Currently browsing all entries in the Weight Loss category

Where are they now?

Do you ever wonder what happened to the Biggest Loser winners after the cameras stopped rolling and the trainers stopped barking?

Ryan Benson, 38, an actor who works for a DVD distributor in Los Angeles, lost 122 lbs. to win the first season in January 2005 but says he regained 32 lbs. within five days simply by drinking water.

Matt Hoover, 31, a motivational speaker based in Seattle, had a 15-lb. rebound within a day of winning Season 2.

Last season's runner-up, Kai Hibbard, 28, an aerobics instructor in Alaska who says she spent the night before her final weigh-in hopping in and out of a sauna for six hours, consumed only sugar-free Jell-O for several days and wolfed down asparagus, which is a natural diuretic. "It's amazing the things you learn in a weight-loss competition," she says.

This part of the article really gets me:

The show tries to prevent unhealthy behavior by making contestants keep food journals (to make sure they're not starving themselves) and threatening penalties if tests show they are too dehydrated (although an executive producer says no violations have been uncovered yet). But like the $55 billion U.S. diet industry, The Biggest Loser places the bulk of its emphasis on shedding pounds rather than maintaining the loss.

Too dehydrated? Why was Kai eating nothing but asparagus and sugar-free Jell-O then?

Two and a half years after Benson's final weigh-in at 208 lbs., the new dad has slipped out of the spotlight and into old habits. "No one sees me get an apple pie in the drive-through," says Benson, whose weight now hovers at around 300 lbs.

In spite of the shows' sleight of hand, I think the reality of losing weight and keeping it off comes down to what Kelly Miner did.

The first-season runner-up dropped from 242 lbs. to 163 lbs. by the finale and now weighs 140 lbs. A school administrator in Bethlehem, Pa., Minner, 31, says she works out from one to four hours a day, six days a week. She exercises while watching TV--and did so throughout our phone interview.

Five Small Steps

Here are five small things you can do on a daily basis. Try to make it part of your overall routine and you can be well on your way to being fit and healthy.

1) Take advantage of healthy convenience foods

Pick up pre-washed, pre-cut fruits and veggies. It may cost a bit more than regular produce, but it's one less thing you have to do at the end of a long day. Better yet, set aside a few hours on the weekend to chop, baggy and freeze your fruits. Then when you are on the go, just grab a bag that's already portioned out. I do that with my smoothies and it saves me a ton of time. Plus when I'm extra hungry, I feel like a good stealing two bags.

2) Schedule exercise and make it nonnegotiable

Of all things, I don't have a hard time with exercise. Once I get in the groove, I am okay. The last few weeks, I notice I have standing appointments with myself and it may be mind over matter, but I haven't broken a date with myself.

3) Don't waste calories on bad food

This one I agree with whole heartedly. When eating out, I refuse to buy a drink. I'm stingy with my calories.

4) Never travel without workout clothes

People who get in my car laugh, but I have an extra pair of workout clothes and sneakers in the back seat at all times.

5) Weigh yourself often

I'm on the fence about this one. I tried it and found it made me more crazy. But it can be something, if you can emotionally handle it, that keeps you on the straight and narrow so you aren't surprised to find out you gained 5lbs and have no idea when it happened.

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20 tips for permanent weight loss (16-20)

And the tips you've been waiting for all week, the last 5 tips to permanent weight loss.

1. Start your day with a high-fiber breakfast cereal, such as bran flakes, shredded wheat or oatmeal. Opt for cereals with "bran" or "fiber" in the name. Or add a few tablespoons of unprocessed wheat bran to your favorite cereal.
2. Walk for 10 minutes over your lunch hour or get up a few minutes earlier in the morning and go for a short walk.
3. Plan a week's worth of meals at a time. Make a detailed grocery list to eliminate last-minute trips to the grocery store and impulse buys.
4. Look for a distraction when you're fighting a craving. Call a friend, put on music and dance or exercise, clean the house, pull weeds in your garden, or run an errand. When your mind is occupied with something else, the cravings quickly go away.
5. Reward yourself. Losing weight and keeping the pounds off is a major accomplishment. Celebrate your success with nonfood rewards, such as new clothes or an outing with friends.

So there you go, 20 tips to kick start your weight loss efforts. Happy losing

20 tips for permanent weight loss (11-15)

Over 1/2 way done, here are 5 more tips.

