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.

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Eat This, Not That!

Source: msn.com/en-ca/health/wellness

Identifying and Treating Inflammation

There are three types of inflammation: acute, chronic and life-threatening.

When basketball star Steph Curry slipped and injured his knee in late April, he reacted by tearing up on the sideline, while fans and media reacted by wondering how many games he would miss. His body? It reacted by inflaming around the outside of the knee, protecting the area as it recovered from a medial collateral ligament sprain.

The word inflammation can conjure up visuals of a swollen, red and throbbing knee or, thanks to some TV ads, a lit match doused by a medicated pad. Conventional public wisdom frames inflammation as being adverse, painful and harmful – something most people want to resolve quickly with medication.

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Treat acute inflammation by managing it, not trying to cure it.

Source: Getty Images

The Role of Diet and Exercise in the Transgenerational Epigenetic Landscape of T2DM

Epigenetic changes are caused by biochemical regulators of gene expression that can be transferred across generations or through cell division. Epigenetic modifications can arise from a variety of environmental exposures including undernutrition, obesity, physical activity, stress and toxins. Transient epigenetic changes across the entire genome can influence metabolic outcomes and might or might not be heritable. These modifications direct and maintain the cell-type specific gene expression state. Transient epigenetic changes can be driven by DNA methylation and histone modification in response to environmental stressors. A detailed understanding of the epigenetic signatures of insulin resistance and the adaptive response to exercise might identify new therapeutic targets that can be further developed to improve insulin sensitivity and prevent obesity. This Review focuses on the current understanding of mechanisms by which lifestyle factors affect the epigenetic landscape in type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. Evidence from the past few years about the potential mechanisms by which diet and exercise affect the epigenome over several generations is discussed.

Key points

• Epigenetic processes have been implicated in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus
• Diet and exercise might affect the epigenome over several generations
• Epigenetic changes can be driven by DNA methylation and histone modification in response to environmental stressors
• Regulation of gene expression by DNA methylation and histone modification occurs by a mechanism that impairs the access of transcriptional machinery to the promoters
• Studying the epigenetic signatures of insulin resistance and the adaptive response to exercise might provide insight into gene–environment networks that control glucose and energy homeostasis.

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Figure 2: Putative effects of exercise and obesity on the predisposition to metabolic diseases.

Source: NatureReviewsEndocrinology

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

Source: Shutterstock