For more than 50 years, Prevention's been creating, collecting, and perfecting advice to help you slim down. That's because we want you to look and feel good about yourself.

By achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, you can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, back pain, joint problems, and more. In other words, you can maximize all the goodies that life has to offer! Here's our best advice to get you where you want to be.

10 Reasons to Lose Weight
1. Live to see your grandchildren, great-grandchildren—even great-great-grandchildren

2. Be able to romp with all those kids

3. Keep your mind sharp

4. Increase your energy level

5. Protect your immunity

6. Reduce your risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke

7. Manage menopause more easily

8. Reduce stress

9. Breathe easier

10. Feel fabulous!

10 Foods That Fill You Up
These foods will fill you up with the fewest calories:

# Potatoes
# Fish
# Oatmeal
# Oranges
# Apples
# Whole wheat pasta
# Grapes
# Air-popped popcorn
# Bran cereal
# Soup

10 Fun Ways to Burn Calories
Here's a list of activities with the calories you'll burn per hour doing them.
# Jumping rope, 544
# Roller-skating, 476
# Bicycling, 408
# Swimming, 408
# Hopscotching with the kids, 340
# Ballroom dancing, 296
# Coaching your kid's soccer team, 272
# Paddling a canoe, 238
# Walking in the woods, 238
# Playing Frisbee, 204

(Calorie figures based on a 150-lb person)

10 Easy Ways to Flatten Your Belly
1. Eat a bowl of raspberries. Packed with fiber, they fight constipation (that can swell your midsection like a balloon).

2. Drink lots of water. It's filling, calorie-free, and keeps your metabolism running in high gear.

3. Skip the cocktails. Sure, alcohol may be fat-free, but it's loaded with calories. It can also raise your levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that helps your belly store fat.

4. Sit up straight. Hunching forward makes your belly look bigger. For a slimming effect that actually trains the stomach-supporting muscles to stay taut, sit with your shoulders back, chin up, and lower back supported against the chair.

5. Plant a garden. All the bending, lifting, and twisting help shape your middle, and you'll burn about 350 calories an hour.

6. Move your hips. Hula hooping works on the same calorie-burning, waist-whittling principle as gardening—but with less dirt.

7. Hit the greens. Ditching the golf cart earns you a walking workout; whacking the ball tones and tightens your midriff.

8. Get a leg up. Crunches with your legs off the floor tone the upper portion of your ab muscles. Lie on your back with your legs propped up on a bed or chair. Curl up slowly, raising your head, shoulders, and upper back off the floor, then slowly lower. Do 10 to 12 repetitions, two or three times a week.

9. Reverse that crunch. To tighten your tummy from a different angle, lie on the floor with your arms at your sides, feet off the floor, and your legs and knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Contract your abdominals and press your back into the floor, lifting your hips about 2 to 4 inches off the floor. Hold, then lower. Do 10 to 12 repetitions, two or three times a week.10. Do crossover crunches. To work the muscles that define your waistline (the obliques), lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your right ankle on your left knee and your hands behind your head, elbows pointing out. Lifting your head and upper back off the floor, twist, and bring your left shoulder toward your right knee. Hold, then slowly lower. Do 10 to 12 repetitions, then repeat to the other side. Do two or three times a week.

What an Opportunity!
Seek out new ways to be active—investigate a mountain vacation that involves hiking, or start viewing a chore such as raking the leaves as a great workout.

All-Time Best Recipe
Readers told us again and again how great this smoothie is for curbing cravings.

Classic Smoothie Recipe
Mix the following ingredients in a blender until smooth. Feel free to experiment, adding a touch of vanilla, cinnamon, or your other favorite flavors to taste.
# 1 cup fat-free milk (or soy milk)
# 1/2 frozen banana or 1/2 cup frozen mango slices
# 1 teaspoon sugar
# 1 cup frozen fruit (We recommend strawberries, pineapple chunks, or blueberries.)

Per shake (approximate): 220 cal, 1 g fat, 4 mg chol, 5 g fiber, 130 mg sodium

10 Smartest Ways to Slim Down
1. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Skipping meals can set you up for bingeing. Studies show that people who spread their food intake throughout the day eat fewer calories.

