaurants
Drinking alcohol
Eating fast food or junk foods
Staying up late/not getting enough sleep
Now, how much time do you spend:

Being active in general (taking the stairs, walking instead of driving, gardening, cleaning, etc.)
Doing cardio exercise
Strength training for all muscle groups with challenging weights
Preparing your own meals and snacks and eating fruits, veggies and whole grains
Reading food labels
Tracking your calories
Sleeping
Dealing with stress in a healthy way
If you spend more time doing the things in the first list than the second, it’s time to reevaluate your priorities and decide what you really want for yourself. Living healthy means spending time and energy on your body–moving it around and paying attention to what you put into it. Staying in an unhealthy lifestyle means you can avoid expending energy, time and effort…but at what cost?

Obesity can be “caught” as easily as a common cold from other people’s coughs, sneezes and dirty hands.

The condition has been linked to a highly-infectious virus which causes sniffles and sore throats.

Nikhil Dhurandhar, an associate professor at The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, La., said the virus, known as AD-36, infects the lungs then whisks around the body, forcing fat cells to multiply and also causing sore throats.

“When this virus goes to fat tissue it replicates, making more copies of itself and in the process increases the number of new fat cells, which may explain why the fat tissue expands and why people get fat when they are infected with this virus,” Dhurandhar said.

In one test, a third of obese people had the rare and highly contagious virus compared to just 11 percent of thinner people. Weight gain can last three months until the body has built up resistance to the bug.

New research supports earlier theories from studies on weight gain; evidence in tests on mice and chickens shows the bug could cause overweight people to gain weight.

“People could be fat for reasons other than viral infections, so it’s pointless for fat people to try to avoid infection,” said Dhurandhar.

The study also reveals research claiming dieters always feel hungry because humans have a “natural body weight” and they will always suffer hunger pangs.

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a campus of the Louisiana State University system, conducts both clinical and basic research. Its mission is to promote healthier lives through research and education in nutrition and preventive medicine.

Gabrielle Reece of Yahoo Health has these great hints and tips for living a healthier lifestyle!

1. Drink only water, with the exception of your beloved coffee in the morning. According to studies, this would eliminate 20% of our caloric intake and help all of our body functions run more smoothly.

2. Cut down your portions
I’m not even going to say what to eat and not eat. I’m just saying if you are having that sub at lunch cut it in half. We all overeat, so just eat until you are full. I’ts difficult to do, so halve the food and get it away from you. If it’s sitting there you will want to eat it.

3. Don’t skip breakfast
You will have a 70% chance of overeating throughout your day if you skip breakfast.

4. Keep a food journal
This will help you see exactly what you are eating and when. You will even be able to see patterns of grabbing food at stressful moments, etc. Journaling just makes you aware and in charge of your food–not the other way around.

5. If you can avoid it, don’t eat after 7 p.m.
On business dinners or birthday gatherings don’t worry about it. But when you can, try to finish eating earlier in the day.

These are great tips for anyone wanting to be healthier. This is a great start, along with cutting out processed foods, cutting down meats, increasing your vegetable intake (minus the starchy, carb-loaded vegetables). Another great tip is to walk at least 30 minutes per day! Good luck!

iReporter Giyen Kim has been losing a pound per week since the start of 2009

She exercises six days a week, eats one vegan meal per day

Dr. Melina Jampolis says a pound a week is a reasonable pace

A pound a week is what I lost last year and is what the FDA and Food Pyramid Guide recommends. Overall, I lost 41 pounds in 2008.

On a video that Giyen Kim recently posted on iReport.com about her frustration with trying to lose weight, one user commented, “Who cares how much you have lost you are still a fat a**. Stop eating and go to the gym.”

In the past, Kim might have cried and turned to a pint of ice cream for comfort, she reflected. But this time, she hit the gym — a reaction she views as a revelation.

“I think that when you are doing what you need to be doing, things like that don’t matter,” she said.

Kim started out at 190 pounds on January 1 with the intention of losing about a pound or two a week throughout the year.

So far she’s shed four pounds in four weeks, but the pace feels slow compared with her diet regimens in the past, she said. She found that those extreme diet plans were not realistic options in the long run for maintaining a comfortable weight.

Still, Kim maintains a positive outlook on her situation.

Keep up the good work, Kim, we’re all rooting for you! Eating heatlhy, low-carb foods, such as veggies (stayiing away or limiting starchy, carb loaded veggies) is the way to go!

Sweaty slobs, cell phone chatterboxes irk their fellow gym-goers

Jacqueline Stenson over at MSNBC health has this great article about gym etiquette.

It’s likely that anyone who’s spent time at a health club has seen some bad behavior, including the equipment hogs, the slobs who leave cardio machines dripping with sweat and the muscle men who grunt loudly as they lift oh-so-heavy weights that they have no intention of putting away.

