8 reasons carbs help you lose weight

by Health.com, on Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:14pm PST

Eating a diet packed with the right kind of carbs is the little-known secret to getting and staying slim for life.

When we talk about the right kind of carbs, we mean Resistant Starch. Hundreds of studies conducted at respected universities and research centers have shown Resistant Starch—such as grains, beans, and legumes—helps you eat less, burn more calories, feel more energized and less stressed, and lower cholesterol.

Sound too good to be true? Here are eight evidence-based reasons you must get carbs back in your life if you are ever to achieve that coveted sleek, slim look.

Eating carbs makes you thin for life
A recent multi-center study found that the slimmest people also ate the most carbs, and the chubbiest ate the least. The researchers concluded that your odds of getting and staying slim are best when carbs make up to 64% of your total daily caloric intake, or 361 grams.

That's the equivalent of several stuffed baked potatoes (a food we bet you've been afraid to eat for decades).

Most low-carb diets limit you to fewer than 30% of total calories from carbs and sometimes contain as few as 30 grams of carbohydrates a day.

Health.com: 10 fat-burning carbs

Carbs fill you up
Many carb-filled foods act as powerful appetite suppressants. They're even more filling than protein or fat. These special carbs fill you up because they are digested more slowly than other types of foods, triggering a sensation of fullness in both your brain and your belly.

Research done at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom found that consuming Resistant Starch in one meal caused study participants to consume 10% fewer calories (roughly 150 to 200 calories for the average woman) during the next day, because they felt less hungry.

Carbs curb your hunger
According to researchers, when dieters are taken off a low-carb diet and shifted them to an approach that includes generous amounts of fiber and Resistant Starch foods, something wonderful happens: Within two days, the dieters' cravings go away.

The fiber and Resistant Starch fills them up and satisfies them while allowing them to eat the foods they crave. These good-news carbs also raise levels of satiety hormones that tell the brain to flip a switch that stifles hunger and turns up metabolism.

Health.com: 4 hearty whole-grain recipes

Carbs control blood sugar and diabetes
The right mix of carbs is the best way to control blood sugar and keep diabetes at bay. In one study at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Center at the USDA, participants who consumed a diet rich in high Resistant Starch foods were able to lower their post-meal blood sugar and insulin response by up to 38%.

Eat the carbs you want, but you need to combine them so that they don't cause a spike in your blood sugar. Instead of eating white rice, switch to brown and combine it with beans, corn, or other high Resistant Starch foods that keep your blood sugar more balanced than low-carb diets.

Carbs speed up metabolism
Carbs high in Resistant Starch speed up your metabolism and your body's other natural fat burners. As Resistant Starch moves though your digestive system, it releases fatty acids that encourage fat burning, especially in your belly.

These fatty acids help preserve muscle mass—and that stokes your metabolism, helping you lose weight faster. Researchers set out to fatten up two groups of rats, feeding one group food that was low in Resistant Starch.

A second group was fed Resistant Starch-packed food. The rats fed the low Resistant Starch chow gained fat while losing muscle mass. Rats that ate the high Resistant Starch meals preserved their muscle mass, keeping their metabolism moving.

Health.com: 30 new metabolism boosters

Carbs blast belly fat
Carbs help you lose your belly fat faster than other foods, even when the same number of calories are consumed.

When scientists fed rats a diet rich in Resistant Starch, it increased the activity of fat-burning enzymes and decreased the activity of fat-storing enzymes. This means that the belly-fat cells were less likely to soak up and store calories as fat.

Health.com: Blast belly fat fast

Carbs keep you satisfied
Carbs keep you satisfied longer than other foods. Here's why: Your brain acts like a computerized fuel gauge that directs you to fill up whenever it notices that its gas tank (stomach) is empty

Foods high in Resistant Starch flip on every single fullness trigger in the body. They release fullness hormones in the intestine and make your cells more sensitive to insulin.

