So learn to identify these six red flags:

1. Diets that promote or promise drastic weight loss.

When you start a diet, you can potentially drop a lot of weight during the first two weeks (some of which will be water weight). However, if you lose more than two pounds per week in the weeks that follow, you run the risk of losing “muscle mass,” and your metabolism will slow down in response. That’s why true health experts advocate losing weight slowly and gradually - so you melt away fat while sparing precious muscle.

2. Diets that claim to work because of special supplements, creams, or potions - no diet or exercise required!

Or diets that make you buy mega supplements in order to follow the program. If it sounds too good to be true, it is!

3. Diets that differ entirely from the way you currently eat (or like to eat).

If a plan is incompatible with your lifestyle, chances are slim you’ll stick with it.

4. Diets that are less than 1,000 calories.

Too difficult to sustain and can often leave you cranky, irritable, and with a bad headache. Not to mention hungry and lethargic.

5. Diets that claim they are effortless.

There’s no such animal. Losing weight takes focus and effort. Period.

6. Diets that cut out entire food groups, or focus on only a few foods.

Not realistic for the long haul; the sign of a plan you’re soon to go off.

From Joy’s Healthy Bite

1. Staying Up Late

The opposite would seem to make sense: If you stay up late, you burn more calories. Burn more calories, burn more fat.

Right?

Unfortunately, staying up late can set off a multi-pronged attack on your body composition.

First, sleep is vital for recovery. If you don’t get enough sleep, your body won’t build as much muscle mass – no matter how much time you spend in the gym. Less muscle mass = less fat burning power. Next, if you are sleep-deprived, you increase levels of the stress hormone “cortisol.” The connection between stress/cortisol and obesity is well established, but it gets worse. A recent study (Epel, Yale) shows that cortisol related fat storage tends to be around the vital organs – the worst possible place to store fat in your body.

If that’s not enough, lack of sleep is linked with glucose intolerance (diabetes), lower Growth Hormone levels, a weakened immune system, low energy, and more …

Get a full night’s sleep (7 to 9 hours), but make sure your place of rest is peaceful and pitch dark. Your natural sleep hormone, melatonin, is suppressed when there is too much light.

2. Skipping Breakfast

Many people skip breakfast thinking it will help them to lose weight.

“Fewer calories in – more fat burned.”

The reality is that skipping breakfast actually lowers your metabolism so that at your next meal you’ll tend to overeat. To make it worse, the food you eat on a lowered metabolism is more likely to be stored as fat.

3. Prescription Drugs

Many of the drugs you are prescribed increase appetite, cause edema, or slow our metabolism. That’s a recipe for getting, and looking, fatter.

The most commonly used drugs that have these effects are oral contraceptives, many anti-depressants, and estrogen replacements.

Check with your doctor to see about finding suitable alternatives that won’t make you fat.

1) A FISTFUL OF PROTEIN 3X A DAY
Aim for 4 to 6 ounces (about the size of your fist) of lean protein (chicken, fish, or egg whites) at every meal. In one study, people who got 30% of their day’s calories from protein ate 441 fewer calories than people who ate a 15% protein diet!

2) YOUR WEIGHT IN WATER
Take your body weight and divide it in half. Then drink that many ounces of water each day. Why? The rate at which you burn calories drops when you’re dehydrated.

3) THE SAFE METABOLISM BOOSTER
Substitute green tea for coffee. Compounds in it called catechins (the same stuff that’s in the calorie-burning soda Enviga) are believed to increaase your metabolism.

4) FRUITS AND VEGGIES
Celery, spinach, tomatoes, lettuce, peaches, strawberries, and cantaloupes are at least 90% water, so they’ll help flush out your system and keep you hydrated. There’s nothing wrong with other fruits and vegetables, as even relatively dry bananas (76% water) are more hydrating than whole-wheat bread (35%) or almonds (7%).

5) SKIP THE NIGHTCAP
Your body treats alcohol as a toxin, so your liver processes alcohol calories before all others in an attempt to clean bad stuff from your bloodstream. As a result, the other calories you’ve gotten from food are more likely to be stored as fat.

6) NIX THE MILK AND CHEESE
Most women have some sort of lactose sensitivity, which means they get bloated from even small amounts of dairy products. Don’t nix calcium altogether; Take a supplement and get the nutrient from foods such as salmon and almonds.

7) SAY NO TO WHEAT
Even high-fiber whole-wheat or multi-grain bread can contribute to bloating. Feed your carb cravings with sweet potatoes, brown or wild rice, and wheat-free cereals.

PREP TIME: 25 MINUTES
COOK TIME: 13 MINUTES

(Makes 6 servings)

2 teaspoons cooking oil
12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1 medium sweete red pepper, cut into thin strips
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 10-oz package refrigerated pizza dough
1/2 cup mild picante sauce
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Non-stick cooking spray

1. Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. In a large nonstick skillet, heat cooking oil. Cook chicken strips in the oil over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, or until no longer pink. Remove from skillet. Add red pepper and onion; cook about 5 miniutes, or until tender. Remove from skillet; set aside.