1. See what you eat. Eating directly from a container gives you no sense of how much you're eating. Seeing food on a plate or in a bowl keeps you aware of how much you're eating.
2. Vary your activities. Regularly change your activity routine to avoid exercise burnout. Walk a couple of days, swim another and go for a bike ride on the weekend. Seek out new activities — karate, ballroom dancing, cross-country skiing, tennis or Pilates.
3. De-stress your day. Stress can cause you to eat more. Develop strategies that can help you relax when you find yourself becoming stressed. Exercise, deep breathing, muscle relaxation techniques and even a good laugh can ease stress.
4. Eat at home. People eat more food in restaurants than at home. Limit how often you eat at restaurants. If you do eat out, decide what and how much you're going to eat before you start and have the rest boxed to go.
5. Plan healthy snacks. The best snacks include fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products. Fruit smoothies, sliced fresh fruit and yogurt, whole-grain crackers, and carrot and celery sticks with peanut butter are all good choices.

Tomorrow: The final 5, tips 16-20

Do you do any of these 5 tips?

20 tips for permanent weight loss (6-10)

Keeping those weight loss tips coming, here's numbers 6 thru 10.

1. Plan a family activity. Get the family together to go for a bike ride, play disc golf or kick the ball around in the yard.
2. Eat healthy foods first. Eat foods that are healthy and low in calories first so that when it comes time to enjoy your favorites — sweets or junk food, for example — you won't be so hungry.
3. Pay attention to portions. Serve meals already dished onto plates instead of placing serving bowls on the table. Take slightly less than what you think you'll eat. You can always have seconds, if really necessary.
4. Create opportunities to be active. Wash your car at home instead of going to the car wash. Bike or walk to the store. Participate in your kid's activities at the playground or park.
5. Sit down together for family meals. Avoid eating in front of the television. TV viewing strongly affects how much and what people eat.

Tomorrow: Tips 11-15

Do you do any of these 5 tips?

20 tips for permanent weight loss (1-5)

Let's kick off the month of May with weight loss tips to get your body headed in the right directon for summer.

To start, here are 20 ideas to reinforce your healthy lifestyle and to keep you committed to permanent weight loss:

1. Exercise 30 to 60 minutes each day. If time is limited, exercise for several brief periods throughout the day — for example, three 10-minute sessions rather than one 30-minute session.
2. Eat three healthy meals during the day, including a good breakfast. Skipping meals causes increased hunger and may lead to excessive snacking.
3. Focus on fruits and vegetables. Top off your morning cereal with sliced strawberries or bananas. Stir berries or peaches in yogurt or cottage cheese. Liven up your sandwiches with vegetables, such as tomato, lettuce, onion, peppers and cucumber.
4. Weigh yourself regularly. Monitoring your weight can tell you whether your efforts are working and can help you detect small weight gains before they become even larger.
5. Don't keep comfort foods in the house. If you tend to eat high-fat, high-calorie foods when you're upset or depressed or bored, don't keep them around. Availability of food is one of the strongest factors in determining how much a person eats.

Tomorrow: Tips 6-10

Do you do any of these 5 tips?

How To Keep Your 2007 Fitness Resolutions

A scant 30 days ago, many of us woke up, looked ahead to the brand new year and laid out resolutions to get our bodies free of fat.

How's it going so far? Have you tossed the resolutions out the window yet? Already looking ahead to January 1st 2008 so you can try again?

Well tomorrow is also a 1st. February 1st and there is no harm in resolving, once again, to be free of fat in 2007.

Here are some tips to keep your resolutions this year:

Change the Way You Approach Healthy Living
It will be easier to keep up exercising and eating well if you look at it as a positive gift to yourself, and not a punishment.

Commit to Changing Your Lifestyle
Losing weight, getting in shape, and eating well are all lifetime prospects. You will never EVER stop working to maintain your fitness and weight. So before you go on your next New Year's diet, recognize that you'll need to change your lifestyle permanently to accommodate this goal. Make changes slowly, because your body and mind adapts most easily to small, regular changes than large ones.

