Fat-free diets are good for you
While it’s important to reduce your fat intake, if you plan on losing weight, you don’t need to cut out fat altogether. Dieticians say you still need to consume a sufficient amount of fat as it’s needed for energy, tissue repair and to transport vitamins around the body. Instead, say no to saturated fats like butter and go for healthier options like olive oil.

Eating late at night makes you put on weight
You have probably heard a lot of fit people saying they don’t eat anything after 7 or 8 pm in the night. When you have dinner is not as important as what you eat. A meal eaten late at night will not necessarily make the body store more fat. Just ensure that you eat a couple of hours before sleeping so that the food gets digested well.

Avoiding certain foods
There are lots of myths that certain foods are ‘good’ if you want to lose weight and others are ‘bad’. While fruits, vegetables and nuts are a healthier option, it doesn’t mean you have to cut out carbs entirely. Eating bread, pasta and rice in moderation is fine.

Slow metabolism is the problem
This is a common myth among those striving to shed those extra kilos. Experts say the larger you are, the more calories you need to keep your body working. People tend to put on weight, when they eat more than they burn. This is due to our largely sedentary lifestyles.

Crash dieting helps
While a drastic diet, can reduce weight in the short term, it can become a problem later. Doctors agree that this is an unhealthy method as it not only removes fat but also muscle and tissue. Crash dieting can also make you weak. Opt for a slow and sustained weight loss plan that will help you maintain your reduced weight long-term.

The Oscar-winning actress – who has two children, Apple, five, and three-year-old Moses, with husband Chris Martin – has been working hard with celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson and is amazed how much she has helped change her appearance.

She wrote on her GOOP website: “She has kicked my formerly sagging arse into shape, and I will be forever grateful.”

The 37-year-old beauty also posted a video of the trainer’s “little arms series”, which Gwyneth used when preparing herself for action movie ‘Iron Man’.

tracy anderson

Talking about the lower arm exercises, she excitedly wrote: “It works wonders, especially for the batwing problem.”

Tracy has become a huge hit among Hollywood stars and counts Jennifer Aniston, Madonna and Courteney Cox-Arquette among her clients.

‘Cougar Town’ star Courteney is full of praise for Tracy, saying: “I heard about Tracy through friends who had seen fantastic results. I have seen amazing results that I never thought were possible. My butt has lifted, my arms are sculpted, and my skin is tight and actually clings to the muscle again.”

The Cambridge Diet was the diet to follow in the 1980s, and now it’s making a massive comeback with sales of the book on the rise. It’s a tough weight-loss plan that revolves around a regime of low-calorie soups, shakes and snack bars in the place of solid meals.

It’s very similar to Lighter Life – the meal-replacement diet that became hugely popular last year. You see a Cambridge Diet counsellor before you start, who will talk you through the diet and your reasons for going on it. There are six stages, with Stage 1 being the toughest and Stage 6 being the easiest (if you’re very overweight you may be advised to start with Stage 1, and you can make your way through the stages depending on your weight loss). Once you hit your goal weight, you can go back (carefully, and with the advice of a counsellor) to regular food.

The reason the diet was so popular thirty years ago was because weight loss is fast and dramatic. However, like Lighter Life, because of this the diet has also attracted criticism with some nutritionists worrying that the daily calorie allowance is too low (as little as 500 calories a day – though the makers of the Cambridge Diet say that all their shakes and snacks are specially designed to give you the correct amount of nutrients).

*To find out more about The Cambridge Diet, visit http://.Cambridge-Diet.co.uk

Swap coffee
…for something else. If you want to get in shape fast, ditch your regular cup of coffee and go for a fat-burning drink instead. Studies show that green tea revs up your metabolism, so aim for several cups a day.
Take some supplement
Fish oil supplements are a great way to shed pounds. A recent study found that volunteers who took them lost, on an average, two kilos over three months without changing their diet or exercise habits. Fish oils are great for helping your body burn fat more efficiently.

Avoid salt
That’s the advice most weight-loss experts give. When people cut down the salt in their diet, they instantly look slimmer and less bloated. Too much salt makes your body retain water, which makes you puffy around your face and stomach. Go for low-salt breakfast options

Also, don’t add tablesalt to your food or cooking, avoid salty snacks such as crisps and go easy on processed sauces which are often packed with salt.