But these are just a few of the ways that exercisers can be rude and obnoxious at the gym, fitness instructors say. Sometimes, things get downright nasty.

I had to break up a cat fight,” says Peggy Gregor, group exercise director at Healthtrax Fitness and Wellness in Bethel Park, Pa.

It happened after a woman new to an ongoing fitness class took the spot on the floor that another attendee regularly claimed. A verbal argument ensued and quickly turned physical.

Dealing with divas, dolts
So how should you deal with these divas and dolts at the gym? If someone is hogging the triceps press, you could politely ask if you could take turns. Or if they’ve left huge weight plates on the leg machine, you could ask the person to please remove them.

But Gregor and other instructors generally recommend speaking to a gym employee about bigger complaints. Taking matters into your own hands can breed animosity among members, sometimes even causing
brawls.

They say good fitness professionals stay on top of bad behavior and nip it in the bud when it starts. They talk to the offender, which usually goes a long way. In some cases, they may need to give warnings and even revoke memberships if the behavior doesn’t improve.

How do you deal with gym offenders?

But most children are already healthy and don’t need them, study suggests

Spendy supplements
The study’s lead author, Dr. Ulfat Shaikh, a pediatrician at the University of California-Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento, says taking daily multivitamins in the dose recommended on the label probably is harmless. However, they often aren’t needed for healthy children with a varied diet, she said.

Shaikh said kids in the study “who had the ideal profile — higher dietary fiber intake, higher milk intake, lower total fat and cholesterol intake, lower computer use, greater physical activity, lower obesity, kids that had insurance coverage, had good health care access, whose parents said that they were in good health — these kinds of kids were the highest users.”

Still, there’s mounting evidence about important potential benefits from a vitamin that can be hard to get enough of from food, particularly for kids who don’t drink much milk. That’s vitamin D.

The study is based on data from 10,828 kids whose parents took part in a national health survey that included interviews about diet and supplement use. Overall, 34 percent of the children had recently taken vitamin/mineral supplements and almost half of users took them daily.

Vitamin/mineral use was highest among 2- to 4-year-olds — 43 percent, and lowest in 12- to 17-year-olds — 27 percent.

Among children in excellent health, 37 percent used the supplements, versus 28 percent of those in fair or poor health. The breakdown was similar when comparing frequent milk drinkers to those who generally avoided dairy products.

Fiber is fab. You already eat it to stay regular and to feel fuller longer. Now there’s another reason: gut protection.

Bacteria Bound
In a lab study, researchers exposed a variety of foods to several strains of E. coli and Salmonella. The results? The bacteria adhered to fibrous foods — like pumpkin, artichoke, and flax. A good thing, because if the bacteria latches on to intestinal tissues instead, it might have some gut-churning consequences.

Fun Fiber Facts
Here are a couple more fabulous fiber finds:
It fuels weight loss. Because it digests slowly, it puts off hunger pangs.

It may lower the odds of endometrial cancer by as much as 20 percent.

Believe it or not, enjoying a fiberful diet — especially at breakfast — can reduce your calorie intake for up to 18 hours a day. And it helps control blood sugar and lower insulin levels. Although you should aim for 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day, avoid adding it all at once or you’ll produce more gas than a Saudi oil field, say the doctors. Start with an additional 1 to 2 grams of dietary fiber — the amount in a slice of whole-grain bread or 1/2 cup of green beans — at and between meals and slowly increase from there.

So enjoy the benefits of fiber! Cancer fighter, defends against E. Coli and Fat Buster!

Since many fast food restaurants have adopted the “bigger is better” attitude, classic small, medium, and large sizes are no longer available.

Great question on the American Diabetes Association webpage.

Now you have large, extra large, and supersize. Because of these larger portion sizes, the average American takes in 150 more calories a day, and most of these calories are fat. Although an extra 150 calories a day doesn’t sound like much, these calories add up with bad results for you. And don’t forget about carbs! Fast food restaurants are notorious for their high carb count and content.

There are many ways you can lower calories, carbs and fat in a fast food restaurant. The easiest way is to choose the smallest serving available. Just choosing a plain cheeseburger instead of a double cheeseburger will remove more than 200 calories. Most important is to choose low-fat items in place of high-fat items. For example, choose a baked potato with salsa or steak sauce (instead of butter and sour cream) to replace French fries. Order sandwiches without fancy sauces, and order salads with low-fat dressings (or “on the side” to control the amount of dressing you put on your salad). When low-fat options are not available, leave a few fries on your plate or a few bites of your sandwich, and skip dessert. Also don’t forget salads, minus bread/croutons and artificial bacon bites. Salads are a person’s best friend. Ask for double veggies on a salad as well. Feeling some meat? Ask for a broiled/grilled lean chicken breast on top.

The best way to reduce fat in fast food? Reduce how often you eat fast food.