2. Pack snacks. Whether you're at the mall, in the car, or at work, keep yourself armed with healthy snacks to help you resist fat-and-calorie-laden temptations from vending machines and fast-food joints.

3. Team up. Enlisting the help of a partner or friend can boost your motivation and help you stay on track.

4. Start writing. Keeping a food or exercise log not only helps chart your progress, but it's also a great way to spot minor slips in your routine before they become major problems.

5. Compliment yourself. Treat you as you treat those you love. Focus on your successes, not failures—and give yourself a pat on the back each day.

6. Get moving. Whether you walk, run, bike, or swim, aerobic exercise is key to weight loss success. Work up to doing at least 45 minutes, 5 or more days a week.7. Be a little selfish. You need to make time for yourself if you want to achieve your goal.

8. Have two helpings. Filling your plate with two kinds of vegetables, not just one, ups your nutritional intake and leaves less room on your plate for fatty foods.

9. Take one bite at a time. "Mindful eating," which involves concentrating on taste and sensation to make each mouthful an event, maximizes your food satisfaction and minimizes the odds of overeating.

10. Lift weights. Resistance training builds muscles, which boost the number of calories that your body burns throughout the day—making weight loss easier. Aim for two or three workouts a week.

I Can Do It
Instead of saying, "My weight loss efforts haven't worked before; they probably won't work now," tell yourself, "That's enough. I can do anything that I put my mind to." Create a new sound track in your head.

Keep Low-Cal Cooking Quick & Easy
Stock your kitchen with these low-fat, low-calorie staples, and eating right will be a cinch:
# Fresh garlic
# Butter-flavored cooking spray
# Canned beans: Kidney, black, and navy are stellar fiber sources; rinse first to remove some of the sodium.
# Fat-free chicken broth: Keep a can on hand to whip up an easy vegetable soup (add frozen veggies) or mashed potatoes so flavorful that you won't miss the butter.
# Water-packed tuna
# Grated low-fat cheese
# Instant grain dishes: Think couscous, tabbouleh, even boil-in-bag rice.
# Zesty spices: Chili powder, red-pepper flakes, and curry blends add salt-free zip to recipes. They're great as toppings for air-popped popcorn too.
# Canned mandarin oranges: They're a creative addition to salads and simple desserts, especially when your fresh fruit supply runs low or is out of season.
# A pack of pitas or tortillas: Use them as sandwich wraps, or cut them into wedges and bake to make your own low-fat chips.

10 Snacks Less Than 175 Calories

1. Half of a whole grain bagel: spread with jam or low-fat cream cheese

2. One almond, one date: Stuff the former into the latter for satisfying sweetness and nutty crunch.

3. Baby carrots: Eat a handful with a creamy dip (mix 1/4 cup salsa with 1/4 cup low-fat sour cream).

4. Whole wheat pretzels (1 1/2 oz): A bona fide snack food that's not junk food.

5. Banana: Portable, peelable, and around 100 calories.

6. Sweet potato: If you think of it only as a side dish to a meal, you're missing out on a great snack. Baked and cooled, it's a delicious alternative to fruit.

7. A cup of instant bean soup: Fiber-packed and filling—just add water!8. Whole grain cereal: Low-fat, low-sugar choices such as Cheerios or Wheat Chex aren't just for breakfast. Slip 1/2 cup into a plastic bag to eat when you're on the go.

9. Low-fat string cheese (2 oz): The perking power of protein and the rich bite of cheese—without all that nasty fat.

10. Lions and tigers and bears: Oh my—animal crackers weigh in at only 12 calories each.

Cave In to a Chocolate Craving
You can say "yes!" to these chocolate cravings for less than 200 calories.

1. M&Ms (1 oz): A melt-in-your-mouth favorite, with only 140 calories

2. Haagen-Dazs chocolate sorbet (1/2 cup): Intense flavor at only 120 calories (and zero fat!).

3. Hershey's chocolate syrup (2 table-spoons): At 100 calories and no fat, it's a virtuous topping for fruit or angel food cake.

4. Chocolate truffle (1): Savoring the flavor of a small portion of the food you really crave can prevent you from pigging out on poor substitutes.

