Actor Bradley Cooper recently revealed that he gave up eating carbs to reduce his weight for his role in the upcoming movie “A-Team”. Cooper, whose one time girlfriend Renee Zellweger has historically been reported as being much too thin, is set to star in the role of Face. In order to get his body in tip top shape and sculpt his washboard abs, Cooper drastically cut his calories and stopped eating any bread or other carbs.
36-year old Cooper loves sandwiches, and his new diet has proven to be a tough challenge. “When I was shooting The A-Team I couldn’t eat anything, which was a nightmare because I love to eat,” the Daily Express quoted Absolute Radio as saying. He decided to create his own strange and off beat snacks, including a bread-free version of a sandwich.
Gary Taubes, a professional writer and journalist is the author of the critically acclaimed Good Calories, Bad Calories. Now his newest release, Why We Get Fat takes the long-held idea that the reason we get fat is the calories in/calories out hypothesis and debunks it. In essence, Taubes, through scores of research-backed evidence, suggests that it is not the amount of calories per se, but rather the carbohydrates in our diet that are responsible for fat accumulation.
Taubes proposes that in order to lose weight, we need to consume a very low carbohydrate diet. Protein, naturally-occuring fat, like those found in meat, poultry, fish, eggs, avocados and oils as well as leafy green vegetables should comprise the mainstay of our diet. The typical American diet of starchy carbohydrates, grains, sugar, processed food and even high glycemic vegetables and fruit needs to be given the boot if we want to avoid being overweight or obese.
If you’re trying the Atkins Diet this year as part of your weight loss goals or New Years Resolutions, then you’re probably going to start missing carbohydrates pretty soon. As an admitted carb-addict, I could never go for more than a few hours without a tasty piece of bread or something like that, especially in the morning. Bacon and eggs for breakfast once a week sounds nice; bacon and eggs for breakfast every day of the week does not sound like such a good idea to me. Here are some different breakfast ideas that are still Atkins friendly and won’t send your blood sugar levels soaring.
Breakfast #1
Who would have thought it was possible? Pancakes and waffles without all the carbs? Score! Try these Low Carb Pancakes or Low Carb Waffles to see for yourself how tasty low-carb can be. And, of course, you’re going to want to top those pancakes and waffles off with some Low Carb Maple Syrup, aren’t you?
The Atkins Diet is a popular, yet controversial, diet that helps users shed pounds while eating all of the protein they want. What’s the catch? The Atkins diet requires users to eat a low-carb diet, which is not known for long-term effectiveness. However, if your New Years Resolution is to lose weight with the Atkins diet, then you’re going to want to check out all of the Atkins recipes DietsinReview has to offer. You can also take some of the stress of meal-planning out of the way by trying two of our yummy Atkins lunches!
Lunch #1
This lunch is quite tasty and everything can be made the night before to take to work with you. Start by sipping on a frothy Italian Cream Soda (1.4g carbs). Your main entree will be Spinach with Chicken and Apricots (3.7g carbs), which combines the sweetness of fruit with the zing of balsamic vinegar for a taste explosion. For dessert, get to know the tempting step-sister of your traditional brownies, a low-carb version of Blondies (2.3g carbs). This lunch will have a total of 7.4g carbs. If you are allowed 30g carbs every day, this means you will save 2.6g carbs from your lunch meal to use at snack time or dinner time.
In today’s Health section ofThe New York Times, Dr. Abigail Zuger writes what is at first glance a review of Gary Taubes’ Why We Get Fat. Digging deeper, one realizes that Zuger has much more to say than a few comments on Taubes’ book, a shorter and more pointed follow-up to his earlier work, Good Calories Bad Calories. Zuger is crying out against the storm of contradicting nutritional information, which she likens to both a war and a cafeteria food-fight.
Low-carb vs. low fat, Atkins vs. Weight Watchers, it’s a familiar battle not only to those slogging through the literature, but to anyone who’s struggled to find sound advice on what to eat and lose weight. “At this point,” writes Zuger, “all eaters, fat or lean, could be forgiven for slamming the door on all expert dietary input, forever.”