Set Attainable Goals
Make sure that you set reasonable and MEASURABLE goals. Instead of saying "I want to lose weight and tone up," write down the amount of weight you want to lose, or the number of inches you want to take off your thighs. Set target dates for short-term and long-term goals. For example, if you want to lose 30 pounds, it is reasonable to lose that weight in about four months (healthy weight loss averages one to two pounds per week).

So your long-term goal is to lose 30 pounds (and keep it off), and your short-term goal would be to lose seven to eight pounds per month. Then once you've reached your goals, make new ones to keep yourself motivated and maintaining your weight.

Create a Game Plan
Set up an exercise and healthy eating routine. To set up a good routine, you'll need to devise a program that involves cardio, strength training, stretching, and a meal plan. There is a multitude of books and resources on the Internet that cover these topics in detail. Make sure you find information that is realistic and workable for your lifestyle. And don't fall for the quick fix gimmicks.

Set Up your Environment for Success
In spite of their best intentions, people are sometimes foiled by the little things that happen around them. So make sure your environment is conducive to your success. You can:

- Get someone to exercise with you.
- Keep a fitness journal to track your workouts and progress.
- Hire a personal trainer.

The bottom line
Remember that exercising and eating right requires that you change your lifestyle. You have to change the way you think about exercise and eating, change the way you schedule your day and how you prioritize your tasks. It's a lot to ask when you sum it up, but if you make your changes small and manageable, the task doesn't have to appear so daunting. Make 2007 the year you change the rest of your life!

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20 Ways to Slim Down (5-1)

Here are the final five tips of 20 ways to slim down countdown...

#5 - Dine Out, Order Right

It's hard to balance making good choices with not being making unrealistic requests while dining out. Who wants to bore everyone at the table with specific instructions on how to prepare meals or grill waiters on what exactly is the cream in the cream sauce.

There are a few standard tips that can help. When choosing alcohol, go for red wine. Not only is it low in calorie, 89, it's good for the heart. Make the appetizer your main dish and add a salad to it. Avoid anything fried, go for baked, broiled or grilled.

#4 - No Time...No Excuses

The biggest excuse most people give for not working out is they don't have the time. 30 minutes a day is enough to get in and get going. .Take a walk on your lunch break. At work, take the stairs instead of the elevator. And by all means join a gym that is close by.

#3 - Beauty Counts

Appearing slimmer can be done with hair and make up tricks. Don't deprive yourself of beauty. Get a good hair cut with layers. Do your eyebrows. Wear minimal makeup. When you look beautiful, it can help you stay motivated.

#2 - Go Ahead and Cheat

The key to cheating is moderation. Beware of binging. Cheat days are okay if you plan ahead and eat a bit less to save calories for the cheat day. When you forbid a certain food, you want it that much more. Allow yourself to enjoy what you really want to eat. The key word is portion. Buy a slice of cake or a cup cake vs. the entire cake.

The only quibble I have with this tip is the use of the word cheat. It implies something negative and a feeling of guilt. I read a good point from Katherine McPhee (American Idol hopeful) who recently got help for bulimia.

She said for years she'd crave Snickers and deprive herself. When she went to the clinic, they forced her to eat one every day so she ended up not wanting it as much. If there is a cake that you really want to eat, you are more likely to eat the entire thin in one sitting if you've spent all week saying how much you cant or shouldn't have it. Instead dice it up into 30 small pieces and have one each night after dinner.

And the final tip!

#1 - Love Yourself

This is the most important step. If you don't love yourself, how can you take care of yourself? Loving yourself is the building block to making a lifestyle change. Loving yourself makes it less likely that you will destroy your progress.

Right this moment, make a list of all your positive qualities that have nothing to do with your personal appearance or how much you weigh. You'll realize you are far more than your weight and clothing size.

I know the list of 20 seem daunting. Don't have an all or nothing approach. Pick the things you struggle the most with, or pick one thing a month to work on.

If you can do nothing else, at least do these 5:

Tip #16 - Shop smart, shop healthy
Tip #18 - Get your head in the gam
Tip #7 – Drink your water
Tip #20 - Get of your butt
Tip #1 - Love Yourself!

And finally, this year, don't just lose weight for vanity's sake. Do it in such a way you can stick to it for the rest of your life. Remember 2006? Did you make plans to lose 25-50-75lbs by the say, Summer? And February came along and you quit the gym long ago or the first week you "only" lost 2lbs and those people on the Biggest Loser lose double digits each week so why bother?