As a guide, avoid foods that contain more than 0.5g of sodium per 100gm on the label (sodium is just another way of describing the salt content). The fresher your food, the less salt it’s likely to contain. And be very careful about take-aways – Chinese food, in particular, is loaded with salt because of the sauces.

Ditch sugar
Like salt, sugar is a diet baddie. Even though sugary foods – such as boiled sweets and mousses – are often labelled ‘low-fat’, they’re incredibly high in calories. And if you don’t work off the calories by exercising, that sugar gets stored as fat – usually around your stomach and waist. Sugar also increases your hunger. So, ditch the sugar in your tea and also the colas that you gulp down every day.

Eat low-sugar snacks instead. Chopped vegetables, for example are rich in fibre, so they’ll keep you fuller for longer and will aid your digestion, which helps to reduce bloating. Alcohol is practically pure sugar, so give that a miss, too. If you drink regularly, you’ll notice the difference after giving it up for a week.

Relax
If it is day seven already, don’t worry. You can still lose weight! Stress really does make you fat. It causes hormones to be released into your body that encourage fat deposits around your waist and stomach.

Scientists have found that those with the biggest waist measurements (though not necessarily the heaviest) had the highest stress levels. The hormones secreted during times of stress are instrumental in causing more fat to be stored, particularly around the abdomen.

But Jaqueline Wilcox was forced to change her not guilty plea to guilty after medical experts proved her theory incorrect, the Daily Mail reports.

Police apprehended Miss Wilcox after she was seen driving erratically and swerving around parked cars near Auckland, north eastern England, a local court heard.

The 45-year-old was found to have a blood alcohol content of three times the legal limit.

Miss Wilcox initially claimed the amount of alcohol in her breath was caused by her low carbohydrate diet, which in turn triggered a condition called ketosis where the body produces its own alcohol.

But experts told the court alcohol could be created by the body in these circumstances, but only a minute amount.

Miss Wilcox’s defence lawyer Stephen Andrew admitted to the court his client had been drinking before getting behind the wheel of her car.

“Miss Wilcox tells me she had not been drinking for some time,” the Daily Mail quoted Mr Andrews as telling the court.

“She recognised she did have something of a problem with drink, but she had dealt with this issue.”

Mr Andrews said the alcohol his client had consumed could have affected her more than usual because she had been fasting.

Miss Wilcox has been released on bail and is due to appear in court for sentencing tomorrow.

The cabbage soup diet, which ­involves consuming vast quantities of the stuff, was branded “ineffective”.

The grapefruit diet was also rejected, while the once-popular low-carb, high-protein Atkins regime was said to be “useless”, according to a poll.

But some diets did get the thumbs up. WeightWatchers, where dieters are set a daily food points allowance, is a national favourite. Other popular regimes were Slimming World and the Rosemary Conley diet.

Martin Crisp, pharmacist at Superdrug which ­conducted the research, said: “Some women spend a large ­percentage of their lives on diets so they know what they’re talking about.” He said most women now recognise that diets restricting the intake of certain foods can have a negative effect.

The average woman spends 88 days a year on four attempts at dieting.

Having a bigger bum, hips and thighs can be good for your health, protecting against heart problems, according to scientists.

Carrying fat around the backside and thighs reduces the effect of harmful proteins which cause inflammation and artery clogging, they claim.

The researchers found that a larger rear is preferable to extra fat around the stomach which gives no such protection, reports the Daily Mail.

Gluteofemoral fat around the lower body is harder to break down than upper body fat around the stomach which is designed to be quickly generated and then easily metabolized.

But the breakdown of these fat cells releases a lot of pro-inflammatory cytokines which have been linked to cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and diabetes.

Slower-burning hip fat also makes more of a hormone that protects the arteries and promotes better blood sugar control and fat burning.

Study leader Dr Konstantinos Manolopoulos, of OxfordUniversity, said: “The fat around our thighs and hips is different to the fat we accumulate around our tummy.

“There is ‘good’ fat and ‘bad’ fat – just like there is good and bad cholesterol.

“The cells in lower body fat work differently from the cells in upper body fat – so it could be said that celebrities like J-Lo are better role models for women’s health than supermodels who have much less lower body fat.”

Future uses of the study could include deliberately increasing hip and bottom fat to reduce cardiovascular and metabolic problems.

