Lose the “Freshman Fifteen” at Any Age

The dreaded ‘Freshman 15’: that’s the number of pounds that some students are said to put on during their first year of college. If you notice that you’ve put on a few pounds – whether it’s 15, 5 or 50 – then some tips from college life may be able to get you back to your high-school waistline. 

Is The ‘Freshman 15’ Real?

The phenomenon was confirmed by a 2009 Nutrition Journal study: almost one quarter of students gained at least 5% of their body weight in the first semester alone. That’s an average of 10 pounds from September to December! (That’s not quite 15, but there was another semester coming!)

Most of us aren’t gaining weight that quickly. Still, you can learn a lot from those on a fast track.

Let’s look at six lifestyle factors that can separate the gainers from the maintainers.

1. Exercise More

Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that students who gained the most weight got the least activity.

For many fit students, athletics burn the most calories. You can still get inspired by team spirit by joining an adult sports league or a running, cycling or walking group. (You can even start one of your own.)

Many students walk or cycle around campus, and you can benefit from these habits too. Fit fitness into your everyday errands – take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to a colleague instead of phoning, cycle to a nearby store – and you can noticeably impact on your waistline too.

2. Eat Breakfast

Most studies have found that healthy-weight people eat breakfast more regularly than the overweight. An a.m. meal prevents impulsive eating later in the day; helps stabilize your blood-sugar levels; and keeps your metabolism up, so your body burns fat more efficiently.

Of course, what you eat matters too. Some research did find overweight breakfast eaters, such as students with access to all-you-can-eat cafeterias and guys who eat big breakfasts with sausage and all the trimmings.

Keep it healthy with a simple protein (eggs, low-fat yogurt), whole grains (oatmeal, whole-wheat toast) and fresh produce (banana in a smoothie, berries on whole-grain cereal, veggies in an omelet).

3. Get a Full Night’s Sleep

Sleep less and weigh more, researchers say. One study even found a reason: on just 5 hours of sleep, your hormone levels make you crave more food (especially carbs) than if you’d slept 7 or 8 hours.

And with a full night’s sleep, you also think more clearly and are in a better mood. That means you’ll have more willpower to make healthier choices.

(Curiously, one exception to the sleep-more/weigh-less rule is college students. But then the fittest ones wake up at 5:30 for training and endure late-night bus rides after away games. Student athletes don’t get to sleep in until their noon class, and you can get away with so little sleep … if you’re 18.)

4. Eat Mindfully

When you’re not paying attention, you eat more. For A students, the distraction often comes from textbooks. For the rest of us, television and the computer are the attention-grabbers.

For instance, kids watching TV eat more food – more than double the amount – as kids who eat without the TV on, found a 2007 report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

So enjoy no-media meals – that means no TV, no computer, no smartphone, and no print media. Enjoy your dining companions or just enjoy the food. When you’re not distracted, you can better listen to your body and stop eating when it feels full.

5. Count your Liquid Calories Too

A busy academic schedule frequently demands some caffeine; and for many students, the reality is that weekends mean alcohol. As working adults, those patterns often stay the same. So even if you say ‘no’ to French fries, cookies and chips, you could be packing on pounds by the glassful!

Many fancy coffee drinks range from 200 to 450 calories (plus 110 calories with whipped cream on top). Beers average 150 calories each. A shot of most liquors – just 1 to 1.5 ounces – can bring another 100 calories or so (plus all the calories in the sugary mixers).

Stick with regular joe or espresso and moderate alcohol to cut the fat without upsetting your current habits.

6. Be a Student Again

Student life can be exciting; you learn new things and meet new people. Group fitness classes let you feel that thrill again. Whether it’s new moves in a Zumba class, a new martial arts discipline, or new ways to unwind with yoga, group classes can keep activity (and your outlook) feeling fresh.

To help you eat better, explore cooking or nutrition classes. To find instruction in your area, check your local food co-op, community college or adult education center.