Had you, or I for that matter, stuck to the "puny" 2lbs, by the end of the year we'd have lost 104lbs. If we tapered off after the first week and lost 1lb and stuck with it, we'd have been 50lbs lighter by December 2006.

Resolve to improve your life this year.
Resolve to say no to quick fixes.
Resolve to stick with it this year, NO MATTER WHAT.

If you lost a teeny amount of weight the first week of this year, multiply it by 50 and see if it's worth it to keep losing that amount.

Rather than make losing weight be about what you take away or deprive, make it about enhancing your overall life.

20 Ways to Slim Down (10-6)

Continuing on the the countdown of 20 ways to slim down...

#10 - Keep it Fresh

When trying to stay motivated, find something new, like pole dancing. When you don't mix up your routine, you body will plateau. Pole dance I can burn 400-500 calorie per hour.

#9 – It's All in the Numbers

There's calories, weight body mass % calorie intake for mean and woman are different, woman 2000 calories or less, mean are 2500. as far as clothing size, different manufactures use different numbers if you are obese w/number, cut it out. you can be 9 another 12. buy a pedometer @ least $20 is more accurate, weight is a number get rid of the scale if it's too hard to deal with. go by how you feel, how clothes fit, getting stronger, are you happier.

#8 - Core Is Your Core

Your core, the entire mid section (stomach oblique's lower back), keeps you looking long and lean. To improve it, try Pilates. It creates a strong core, increases flexibility, balance and develops small muscles.

#7 - Drink it Down

Water that is. It is a fact, we can't live without water. Our body functions on water. It's made up of 70% of guess what? Water!

Over the course of a day we naturally lose 2 cups of water. Water increases your metabolism, optimizes digestion, is a natural appetite suppressant and during workouts it aids the muscles.

Try to drink 8 glasses of water a day m'kay? If that's too hard, try 4 large glasses

#6 – Rally the Troops

This year get a support group. Bonding with others makes you feel not so alone. You need people to encourage, keep you on track and challenge you. Why not have a fitness party with your best buds. Serve veggie and fruit dips. Make snazzy drinks like a Spatini (spring water and your favorite fruit served in a martini glass) or how about a Pom Fizz? Pear cider, pomegranate juice and sparkling water.

Hire a personal trainer and split cost w/friends.

20 Ways to Slim Down (15-11)

Today I was supposed to write a review of the Lifetime movie Fat Like Me. I, uh...well, fell asleep I woke up and missed the first hour and was pretty lost. Plus it didn't seem to be about what the previews showed. I thought it'd be this girl taking on a social experiment by wearing a fat suit, but during the end they kept talking about a documentary and her doing it for the prize money and lying to a lot of people. I was lost. I checked to see if it'll rerun any time soon, if it does I'll give it a full watching.

I'll just continue with the countdown of 20 ways to slim down...

#15 - Trim with Technology

Use technology to fuel your workouts. There are TONS of gadgets on the market to help you avoid boredom: mp3 players, the internet where you can get ideas and info on food plans, pedometers, body fat monitors heart rate monitors etc.

I'm a techie geek so I love this tip most. Plus I'm super competitive, you can use those things to your advantage and rather than see working out as a chore, walk X amount of steps and try to walk XX steps the following week. Lose yourself in music when you are walking and time will fly by before you know it!

#14 - Love the Skin You Are In

Work with what you have and dress your current size. Don't try to hide in super baggy clothes nor wear skin tight clothes. Wearing well fitted clothing can make you look slimmer. Do NOT obsess about the number on the tag, buy your size, whatever that designer happens to call it, and if it bugs you that much, either cut it out, or do like Jerry Seinfeld and his perpetual size 34 jeans, write your fantasy size over it

# 13 - Size Does Matter

Portions in the US are 2-3 times larger than they should be. A portion of meat should be 3oz, which looks like a deck of cards or should fit in the palm of your hand, not including fingers. Rice should fit into a cupped palm or be the size of a tennis ball. When you fill up your plate, think of it in quarters and put ¼ protein, ¼ carb and the last ½ should be fresh veggies.

#12 - There is No Comfort Food

For most of us, food becomes a way of coping. It's our friend when we are lonely. Soothes us when we are upset. Cheers us when we celebrate. Associated with so many things that have nothing to do with just eating makes it a tough mental hurdle to overcome.

