Cutting Calories Won’t Help You Lose Weight, Why ?

So, you’re looking to shed a pound or two. Time to cut back on those pesky calories, right?

Not so fast. According to Michelle Adams-Arent, a sports nutrition consultant and the Director of Science and Education for Metabolic Precision, reducing your food intake might not work like you originally thought. In fact, it might actually backfire.

'Your body is built for survival,' Adams-Arent told Business Insider. 'It doesn’t care what you want to look like.'

The minute you start cutting back on your caloric consumption, your body goes into full-on starvation mode. Translation? Your metabolic rate will actually decrease as your body tries to preserve what little nutrition it has. A lower metabolism means fewer calories burned. What’s more, research even shows burning more calories than you consume over a long period of time can increase your body fat. Not exactly the outcome you were hoping for.

Read more: Cutting Calories Won’t Help You Lose Weight, Why ?

5 Ways to Lose Weight Without Exercise

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Slideshow: The 7 Rules of Counting Calories to Lose Weight !

Source: MSN Health

Spike In Teen Obesity Explained By Decreased Calorie Burn In Puberty

The rise in obesity rates during adolescence may be due to a substantial fall of calories burned during the rapid growth phase of puberty, finds a new study by the University of Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 20 percent of adolescents age 12-19 years are obese in the United States. Obese teenagers are more likely to have prediabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels indicate a high risk for the development of diabetes.

Adolescents who are obese are also at a greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, social and psychological problems, and they are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure.

Read more: Spike In Teen Obesity Explained By Decreased Calorie Burn In Puberty

During puberty, the number of calories girls and boys burn while at rest plummets.

Source: MedicalNewsToday

Science Finds a Super Easy Way to Lose Weight

Even if you order seemingly healthy dishes, your restaurant habit is likely derailing your weight loss efforts.

It’s been a long day, you’re tired, and the last thing you want to do is trudge to the grocery store and slave over the stove to make dinner. But hold up; don’t tell your hubby to meet you at your favorite restaurant just yet—especially if you’re trying to shed weight. According to a new study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, nearly all restaurant entrées carry more calories than you should eat in a single meal. Even worse, a fair number of restaurants manage to load their meals with an entire day's worth of calories!

To come to this stomach-churning discovery, researchers from Tufts University visited both independent and chain restaurants across the country and purchased dozens of popular entrees from gyros and spaghetti to meatballs to burritos.

Read more: Science Finds a Super Easy Way to Lose Weight

Eat This, Not That!

Source: msn.com/en-ca/health/wellness

Wondering why your belly fat won't disappear?

You work hard to lose weight, but the pooch won't budge. Our friends at Shape share some reasons as to why this is happening.

You can work out like a champ, eat virtuously, and get sound sleep but still stay thick around the middle. Blame some newly discovered triggers that undermine your slim-down efforts by making you pack on the belly flab. Take note, and trim down.

Living on a Busy Street

Regular exposure to traffic noise makes you 29 percent more likely to have a bigger waistline, according to findings in Occupational & Environmental Medicine. Other research found that such noise may spike your cortisol, a hormone associated with ab fat. Three suggestions for you: Drown out the noise by playing soothing music (studies revealed that such tunes lower cortisol levels), muffle the clamor with a background- noise machine, or pop in noise-canceling earbuds when you need to focus.

Your Fizzy Drink Habit

Ironically, people who sip the no-cal stuff in an effort to cut calories are actually more likely to gain belly fat. Diet soda drinkers who averaged about a can and a half a day packed 3.2 inches onto their waistlines over the course of nine and a half years, while those drinking fizzy drinks gained less than an inch, a recent study at the University of Texas Health Science Center found. One reason is that artificial sweeteners prevent the brain from registering satiety, thus increasing cravings for sweets, so you end up eating more, says study author Helen Hazuda.

Read more: Wondering why your belly fat won't disappear?

Reasons You Might Not Be Able to Lose Belly Fat

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