Source:  GlobalFit Newsletter, www.GlobalFit.com

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Dr. Oz’s Secret to Weight Loss Success

 You know that eating less and exercising more helps you lose weight.  But, according to Mehmet Oz, M.D., better known as Dr. Oz, the real secret ingredient to weight-loss success is understanding how two body compounds that regulate appetite and satiety, called ghrelin and leptin, work.  Once you understand how these compounds work to control your hunger, you can use them to help you take off the weight, rather than have them inadvertently sabotage your efforts. Here, Dr. Oz explains five ways to fight cravings and feel full.

Ghrelin is a hormone, secreted in your belly and intestines when your stomach is empty that makes you want to eat. And if you ignore the signals, which typically come every half hour or so, then your belly sends out more ghrelin. “And not just a little bit more,” says Dr. Oz. “A ton more until you’re absolutely famished and have to eat whatever you see.” This is why deprivation dieting or starvation dieting doesn’t work, he explains. Ghrelin is so powerful, it will eventually trump your will power, and you’ll end up raiding your fridge and pantry. “There’s no way to say, No to it,” says Dr. Oz. So, how do you get ghrelin to work for you and not against you?

Have a small snack about half an hour before you sit down to eat your meal.

Dr. Oz suggests a small handful of nuts, a small piece of fruit, even a glass of water with some psyllium fiber mixed in (get the kind that dissolves completely, so there’s no grittiness). Because ghrelin levels rise when you’re hungry and take about 30 minutes to return to normal once you’re done eating, having a pre-meal snack gets this process going so that you actually feel like eating less when you finally sit down to dine.

Eat slowly.

“This is one of the most important things you can do,” he says.  When we eat slowly, reminds Dr. Oz, it gives our ghrelin levels a chance at dropping back down to normal. “When you actually sit down, the ghrelin has already started to come down a little bit and you can hold yourself back,” he says. In other words, when we don’t feel hungry anymore, we can feel more satisfied eating less food.

Really pay attention to what you’re eating.

When we focus on the food we’re eating — as opposed to just shoveling it in during American Idol or Survivor — number one, we appreciate it more and even taste it more. And two, it makes it easier to recognize when our bodies say, “Hey, stop eating, I’m full.” When we eat with our eyes on the TV, it’s entirely possible to clean our plates and then some without even noticing what or how much we ate, which can lead to overeating.

Leptin, which is a protein secreted by our bodies’ own fat, works the weight loss problem from on the other end. While ghrelin controls how hungry (or not) we feel, leptin controls how full we feel and let’s us know when it’s time to put down the fork and push back from the table. And — bonus! — it also helps us burn more calories. “If you can get your leptin levels high, you’ll have a greater ability to keep your hunger and appetite in check,” says Dr. Oz.

Avoid high-fructose corn syrup.

 This can be challenging because high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is added to tons of processed foods, says Dr. Oz. Sure, you expect it in sugary cereals and regular sodas. But it also shows up in unlikely places, like low-fat/fat-free salad dressings, condiments, sweetened yogurts, breads. Yikes! So you need to become a diligent label reader. If high fructose corn syrup is on the ingredient list, leave the product on the supermarket shelf. This is essential because beyond the empty calories that come with these foods, the fructose found in HFCS actually blocks leptin from letting your brain know that you’re done eating. And because your brain also doesn’t recognize fructose as a real food, it makes you want to keep eating. In other words, fructose makes your appetite run amok — you’re driven to eat with no brake on your appetite. And those calories get stored as fat! Double yikes!

Eat foods rich in unsaturated fats.

Unsaturated fats — monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats — are the healthy fats that you’ve probably heard are great for your heart. They’re found in foods like olives and olive oil, avocados (and guacamole!), nuts, seeds, fish, like salmon, tuna, mackerel and sardines, and other vegetable and seed oils, like canola, safflower, sunflower, corn and sesame oils. But not only are these types of fats good for your heart and arteries, they also help boost your leptin levels, so they’re more satisfying than saturated fats (found in meats, eggs and dairy foods). According to Dr. Oz, eating foods high in saturated fats doesn’t raise leptin levels nearly as much as foods high in unsaturated fats. So while gram for gram both types of fat contain 9 calories apiece, unsaturated fat calories are actually working in your favor — both for your heart and your waist line.

Source:  AOL Health, Posted by Norine Dworkin-McDaniel