2. Coat a 15×10x1 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Unroll pizza dough in pan; press to form a 12×8 inch crust. Pinch edges of dough.

3. Spread crust with picante sauce. Top with chicken and vegetables; sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake for 13 to 18 minutes, or until crust is brown and cheese is melted.

Nutritional Information per serving
Calories: 305
Fat: 9g
  Sat Fat: 3g
Carbohydrates: 34g
  Fiber: 2g
Protein: 21g

“You aren’t doing anything wrong. It’s only natural for men to lose weight more quickly than women because they have more muscle,” says celebrity trainer Valerie Waters. “Don’t be discouraged.” Her tips:

BLAST CALORIES IN LESS TIME
Try cardio intervals, alternating four minutes of walking and one minute of jogging. Your goal: two minutes of walking and three minutes of jogging. Interval training (HIIT) is great because it keeps your heart rate up without wearing you out.

INCREASE YOUR STRENGTH
You need more muscle so that you can burn more calories all the time - even when you’re sleeping! Do the following circuit (10-15 reps of each exercise; two sets) twice a week: step-ups, bent-over rows, squats, bent-knee push-ups, shoulder presses, biceps curls, triceps dips, crunches, reverse crunches.

BUMP UP YOUR METABOLISM
Instead of the usual breakfast, lunch, and dinner, try to eat five smaller meals throughout the day that are rich in lean protein and high-fiber foods, such as multigrain bread, fruit, and vegetables.

Courtesy of Fitness, April 2007

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When I first started working out (about 10 years ago), I was tall and skinny. My goal was to build muscle and get buff. After 6 months of training, I had gained considerable strength, but you wouldn’t know by looking at me. So what went wrong? I didn’t eat enough, and I didn’t get enough protein.

Men’s Fitness lists the 10 worst workout mistakes - Things you do that sabotage your progress and cost you muscle. Recognize a mistake as part of your daily routine? They also came up with some quick and easy fixes you can use to correct these problems and net truly awesome gains.

1. YOU DON’T EAT ENOUGH (FOR FEAR OF GETTING FAT)
Yes, extra calories can mean extra belly fat, but if you’re lifting consistently and correctly, most of what you’re taking in should be converted to muscle. The truth is your muscles will never grow without a surplus of calories. For a lean guy looking to put on muscle mass, 2,000 calories a day won’t cut it. In fact, this kind of restricted diet is actually the ideal recipe for losing muscle tis- sue and sparing fat, as it causes the body to shift into starvation mode and shed calorie-consuming muscle. It also makes you store fat for emergency energy. And the less protein you eat, the less of a chance you give your muscles to recover after a workout.

2. YOU AMP UP YOUR CARDIO
There are three ways that cardio typically cancels out muscle gains: doing it too often, doing it for too long, or doing it on an empty stomach. In general, daily cardio sessions simply burn too many cumulative calories to allow you the surplus you need for muscle mass, and the same can be said for sessions that last 45 minutes or more. Work out in the morning before breakfast and you only compound the problem. When you wake up, your body is already in a catabolic (muscle-burning) state, since a night’s sleep—time spent without eating—empties your tank. Working out immediately just reinforces this condition and costs you intensity—whether on the treadmill or with the weights. The end result: You burn muscle as fuel in place of calories you should have consumed at breakfast.

(I disagree on this point - Many experts say that it’s best to work out on an empty stomach, as you’ll force your body to burn fat to fuel your workout..)

3. YOU WORK TO EXHAUSTION
If the biggest musclehead in the gym has taught us anything, it’s that doing lots and lots of sets and reps to the point of total collapse (he can’t even muster his signature grunt!) is the best way to build muscle. Never mind that he’s a genetic freak and/or probably on steroids. More than 20 total sets per muscle group, or more than 15 reps per set, may leave your muscles swollen (hence the ego-enhancing “pump”), but it will be from inflammation, not actual muscle growth. Any weight that allows that much work is too light to cause sub- stantial growth, and you’ll reap no lasting gains.

4. YOU FAVOR BODY-PART WORKOUTS
Breaking your training down into chest days, back days, and arm days over- works some muscles and neglects others. It’s an old-school way to train—and it’s incredibly outdated. Most guys still do it, and many make gains for a while, but their progress eventually comes to a halt, usually due to injuries. Body-part routines also prevent your biggest muscles from ever learning to work together in the kinds of coordinated effort you need to lift really heavy weights—another major avenue for fast growth.

5. YOU SHUN STRETCHING
Boring? Definitely. But stretching has been shown to speed up recovery and increase a muscle’s range of motion, making more room for muscle fibers to grow. Simply lifting weights will increase your risk for injury and se- verely limit your ability to move athletically—so no matter how big you are, you’ll probably be picked last for teams.