By increasing your consumption of filling foods and releasing satiety hormones, you'll minimize your hunger and cravings.

Carbs make you feel good about you!
"Dieters feel so empowered once they lose weight on carbs. For the first time, they are able to lose weight by eating in a balanced manner, without cutting out entire food groups," says Sari Greaves, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

The only 5 diet rules you need

by The Editors of Prevention, on Mon Dec 20, 2010 8:17am PST

Lots of diets work for lots of people—the key is to find what works best for you. But if you’re not sure where to begin, these 5 science-proven tips (that are easy to fit into any lifestyle) will get you started:

1. Snack on almonds
When salty cravings strike, bypass the pretzels or popcorn. In a study of 65 men and women who were following a low-calorie diet, California researchers found that those who noshed on the nuts shrank their waistlines nearly 50% more than dieters who didn't eat them, despite consuming the same number of calories. Likewise, Spanish researchers found that even without increasing exercise, a diet enriched with monounsaturated fatty acids (aka MUFAs, found in foods such as almonds and avocados) decreased the accumulation of abdominal fat, compared with a carbohydrate-heavy diet, which increased it.

Top 10 MUFA’s for flatter abs

2. Fill up on fiber
"When you slow digestion, you slow the delivery of glucose [blood sugar] to the bloodstream," says Marie Savard, MD, author of The Body Shape Solution to Weight Loss and Wellness. "That means less insulin is released, and with lower insulin release comes lower visceral [belly] fat storage." In a study of more than 2,900 adults, those who ate the most fiber weighed less and had lower insulin levels and slimmer waistlines than those who ate the least. Aim for at least 25 g a day from such foods as vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, brown rice, and whole grain bread, cereal, and pasta.

Delicious high fiber foods

3. Stay satisfied with protein
Gram for gram, protein has the same number of calories as carbs (and half that of fat), but takes longer to digest, so you feel full longer. It also seems to help lower levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is known to stimulate appetite. In a Danish study of 60 men and women, those following a diet that included 25% of calories from protein lost nearly twice as much fat after 6 months than those eating a diet with 12% protein. Include a serving of lean protein with each meal and snack—eggs for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch, low-fat or fat-free yogurt or milk for a snack, and grilled fish and vegetables for dinner.

30-minute chicken dishes that satisfy

4. Skip the sweetener
In a 5-week study by Purdue University researchers, rats given unlimited access to artificially sweetened yogurt consumed more calories, gained more weight, and packed on more fat than those that ate sugar-sweetened yogurt. Researchers believe artificial sweeteners may hinder your body's ability to regulate calories based on taste, so you end up overeating. Go with a little bit of natural sweetener, such as raw sugar or honey, instead.

Feast on high-energy foods

5. Dump one high-cal item from your diet
Exercise works best when you don't offset your hard work with empty calories. By eliminating just one high-calorie item from your daily diet, such as a large latte, or substituting cereal and low-fat milk for a bagel and cream cheese, you can easily reduce your intake by 250 calories.

Slim is simple – eat 400 calorie meals

Kettlebell Basics with Steve Cotter

Kettlebell exercise: Basic drills

From HCG Diets to Shake Weights: Fitness Trends in Review

By Heather Hawkins, CPT, FNC-NESTA
Dec 01, 2010

From tapeworms and Thighmasters to fad diets and blubber-shaking machinery, the only sure thing in the fitness world is that there will always be a new trend claiming to be the secret to quick and easy weightloss or eternal youth. Often, these fads make unrealistic promises or are downright unhealthy. Sometimes, though, trends bubble up for a reason—because they work. Here’s a look at five current fitness trends and my suggestions as to whether you should “hit it” or “quit it.”