5. Chocolate mousse (1/2-cup serving): Prepare instant chocolate pudding with 1% milk, and fold in low-fat whipped topping.

6. Hot chocolate (1 cup): Make it yourself with fat-free milk and chocolate syrup, or just add water to an envelope of low-cal instant.

7. Chocolate tortilla roll-ups (1): Spray a large tortilla with butter-flavored cooking spray, and sprinkle with ground cinnamon, sugar, and cocoa. Cut into quarters. Roll each quarter from the pointed end around a thick-handled kitchen utensil, seal the overlap with egg white, and bake seam-down at 350°F for 10 minutes. Cool, and fill with low-fat vanilla yogurt.

8. Hershey's Kisses (7): This handful has a combined 175 calories.

9. Low-fat mocha latte (1 cup): Use chocolate-flavored coffee topped with 1% milk that you've whisked into a froth. Dust with real cocoa powder.

10. Low-fat chocolate chip cookies: Three of these traditional favorites are about 150 calories.

There's No Magic Number
Don't measure your success solely by the number on the scale. Your weight will naturally fluctuate by a couple of pounds some days. Give yourself a weight range of 5 to 10 pounds to allow for these changes. Use other methods, such as your clothes or tape measurements, to track your progress.

Seven Ways to Break Up Exercise Boredom
1. Change your venue. Bored to tears by your treadmill workout? Take a walk outside instead. Your after work routine has become too routine? Get up earlier. Changing where or when you exercise, even if you're doing the same activity, is a great way to change your outlook.

2. Find fun exercise. Investigate sports and hobbies that enhance your activity level. Backpacking, mountain biking, kayaking, even bowling can all burn calories—but they don't feel like workouts.

3. Act their age. Join the kids for a game of backyard touch football or tag. Capitalize on their infectious energy.

4. Make a date. Treat exercise as social time by pairing up with a friend or your spouse. By committing to someone else, you'll be less likely to skip your workout.

5. Count backwards. Ever notice how your trip back from a great destination seems shorter than your trip there? Apply that principle to exercise by counting reps backwards—from 10 to 1, instead of 1 to 10.

6. Lend a hand. Support causes such as breast cancer, AIDS, or multiple sclerosis by doing fund-raising walks, bike rides, or runs. Beyond the exercise, you'll feel good about what you're doing, as well as fortunate to have a healthy body to do it.

7. Gear up. Add a new twist to your routine with equipment such as a heart rate monitor or pedometer. Tracking your workouts with these types of devices keeps things interesting.

One Slip Up Won't Stop Me
If you've fallen off the weight loss wagon, stop feeling like a failure; focus on the challenge ahead. The sooner you climb back on, the sooner you'll see the results!

Don't Let Stress Make You Fat
Next time you've had a bad day at work or a fight with your spouse, or are just being pulled in too many directions, try one of these stress busters instead of raiding the fridge:

1. Get out in nature. The gentle swaying of windblown trees or the meandering of a stream can slow body rhythms that have built to a stress-induced peak.

2. Take the slow road. Hopping in the car to run errands may seem practical, but traffic's another stressor. Bike or walk whenever you can. If you must drive, don't jockey for position. Chill out in the right-hand lane.

3. Turn on the stereo. Soothing music has been shown to ease anxiety and lower blood pressure and heart rate, even under superstressful conditions.

4. Get up and dance. Besides being great exercise, it releases endorphins, your body's mood-elevating chemicals that help erase stress.

5. Savor silence. Even a total of 10 to 15 minutes of quiet time per day helps you eliminate the buzz in your brain and experience some serenity.

6. Laugh out loud! Humor can actually inoculate against anxiety: One study found that people who watched an episode of Seinfeld before tackling a stressful task didn't show the spikes in blood pressure and heart rate that their humorless study counterparts did.

There's Always Another Way
Accept substitutions: If the late hour won't allow you to work out at the gym, don't give up on exercise that day. Take a walk around the neighborhood, pop in an exercise video, or do lunges around the kitchen as you cook dinner.

