Hidden Fat Traps

You noticed that your pants were getting a little snug, but didn't think much of it. When you could barely button your favorite skirt, you forced yourself onto a scale and discovered you'd gained eight pounds. But why? You haven't changed your eating or exercise habits.

Chances are you overlooked some of the most common weight-gain culprits. Frequent dining out, nighttime snacks in front of the television and even your fondness for coffee can all cause a slow-but-steady weight gain. Once you identify and combat these "hidden" fat traps, you'll find it easier to shed pounds and maintain a healthy weight.

Loss of Muscle: Getting older is one of the most frequently overlooked reasons for gaining weight, says Sheah Rarback, R.D., a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association based in Miami. "You're more susceptible to weight gain with every passing decade because your metabolism slows and you lose muscle mass," says Rarback. "What that means is you can't eat the same way you did when you were twenty. If you do, you'll gain weight."

The solution: Strength training helps build muscle mass and combat this effect of aging, says personal trainer Brad Schoenfeld, author of Look Great at Any Age. "Generally speaking, a pound of muscle burns about fifty calories a day," he says. "So if you add a pound of muscle, you'll increase your metabolic rate by about that much." Adding muscle keeps your bones strong as well.

Late-Night Snacking: If you spend most evenings curled up on the couch watching TV, chances are you snack, too. And those snacks can add up to hundreds or even thousands of calories. Eating in front of the set distracts you from how much you're consuming, causing you to eat even more. Studies also show that women eat less when they concentrate on their food. "If you sit in front of the TV every night and eat, then every time the TV comes on you'll have the urge to eat," warns Jackie Berning, R.D., an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

The solution: Women tend to undereat during the day, so they overeat at night, says Berning. Make sure you eat enough at mealtimes so you're not hungry for a snack after dinner. Most importantly, turn off the TV whenever you eat.

Plentiful Portions: Americans' waistlines have been growing along with portion sizes. Even snack foods are growing increasingly larger. But the battle can be won. Leah Ingram of New Hope, Pennsylvania, has kept 17 pounds off for more than a year and a half just by controlling her portions. "I have peanut butter on toast every morning for breakfast. Before I lost weight, I slopped peanut butter on the toast," says Leah. "But now I measure out a tablespoon and make it last. Eyeballing doesn't work because it's too easy to add more, and suddenly your pants are tight."

The solution: "Have the treat but control the portion," says Rarback. "Even if it's a snack food, such as chips or peanuts, put a small portion on a plate. If you're reaching into the bag, you don't realize how much you're eating." You can also buy individual snack bags at the grocery store or make your own portion-size snacks using sandwich bags.

Keeping the Weight Off

There is nothing more discouraging to someone on a weight-loss plan than the oft-cited statistic that 95 percent of people who lose weight will regain it within a few years. The difficulty in sticking with a long-term weight-maintenance plan is one of the main reasons that weight-loss programs fail. In an effort to uncover clues to successful weight loss, researchers have been collecting information on people who have lost weight and successfully kept it off for many years. This project, known as the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), records what these people did to achieve their goals. Currently, the NWCR is tracking more than 5,000 people, who receive detailed questionnaires and annual follow-up surveys to examine their behavioral and psychological characteristics, as well as the strategies they use to keep weight off. Note, however, that these people are self-selected (that is, they chose to participate) and therefore represent only successful "losers," not the entire population of people who have tried to lose weight. There is no evidence that the techniques and approaches these people use are the key to success, because many other people have used similar approaches without success. Nonetheless, their stories may prove helpful or inspirational for some people.

Is There An Anti-Aging Diet?

Can the food you eat help extend your life and improve your health?

Plenty of research suggests that it can. Studies reveal that a healthy diet can help you sidestep ailments that plague people more as they age, including heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and cataracts. But information gleaned from news flashes, best-selling diet books, and even government sources is often contradictory. And occasionally scientific studies blown out of proportion in the news or in popular diet books make dietary divas or pariahs of certain foods.

Will tripling your intake of olive oil or banishing carbohydrate-laden breads from your menu ward off illness? Taken alone, these steps simply can’t do enough to help. To reap dietary benefits, you gradually must work in more sweeping changes, such as cutting down on red meat; eating more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains; and striking a healthy balance between calories in and calories out.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand what changes you should be making in your diet is to review the healthy eating recommendations made by Professor Walter C. Willett in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (see Healthy Eating Recommendations). As you may notice, these recommendations share a good deal with new government dietary guidelines for Americans issued in January 2005, a vast improvement on the seriously outdated USDA food pyramid that had held sway since 1992. There are, however, key differences, such as Willett’s recommendations for choosing healthy fats and his more marked emphasis on a diet built largely around plants and whole grains. In addition, the healthy eating guidelines described in this section encourage a more limited intake of dairy products, as well as a combination of poultry, fish, beans, or nuts rather than red meat.

Walking As Fun Exercise!

Walking is some of the best exercise you can get, but it can become a bit monotonous. Whether you need a nudge out the door, training inspiration, or a reason to keep going, here are some enthusiasm boosters.

Make it a game. Walk as long as it takes to spot, say, three red cars. Then set a new game objective, and keep on walking.

Follow a new leader.Let your dog set the pace.

Entertain a party.Plan a progressive dinner where each course is a walk away from the next. Start with healthy appetizers at one house, the main course at the next stop a couple of miles away, and dessert at the third.

Travel an unmapped course. Don't plan your route. Instead, make decisions at every turn based on what looks interesting. Follow a curious-looking winding street to its end, or a hill to its top view.