A cup of coffee before a gym workout could help you burn more fat. Researchers at the Australian Institute of Sport found caffeine triggers the muscles to use energy from fat sources rather than carbohydrate.

But even if you are not a gym bunny, daily caffeine fixes can help raise your metabolism, and the stimulant acts as a mild appetite suppressant. Sorry, we’re not talking full-fat latte.

Eating the same sized meal as your other half?

 Then you need to look at your portion sizes.

Take a leaf out of actress Jessica Biel’s book – when she orders meals in restaurants she always sends half back. Her mantra is “Eat things you like, but eat them in smaller portions.”

Halle Berry always keeps a watchful eye on how much she’s eating, while Heroes star Hayden Panettiere goes one step further by eating a quarter of a portion and waiting to see if she’s full.  “Portion control is going to be the big buzz word for the next few years,” says dietitian Nigel Denby.

“By having too big a portion at each meal you could be taking in as much as 7,000 extra calories each week.

“One way is to eat half of your portion, but I recommend eating a smaller portion, then waiting 10 minutes. If you feel full, stop eating. If you’re still not satisfied have just a bit more. It can also help to use a smaller plate.”

Kidding aside, it’s important. Bad eating habits are learned young – rarely do fat kids come from thin parents. If you really want to protect your kids, implement the following changes:

Cut sugar. Sugar sends a signal to your body: “burn me first, store fat for later.” We evolved to store as much fat as possible as a defense against future famines, but the mechanism works against us when there aren’t any famines, and there aren’t, at least in this country. If you avoid sugar, you’ll burn fat.
Eating sweets before bed is the worst thing you can do. Dr. Naomi Neufeld, Los Angeles pediatric endocrinologist and author of Kidshape, recommends Splenda as a substitute, though years of studies have shown Sweet ‘N’ Low to be safe too. And don’t fool yourself, thinking fruit juices are good because they have the word “fruit” on them — some have more sugar in them than sodas.

Cut fat. Two percent instead of whole milk, margarine instead of butter, chicken or turkey instead of beef or tofu instead of chicken, and just a bit of olive oil to fry with. Read labels and if you see something at the store that says “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil,” don’t buy it, and hide it so no one else can either.

Cut portions. Don’t buy the myth that kids naturally know when to stop eating. The “natural” inclination, remember, is to eat beyond satiation to prepare for famine. Give them half portions, and seconds if they ask for more.

Increase fiber. Whole grains make you feel full while only partially digesting. There are whole grain versions today of virtually everything previously made from refined flour, pastas, cookies, crackers, even cereal. If you’re not convinced, get a loaf of commercial white bread, soak it in water, wad it up in a ball and then ask yourself if you want that in your stomach. Or your kid’s. You don’t.

Increase exercise. Get up and move until you’re tired. Thirty minutes a day with your kids, key word:, “with your kids.” You cannot isolate an overweight child, make them eat special foods or do special exercises, when no one else in the family is doing it. It makes them feel isolated and lonely, and that makes kids eat more. “Children are emotional eaters, which is why when I treat childhood obesity, I work with the whole family, not just the child. Think about your comfort foods,” says Neufeld. “Odds are, it’s something with a lot of sugar and fat in it that your mom gave you when you were little.”

It brings you comfort, now, because it was rich, but more because your mom gave it to you. Eating together, and exercising together, makes kids feel loved and safe. It’s hard in the winter, but you can think of something, wrestling with boys on the bed, or get a family membership at a gym if you can.

Increase your awareness. Instead of conferring with diet books, to stay motivated, get one of those digital picture frames, mount it on your refrigerator door, then go online and fill it full of downloaded pictures of fat people, and click here or here if you’re having trouble finding any. It will remind you of your goals, and possibly cause you to lose your appetite. Or put a mirror on the floor next to your bathroom scale so you can see your gut from below.

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“Eating healthy 80% of the time is realistic,” says Neufeld. “If you set unrealistic goals, you might feel like a failure. It’s not difficult, but the trick is staying on track.”

(Source: alternet.org)

Doctors now warn that celebrity diets are contributing to the obesity epidemic. Think Lemonade, Grapefruit, Tiger, Mayo Clinic, Apple and Cabbage Soup. All of these so-called diets may help you lose weight in the beginning, but can you really stick with them? Only if you don’t like food.

