I usually skip breakfast
Damage done
More than you realise. Missing breakfast can have serious consequences for your weight, your energy levels and even your blood sugar.
Breakfast-skippers tend to weigh more than people who eat breakfast, studies show. Skipping the first meal of the day leaves your metabolism in 'sleep mode' - a thrifty state intended by nature to get your body through 12 hours or more between dinner and the break of day. Munching a piece of toast or crunching a bowl of cereal signals to your metabolism that it's time to gear up by burning more calories. Skipping the fuel keeps your metabolism on low, which can make you gain weight and feel sluggish.
You've also created a strave-now-indulge-later eating pattern. Breakfast-skippers tend to overeat later in the day.
Breakfast-avoiders may also have a higher risk of diabetes - perhaps because they tend to eat fewer whole grains, produce and dairy products.
Can I undo it? Yes
Starting a breakfast routine is easy. And the moment you do, you take a major step towards fixing the problems it has caused, including excess weight and unhealthy blood sugar wings.
Plus benefits
Eating breakfast will result in more stable blood sugar. This means fewer food cravings and hunger pangs later. Because you are refuelling your body early, you'll have more energy in the morning, and you may start to control your weight easier, too.
Repair plan
More than you think. Experts say that this common dieting phenomenon (also known as yoyo dieting or weight cycling), can alter your body composition in frustating and even dangerous ways.
Repeated weight gain and loss lowers the amount of muscle mass you have. This raises your body-fat percentage, lowers your body's ability to regulate blood sugar. All this is a set-up for more weight gain and realted health problems.
Muscle mass declines naturally with age; moving into your later years with a deficit due to weight cycling can leave you even weaker and more prone to balance problems. And if the extra body fat you've gained has settled around your middle, you'll be at higher risk of heart disease
and diabetes. Meanwhile, other researchers have found that yoyo dieters have lower levels of 'good' HDL cholesterol.
If you've followed faddy weight-loss plans - from the grapefruit diet to the low-carb or low-fat crazes - you may also have skimped on important nutrients such as calcium or protein or the cornucopia of vitamins and antioxidants in fruit, veggies and whole grains.
Can I undo it? Yes
Swithching to a consitently healthy diet will end the yoyo weight effect, and adding strength-training to your routine will rebuild muscle mass and get your metabolism back to where it belongs. All this can be achieved within a few months.
Plus benefits
The obvious benefit is a sleeker, stronger, more energetic body - thanks to stregth-training. Exercising will also improve balance and prevent falls. Better nutrition will aid in lowering your risk of heart disease, diabetes and premature death.
Repair plan
I drink a lot of fizzy or other sweetened drinks
Damage done
Surprise! Our panel of doctors rated this as the worst daily food habit of all. But they're right: sipping lots of sugary drinks as well as fruit drinks, sweetened iced teas and other soft drinks is a set-up for weight gain, diabetes, brittle bones and more.
when Harvar School of Public Health researchers looked at the diets and health of tens of thousands of women, they found that those who drank at least one sweetened soft drink a day had twice the risk of type 2 diabetes as women who downed soft drinks less than once a month. The culprit? Extra calories ... and all that sugar. Downing a few hundred excess liquid calories a day seems to be responsible for a hefty weight gain: women who quenched their thrist with water, millk and unsweetened (or diet) drinks gained far less weight, the study found. In a study from Finland, people who drank the most sugary beverages had a 68 percent higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
Think of soft drinks as liquid sweets - a sneaky source of calories that does little to fill you up, but is certain to fill you out. In another study, researchers found that when volunteers drank roughly three cans of fizzy drinks a day - totalling 450 calories - it didn't have any impact
on how much they ate at meals. In contrast, when they munched jelly beans, they automatically ate less throughout the day.
Softdrinks can also weaken your bones, possibly because if you consume a lot of sweet drinks, you're less likely to be drinking bone-protecting, calcium-rich milk, or perhaps because the phosphoric acid in carbonated beverages, especially colas, may be particulary damaging to bone health. In one study, women who had more than three cola drinks a day had 4 percent lower bone mineral density at the hip. Experts suspect that phosphoric acid in colas interferes with natural bone-building in the body, even if you're getting plenty of calcium.