HCG Diet: Fad diets are a dime a dozen. All the ones that “work” use the same trick: They have some loosely-tested medical theory that distracts you from the fact that you are just doing good old calorie cutting. This is true of most low-carb and non-medically-indicated gluten-free diets, and it’s certainly true with the HCG diet. In its truest form, the HCG diet requires daily injections of a hormone found in pregnant women that is supposed to help release fat stores. Of course, the internet has sprung up with sites offering to sell you HCG in pill form. But HCG is not active in an oral form, so the pills you find on the internet are pure placebos. In either case, the HCG is more or less a red herring anyway. The real way the HCG diet “works”—you are only allowed 500 calories per day! Yes, you read that right—500 calories. Of course you are going to lose weight in the short-term, but a 500-calorie diet is something one should never undertake without the strictest of doctor’s supervision.

The Verdict: Quit It. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn by creating a sustainable deficit, which can be done by anyone, anywhere, for free! If you must, you can take a few twenty-dollar bills out of your wallet and flush them down the toilet for motivation, which would be better than spending your hard-earned cash on this internet gimmick.

P90X: The saying goes, “At any given time, there is an episode of I Love Lucy playing somewhere in the world.” I think the same is probably true of the P90X infomercial—possibly twofold. The parade of jaw-dropping transformations and well-oiled “after shots” just reek of scam. But, you know what…? The hype machine of the infomercial doesn’t change the fact that P90X is a really solid, well-rounded, old-school weight and cardio program that will deliver great results to anyone who has the dedication to push themselves through the workouts and, most importantly, reel in their diet. It delivers the same kind of solid workout experience you can get from taking several classes at a gym, which makes it ideal for parents and people who like the flexibility of working out at home. (One caveat: If you are a woman looking to lose weight, it’s likely the nutrition guide that comes with the program will suggest far too many calories. Here are some suggestions for alterations.)

The Verdict: Hit it! Just don’t expect that something magical will happen when the UPS man delivers the package to your door. As with any workout program, you’ll need the commitment to hit the workouts hard and change your diet to see results.

Shake Weight: Due to a so-bad-it's-good advertising campaign, the Shake Weight has become a viral video darling and even landed a starring role on an episode of South Park. But, is it any good as a workout tool? Hardly. I purchased the Shake Weight in the “for men” size and ran through the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it enclosed workout DVD. For starters, I can think of very little that would actually “get you ripped in only 6 minutes per day” aside from deadlifting a small SUV repeatedly. And, while I did have difficulty shaking the weight for the specified period, I’m chalking that up to a slippery handle and biomechanically-shaky moves. I felt no delayed muscle soreness that would indicate that the workout had done anything different from my usual weight regime. Plus, it works only three muscle groups, and there’s certainly not enough weight involved in any case to “get you ripped.” In fact, I’d argue good ole pushups, dips, and pull-ups would do a much better job of that than this noisy gizmo.

The Verdict: Quit It. Spend your thirty bucks on a pair of 20-pound dumbbells that you can use for curls, presses, squats, and lunges to get a full-body workout. Bonus tip: If you want to get the whole Shake Weight experience with your dumbbells, just stop your curl or press mid-way through the rep and do micropulses or hold the isometric contraction for 30 seconds. Oh, and make funny faces. That’s the important part.

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training): High Intensity Interval Training is the talk of the gym, promising to burn the most calories in the least amount of time and elevating post-exercise calorie burn for up to 24 hours after the session. HIIT is a great addition to most workout programs, and all these claims are backed by solid research, but here’s the thing—most people don’t do HIIT right. It’s more than just hitting the “interval” button on the elliptical while reading the latest copy of Cosmo. A true HIIT workout session involves a warm-up followed by one minute of all-out intensity and one minute of recovery, repeated no more than 10 times, and followed by a cool down. To be true HIIT, the all-out bursts must be can’t-go-for-a-second-longer intervals, and at the end of the 20-30 minute session you should be absolutely beat.

