Body Fat: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

You know that junk you have in the trunk — that extra padding you hate on your hips and butt? You may not like the way it looks, but it's not necessarily bad for you. The fat surrounding your gut, though, is a different story — in fact, it can be deadly.

Let's start with the "good" fat — the fatty layer just beneath your skin in the lower half of your body. It's called subcutaneous fat, and it's not necessarily the worst thing to have. Subcutaneous fat gives rise to two beneficial metabolic hormones: leptin, the hormone that tells your body to hang onto or let go of weight, and adiponectin, a hormone that lowers your blood sugar. A Harvard study found that subcutaneous fat might help improve sensitivity to insulin and prevent diabetes.

The fat in your stomach area, on the other hand, is bad news. Known as visceral fat, it's hidden deep down, so even if you don't have a protruding belly (a signal for some that they have it), you could still harbor this "bad" kind of fat. Visceral fat lies far beneath your skin, where it surrounds your organs and sets off a harmful hormonal firestorm. Having this metabolically horrific fat slows your metabolism, lowers growth hormone, raises cortisol, creates insulin resistance, and increases your risk of all kinds of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease.

You increase your risk of having visceral fat when you're overweight, so how can you lose it? Diet and exercise! Taking care of yourself will reduce visceral fat and lower your risk of all the health problems associated with it.

Choosing the Best Form of Cardio

Do the Cardio you LOVE!

Doing your first cardio workout can be a little overwhelming, particularly if you're doing it at a gym. There are rows and rows of different machines to choose from and a schedule of classes you can attend. So the big question is, do you walk, row, step, or dance your way to fitness? Which is best?

The answer is, any of the above. You should do whatever you enjoy the most — just make sure you're pushing yourself and keeping your heart rate at 85 percent of maximum. Sure, some machines are more effective than others just the way some classes are more intense than others. But if you dread and avoid certain exercises, it will be harder to motivate yourself, right?

Whatever activity you decide on, make sure to keep it fresh. If you've been doing the treadmill for a while, switch to group class for a few weeks (Zumba, anyone?). Or, if you feel like you've been wearing out your spot in class, venture out of your comfort zone and check out what's happening over at the cardio machines. There are a ton of options when it comes to cardio. The important things is to keep changing it up every once in a while so that you avoid the workout plateau and keep yourself challenged and motivated.

MYTH: Egg Yolks Are Bad For You

Eggs are a nutritional powerhouse, but for a while, egg yolks have been demonized in the health-food industry as causing blood-cholesterol levels to skyrocket. Is it true? It's time to set the story straight on the nutritional benefits of an egg.

The Truth: An egg’s yolk — the yellow part — contains most of the vitamins and minerals, plus half of its protein. The yolk can actually help to reduce your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

One large egg has roughly 186 milligrams of cholesterol — all of which is found in the egg’s yolk. Since dietary cholesterol was once thought to be the major cause of unhealthy blood cholesterol, egg yolks have been demonized and health nuts stick to eating strictly egg whites. Now, don’t get me wrong — egg whites are a great, healthy source of protein, but there is definitely room for WHOLE eggs in a healthy diet. As long as you haven’t been advised otherwise by your doctor , you can enjoy the many nutritional benefits of a whole egg. So, yes, you can have an egg and eat the yolk too ! Here are a few reasons why.

The real threat to high cholesterol is saturated and trans fats, not dietary cholesterol. Years ago, when scientists learned that high blood cholesterol was associated with heart disease, foods high in cholesterol were thought to be the leading cause of unhealthy blood cholesterol. Now, 25 years later, scientists have come to the conclusion that cholesterol in food is not the true villain — saturated and trans fats have a much greater effect on blood cholesterol. Your body actually needs the cholesterol in meat and eggs to make testosterone, which helps to increase energy and helps to build more calorie-building muscle. In fact, one study at the University of Connecticut found that the fat in egg yolks actually helps to reduce LDL (“bad” cholesterol). So banish the old notion that an egg, specifically the yolk, is hazardous to your health. According to the American Heart Association, the recommended limit of dietary cholesterol is 300 milligrams for people with normal LDL (bad) cholesterol levels — and one egg contains 185 milligrams of dietary cholesterol. (If you have a history of high cholesterol or heart disease in your family, though, you may want to consult your doctor about how to limit your cholesterol intake.)

Whole eggs are full of beneficial vitamins and minerals. Whole eggs are a nearly perfect food, with almost every essential vitamin and mineral our bodies need to function. It is one of the few natural food sources of vitamin D and contains 7 grams of high-quality protein. Whole eggs also deliver many of the B vitamins and nutrients — B6, B12, riboflavin, folate, and choline — that, in fact, are believed to help prevent heart disease. The yolk itself contains most of these vitamins and minerals, plus half of its protein. When you eat only the egg whites, you’re missing out on all of these nutritional benefits and are getting only 3.5 grams, or half, of the protein.

It’s all in the preparation. If you’re frying your eggs in saturated-fat-laden butter and serving them with saturated-fat-laden bacon — they will have a negative impact on your cholesterol levels. Instead, heat olive oil on low heat in a cast-iron skillet to cook your egg the healthiest way. When cooking omelets, frittatas, or any other dish that involves a larger quantity of eggs, I like to use a mix of whole eggs with egg whites. The reason is that whole eggs do have a decent amount of fat. So, if you’re cooking something with more than two eggs, I recommend subbing in egg whites for some of the whole eggs.

The Bottom Line: Whole eggs are a power food packed with essential vitamins and minerals our bodies need — a majority of these vitamins and minerals are found in the egg yolk. Eating whole eggs in moderation is not bad for your health, but when making dishes with a large quantity of eggs, try to balance the count of whole eggs and egg whites.