Dr. Zuger goes on to discuss the arguments behind the low carb diet recommended by Why We Get Fat, prefacing the information by saying Taubes’ book is as much a “manifesto” as it a document of science journalism. She playfully worries that Taubes will soon introduce his own line of protein bars.
Anthony Hopkins has slimmed down. Image via The Huffington Post.
You may have noticed that Sir Anthony Hopkins is looking slim these days. Apparently, he’s had to do some serious clothes shopping. “I can’t get back into my wardrobe,” says Hopkins. “I gave it all away to some mission. I tried tailoring the pants but they look ridiculous.”
Now in his 70s, the actor has started going to the gym almost every day—thanks to the encouragement of his wife, Stella Arroyave. “My wife’s no dictator, but she said I must stick to a regimen,” Hopkins told Cindy Adam’s of the New York Post. “So I’m in the gym six days a week, I power walk.”
People have been low carbing it for years to try to slim down. Following the Atkins diet and cutting out breads and pastas can help with weight loss, but a new study released in the Annuals of Internal Medicine shows that it is even more important to be careful with how you replace those calories.
The objective of the study was to examine the association of low carbohydrate diets with mortality during 26 years of follow-up in women and 20 years in men. The participants included more than 85,000 women under the age of 60 and 44,000 men from the ages of 40 to 75 years. The participants were free from heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. The study found that the death rate among people who adhered most closely to a low carb regimen was 12 percent higher over 20 years than with those who consumed diets higher in carbohydrates.
What was interesting was that the rate of death varied based upon the foods the dieter chose to replace the missing carbohydrates with.Those who ate more beans and nuts were 20 percent less likely to die than those who ate a high-carbohydrate diet. But, low carb dieters who ingested the majority of their protein and fat from animal sources, like red and processed meats, were 14 percent more likely to die of heart disease and 28 percent more likely to die of cancer. (more…)
John McGran, chief editor at Diet-to-Go, has been covering the fields of diet, fitness and health since 2000. He writes from the perspective of a dieter rather than a dietitian.
When it comes to slimming down, there are countless diet plans out there, so how does a consumer decide what’s a great diet for long-lasting weight loss?
Well, you don’t jump into the latest, greatest trendy fad diet. Baby food anyone? You also don’t opt for a weight loss plan that isn’t sustainable. Yo-yo dieting (the loss, then regain of weight) is extremely prevalent for a good reason. We try to totally change our eating habits, but end up right back where we started – overweight and unhappy. (more…)
Pamela Ofstein is the Director of Nutrition Services at eDiets.com, a leading provider of weight loss services, information and products.
Snacking can be a great for weight loss and eating healthy. Snacking between meals helps stabilize your blood sugar levels and keep your energy and motivation high – extremely important when it comes to losing weight. For most of us, it’s hard to stay focused on activities when we have no energy!
If you’re looking for low-carb foods, there are so many great snack choices: non-starchy vegetables (broccoli, cucumbers, celery, cauliflower, green beans), low-fat cheese or cottage cheese, nuts (almonds, pecans, cashews), or peanut butter are some options.
While R&B singer Rihanna is known for her slender figure and a cutting edge sense of style, she has made it a point of telling young girls not to fall for the traps of the fashion world and the unrealistic weight expectations that come with it.
“You shouldn’t be pressured into trying to be thin by the fashion industry, because they only want models that are like human mannequins,” says Rihanna. “You have to remember that it’s not practical or possible for an everyday woman to look like that.”
If a new study is correct, women have a new reason to minimize their intake of certain carbohydrates: heart disease. According to the study, women who eat more high glycemic foods, such as white bread, white rice, and other foods that cause blood sugar to spike, are more than twice as likely to develop heart disease than other women. Foods that spike blood sugar are also referred to as high glycemic.
The women in the upper 25th percentile of high glycemic food eating in the study had double the heart attack risk of those in the lower 25th percentile.
The researchers found that men who also eat excessive amounts of high glycemic foods don’t have the same increased risk. It’s thought that maybe men’s bodies process the carbs differently.
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