The Verdict: Hit it! High Intensity Interval Training is a great way to get the most out of your workout time. Remember, though, that a true HIIT will leave you utterly depleted and require proper recovery, so don’t do this kind of workout on back-to-back days. Also, don’t put too much weight on the promise of increased post-exercise burn—any workout program will do this. Just focus on blasting through those calories in the workout timeframe and consider any additional benefits as gravy. I tell my clients: With HIIT, if you don’t feel like a flailing fool in the gym, you probably aren’t doing it right.

High-Antioxidant Drinks and Supplements (Acai Berry, Pomegranate, etc.): It seems that anti-oxidants have been added to so many products these days, promising everything from better heart health to eternal youth. Notably, the beverage aisle is jam-packed with high-antioxidant drinks, but most of these drinks are nothing more than expensive fruit punch, with little to offer than massive quantities of sugar and some vitamins tossed in to make for better marketing. Yes, a diet sufficiently high in anti-oxidants is important for good health, but a well-rounded diet full of multi-colored foods will not only provide you more than enough vitamins and minerals, it will contain other important phytonutrients and fiber naturally. I am always wary of artificially adding nutrients to our food outside the ratio of what you’d find in a healthy, well-balanced diet. There is even some evidence that too many anti-oxidants might reduce the positive adaptations to exercise.

The Verdict: Quit it! Don’t reach for a pricy, sugary, calorie-bomb just because it claims to have anti-oxidants or other health benefits. If you are eating a well-rounded, colorful diet, you are probably doing fine on the anti-oxidant front. Try as we might, we really can’t improve on water for drinking.

If you’ve got a fitness trend you’d like me to investigate, drop me a note.

Extreme Fitness: Calorie-Torching Workouts

Don't plan on reading a magazine while you do these workouts. You're entering a no-slacking zone.

By Annabelle Robertson
WebMD Feature

Looking to blast calories? Get ready -- it's going to be intense.

"It’s got to be high intensity, whatever the workout is, if you’re going to torch calories -- not just burn them,” says Bret Emery, a behavioral psychologist and weight loss specialist based in Weston, Fla. “Heart rate is key. That’s the speedometer of the body. If we speed the body up, it will burn more calories, just as a car will burn more fuel if it speeds up.”

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Also, you need to mix up your workouts so they stay challenging. This will help keep your heart rate up, and force your body to burn more calories, Weston says.

The following workouts will zap calories, but they’ll also push your body way past your comfort zone. So check with your doctor before taking on the challenge. Don't just tell your doctor you want to work out -- let him or her know exactly what you're planning to do. That way, your doctor can make sure you're ready.

If you're not active now, remember that it is better to ease into exercise in order to help prevent injury. Even though you may want to go all-out immediately, it's wiser not to.

Interval Workout

Interval training is all about challenge and recovery -- over and over -- for a cardio blast.

You can do intervals many different ways -- running, on any sort of cardio equipment, or in a pool.

This particular workout -- which comes from Michael Banks, certified personal trainer and owner of Body by Banks Corporation in Salt Lake City -- uses a treadmill. If you're already fit, you can add dumbbells for an extra challenge.

1. Warm Up: On the treadmill, with the incline set at a challenging angle, power walk at a speed of 3-3.5 for 7 minutes. Keep your elbows up above your heart. Stop, get off the treadmill, and stretch.

2. Sprint: Drop the incline to 0, increase the treadmill speed, and sprint hard for 30 seconds. Aim for 90% of your maximum heart rate. To recover, bring your speed down to 3.0 and walk for one minute.

3. Squats: Get off the treadmill and squat, with your bottom out to the rear and your legs slightly apart. Then jump from the squatting position into the air, landing in the same squat position as before. Do this for one set of 15 or 20, working your quadriceps. If you’re already in good shape, hold dumbbells by your sides.

4. Overhead Presses: Do 15 or 20 overhead presses with the weights, pushing them straight up and directly over your shoulders.