6. YOU ONLY EAT SPORADICALLY
It’s true: Eating infrequently is nearly as bad as not eating at all. When you go more than three hours without food, your metabolism slows significantly.When that happens, every time you do get a meal, there’s a good chance that a large percentage of it will be stored as fat. Why? Blame your body. Without food, it slips back into starvation mode and starts to think it needs to hold on to every calorie it can get.

7. YOU RARELY ALTER YOUR ROUTINE
Doing the exact same workout week after week will, at best, prevent new gains, and, at worst, lead to burnout. Failing to impose any new challenges on your muscles—such as by increasing the weight you use or the number of reps you perform—simply helps keep them the same size, whereas pushing yourself harder than you’re accustomed to will actually spur new muscle and strength.

8.YOU ONLY TRAIN WHAT YOU SEE IN THE MIRROR
Focusing your workouts on trophy muscles such as the pecs and biceps may be more fun, but it won’t do much for your overall development. Since 70% of your body’s total musculature is located in your legs and back, your main potential for muscle gains will remain untapped. Furthermore, this kind of trainingwill leave you with muscle imbalances that lead to injury—and that can keep you out of the gym permanently.

9. YOU DON’T DRINK SHAKES
Chugging a protein-and-carb mixture after your workout starts the recovery process immediately, replenishing lost glycogen (your muscles’ energy stores) and providing the nutrients your body requires to repair muscle and grow more of it. Skipping the shake and casually waiting an hour or more for your next meal is like ignoring a cry for help.

10. YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH REST
Sleep is when muscle repair happens, so getting six or fewer hours of shut-eye a night limits your body’s natural production of crucial muscle-building chemicals, such as growth hormone. Too much activity outside of your workouts, such as playing sports, all-night dance parties, and extra stress—all of which are permissible now and then, but dangerous in excess—also cut into muscle gains. And if you’ve been working out seven days a week, we’ve got another pleasant surprise for you: You’ll lose muscle for sure. Such a high frequency won’t allow for regeneration, and your efforts will be wasted. And no, it doesn’t matter if you’re training different muscle groups each day—you still have the same central nervous system, and it still gets tired of having to deal with major physical exertion every day.

A typical restaurant meal contains 1000 to 2000 calories, and up to 100 fat grams (more than a stick of butter!) - Which makes eating out while eating healthy a hard combination. But thanks to a new helpful tool that lets you research nutritional and healthy meals in your own neighborhood, it’s no longer a problem. Healthy Dining Finder does the hard work by evaluating the nutritional content of restaurant meals across the United States.

Type in your zip code and the site generates a list of restaurants in your area with a nutritional table of each restaurant’s menu items that meet Healthy Dining’s requirements:

1. Entrées (or full meals) must include at least one of the following:

• Fruits and/or Vegetables
• Lean Protein (eg. skinless white meat poultry, fish/seafood, tofu, etc.), with no more than two red meat dishes per restaurant
• 100% Whole Grains

2. Menu items must meet the following criteria:

• Entrées (or full meals):
  1. 750 calories or less
  2. 25 grams of fat or less
  3. 8 grams of saturated fat or less
• Appetizers, side dishes and desserts:
  1. 250 calories or less
  2. 8 grams of fat or less
  3. 3 grams of saturated fat or less

3. Deep fried items (egg rolls, chicken fingers, tostada shells, etc.) are excluded from the website, except for very small amounts of garnishes, such as wonton strips.

Whether or not you have a computer to check out restaurants before dining, knowing what nutritionists look for when choosing a healthy menu can be helpful in making smart food choices.

• Calories: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses 2,000 calories per day as a reference level for nutrition labeling. Healthy Dining’s upper limit of 750 calories for one meal represents about 37% of total calories for the day - reasonable, because a restaurant meal is generally the largest of the day.

• Fat: The USDA’s 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommend that total fat be limited to 20 to 35% of calories. Assuming 2,000 calories per day, the recommended fat intake for a full day is between 44 and 78 grams. The Healthy Dining fat guideline for one meal is 25 grams or less.

• Saturated Fat: The USDA’s 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommend that saturated fat be limited to 10% of total calories. Assuming 2,000 calories per day, the maximum recommended saturated fat intake for a full day would be 22 grams. Healthy Dining’s saturated fat guideline for one meal is set at 8 grams or less of saturated fat for the meal, again assuming the restaurant meal accounts for the largest of the day’s meals.

Of note is that most of the menu items featured on the site do not meet the FDA criteria for “healthy.” The criteria for the website focus on calories, fat and saturated fat, whereas the FDA’s criteria for “healthy” also include cholesterol and sodium. However, values for sodium and cholesterol are posted, so that consumers can make informed choices.