Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

This week I bring you good tidings: Eat More and Weigh Less! Yes, you’ve heard that before, but I am not talking about Starvation Response here (and in any case, that was “Eat More Often and Lose Weight”!). No, this time I am talking about energy density and how focusing on the concentration of energy (or calories) in your meals will help you bulk up on the volume of food while still keeping its calorie-count low.

In The Secret to Weight Control: Not Being Dense, Sally Squires writes that the trick is to switch to foods that are not calorifically dense by volume (in fact this whole concept is also called Volumetrics). Think about it: 10 cubic inches of two types foods will still occupy the same space in your stomach, but what if one of those foods had only a quarter of the calories of the other? Your stomach is still full but you haven’t consumed as many calories!

Earlier, when I have spoken about how it’s always been about the calories, I have even jokingly said that if you consumed enough celery or carrots you could still become overweight if the calorie intake was more than your daily requirement. But seriously, can you imagine how many bags of carrots you will have have to eat just to get to even around 500 calories? (Answer: about 3 lbs worth!). Heck, just 2 fluffy Chocolate Kreme Filled Donuts will get you there and your stomach will still have the space for a few more!

I think you are getting the picture … maximising fiber-rich, low-energy-dense foods like raw/steamed vegetables is a great way to trick your stomach into thinking it’s full while keeping tabs on your calorie intake.

While you run off to the grocery store, keep these other stories in mind as well …

1. ‘Yo-yo’ weight warning to mothers: Mothers who gain or lose lots of weight between pregnancies could be putting their baby at risk, say experts.
2. Docs to get fat cheques for surgery on obese: Alberta surgeons’ cheques will increase 25 per cent for operations involving obese patients.
3. Omega-3s: Fishy fad or catch of the day?: Omega-3s are polyunsaturated fats that can fend off prostate cancer, protect your eyes from macular degeneration, cut risk of heart disease and fight diabetes.
4. The Secret to Weight Control: Not Being Dense: Worried about fitting into your bathing suit, shorts and other revealing summer clothes without feeling chronically hungry and deprived? The answer may be to eat more, not less.
5. Obese girls much less likely to attend college: U.S. study: After tracking 11,000 American adolescents, a study released Monday found that following secondary school, obese girls in the U.S. were half as likely to enrol in college, versus their non-obese peers.
6. If it’s not cardio, does it count?: To lose weight, you’ll want to watch your diet. And you’ll likely need to regularly engage in fairly intense cardio workouts to really burn calories.
7. Employees compete to be ‘biggest loser’: By the time the contest ended, 84 employees had shed nearly 1,000 pounds, with two losing over 40 pounds.
8. Low cholesterol may raise cancer risk: Lowering cholesterol as much as possible may reduce the risk of heart disease, but with a price: Taking it too low could raise the risk of cancer.
9. Tired of spin classes? Try the Wii station: A Canadian health club is offering a new form of exercise for people bored with the treadmill or cycling classes - the Wii Workout Station.
10. Adding Intensity to Your Training: What place does a training style more suited to an NFL weight room have in the average schmo’s workout?
11. More women over 30 battling eating disorders: Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia have long been considered diseases of the young, but experts say in recent years more women have been seeking help in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and older.
12. Family, Friends May ‘Spread’ Obesity: Friends don’t let friends get obese.
13. No calories, same taste (and heart risks): Adults who drink one or more sodas a day - diet or regular - had about a 50 percent higher risk of metabolic syndrome - a cluster of risk factors such as excessive fat around the waist, low levels of ‘good’ cholesterol, high blood pressure …

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Have a great weekend!

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Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Now, if I asked you (or any other fitness-conscious person) how many calories you needed to consume everyday to maintain your weight, I am pretty sure you could rattle off the answer right away and you would probably be pretty close to the right answer.

But did you know that on average only11% of Americans would get this right? This and other diet disconnections are discussed in “Diet IQs disconnected from reality“, an MSNBC article that comes to this conclusion based on the results of the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation’s second annual Food & Health Survey of 1000 adults.

Among the most striking “disconnects,” was knowledge about good and bad fats. While current guidelines recommend people consume more polyunsaturated fats, found in fish and some whole grain foods, and monounsaturated fats, found in nuts, avocados and vegetable oils, 42 percent of those surveyed said they were trying to eat fewer polyunsaturated fats and 38 percent reported trying to cut down on monounsaturated fats!

However, 70 percent of people said they were trying to cut down on saturated fat, more than last year’s 57 percent. Saturated fats are found in meats, dairy foods, and coconut and palm oils, among other sources, and have been tied to an increased risk off heart disease and stroke.

Also, while a high majority of those surveyed said they were physically active at least once a week for health benefits, only 44 percent said they “balanced diet and physical activity” for weight management, which is the direct concept of “calories in, calories out” - another big disconnect.

You can learn all about understanding calories and using that knowledge to your advantage from “5 links to calorie-conscious fitness“. While each of those links open in separate windows, check out some other interesting stories from this past week:

1. Half of EU Adults Overweight, Obese: More than half of adults in European Union nations are obese or overweight and the young are increasingly making Europe a fat continent, the EU’s top public health official said Wednesday.
2. Ice cream craving? Treats to feel good about: With temperatures on the rise and the days growing longer, it gets harder to resist buying an ice cream cone or throwing a pint of Ben & Jerry’s into the grocery cart.
3. Fitness boot camps taking it to the parks: Fitness boot camps have grown in popularity as people look for a way to enjoy the outdoors while avoiding the hassle of the gym and the cost of a personal trainer.
4. Making Meals a Family Affair: Most parents look for ways to give their children an edge, but many miss an easy and often inexpensive recipe for success: eating together.
5. Regular exercise increases “good” cholesterol: Regular exercise appears to modestly increase levels of high-density lipoprotein, or “good,” cholesterol.
6. Doubts over obesity pill claims: Some of the health benefits claimed for a new weight loss drug may not be justified, say experts.
7. Soy Nuts Lower Blood Pressure in Postmenopausal Women: Soy nuts may help lower blood pressure in postmenopausal women, a new U.S. study finds.
8. Junk food ads increasing on kids’ shows: A new Federal Trade Commission study found that half of the ads for junk food, sugary cereals and soft drinks are on children’s programs, double the number 30 years ago.
9. Lazy ‘can be encouraged to move’: However, advice had to be tailored to individual needs - adopting a “one size fits all” policy would not be as effective …
10. Diet IQs disconnected from reality: Ninety percent of Americans say breakfast is an important part of a healthy diet, but just 49 percent manage to eat breakfast every day, a new survey shows.
11. Air hostesses told to shed weight: An Indian court has ruled against a group of female flight attendants who were grounded from the national airline for being overweight.
12. Shake your way to fitness - or brain damage?: What if you could burn fat while shaking a martini? Actually, it’s your body that shakes like a martini on a new type of fitness machine that’s generating lots of buzz and celebrity use.
13. New Jersey starting agency to battle obesity: New Jersey’s health department is escalating the battle against the bulge by starting a new Office of Nutrition and Fitness to better coordinate programs to prevent obesity.

Get the best health and fitness stories of the week in your RSS inbox.

Have a great weekend!

Technorati Tags: health, fitness, health news, fitness news, health links, fitness links, del.icio.us

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