5. Sprint: Get back on the treadmill and sprint for 30 seconds (no incline). The goal is to be at 80% of your maximum heart rate. To recover, decrease your speed to 3.0 and walk for one minute.

6. Tricep Extensions: Using dumbbells, do one set of 15 or 20 overhead tricep extensions. Your elbows should point toward the ceiling, with the weights behind your head. Lift the weights directly above your head and back down again.

7. Pushups. Do one set of 15 push-ups, with your elbows at a 90-degree angle from the body. Modification: Do the push-ups with your knees on the ground, but do 25 instead of 15.

8. Sprint: Back to the treadmill. Sprint for 1 minute, aiming for 70% of your maximum heart rate. To recover, jog for 90 seconds.

9. Jumping Jacks. Do one set of 15 or 20 jumping jacks. If you're strong enough, add two 10- or 15-pound dumbbells -- lift up the weights when you jump out, in an overhead press position, pulling them back down to shoulder height as your legs go back together.

10. Finale: Incline your treadmill to an angle that really challenges you -- but don't hang onto the treadmill's rails. Walk at a 2.0-3.5 speed for 30 seconds, aiming for 60% of your maximum heart rate. To recover, bring the treadmill down to a 1.0 incline and drop your speed to 1.9 or 2.0 for a 1-minute walk. Finish by stretching.

Quick CrossFit Series

CrossFit workouts are about getting maximum effort in minimum time.

The following exercises come from Doug Katona, co-founder and owner of CrossFit Endurance in Newport Beach, Calif. They can be done on their own, all together, or in any combination.

30-90s

1. Warm up for 10-12 minutes, finishing the warm-up at 75% of your maximum heart rate or at 7.5 on the perceived exertion scale, in which 0 is no effort and 10 is your max.
2. Choose any type of cardio. Do it at your maximum effort for 30 seconds.
3. Stop and recover for 2 minutes, or for 90 seconds if you're already in good condition. Do not shortchange the rest period.
4. Do this up to three times.

Body Weight Blast

As fast as you can, do 10 squats, 10 push-ups, and 10 full sit-ups. Then do nine reps of each. Then eight, seven, six, and so forth, until you reach one rep of each exercise. Rest as little as possible between sets. Record your time and try to improve each week.

100 Burpees

If you only have a little time, try to do 100 burpees. Or, if that's too much, start with 25, then move to 50, then to 75, until you can do 100.

Begin in a squat position with your hands on the floor, in front.

• Kick back your feet to a push-up position.
• Return your feet to the squat position.
• Jump from the squat position into the air, straight above you.
• Repeat, moving as fast as possible

Don't overlook the rowing machine and stationary bikes in your gym. You may be sitting down, but you'll be sweating when you try this workout from Scott Nohejl, coach and program director of The Chatham Area Rowing Association in Savannah, Ga.

1. Row or bike for a minute.
2. Sprawl with push-up. Run in place, with your feet just coming off the ground, for a count of five. Lower yourself onto your hands, jump your legs backward to a push-up position. Do one push-up, then bring the legs back, tucking them in. Stand and repeat for 1 minute.
3. Squats. With hands on top of your head, squat so your knees are at 90 degrees -- make sure they do not go past your toes -- and then stand up. Repeat for 1 minute.
4. Side jumps. With feet together, toes pointed forward, jump from side to side for 1 minute.
5. Rest for 5 minutes.
6. Row or bike for 1 minute.
7. Scissor jumps. With one leg in front and the other in back, jump and "scissor" your legs before landing. Do this for 1 minute.
8. Sumo jumps. Squat down, then jump, bringing your feet slightly off the ground. Do this for 1 minute.
9. Jumping jacks. Do these for 1 minute.

Repeat the full set four times, nonstop, for a 16-minute workout. Cool down, and then stretch.

Swimming

The pool isn’t just for cooling off. It’s also a great way to heat up your metabolism -- and burn a maximum number of calories.