The Best Exercise For Weight Loss

Question:

Why does my online workout program consist of just one day of pure cardio and four days of weight training? Although I love weight training, I've always thought it's the cardio that really helps a woman like me lose the weight. Why so little pure cardio?

Answer:

Okay — I love dispelling this myth. Resistance training when done in circuits with cardio intervals is the best way to lose weight for the following reasons: 1. Resistance training will help burn intramuscular fat and create lean muscle tissue, but you can't build muscle mass unless you are lifting extremely heavy weights and eating more calories than you are burning in a day. Additionally, it is VERY difficult for a woman to gain muscle mass because we simply don't have the testosterone needed to build muscle tissue the way men do. 2. Resistance circuit training burns more calories than straight cardio both during the workout and after. This is because you are getting the benefits of a resistance-training workout and a cardio workout all in one. Additionally, you will burn more calories for up to 24 hours after weight lifting than you would with cardio alone because your body has to work hard to return your muscles to a pre-lactate state (the state before training). Here is what cardio is good for: weight-loss extra credit. In other words, you can only train your muscles so many times in a week without overtraining them, which is counterproductive. Your muscles need adequate rest and recovery time for best results, but you can do as much cardio as you want. I mean, you can't run a marathon every day, but you can jog, bike, use the elliptical machine, or swim pretty much as often as you want.

Why You Should Eat Organic Food

The nation's food supply has been invaded by an army of hormone-disrupting agents. Take your average tomato, which, as designed by nature, is packed with nutrients and cancer-fighting antioxidants. As grown by today's conventional farming methods, the tomato gets sprayed with a host of pesticides, then picked too early because it has to travel thousands of miles to your grocery store, then sprayed with argon gas to make it ripen (since it didn't get the chance on the vine). Suddenly, our tomato is a lot less healthy for us and for the environment.

So, what's the best way to avoid 90 percent of the
chemicals involved in growing food and getting it to market? Eat organic foods instead of conventional ones. The term "organic" applies to farming methods that produce food without pesticides or other chemicals. The idea is that by allowing natural processes and biodiversity to enrich the soil and protect crops from pests, as opposed to relying upon synthetic chemicals or genetically modified seeds, we'll get healthier food and a healthier environment. Here are some of the many benefits of eating organic foods:

Organics help you avoid pesticides and other chemicals. Certified organic foods cannot be grown with synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.

Organics help you avoid scary hormones and antibiotics. To be certified organic, meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products must come from animals that have not been given growth hormones or antibiotics.

Organic fruits and veggies can be more nutritious. Because organic fruits and vegetables can't rely on pesticides, they have to fight off bugs with their own "immune systems," naturally raising their antioxidant levels. Also, conventional farming methods can strip nutrients out of soil over time, so there's a good chance your organic fruits and vegetables came from better-quality, nutrient-rich ground.

You can tell if a fruit or vegetable is organic by looking at the number on the sticker: If it has five digits and starts with 9, the food is organic. If it only has four digits, the food is conventional. (If it has five digits and starts with 8, the food is conventional and genetically modified.) For foods with multiple ingredients, identifying truly organic products becomes trickier, so look for the USDA organic seal. The USDA regulates the claims a food can make about how organic it is.
Here's what the label lingo means:

• "100 percent organic" — All of the ingredients in the food are certified organic. These products can display the USDA organic seal. 
• "Organic" — At least 95 percent of the ingredients are organic. These products can display the USDA organic seal. 
• "Made with organic ingredients" — At least 70 percent of the ingredients are certified organic. The other 30 percent can be anything. These products cannot display the USDA organic seal. 
• "All natural" — This term is not regulated and can mean anything. Don't rely on it.

MYTH: Carbs Are the Enemy

The Truth: You CAN eat carbs — the "good" ones!

Yes, you read that right. You CAN eat carbs and still lose weight! I know that a lot of trendy diets (like Atkins and Paleo) have popped up over the years based on the principle that a high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet is the key to weight loss. I’m here to tell you that is completely false: You don’t have to banish carbs to lose weight. In fact, some may even aid in your weight-loss efforts. Think about it — fruits and vegetables have carbohydrates and they are a couple of the best food groups out there, right? The key is choosing the right carbs to consume. Here are a few other reasons why carbs are NOT the enemy.

Healthy carbs help you feel full. But muffins, cupcakes, french fries, white bread, white rice…? These are the evil carbs. These refined and processed carbohydrates have very little nutritional value and can definitely make you gain weight — which is why it’s about time you replaced them with a healthier version or just eliminated them altogether. Carbohydrates that are 100 percent whole grain and fiber rich help you feel full because they get absorbed slowly into your system and keep your blood sugar balanced. Other healthy carbs that fit the bill? Look to nonstarchy vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains like quinoa (which is technically a seed), oats, wild rice, or triticale (a wheat-rye hybrid).

Our bodies need carbs. Limiting carbs will never work long-term because our bodies crave and need them. Depriving yourself of a major food group is not a manageable weight-loss plan because it wreaks havoc on your metabolism. One study found that women who severely restricted their carbohydrates for three days ended up bingeing on carbs the fourth day — eating 44 percent more calories from carbohydrate foods than they had before they restricted their carb intake. You should have carbs, protein, and fat in every meal, striving for the healthy balance of 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat.

Carbs help to fight disease. People who eat three servings of whole grains a day are 30 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. The right mix of healthy carbs is the best way to control your blood sugar and avoid diabetes. Carbs are al
so the vehicle for many of nature’s disease fighters, like phytochemicals. Without carbs, we’d be sitting ducks for cancer, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, chronic inflammation, and digestive problems.

The Bottom Line: Remember, while you should ditch white flour and white rice from your diet and cut back on refined and processed carbohydrates, it is a mistake to eliminate all carbs. Healthy carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet. Enjoy!