“According to two National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey’s (NHANES), the prevalence of obesity for adults between the ages of 20 and 74 increased from 15% (1976 – 1980 survey) to 32.9% (2003 – 2004 survey) 1. These same surveys also showed the number of adults considered to be overweight increased from 47% to an astounding 66.2%, with the sharpest swell in overweight and obesity occurring in the 1990’s. Thankfully, there seems to have been a leveling off of obesity rates since 1999, with no significant change between 2003 & 2006 for either men or women 2. However, despite this leveling of obesity rates, 2/3rds of the people in the U.S. remain over weight or obese, and this is unacceptable.”
(Evolution of the Unhealthy American Part 1)

So how did we as a country get so fat? What caused our weigh gain and its inherent health risks? Many self proclaimed experts say, “Americans are eating too much.” Is it just a matter of calories in versus calories out? Is it really as simple as reducing the amount of food we eat, exercising more or both? Are we really eating too much, or is it what we’re eating? Do man-made substances in our food really make a difference in our ability to maintain a healthy weight?

Well, Yahoo Health has put together a list of 20 habits that can add to your bottom line so to speak. Here are 5.

1. Eating low fat. What do low-fat meals replace fats with? Carbohydrates. Remember carbs are non-essential. Meaning, you don’t have to consume them to be healthy. the lower your carb intake, the lower your insulin levels. The lower your insulin levels the less food you store as fat on your body.

2. Drinking soda, even diet soda. Because a 2005 study found that drinking one to two sodas per day increases your chances of being overweight or obese by nearly 33 percent. And diet soda is no better.

3. Skipping meals. A study from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who cut out the morning meal were 4.5 times more likely to be obese. Why? Skipping meals slows your metabolism and boosts your hunger.

4. Watching too much TV. A University of Vermont study found that overweight participants who reduced their TV time by just 50 percent burned an additional 119 calories a day on average.

5. Eating when emotional. A study from the University of Alabama found that emotional eaters—those who admitted eating in response to emotional stress—were 13 times more likely to be overweight or obese.

Men?s Fitness.com has three tips to how you can shed pounds in a quicker amount of time:

1.) TRY CARDIO BETWEEN SETS
Go about your weight workout as normal but instead of resting between sets, perform light cardio such as jumping rope, doing jumping jacks, or hitting a heavy bag for between 60 and 90 seconds.

2.) ALTERNATE INTERVALS
Perform a set and then do some highly intense activity for 15 seconds, followed by a 45-second easy bout for recovery. Then go back to the weights for another set. You can pair your lifting with any kind of cardio ? a treadmill sprint, intervals on an exercise bike, or with a jump rope, etc.

3.) TRY A CIRCUIT
Start with compound movements, followed by isolation lifts. For instance, do a squat, followed by a lunge, hamstring curl, and leg extension. Do not rest until after the last exercise and then rest two to three minutes. You’ll get an awesome pump while burning lots of calories.

To read the entire article, click here.

The most important thing to remember is that your diet must be sound. You can run 100 stairs in between every set on the bench, but if all you?re consuming outside of the gym is fatty, processesed foods, you?re not going to drop the weight.

That said, the article does highlight a couple of nice techniques to try if you?re getting tired of your current routine and can?t seem to lose that stubborn weight. I would warn, however, that if you?re trying to pack on size, continuously doing cardio between sets will zap your strength and therefore gaining muscle will be a challenge. For hard-gainers, resting between sets is the better way to go if you?re trying to bulk up.

For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates are good, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. With seven years of research, Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) ?via their dramatic effect on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation?and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the numbers. There are good calories, and bad ones. Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960’s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then?wrongly?were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

Good Calories Bad Calories is the end of the debate about the foods we consume and their effects on us.

Summer is around the corner, and chances are you aren’t looking or feeling your best. You want to get in shape, but like most you’ve put it off again and again since January.

Bullz-Eye.com fitness editor Mike Furci lists his top 11 tips to look and feel better this summer. Everything on the list is designed to optimize your metabolism and turn you into a fat burning machine.