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The holidays can be stressful... and unfortunately, many people reach for food as comfort. If you find yourself regularly eating in response to stress, anxiety, sadness, boredom, anger, loneliness, relationship problems, or poor self-esteem, try to break the habit with some of my strategies below.

* Learn to recognize your hunger. Before you automatically pop something into your mouth, rate your hunger on a scale of 1 to 5 -- 1 being ravenous and 5 being full. Make every effort to avoid eating when your hunger is a 4 or a 5.

* Find alternatives to eating. Make a personal list of activities you can do instead of eating. Perhaps go for a walk, call a friend, listen to music, take a hot shower/bath, exercise, clean your house, polish your nails, surf the Internet, schedule outstanding appointments, watch television, look through a photo album, etc.

* Keep a food journal. Logging your food will help to identify your toughest timeframes. It also will make you accountable... so perhaps you'll be less apt to reach for unnecessary food.

* Three-food interference. Make the commitment to first eat three specific healthy foods before starting on caloric comfort foods (i.e., an apple, handful of baby carrots and a yogurt). If after that, you still want to continue with your comfort foods, give yourself permission. However, most of the time, the three foods are enough to stop you from moving on.

* Exercise regularly. Daily exercise relieves stress and puts you in a positive mindset, which provides greater strength to pass on the unhealthy fare.

* Get enough sleep. Research shows that sleep deprivation can increase hunger by decreasing Leptin levels, the appetite regulating hormone that signals fullness. With adequate sleep, you'll also be less tired and have more resolve to fight off the urge to grab foods for comfort.

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Here are more facts about common diet myths…

* Exercise in the morning burns more calories.

Studies show that people who exercise in the morning tend to be more consistent with their daily workouts. However, exercising in the morning does not actually burn more calories than exercising later in the day.


* Dairy is bloating.

Dairy is only bloating for people with lactose intolerance… and in some instances, for people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). For people without lactose intolerance or dairy specific IBS, low-fat milk, yogurt and cheese should not cause bloating.


* You can “save” calories by skipping breakfast.

Studies report that breakfast eaters weigh less than breakfast skippers (obviously, it has to be a healthy breakfast). Plus, breakfast skippers tend to overeat after dinner.


* Colonics help you lose weight.

Colonics simply dehydrate you -- you may weigh less, but it’s mainly water weight NOT fat weight. Lost water weight typically comes right back on after a few glasses of fluid.


* Weight lifting makes you bulky.

Appropriate weight lifting will not make you bulky (unless that’s your goal and your program takes this into consideration). Light weight lifting helps to increase lean body mass, which helps you burn more calories 24-7. In the end it will help you lose weight and enable you to eat more.


* The scale is your absolute best indicator of weight loss.

Checking your weight loss progress on a scale is certainly simple and encouraging (depending upon the outcome!). However, there are other effective ways to track your progress: take body measurements with a tape measure, test body fat, compare personal photos, and assess the fit of your clothing.


Get more facts about diet myths in Diet Myths Exposed: Part 1.

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The following diet myths come up over and over again at my nutrition center. My next two blog entries will help set the record straight. Hope you find this helpful!

* If you eat late at night, the food turns straight into fat.

Not true.If your overall calories are appropriate for weight loss, you certainly can eat something after dinner. Late night calories will ultimately get used the next day (and even while you sleep).

However, for the sake of energy, it is always better to eat your calories during the day when your body needs the fuel. Plus, eating consistently throughout the day will stabilize blood sugar levels -- so you’ll feel energized and experience fewer cravings. If you are going to snack after dinner, I suggest choosing something 250 calories or less.


* Fresh fruits and vegetables are more nutritious than frozen.

Not necessarily. Frozen can be a great produce option (just avoid varieties with added salt, sugar, and sauce). Frozen foods are picked in the peak of ripeness, then frozen. You can eat them as you need them -- and most of the nutrients are locked in. On the other hand, fresh fruit and vegetables are typically harvested before they ripen, and can have nutrient variability. Also, the longer fresh produce sits around in your fridge, the less nutrients it will contain.

Bottom line: Buy both fresh and frozen and eat as much as you can.


* Cravings are your body's way of telling you it needs something.