Dust 'em.Pick a walker on your path who seems a bit more fit and faster than you. Then try to pass her.

Enjoy a mini-getaway.Plan an itinerary that takes you and a friend on a brisk, hour-long walk ending at a coffee shop. Or have breakfast before heading off for your favorite antique store, then browse awhile before starting for home.

Feed the birds.Bring along bread crumbs or maybe the Sunday paper to read on a stop in the park.

Play it by ear.For an interval workout, bring your MP3 player. Speed up whenever you hear a fast song.

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Know Your Chocolate

Some kinds of chocolate, rich in antioxidants called flavonoids, have been shown to benefit heart health. But all types of chocolate aren't the same, and too much chocolate can negate any benefits, the Cleveland Clinic says. The clinic offers this additional information:
-Dark chocolate is richest in flavonoids, so choose dark chocolate over milk chocolate.
-Chocolate does contain fat, but it contains both saturated (unhealthy) and unsaturated (healthy) fats. Chocolate should still only be consumed in small amounts.
-Processed chocolate is higher in fat and lower in flavonoids, so avoid candy bars loaded with caramel, peanuts, nougat and other fattening fillings.

Say Goodbye To Your Love Handles!

It is an unfortunate fact of life that as we age, fat seems to make itself at home in our bodies. One of its favorite places to reside is in the area of the waist just above our hips, called the love handle region. But what is to love, exactly? Those additional rolls of fat are the guilty culprits in making many articles of clothing fit a little snugger, and in keeping many of us from showing up on the beach in bathing suits. There are no if’s, and’s or but’s about it; love handles have got to go! The good news is that with the proper combination of diet, cardiovascular exercise and muscle toning, you can say goodbye to those unsightly love handles.

Targeting Fat
Here’s the bad news: there is no way to target specific areas of fat on our bodies for effective reduction. Instead, we must focus on reducing fat in the body overall, and the best way to do this is through diet and cardiovascular exercise. A general rule of thumb is that once a woman hits a body composition that is around 20% body fat, the love handles will begin to disappear. It is doubtful that anyone needs to be preached at about the proper way to eat these days, with so much information available on diet and nutrition. Keep in mind that no matter how much you exercise, you will continue to gain weight if your calories consumed are higher than the calories burned each day. This is why it is so important to cut out fats and sugar from the diet as much as possible while you are exercising daily, to increase your odds of dropping the pounds and inches on a consistent basis.

Cardiovascular exercise should be done four to six times each week, and can be as simple as taking the dog for a walk around the block, to sweating it out on the treadmill at the gym. Any type of cardio exercise will effectively burn the calories – and the additional fat – but the harder you workout, the quicker you will see results. Before you begin any type of exercise program, make sure that you talk to your doctor about the safest choices for you. Once you have a cardio workout established into your daily routine, you can begin adding specific exercises that will tone the muscles on either side of your abdomen, called the obliques. The best types of movements that will work this area include twisting and bending motions that will stretch and tone those muscles. The toning will succeed in reducing the inches around your waistline, and give you the definition and firmness that your image is craving.

While additional fat storage in the body may be a fact of life as we age, there are things that we can do to keep those storage areas under control. Once you get a handle on those love handles, you will be able to sport that bikini with confidence. Bye bye, love handles!

Exercises: Get a Handle on Your Love Handles
Basic crunch: Works the rectus abdominis, the wide flat muscle that runs from your breastbone to the top of your pelvis.

Lie on the floor with your feet hip-width apart. Cradle your head in your hands without lacing your fingers together and with your elbows rounded slightly inward. Tilt your chin a small way towards your chest and pull your abdominal muscles in.
Exhale through your mouth as you curl your head, neck, and shoulders up off the floor. Hold at the top of the movement for a moment, then inhale as you slowly lower down.

Twist crunch: This exercise works your rectus abdominis as well as your internal and external obliques, two muscle groups that wrap around your waist.

Exhale through your mouth and curl your head, neck, and shoulders up and towards the left. Hold at the top of the movement, then lower to the start. Twist to the right on the next rep, and continue alternating until you complete the set. Note: Don't just twist your elbows from side to side. Really concentrate on twisting from your middle.

Anchoring: This exercise uses all of your abdominal muscles, including the deep, underlying transverse abdominis. Your lower back also gets a workout.

Lie on your back with your left foot on the floor. Lift up your right leg and bend your knee so that your thigh is perpendicular to the floor and directly in line with your hip; flex your heel. Raise your arms up over your chest and clasp your fingers together.
Slowly lower your heel and your arms towards the floor. As you do so, concentrate on keeping your abs pulled inward, and don't allow your lower back to pop up off the floor. This becomes harder the closer your heel and hands move towards the floor. When your heel has almost touched the floor, slowly return your arms and leg to the start. Repeat this exercise four times with your right leg, then four times with your left.

In Case of a Snack Emergency

If you really want to snack -- and nothing else will do -- it may be possible to trick yourself into eating less.

People tend to eat the same number of food portions, no matter what the portion size, according to a study published in Psychological Science. Researchers offered participants a snack in two sizes: one small or one large Tootsie Roll, one small or one large scoop of M&M's, or one whole or one half-sized pretzel.

Regardless of which serving size subjects chose, they ate the same number of portions -- so the smaller-portion eaters ate less overall. To make this work for you, just choose smaller snack sizes and pay attention to the number of servings per container.

Go Green!

Enjoy coffee or tea?

Why don’t you switch your usual morning wake-up for a refreshing cup of green tea? Recent research has shown that green tea can help increase your metabolism and could help you burn an extra 78 calories a day. It tastes delicious and is an easy addition to your day.