Try to find other things to take the place of food. When stressed, go for a walk, mediate, breathe or pamper yourself. Use food for it's purpose, eat to live, don't live to eat.

#11 - Shape Yourself Skinny

Using a body shapers can make you look and feel lbs thinner. Don't thin of those old fashion torture devices known as corsets. Try Spanx, it's what most celebrities use and I've heard it even got Oprah's seal of approval. Body shapers hold you in, takes care of cellulite and smoothes out dimples. If nothing else it makes your clothes fit better.

20 Ways to Slim Down (20-16)

Gotta love cable. Over the weekend TLC aired a program called 20 Ways to Slim Down. Their site didn't list the 20, so I took copious notes to share with fellow fat fighters.

Each day I'll post 20, except for tomorrow when I review the show Fat Like Me. Most of the tips are pretty common sense. I'm sure, like me, you've heard most of them. What I liked though, was they gave background information which helped some of the tips makes more sense.

#20 – Get Off Your Butt

You've got to get up get active. Period. The key is to stay with it and you will see results. When you move, you burn calories. When you sit, sleep, vegetate, you burn nothing. The average person can burn 100 calorie walking a mile.

Being active doesn't have to include sweat inducing push ups if you hate them, just pick something YOU like to do, not the latest trend or what everyone else is doing. Burn you calories dancing for 30 minutes, or playing relay racing with your kiddies. Go for a bike ride outdoors or just march in place inside.

#19 - Write it Down

Food diaries are important. Most people have no idea how many calories they consumed for they till they see it all totaled up at the end of the day. There are numerous free sites you can use to track your food intake. I personally use fitday.com. On average people underestimate their caloric by 400 calories which is almost 1lb a week.

#18 - Get Your Head in the Game

When it comes to losing weight, people first think of the obvious, diet and exercise. For some it's the emotional issues that'll be hard to change. Think about getting some form of therapy as studies have found therapy alone sometimes is enough to lose weight without dieting.

#17 - Spray Yourself Slim

Hrrrm…doubtful this'll work on the melanin rich segment of our society, like me however, a spray on tan can make you feel 10lbs slimmer. How so? It hides cellulite and brings out muscle tone.

#16 - Shop Smart, Shop Healthy

Here's how you can shop like a pro: Trade in your whole milk for skim milk, choose the whole wheat bread that says 100% whole wheat and get a high fiber count, like 4 grams per slice. Don't shop while hungry and shop the perimeter of the store to get produce, dairy, lean protein. The interior of the store is where you'll find mostly processed foods. I wonder when the supermarkets will learn that we know that trick and flip it around to put all the dairy and fruits inside and force you to walk the perimeter past all the ho-ho's and Oreos.

The Poppi Plan

If you watched The Biggest Loser finale, you may remember an at home contestant from New Jersey named Poppi. She won the $50,000 price for biggest loser at home and went from a size 22 to a size 2...

the resounding question is, "How on EARTH did you go from a size 22 to a size 2 in under 8 months???"

She was kind enough to post her routine on her myspace page. Here's a snippet:

THE REGIMENT

(I won't call it a diet, because I was NEVER hungry, loved what I ate and continue to do so!)
daily caloric intake: 1100 calories breakdown: 45% good carbohydrates (you need carbs to work out!!!) good carbs include whole grains, lots of vegetables and fruit (2 cups a day recommended), low carb wraps, etc 30% protein (low fat of course) includes white meat chicken, white meat turkey (all skinless), some shellfish (steamed shrimp..sometimes steamed lobster, butterless of course...) I do not eat these proteins, but on the diet you can: flank steak, tuna, all low cholesterol fish, egg whites, ricotta, yogurt, etc. 25% fat (this was more to keep track and make sure I was doing low fat) but I'd always have snacks that included low moisture mozzarella sticks, no butter, very low oil condiments, etc.