Can I undo it? Yes
You can fix the damage, and you can kick the soft drink habit, but it's harder than you might think. We have programmed our tastebuds to crave sweetness, so weaning ourselves off sugar can be difficult. Like any habit, it takes persistence truly to break it for ever.
Plus benefits
Cutting back on fizzy drinks will result in lower, steadier blood sugar levels, which means a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Eliminating the 150 calroies in each fizzy drink from your diet will help you to lose weight or maintain your weight. And since these drinks can etch
the surface of the teeth, you'll have stronger tooth enamel.
Repair plan
Damage done
More than you realise. Missing breakfast can have serious consequences for your weight, your energy levels and even your blood sugar.
Breakfast-skippers tend to weigh more than people who eat breakfast, studies show. Skipping the first meal of the day leaves your metabolism in 'sleep mode' - a thrifty state intended by nature to get your body through 12 hours or more between dinner and the break of day. Munching a piece of toast or crunching a bowl of cereal signals to your metabolism that it's time to gear up by burning more calories. Skipping the fuel keeps your metabolism on low, which can make you gain weight and feel sluggish.
You've also created a strave-now-indulge-later eating pattern. Breakfast-skippers tend to overeat later in the day.
Breakfast-avoiders may also have a higher risk of diabetes - perhaps because they tend to eat fewer whole grains, produce and dairy products.
Can I undo it? Yes
Starting a breakfast routine is easy. And the moment you do, you take a major step towards fixing the problems it has caused, including excess weight and unhealthy blood sugar wings.
Plus benefits
Eating breakfast will result in more stable blood sugar. This means fewer food cravings and hunger pangs later. Because you are refuelling your body early, you'll have more energy in the morning, and you may start to control your weight easier, too.
Repair plan
- Work with your body Not hungry first thing in the day? Wait an hour or two then have a piece of toast with peanaut better, a bowl of cereal or some fruit, a hard-boiled egg and a glass of milk.
- Eat foods you like Breakfast foods are a marketer's creation, nothing more. There's no rule that says you have to start the day with them. Have a sandwich, a bowl of soup or last night's leftovers, if that is your pleasure.
- No time? Make a portable breakfast sandwich One great combination is peanut butter and banana on whole-wheat. Any kind of protein between two pieces of bread would also work. Bring along a piece of fruit and you're set. If you like milk, add a cup of skimmed milk, poured into a take-away coffee mug with a lid.
- Grab an energy bar and pot of yoghurt Together they contain the perfect amount of nutients and calories to start your day. And both are instantly ready for eating.
- Have a smoothe For the ultimate on-the-go breakfast, whiz low-fat yoghurt, frozen berries, half a banana, a little orange juice and some honey in a blender. (For more volume, add ice cubes before blending.) It tastes like ice cream, butis packed with fibre, calcium, protein and antioxidants.
- Set things up in advance Get breakfast ready the night before, so that you can eat it at the kitchen table in 10 minutes or less. Pour cereal into bowls, lay out cutlery and cups, set up the coffeepot and wash, chop and refrigerate fruit.
EVERYDAY EATINGI keep losing then gaining the same 10 to 20lb
Damage done
Damage done
More than you think. Experts say that this common dieting phenomenon (also known as yoyo dieting or weight cycling), can alter your body composition in frustating and even dangerous ways.
Repeated weight gain and loss lowers the amount of muscle mass you have. This raises your body-fat percentage, lowers your body's ability to regulate blood sugar. All this is a set-up for more weight gain and realted health problems.
Muscle mass declines naturally with age; moving into your later years with a deficit due to weight cycling can leave you even weaker and more prone to balance problems. And if the extra body fat you've gained has settled around your middle, you'll be at higher risk of heart disease
and diabetes. Meanwhile, other researchers have found that yoyo dieters have lower levels of 'good' HDL cholesterol.
If you've followed faddy weight-loss plans - from the grapefruit diet to the low-carb or low-fat crazes - you may also have skimped on important nutrients such as calcium or protein or the cornucopia of vitamins and antioxidants in fruit, veggies and whole grains.