Craig Keller, chair of the U.S. Masters Swimming Coaches Committee and head coach of the Asphalt Green Masters Swim Team in New York City, offers several workouts for swimmers, including two that will work well for people with injuries.

If you like distance, begin with two 500-yard (or meter) freestyle swims on intervals of 6.5 minutes. The quicker you finish, the more time you’ll have to rest. Then swim at an easy pace for two minutes.

Follow that with two 400-yard freestyle swims on a 5.5-minute interval, and another easy, two-minute swim. Finish with two 300-yard swims on 4.5-minute intervals.

Sprinters may prefer this workout:

1. Do 20 freestyle lengths (25 yards) with five seconds of rest in between lengths. Recover with a 100-yard swim of your choice, at an easy pace.
2. Do 16 25-yard swims of your choice with 10 seconds of rest, followed by another slow-paced 100-yard swim of your choice.
3. Next, do 12 25-yard freestyle lengths with 15 seconds of rest between each. Recover with a 100-yard swim.
4. End with 8 25-yard Freestyle lengths, resting for 20 seconds between lengths.

Got a leg or hip injury? Just grab a buoy and do a “pull swim” instead.

This workout consists of three rounds of four 200-yard freestyle swims. For the first, put the buoy between your ankles and pull the four 200-yard swims on 3-minute intervals. For the second round, remove the buoy and swim, dragging your legs. Do these 200-yard swims on 2.75-minute intervals. For the final round, place the buoy between your legs and pull on 2.5-minute intervals.

If your arms or shoulders are hurting - or you simply want to work your legs - use a kickboard and do two sets of four 100-yard swims, with 20 seconds of rest between each.

For the first 100 yards, kick hard for the first 25 yards, then go easy for the remaining 75 yards. For the second 100 yards, kick hard for 50 and easy for 50. Kick hard for 75 yards, then easy for 25 on the third one. And for the last one, go all out. Repeat the set.

More Calorie Burners

There are lots of other great options for burning calories through exercise. Here are some:

• Playing basketball
• Running
• Jumping rope
• Cross-country skiing
• Taking an aerobics class
• Spinning (stationary bike class)
• Dancing (the faster you dance, the more calories you'll burn)

Exactly how many calories you burn depends on your weight - and how intensely you do the exercise.

SELF 7 Foods that Speed Weight Loss

By Lucy Danziger, the Editor-in-Chief of SELF magazine
Nov 24, 2010

Leftover Halloween candy, Thanksgiving dinner, holiday sweets—with so much delicious food floating around this time of year, who wants to think about dieting? Not me! Trouble is, this is exactly the time of year we undo all that hard work we did to get fit last spring and summer: Americans gain (on average) a pound during the holidays each year, according to the National Institutes of Health—which may not seem like a lot, except we also tend to hang on to those yearly pounds, and they can add up (10 pounds in a decade!). Here's the good news: Enjoying more of certain foods and drinks can actually help speed weight loss by boosting metabolism! And we're not just talking about celery and carrots (although those are good). Cheese, at least in small doses, could help fend off holiday heaviness—not to mention make your taste buds very happy. Try adding a few of these satisfying fat-burning snacks and sips to your daily intake and enjoy season's eatings without the stubborn pounds!

Weight loss food: cheese

Women who ate an ounce of full-fat cheese (picture a wedge about the size of your thumb) daily gained fewer pounds over time than their less-cheesy peers, a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows. Whole dairy contains conjugated linoleic acid, which may stoke your metabolism. One low-cal wonder: full-fat ricotta. It weighs in at a scant 49 calories and 4 g fat (2 g saturated) per ounce and has the lowest amount of sodium of any cheese out there. For a decadent-tasting dish, toss ricotta with pasta and fresh herbs or stir it into jarred tomato sauce for a flavor upgrade.