SAMPLE DAY :
breakfast:
organic waffle 110 cal
5.5 oz watermelon 45 cal

snack:
4 oz edamame (boiled soybeans) 100 cal
1 low fat mozz stick 80 cal

lunch:
6 oz steamed shrimp (seasoned) 160cal
1 cup miso soup 45cal
4 oz steamed broccoli (lite soy sauce) 40cal

snack:
whey protein shake 90cal

dinner:
4 oz grilled chicken breast 170cal
1 slice soy cheese 40cal
flax lavash (wrap that i grilled the 55
chicken and cheese on to make a panini!)
5.5 oz raw red pepper 25cal

snack:
small white corn tortilla 50cal
2 tbs organic black bean dip 15
2 tbs salsa (put in oven...kinda like a 20cal tostada!)

dessert:
Fat free frozen yogurt mousse pop 30cal

total: 1075 calories

THE WORKOUT
2 hours a day of intense/moderate cardio .5 hours a day of circuit.

Intense cardio for extremely overweight people can consist of eliptical, walking uphill on a treadmill, or for me, getting out of bed!!!! The two hours should be split up into two workouts. It would be helpful for beginners to consult with a trainer in terms of how to go about building your endurance. The one thing I found to be helpful is this: if your workout becomes comfortable, CHANGE IT UP!!! You should almost ALWAYS break a sweat and get your heart rate up. You don't need to do 2.5 hours a day. That's what I did. But I was completely horrified at my size on national tv! HA. Just be consistent. If you can only start with 20 min a day, so be it. Just make sure to go tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that.

A few parting words from Poppi,

"But remember. There is no magic in the diet/exercise routine. The magic is your mind."

The magic is within your will. We all struggle everyday with different things.

Her myspace page.

Be a Biggest Loser

Ever envy the contestants from The Biggest Loser as they shed double digit lbs weigh in to weigh in? Aside from the calculated game play of gaining weight, rarely do we see anyone fluctuate upwards or even plateau. Well I've searched high and low for the secret and here's how you can be a biggest loser too:

Four to six hours a day of cardio and resistance training.

A day.

Strength in Numbers

Overweight people who opt for a commercial diet plan may be more likely to stick with the program if they're part of a group.[source]

It makes sense to me why the group thing works, it's why I love group challenges so much and a big reason I wanted to start a community blog for losers. The study evaluated Weight Watchers, Atkins & Slim-Fast.

After six months, all groups -- except the one used for comparison -- had lost weight and fat.

How much did they lose? The average over six months was about 13 pounds. More than 9 pounds of that was fat, the study showed.

I'd like to start up another group challenge, but with my recent move it will be a while, most likely early Fall to keep peeps on track through Holiday Eating Season. You know as well as I do, we need all the support we can muster

Exercise Strategies II

I admit, I'm biased, I rather move it to lose it than count calories, which I grudgingly do. So here's ways to zap 500 calories per workout. Yowza!

Exercise Strategies

• Do 1 hour of intense cardio (elliptical trainer, rowing, ski machine).

• Do 70 minutes of power yoga.

• Take a 30-minute walk in the morning, a 15-minute walk at lunchtime, and a 30-minute walk in the evening.

• Swim laps for 45 minutes.

• Do this 60-minute workout: Walk for 15 minutes at 4 mph on the treadmill, then jump rope for 5 minutes; repeat 2 more times.

• Mountain bike for 45 minutes.

• Play singles tennis for 1 hour.

[source]

Diet Strategies II

Switch to this amped-up plan, choosing one 500-calorie-zapping strategy from the diet & exercise column per day, and you'll burn a total of 7,000 calories -- or two pounds -- in seven days.

How to Lose 2 Pounds in a Week

• Instead of an egg salad sandwich on a kaiser roll, have a ham sandwich with 3 ounces of sliced lean ham and mustard on light bread.

• Swap kung pao chicken takeout for this homemade dinner: 3 to 4 cups of steamed veggies and 4 ounces of tofu with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

• Cut out all sugar for one day: Have a single serving of cereal such as Fiber One instead of a frosted variety, and skip the teaspoon of sugar on top. Leave the sugar out of your coffee and honey out of your tea; trade your peanut butter and jelly sandwich for two pieces of toast with sugar-free jam and skip the brownie for dessert.

• Have breakfast for dinner. Replace a hearty meal of pasta with sauce, one piece of French bread and salad with vinaigrette with a bowl of low-fat cereal such as Special K with nonfat milk and 1 cup of blueberries.

• Eliminate between-meal snacking. Skip your 10 a.m. cereal bar, your 3 p.m. yogurt with nuts, and the late-night ice cream.