Can I undo it? Yes
Swithching to a consitently healthy diet will end the yoyo weight effect, and adding strength-training to your routine will rebuild muscle mass and get your metabolism back to where it belongs. All this can be achieved within a few months.
Plus benefits
The obvious benefit is a sleeker, stronger, more energetic body - thanks to stregth-training. Exercising will also improve balance and prevent falls. Better nutrition will aid in lowering your risk of heart disease, diabetes and premature death.
Repair plan
- Give up faddy diets It's time to convince yourself once and for all that formal diets don't work. Science shows that short-term regimens or gimmicks to lose weight fast aren't healthy or sustainable. Eat healthy foods in healthy portions, and you'll get to a stable, appropriate weight for your body. Talk to your doctor about what's right for your age and body type.
- Give up your feast-or-famine eating style Instead, plan to have three normal-sized meals a day, and three small snacks, too. Never allow yourself to get very hungry.
- Focus on portion control Most diets fads are built on demonising certain foods or overstating the importance of others. But at the end of the day, only one thing matters for weight - whether you are eating too many calories. So rather than focusing on what's on your plate, learn first to focus on how much is on your plate. Portion control is the best method of all for losing weight. Learn to eat a little less at your meals and the pounds will slowly but permanently disappear.
- Rebuild lost muscle mass Muscle is crucial to long-life living, and if yoyo dieting has weakened you, you have an obligation to yourself to regain strength. To start, try our fitness plans in our 'Move to Feel Good' topic. Do something to challenge your muscles each and every day. EVERYDAY EATING
I drink a lot of fizzy or other sweetened drinks
Damage done
Surprise! Our panel of doctors rated this as the worst daily food habit of all. But they're right: sipping lots of sugary drinks as well as fruit drinks, sweetened iced teas and other soft drinks is a set-up for weight gain, diabetes, brittle bones and more.
when Harvar School of Public Health researchers looked at the diets and health of tens of thousands of women, they found that those who drank at least one sweetened soft drink a day had twice the risk of type 2 diabetes as women who downed soft drinks less than once a month. The culprit? Extra calories ... and all that sugar. Downing a few hundred excess liquid calories a day seems to be responsible for a hefty weight gain: women who quenched their thrist with water, millk and unsweetened (or diet) drinks gained far less weight, the study found. In a study from Finland, people who drank the most sugary beverages had a 68 percent higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
Think of soft drinks as liquid sweets - a sneaky source of calories that does little to fill you up, but is certain to fill you out. In another study, researchers found that when volunteers drank roughly three cans of fizzy drinks a day - totalling 450 calories - it didn't have any impact
on how much they ate at meals. In contrast, when they munched jelly beans, they automatically ate less throughout the day.
Softdrinks can also weaken your bones, possibly because if you consume a lot of sweet drinks, you're less likely to be drinking bone-protecting, calcium-rich milk, or perhaps because the phosphoric acid in carbonated beverages, especially colas, may be particulary damaging to bone health. In one study, women who had more than three cola drinks a day had 4 percent lower bone mineral density at the hip. Experts suspect that phosphoric acid in colas interferes with natural bone-building in the body, even if you're getting plenty of calcium.
Can I undo it? Yes
You can fix the damage, and you can kick the soft drink habit, but it's harder than you might think. We have programmed our tastebuds to crave sweetness, so weaning ourselves off sugar can be difficult. Like any habit, it takes persistence truly to break it for ever.
Plus benefits
Cutting back on fizzy drinks will result in lower, steadier blood sugar levels, which means a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Eliminating the 150 calroies in each fizzy drink from your diet will help you to lose weight or maintain your weight. And since these drinks can etch
the surface of the teeth, you'll have stronger tooth enamel.
Repair plan
- Quench thrist with water Treat fizzy and sweetened fruit drinks strictly as snacks. For thrist, drink water.
- Carry water with you Start the day with a large bottle of cold water, and constantly refill it as the day goes by. You'll find that it is a very effective way to cut back on sugary drinks.
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