Most of these diets have the same thing in common — they place heavy restrictions on what you can eat. Take the Lemonade Diet (also known as the Master Cleanse) for instance. You mix up a batch of “lemonade” with lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water. With six to 12 glasses allowed each day (no other food), this diet is likely to leave you a little sour. The Cabbage Soup Diet allows you to eat as much of its soup that you want each day along with fruits and vegetables, but it neglects other important food groups which can lead to nutritional deficiencies.

Even if you can withstand one of these diets for a few days or weeks, the major issue is their lack of slimming power over the long haul. “Eating should be enjoyable. These diets are so monotonous and boring that it’s almost impossible to stay on them for long periods,” states the American Heart Association.

In addition to dishing out very little food, some of these fad diets can have you dishing out a lot of hard-earned cash. For example, the Hollywood Diet charges $12.95 for a 16-ounce bottle of juice which contains seemingly inexpensive ingredients like fruit and tea. The sad part is, Americans spend an average of $46 billion a year on diet products and self-help books and 97 percent of them regain the weight within five years.

In a speech at the Gastro 2009 Conference, Professor Chris Hawkey, President of The British Society of Gastroenterology suggested avoiding popular fad diets, such as the Tiger Diet, which promotes eating only uncooked food (Mel Gibson is reportedly a fan), and the Hallelujah Diet, which only allows eating from fruit and seed bearing trees depicted in the Bible. “What’s important is to recognize that despite the popularity of fad diets, we are losing a grip on the fight with obesity. We need to do away with quirky diets and get people to realize what will keep them healthy in the long run.”

SUMMARY

In the end, crash diets will only cause you to crash and burn. Eating less and exercising more are the only tried and true methods.

It was not exactly pukka news when, last week, some ready-made pasta sauces were revealed to be laden with heart-damaging salt.

Among the worst, according to health campaigners Consensus Action on Salt and Health, was Jamie Oliver’s Spicy Olive, Garlic and Tomato Pasta Sauce which, in a single portion, contained 5.3g of salt – the equivalent of ten packets of crisps.

Yet many supermarket pasta sauces come in at under 1.5g of salt per serving – that is a quarter of a daily goal intake of 6g – which is fine for a main meal.

Of course, it’s worth remembering that pasta itself is low-calorie, low-fat, high in fibre and good for gut health, so here are my choices of the healthiest sauces to go with it.

Any sauce you like in moderation

The Reading Uni scientists think that the lycopene could be the magic ingredient. Lycopene is the pigment that makes tomatoes red and also has other health benefits including properties that can help deter cancer. Tomatoes are also excellent at reducing cholesterol levels and help to boost male fertility.

Whatever the secret ingredient in tomatoes is, it is certain that they can now be added to our list of foods that can help people lose weight.

So, to get started on the tomato diet, all you need to do is eat more tomatoes!

The former “Baywatch” babe has taken heat from the tabloids for putting on weight since her stint as a television lifeguard

Nicole Eggert jumpstarted her career on the hit 80’s show Charles in Charge (TV) staring Scott Baio before owning the sandy beaches of Baywatch (TV). The red bathing suit fit perfectly and in 1992, Baywatch fans embraced the new star on the worldwide television sensation. For two years, Nicole Eggert transformed into Summer Quinn, the Northeastern beauty that moved from cold Pittsburg to sunny California.

Nicole went on to guest star in a slew of television shows, movies, and along the way became a proud mother. The young mother and former Baywatch babe always enjoyed working out and staying in shape, however at the death of her father, she turned to food for comfort. During the difficult grieving time, Eggert put on weight and the tabloids started attacking.

Instead of ignoring the nasty press, Eggert did something so commendable the media world stopped and took notice. Teaming up with Funny or Die, the beautiful Nicole Eggert slapped on her old red Baywatch bikini and sent out a message, “real women gain weight!” Kudos to Nicole!

The 40 people surveyed consumed two glasses of milk, two small tubs of yoghurt and 40 grams of cheese each day as part of a reduced calorie diet.

The University’s Wendy Chan She Ping Delfos says people trying to lose weight can benefit from increasing their dairy intake.

“It will help you reduce your blood pressure and it also causes greater total abdominal fat loss so you would lose weight more around the belly,” she said