• Go halfsies: At breakfast have half of a bakery bagel or a mini bagel instead of a regular-size whole bagel. At lunch, have a half sandwich. At dinner, have one-half cup of rice or half a baked potato.

• Hold all the bread. At breakfast, forgo the bagel with your fruit and cereal. At lunch, have the insides of your sandwich only. At dinner, skip the roll and any spread.

Tomorrow, 500 calorie busting exercise sessions

Exercise Strategies

Yesterday I shared ways to shave 500 calories off food, today, how to burn 500 calories. Do either of these 2 things each day and you can burn aproximately 3500 calories per week or 1lb. Cool.

Exercise Strategies

• Jog at a 10-minute-mile pace for 20 minutes.

• Alternate sprinting and walking for 20 minutes.

• Walk briskly for 30 minutes.

• Spin for 30 minutes at a moderate pace.

• Go for a 20-minute trail run.

• Do 1 hour of housework.

• Walk 1 mile in the morning and 1 mile in the evening.

• Do 35 minutes of power yoga.

• Do 35 minutes of Pilates.

• Practice tai chi for 45 minutes.

• Perfect your swing at the driving range for 60 minutes.

• Practice capoeira (a Brazilian mix of martial arts and dance) for 30 minutes.

• Hit a punching bag for 30 minutes.

• Go in-line skating for 15 minutes.

• Shovel snow for 30 minutes.

• Ice-skate vigorously for 30 minutes.

• Run up stairs for 15 minutes.

• Jump rope for 20 minutes.

• Do 25 minutes of circuit training.

• Dance for 40 minutes.

• Play Frisbee for 1 hour.

• Wash windows for 1 hour.

• Use a pedometer and log an extra 3,600 steps.

Ready to burn more? Tomorrow and Friday, ways to burn 2lbs per week

Diet Strategies

45 Ways to Lose One Pound a Week

Here are a few quick facts about losing a pound: It will make your jeans feel a smidge looser, it's the equivalent of four sticks of butter (picture that for a second!), and it requires that you burn and/or cut a total of 3,500 calories. Sound like a lot? It adds up faster than you think.

To lose one pound in seven days you need to reduce your net calories by 500 every day. The easiest way to do that is a 250 split: Cut half from your diet and burn the other half through exercise. To come up with easy ways to do this, we enlisted trainer Heather Rider, founder and director of Rider Fitness Consulting in Los Angeles, and nutritionist Lauren Slayton, RD, of Foodtrainers in New York City. Choose one strategy from the diet and exercise columns each day (feel free to mix and match) and after seven days you will have cut out 3,500 calories. Losing four sticks of butter has never been such a cinch!

Diet Strategies

• Replace your morning bagel and cream cheese with an English muffin and cottage cheese.

• Skip the large bakery muffin in favor of 1 slice of whole wheat toast topped with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter.

• Swap your large bran muffin for 3/4 cup of bran flakes.

• Replace eggs and cheese with scrambled egg whites.

• Replace your 450-calorie lunch with a 200-calorie protein shake.

• Replace large french fries with a yogurt-and-fruit parfait.

• Modify your lunch: Skip the cheese on your salad or sandwich, substitute mustard for mayo, and replace potato chips with soy chips.

• Have half a tuna salad sandwich instead of a whole, plus two cups of raw vegetables.

• Skip the cheese in an omelet and a lunchtime sandwich.

• Switch from cream soup to vegetable-based soup at lunch and dinner.

• Switch from one cup premium to light ice cream.

• Skip your afternoon frozen yogurt with ground nuts.

• Resist the handful of M&M's at the receptionist's desk.

• Cut out 1 biscotti and 1 large mocha.

• Switch from a chai tea latte to lemon tea.

• Have 1 ounce of soy nuts instead of 3 ounces of roasted almonds.

• Substitute a serving of beef with shrimp or a white flaky fish like cod at two meals.

• Leave behind one-fourth of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

• Have 1 cup of strawberries instead of a whole banana, and cauliflower instead of a baked potato with sour cream.

• Replace ranch or blue cheese dressing with low-fat vinaigrette at lunch and dinner.

• Have a vodka and soda instead of a margarita at happy hour.

Tomorrow , my favorite, Exercise Strategies