This has never been proven. You normally crave what you like to eat (or smell or see someone else eating). Also, hormonal changes are sometimes responsible for food cravings. Ice cream and pickles anyone?


* Any type of water is always better than soda.

No. There are a few caloric waters with sexy marketing ploys. In fact, some brands have quite a bit of sugar. Always check labels.


* Certain foods, like grapefruit, celery, or cabbage soup can burn fat and make you lose weight.

These are anecdotal stories that have no scientific back up. It’s true these foods are low in calories, but they do NOT actually burn fat.

Learn the facts about more diet myths in: Diet Myths Exposed: Part 2

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Ever get the guilty feeling that you're being watched as you toss the double fudge brownie mix into your grocery cart? Well, you are! We checked with some of the top US nutrition experts, who admitted they secretly spy on the rest of us as we make real-world choices in restaurants and grocery stores. Here are their top five gripes.

1. We can't tell the good fats from the bad ones.
"Most people still don't get that some fats are actually good for you," says Alice Lichtenstein, DSc, an American Heart Association spokesperson. "You want to avoid saturated and trans fats, but you need more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Good sources are fish, nuts, avocados, and soybean and canola oils."

Smarter: Fit in good fats. "If you keep track of total calories, you don't have to worry about how much fat you eat, just what kind," explains Dr. Lichtenstein. Grandpa Po's Slightly Spicy Nutra Nuts use only canola oil (160 cal, 10 g fat, 1 g sat. fat, 2 g fiber, 60 mg sodium); at healthy food supermarkets.

2. We supersize to save money.
"People think that supersizing a restaurant meal is a money saver, but it's not a health bargain if it has way too many calories," says Karen Weber Cullen, DPH, RD, research nutritionist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Smarter: Judge with your palm, not your purse. A serving size is about what fits into the palm of your hand (larger for men than women, smaller for children). For most meals, pick one protein, one starch, one veggie, and one fruit based on the serving that will fit into your palm.

3. We think anything liquid has no calories.
"What freaks me out is the amount of sugared soda and juice we drink," says Judith Stern, ScD, RD, professor of nutrition and internal medicine at the University of California, Davis. "I'd like to see all the sugared drinks sent out into space, where they could orbit the Earth forever." Sugared drinks balloon your calorie intake and squeeze out more nutritious foods.

Smarter: Try a cup of tea. Available in myriad varieties, the calorie-free brew promotes heart health, staves off several types of cancer, strengthens bones and teeth, and protects the skin.

4. We don't know how "hungry" really feels.
"If you don't know when you're hungry, you don't know when you're full, so you won't know when to stop eating," says Elisabetta Politi, RD, nutrition manager of the Duke University Diet & Fitness Center in Durham, NC.

Smarter: Tune in with mindful eating. Here's how.
1. Before you eat, relax, and rate your hunger from 1 (hungriest) to 7 (fullest).
2. Eat slowly, pausing often to rate how your hunger changes.
3. When finished, rate yourself one more time. Try to stay between 2 1/2 and 5 1/2: not too ravenous when you start and not completely full when you stop.

5. We have a microwave addiction.
Many women come home from work and pop a frozen entrée into the microwave. "Eating too many heavily processed foods can leave you short on fiber and antioxidants such as vitamin C," explains Jo Ann Hattner, RD, clinical dietitian at Stanford University Medical Center.

Smarter: Complement a frozen entrée with a green salad, a 100 percent whole wheat roll, and fruit for dessert. Stock up on the freshest fruit for maximum flavor.

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Now that it's warming up, it's time to break out the hard bodies. Let's start nice and slow and begin with our arms. For a lot of us, our "wings" have been behind long sleeves, sweaters, and jackets, and they need a little love. You don't have to go to the gym, however, to work on your arms. (If you are a member of a gym then you can just add these moves to your workout.)

I am a big believer in doing multi-joint, multi-muscle moves, but for vanity's sake lets just focus on the arms. In case you didn't know, the tricep (jiggley part on the back of the arm) takes up 2/3 of your upper arm. So for all you bicep-minded boys out there, if you want real mass, focus on your tri's. For the ladies out there who do the wiggle test, tricep exercises are your friend.