Weight loss food: almonds

These are my favorite go-to snack—I carry almonds with me almost everywhere I go (car, purse) in case of a hunger emergency. I rely on them so much to tide me over between meals, so it's a good thing they have built-in fat-burning power: Dieters who ate 3 ounces of these nuts every day—that's about 12 almonds—reduced their weight and body-mass index by a solid 18 percent compared with an 11 percent drop in the no-nut group, a study in the International Journal of Obesity finds. You eat less bread at the lunch table when you're not famished, and almonds are high in alpha-linolenic acid, which can actually speed the metabolism of fats.

Weight loss food: coffee

The caffeine in 1 cup of joe temporarily revs metabolism by up to 15 percent, torching an extra 15 to 25 calories on average, says Paul Arciero, Ph.D., associate professor of exercise science at Skidmore College. Researchers don't know whether drinking more delivers a bigger boon (for those of us who drink plenty all day, there may be even more reasons to love our java!), but for the most benefit, order yours black; sugar and milk reverse the fat-scorching effects.

Weight loss food: peppers

A compound in chile peppers called capsaicin—the stuff that gives peppers their kick—could help you burn up to 100 extra calories a day, according to research presented at the Experimental Biology meeting in Anaheim, California. Experts suspect that capsaicin binds to nerve receptors and sends fat-burning signals to the brain. Don't like super spicy peppers such as habaneros or jalapeos? Go for a milder version like poblanos; research suggests you don't have to embrace hot-spicy cuisine to get capsaicin's metabolism-boosting benefits.

Weight loss food: green tea

Sipping three cups of green tea a day may kick up your metabolism enough to erase 30 calories daily, a study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise shows. Experts attribute the benefit to a compound called ECGC, and that extra burn can help you shed about 3 pounds a year! Not everyone loves the flavor of green tea, so if you find it too bitter, try a brew that's naturally sweetened, such as The Republic of Tea's Honey Ginseng or Ginger Peach Green Tea.

Weight loss food: eggs

The amino acids in egg whites help build lean muscle that may in turn help rev metabolism. Scramble up a few for breakfast and top with shredded cheese—remember, it's a fat-burner, too! Another good reason to have eggs first thing: Consuming a high-fat morning meal was shown to help mice burn more fat than those that ate a carb-rich breakfast, a study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham finds. The researchers say that eating a little fat early may shift your circadian clock to help you burn more body fat all day long.

Weight loss food: portobello mushrooms

These 'shrooms deliver copper and pantothenic acid, which help keep your metabolism humming. Bonus: Portobellos are also high in potassium, a mineral shown to help shuttle salt out of your body to beat belly bloat. Throw a mushroom kabob on the grill (or make them into a true veggie burger), or whip up this healthy take on classic eggs Benedict for a yummy fat-burning brunch dish.

Grilled Portobello Benedict

Serves 4

Vegetable oil cooking spray

4 portobello mushroom caps (about 4 oz each)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp salt (plus more to taste)

4 slices Canadian bacon

4 large whole eggs

4 large egg whites

Freshly ground black pepper

4 tsp prepared basil pesto

8 fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons

4 tsp freshly grated Parmesan

Coat a grill or grill pan with cooking spray. With a spoon, gently scrape out the dark inside of each mushroom cap, being careful not to break cap. Brush both sides of caps with oil and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt. Grill mushrooms over medium-high heat until juices begin to release, about 7 minutes per side. Transfer each mushroom to a plate, top side down. On same grill or grill pan, cook bacon over medium-high heat until warm, about 30 seconds per side. Place 1 slice bacon onto each mushroom cap. Whisk eggs, egg whites and 2 tbsp water until well combined in a bowl. Coat a medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-low heat. Add eggs and scramble until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Divide eggs among mushroom caps. Drizzle 1 tsp pesto over each; top with basil and 1 tsp Parmesan.

THE DISH 240 calories per serving, 14 g fat (3.5 saturated), 7 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 20 g protein