Getting rid of belly fat is simpler than you might have thought.

With the right plan, it’s actually easier to lose that stubborn lower-body fat or the seemingly impossible to tone back-of-the-arm flab.

Stick to a healthy diet and exercise guidelines, and you’ll be slimmer and healthier by summer.

Obviously, you want to keep your calories in a healthy range and avoid meals that are high in saturated fat.

But research has also shown that eating more of certain foods can help you burn excess visceral fat and pave the way to a smaller middle, the Huffington Post reported.

In addition to helping maintain heart health and keep inflammation levels under control, monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs, may stop belly fat before it starts.

Research in the journal Diabetes Care found that people who got roughly 25 percent of their total daily calories from MUFAs gained no visceral fat over the course of the study, while those who ate less MUFAs and more carbs added fat to their midsections.

(more…)

Hypertension, also called the ‘silent killer’ can be managed and prevented by making some low-cost lifestyle changes.

Hypertension or high Blood Pressure, as it is commonly called, is a condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is chronically elevated.

With each heartbeat, heart pumps blood through the arteries to the body. Blood pressure is the pressure or force with which blood is pushed against the walls of the blood vessels.

(more…)

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) exercise and nutrition experts have offered tips for those in search of a summer slim down.

EatRight by UAB Weight Management Services Clinical Dietitian Lindsey Lee R.D., said nutrition is necessary to support weight loss efforts.

“Incorporate good nutrition habits — eating fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains and lean protein sources — to get the calories you need to maintain an exercise program,” Lee said.

“If you restrict calories too much, you could start to feel burn out,” Lee stated.

To bolster the burn, Lee suggested: Fill up on lower calorie fruits and vegetables, choose water over high calorie sodas and decrease high calorie, high fat options.

The expert suggests switching up food preparation: Instead of steaming vegetables, grill them or toss unique vegetables like skewered okra or fresh asparagus on the grill.

(more…)

Even short-term food deprivation not only increases overall grocery shopping, but leads shoppers to buy 31 percent more high calorie foods, a new Cornell study has revealed.

People skip meals for all sorts of reasons – dieting, fasting, insane schedules that make you forget to eat, said Aner Tal, PhD, from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, lead author of the study.

“But it doesn`t matter why you skipped a meal, it can still make your nutritionist cry – making you buy more potato chips and ice-cream and less baby carrots and skim milk,” Tal added.

In one study, 68 meal skippers were either given food (wheat thins) to reduce their fasting-induced hunger or not given any food to keep them hungry following the fast, and then asked to make purchases at a simulated grocery store.

(more…)

Fasting twice a week could be the key to a longer life by slashing the risk of a host of killer diseases, a new study has revealed.

Research shows dramatically cutting the amount of calories you eat for two days can keep obesity, heart disease and diabetes at bay, the Daily Express reported.

The revolutionary weight-loss plan restricts calorie intake for 48 hours, like the 48 Hour Diet by top nutritionist Amanda Hamilton, published last week.

She shared her easy to follow plan which promises to not just shift the pounds but improve general health and mental wellbeing.

Researchers have backed her methods of intermittent fasting and say it is as effective as weight loss surgery, without the cost or risk.

The scientific review suggests fasting diets may help those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

A review published in the British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease by a team led by James Brown from Aston University in the West Midlands highlights evidence from clinical trials which shows fasting can limit inflammation, improve levels of sugars and fats in your circulation and cut blood pressure.

(more…)

Sugar-free fizzy drinks are no more likely to make you eat junk food than water, researchers have claimed.

Previously, a number of studies had claimed that artificial sweeteners in diet drinks wreaked havoc with hormones and made people feel hungry and crave sweet and fatty foods.

It was believed that artificial sweeteners, due to their intense sweetness, disrupted hunger hormones and encouraged people to eat sweet food.

The study from the University of North Carolina followed 318 overweight and obese adults, who drank at least 280 calories worth of drinks each day, the Daily Mail reported.

One third of the participants substituted two daily servings of sugary drinks with water and another third substituted it with diet drinks, including Diet Coke.

After six months, they reported their food and drink intake over that period.

(more…)

Some high-fibre foods, which are sold as low in calories, may actually contain, in the extreme, up to 25 per cent more calories than the label suggests, nutritional experts have said.

It means that some high-fibre foods targeted at people on a diet are actually more fattening than people are led to believe, said Geoffrey Livesey, an independent nutritionist based in Britain who has advised the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Dr Livesey told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston that consumers have been unknowingly consuming extra calorie in high-fibre food for decades because the system for assessing calories goes back to the 1970s and even earlier, according to the Independent.

It means that if people follow the daily recommended intake of 18 grams of fibre, they could be consuming more than 250 extra calories each week without realising it, he said.

(more…)

A new study has for the first time shown that certain nutrients may play an underlying role in short and long sleep duration and that people who report eating a large variety of foods – an indicator of an overall healthy diet – had the healthiest sleep patterns.

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes demographic, socioeconomic, dietary, and health-related questions..

The authors found that total caloric intake varied across groups. Short sleepers consumed the most calories, followed by normal sleepers, followed by very short sleepers, followed by long sleepers. Food variety was highest in normal sleepers, and lowest in very short sleepers. Differences across groups were found for many types of nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

(more…)

Just as decreasing weight is not easy or speedily achieved, so also increasing weight cannot be quick fixed. In fact increasing weight is a longer process. BMI <19 may be considered underweight.

One is underweight when optimal calories are not ingested and excess calories are burnt. There are medical reasons why one may be underweight like hyperthyroidism (with high metabolic rate) or anaemia (whereby there is diminished appetite). If one has been of normal weight and then suddenly reduced, that is a totally different track of clinical investigation and nutrition therapy, into which we will not go. Here we will talk about those who are slimmer and are hoping to gain some weight.

Start with ways to stimulate appetite so that you can manage to eat extra at every meal. Light exercise stimulates appetite. Leisure swimming or water related sports especially up one’s appetite since they are relaxing too. Always eat on time. Keep a schedule where you will eat your main meals and have a high calorie drink or food between these meals. If you delay eating time or skip a meal, the acids that flow cause nausea and kill your hunger.

(more…)

A team of scientists led by one of Indian origin have suggested that cutting food into smaller pieces can help dieters shed those extra kilos.

Researchers found that both humans and animals judge the amount of food they are eating by the number of pieces in front of them.

A serving cut into several pieces will appear more filling even if contains the same number of calories.

During the research, the scientists observed that when rats were trained to associate one part of a maze with a 300mg pellet of food and another with four 75mg pellets, they preferred the latter area.

Even college students who were given a bagel cut into quarters and then fed lunch 20 minutes later ate less than those given an uncut bagel.

“Cutting up energy-dense foods into smaller pieces may be beneficial to dieters who wish to make their meal more satiating,” the Daily Express quoted Devina Wadhera, lead researcher at Arizona State University, as saying.

(more…)