While you're sculpting the back of your arms, why not work on your posture by doing rear delt (shoulder) and back moves to pull your back straight up since everything in we do in life hunches us forward (driving, computers, stress, gravity, etc). Use these exercises to pull your body upright -- it's not only good for your health, but good posture is sexy in and of itself.

I want you to do a circuit of these moves. So do one set of 8-12 reps for each move, and then move onto the next exercise without stopping. When you've completed all 8 exercises, begin again at the top of the list. Start with two times around the circuit, then work your way up to three and four rounds. No dilly-dallying or waiting around. This is meant to be done at an efficient and non-stop pace to keep the calories burning.

If you can get this workout done 3 to 4 times a week, you will see the changes quickly.

1. Dip into a bridge

I love this move! It was shown to me by the great trainer Adam Friedman. Sit on a bench or chair with your hands flat on the seat next to your hips and and your legs touching the floor a foot or two in front of you. Then extend your body away from the chair and lower your upper body down toward the floor, engaging the triceps in a dip. Then with your feet together and glued to the floor, push your hips up until your torso is parallel to the floor, making a bridge. Engage your glutes (butt muscle). Slowly lower your hips, push up with your arms and move backward until you are seated on the chair. That's one rep. This move is two exercises for the price of one. Squeeze at the top of both moves (tricep, then legs and butt).

2. Bicep curl to shoulder press

Hold a weight in each hand, arms at your sides. Then curl the weight up to shoulder level engaging your biceps, and press the weights all the way up toward the ceiling overhead. Pause at the top before slowly lowering the weight while bending your arms, pausing at shoulder level, back down to your sides. That's one rep. Make sure you don't swing your weight or allow it to drop suddenly on the way down from the press. It's a controlled motion. I would rather see you use less weight and have perfect form.

3. Push ups

If you can't do the traditional way then go down to your knees. It's imperative to keep your spine and neck angle straight (don't drop your neck or let your lower back sag). Don't use momentum but control the move from top to the bottom to get maximum benefit.

4. Standing squat dumbbell row

This exercise is great for legs, abs, and back. Stand with your feet at least shoulder-width apart, arms out in front at shoulder level with a dumbell in each hand. Sit down in a squat, engaging your abs to keep your back straight (even though you are slightly bent over) and pull your arms toward your body in a rowing motion. The weights should end up at your side with elbows behind you. Slowly stand up and return arms to the starting position. This is one rep.

5. Dumbbell kickbacks

Another one for the back of the arm. With legs shoulder width apart again, lean over at the waist, keeping arms straight by your side until your upper body is at angle to the floor. Bend at the elbow while curling the weight toward your bicep, then push the weights back and down to straight. Squeeze the tricep muscle at the top of the move. Be careful not to swing the weight and keep your elbows in a fixed position close to your body. You will work the legs again since you are in a mini-squat again.

6. 21's

This is a series of bicep curls broken down into two stages. Start with arms down by sides, weight next to legs. Curl up to the half-way mark (arms are now parallel to the floor) and back down 7 times in a row. Then from the half-way mark to the top of the curl 7 times. Finish with 7 reps at the full range of motion for a total of 21 reps.

7. Dumbbell chest press

Lay on your back with your legs and arms straight up, perpendicular to the floor, with a dumbell in each hand. Lower the weights while bending your arms out to the side in an L-shape until elbows touch the floor. Then push the weights back up while contracting your chest and triceps. That's one rep. Your leg position activates the abs while your arms do the work. If you want to challenge yourself more then do one arm at a time leaving the resting arm in the air.

8. Bent over, rear delt flies

Sit in a squat, slightly bent over at the waist, back straight and arms out in front. Pull your arms back until they are straight out to the side, perpendicular to your body, keeping them slightly bent at the elbow, while contracting your upper back and shoulder muscles. Return arms to front position for one rep. This works those rear deltoids in your upper back and balances out the front shoulders muscles, which are often overworked. This move is also good for posture.

That's it! Once you do the 8 moves, get some water and start again at the top. Really feel the muscles (even if you don't see them yet), and get into your body. Believe me, you will see those arms shaping up in no time. From a sweater, to a T-shirt, then tank top and bathing suit. Oh yes!

Good Luck,

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