The treat: One slice of pizza (272 calories)
Try this: Go shopping for at least 104 minutes.
Or this: Dance for 53 minutes.
Or this: Do a 28-minute mini-circuit—pedal fast on a stationary bike for 2 minutes, jump off and do push-ups for 1 minute, then climb stairs for 4 minutes; rest, then repeat sequence 3 more times. Read More
The weather’s getting cooler, the days are getting shorter. Thinking about grabbing your baggy sweaters to hide a few extra winter pounds you suspect are on the way? Not this year. To help you keep weight off, we’ve found strategies that target the real reasons for winter gain. Ahead, five secrets for keeping your summertime body year-round.View the slideshow.
Several of my close friends are, or were, recently pregnant. What I found most curious is how they suddenly became dietitians or nutritionists in their own right, just from being preggers.
I’m convinced that for every pregnant woman, a “new moms’ tale” (think “old wives’ tale,” but younger, hipper, and more widely circulated on the Internet) is born. In addition to the idea that carrying a baby low means it’s a boy, or that castor oil induces contractions, most of my friends’ newfound nutrition knowledge is, well, mostly false.
Here are some myths that my girlfriends have come up with recently, and how I set the record straight. Read More
To drop up to two pounds a week, pair “Your Fresh-Picked Plan” with one of the fitness options below.
1. Alternate five minutes walking and five minutes jogging for an hour four
days per week or … Read More
Putting one foot in front of the other and walking your way to weight loss is the simple and straightforward premise behind The Step Diet, a regimen devised by a group of weight-control experts from the University of Colorado. Instead of counting calories, the idea is to curb eating a bit and count steps. It’s as easy as clipping a pedometer (one is provided with the book) onto your waistband every day. While the book is new, the diet strategy it promotes is not: It’s a well-tested weight-control program that grew out of 25 years of research at the university. Dieters start out walking about a mile each day or what amounts to three 5-minute walks. Eventually the goal is to log 5 miles or 10,000 steps, not necessarily all at once but throughout the day.
Read More
Since the first Curves opened in Texas in 1992, these women-only fitness centers have quietly been popping up in strip malls and neighborhood shopping centers around the globe. Founder Gary Heavin, who opened his first fitness center for women in 1974, has been training and helping women lose weight for three decades. He contends the solution to weight loss isn’t permanent dieting but a simple 30-minute workout done three times a week. For those with a gym phobia, the center’s setup—a small circle of 8 to 12 hydraulic weight machines in a large open room—may seem less intimidating than a full-scale workout club crowded with free weights and muscle-bound exercisers. For dieters who don’t want to visit centers, the book Curves: Permanent Results Without Permanent Dieting (Putnam, 2003) offers a similar at-home fitness regimen sans machines. Read More
Bodybuilder and motivational guru Bill Phillips is a walking example of his Body-for-Life philosophy of weight control and fitness. Just look at his photo, sans T-shirt, on the Web site or in the books. The words that come to mind: buff, muscular, whipcord-lean. Here’s a 40-year-old guy who has pummeled his body into amazing physical shape. And he’s willing to share his secrets about how others can do the same. As an added twist, Phillips challenges dieters to compete for prizes as they work through his 12-week program. After the first challenge, the winner took home Phillips’ blood-red Lamborghini Diablo. This year, the top prize is $1,000,000. Not interested in the competition? That’s OK. Dieters don’t need to sign up for the challenge to join the program.
It’s hard not to like the way Phillips guides a dieter through the difficult process of shaping up. He commiserates over potential fitness and weight-loss pitfalls like a good buddy might. And he’s extremely adept at delivering lingo that is motivational. But with an everyday exercise regimen and a rigid diet plan, you’re likely to be in for some major work with this plan. Read More
There’s a lot to like about a plan that doesn’t dwell on scientific mumbo jumbo but simply delivers easy-to-understand, practical suggestions for eating and exercise. The strong emphasis on sex and sexuality as reasons for weight loss is a little unusual, but then again this book is definitely targeted to the testosterone crowd. At one point, Zinczenko tells guys that a big belly will make their penis look smaller, while a leaner stomach can make the penis appear up to a half-inch longer. If this kind of talk gets men to exercise more and eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, who can argue? Recipes and menu suggestions call for a lot of convenience products, which is realistic for guys who don’t like to cook. Yet the prominence of packaged foods does conflict with the book’s advice on limiting sodium to keep blood pressure low. Read More
With more than 3 million members at his Web site and a growing library of fitness books, Jorge Cruise is fast becoming America’s favorite diet and fitness guru for the time-deprived. His 8 Minutes program helps dieters lose weight by pairing a quick at-home workout with an easy-to-follow eating plan. Readers familiar with the original 8 Minutes in the Morning (HarperResource, 2002) might want to check out more-recent books (8 Minutes in the Morning for Real Shapes, Real Sizes; 8 Minutes in the Morning to Lean Hips and Thin Thighs; 8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly) for Cruise’s new streamlined meal-planning strategy, called the “Cruise Down Plate.” Read More
Once an unathletic fat kid, Michael Thurmond teamed up with a bodybuilder while stationed in Vietnam to turn his own fitness around. Yet the reasons most folks probably recognize this personal trainer is because of the TV show “Extreme Makeover”. Thurmond is the guy who steps in after the plastic surgeons are finished and works magic with the physiques of makeover subjects, taking them from out of shape to sleek in just a few months. In his first fitness book, the longtime exercise expert dispenses with his usual patented 6-Week Body Makeover system to deliver an even faster weight-loss plan. Using a strict food-and-fitness regimen, Thurmond promises dieters they’ll drop a dress size or lose up to 10 pounds in just 6 days. Read More
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