Blog Posts by CSass

Your weight as a number is incredibly fickle - it can rise and fall from day to day, even hour to hour, and shifts in body fat are rarely the culprit. When you step on the scale you're not just measuring muscle and fat. That number also represents the weight of your bones, organs, bodily fluids, glycogen (the form of carbohydrate you stow away in your liver and muscles, which serves as a back-up fuel, like an energy piggy bank) and the waste inside your digestive tract that you haven't yet eliminated. Given all of these variables here are three common reasons you may see a bump up on the scale, even while you're losing body fat:

You Ate a Little Too Much Sodium
Water is attracted to sodium like a magnet, so when you down a little more salt or sodium than usual, you may hang onto extra H20. Two cups of water (16 oz) weighs one pound, so a shift in fluid will have an immediate impact on your weight on the scale.
The Fix: Drink extra water - it may seem counterintuitive but it will help

I've been the sports nutritionist for three professional teams and numerous athletes in my private practice, and whether you head to a 9-5 job each day and work out when you can, or you earn a living exercising, the right nutrition plan is the real key to results. Here are five mistakes that may interfere with getting the most out of your training time:

Drinking a Protein Shake Before a Workout
Protein is digested much slower than carbs, so too much pre-workout can give you stomach cramps and prevent the carbs you need for fuel from getting absorbed and becoming available to your working muscles.
The Fix: Reach for a smaller quantity of protein, along with slow burning carbs pre-workout, and choose higher protein shakes, snacks or meals afterwards.

Exercising on an Empty Stomach
It's physiologically impossible to burn pure body fat - during aerobic exercise you burn a combo of carbs and fat. When carbs aren't readily available, your body is forced to break down its own muscle mass

If you start your day with a bagel, bowl or cereal, or nothing at all you may be setting yourself up for overeating, especially at night. I've seen it dozens of times among my clients, and a new study published in the journal Obesity confirms it - eating breakfast, especially one with a healthy dose of protein, may be the key to controlling your appetite all day long.

The study specifically targeted adolescent breakfast skippers, because roughly 60% of this group misses this meal daily, but the results would likely carry over to adults as well. For three weeks, the teens either continued to skip breakfast or munched on breakfast meals containing cereal and milk (which contained normal quantities of protein) or higher protein options. They also completed appetite and satiety questionnaires and underwent brain scans.

Compared to skipping, both breakfast meals led to reductions in hunger. The scans also showed that the regions of the brain that trigger the desire to eat were less

Americans dine out about five times a week, and when we do we eat more. That may come as no surprise, but even if you're trying to eat healthfully you may unknowingly be downing hundreds of hidden calories. Here are four reasons why:

The Calorie Count May be Based on HALF of the Entrée

Recently before going out to dinner I hopped online to check the digits on my favorite entrée. I was surprised to see that the calorie count was much lower than I suspected, but there was a reason - the number was based on 'one serving' and bingo - the 'servings per dish' listed for my Buddha's Feast was two, not including the rice. That means if I scared down all of my dinner along with half of my brown rice I would actually be ingesting 520 calories rather than the 220 listed at first glance - a hidden 300. Oh, and by the way, that same menu lists five servings in a bowl of wonton soup and four for a lettuce wraps appetizer.

Lesson: don't assume than one portion equals one serving.

If you regularly tune into nutrition news you probably hear and see words like antioxidant and glycemic index often, but do you really know what they mean? Here's a crash course in some of today's top nutrition terms:

Free Radicals
I think of free radicals as nasty little bullies. They are generated in our bodies every day and we build up even more when we're under stress or are exposed to pollutants, like smog and cigarette smoke, and even when we exercise. They are basically oxygen molecules that have become unstable, like a chair with 3 legs. In an attempt to stabilize, they attack healthy cells to steal their electrons - this damages the cell and can lead to premature aging and disease. This process is called oxidation or oxidative stress and the oxidation of "bad" LDL cholesterol creates a domino effect that can lead to heart disease and stroke, which is why you hear so much about free radicals in relation to heart health. You can't totally eliminate free radicals,

The phrase you are what you eat is absolutely true. So if you want to feel well, frisky, fold these five foods into your eating repertoire. Nothing exotic necessary!

Pumpkin Seeds
They're a great source of zinc, which has been shown to boost sex drive by pumping up testosterone. Use them as a garnish for just about any dish, from your morning oatmeal to a garden salad, stir fry, or dessert (try dipping whole strawberries in melted dark chocolate then rolling in roasted pumpkin seeds).

Almonds
Any food that's good for the heart is good for the loins because heart-healthy foods keep arteries clear and boost circulation to allow blood, oxygen and nutrients to flow freely! In addition to heart-healthy fat, one ounce of almonds provides 35 percent of your daily vitamin E needs, another sex hormone booster and powerful antioxidant that prevents arteries from hardening, the top cause of poor blood flow. One ounce (twenty three almonds) makes a perfect portable anytime

According to a recent American Heart Association survey, over 75 percent of the respondents believed that wine is heart healthy, but what about beer? Believe it or not the sudsy stuff is beginning to gain a reputation among health professionals as a beneficial beverage. Here are four guilt-free reasons to pop a few brewskies this summer:

It slashes heart disease risk
All alcoholic beverages, including beer, have been shown to boost HDL, the "good" cholesterol, lower LDL the "bad" cholesterol and thin the blood, to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Moderate alcohol consumption, which is one 12 oz beer a day for women and two for men, has also been linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and improved brain function in older adults.

Beer offers unique benefits compared to wine and spirits
In the Nurses Health Study, over 70,000 women ages 25 to 42 were tracked for the link between alcohol and high blood pressure. The study found that those who drank

In a recent survey only 45% of Americans strongly agree that body weight is an indicator of a healthy diet, and you know what? They're right. In fact, body weight isn't a good indicator of health period. Over the years in my private practice I've worked with many thin, extremely unhealthy clients, and some of the thinnest people I know are the least healthy - smokers with atrocious diets who never exercise and are 'skinny fat,' meaning they have a high body fat percentage even though their weight is low or normal for their height. In a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology researchers found that among more than 15,000 patients, for those with a "normal, healthy" body-mass index (or BMI) who carried excess belly fat, the risk of dying was as great as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day or having very high cholesterol. But those with BMIs in the "overweight" or "obese" category weren't automatically at risk. In reality where you carry your weight and