Bacon and Egg Breakfast Quesadilla

quesedilla

At only 300 calories per serving, this decadent bacon and egg breakfast quesadilla packs a whopping 36 grams of protein, enough to power your whole morning! Compared with restaurant versions, this mouthwatering dish will save you loads of calories, fat and sodium. Homemade never tasted so good.

The-Most-Decadent-Diet-EverGet more recipes like this in Devin Alexander’s book The Most Decadent Diet, and learn the secrets to cooking your favorite dishes in a healthier way. Get your copy here.

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5 Ways to Cope with a Slowing Metabolism

5-Ways-to-Cope-With-Slowing-Metabolism

Most of us, particularly if we struggle with our weight goals, have blamed the dreaded “metabolism” monster: “It’s too slow,” we say. We often target it as a common weight-loss enemy without truly knowing the factors that play into metabolism—and whether or not we can change them.

3 Major Things that Determine Your Metabolism

Metabolism refers to the process of converting the calories you eat into energy to power all of your bodily processes. Your metabolism determines the amount of calories you can eat all day and still maintain your weight. It’s affected by three major things:

  1. Basal metabolic rate (BMR): Tells you the number of calories needed to maintain your body in a rested, fasting state. It’s affected by your gender, age, size, muscle mass, genetics and health-related factors. Your BMR accounts for 60-70% of the total calories you burn each day.
  2. Activity level: Tells you the number of calories you use up during exercise. Your activity level accounts for about 20% of the total calories you burn each day.
  3. Food thermogenesis: Tells you the number of calories you need to digest and absorb your food. It accounts for about 10% of the total calories you burn each day.

Anything that affects the three major things mentioned above would change the amount of calories you need to maintain your body weight. Your basal metabolic rate is adaptable, and it will increase or decrease to provide for your body’s needs. For example:

  • Your metabolism dials up and burns more calories during a fever or infection to help you heal.
  • Your metabolism dials down and burns less calories during a long fast to conserve calories and prevent you from wasting away.

How Aging Affects Metabolism

If you’re a healthy adult, your metabolism is likely a-okay. Instead of blaming thyroid diseases, relatively rare culprits of a slowed metabolism, you should consider how aging slows metabolism—and implement strategies to fight back. Aging happens to everyone, and it’s usually accompanied by a decrease in BMR. Why?

Our BMR is naturally at its highest during childhood and adolescence, mainly because we need the extra calories to grow and mature into adulthood. Once we reach our 20s, this phase is complete and our BMR levels off. The trend here on out is sneaky, steady weight gain over the course of decades. Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed the weight-gain trends of 120,000 participants for up to 20 years. Scientists found that participants gained about 3.4 pounds (1.5 kilograms) each over a four-year period, which translates to a gain of 16.8 pounds (7.6 kilograms) over 20 years.

The biggest issue isn’t so much the weight gain, but the type of weight we tend to gain as we age; most of us tend to lose lean muscle mass and correspondingly replace it with fat. In a typical young adult, lean muscle mass makes up about 50% of total body weight, which declines to about 25% of total body weight when that individual reaches 75-80 years old. Having lower lean muscle mass decreases our BMR since, pound for pound, it takes more energy to maintain muscle compared to fat.

Don’t get me wrong! Having a protective amount of fat is a good thing, especially when we hit an older age, which is why adults aged 65 and older are advised to maintain a BMI between 25 to 27, instead of the 18.5 to 24.9 recommendation for the rest of us. The goal, of course, is to maintain as much lean muscle mass as possible since doing so would…

  • Stop your BMR from declining. It has been shown time and again that BMR naturally decreases as we age. But, if you can maintain or build upon the muscle mass that you have, you’ll have a higher BMR (compared to if you took no action).
  • Preserve your muscles’ ability to propel you through all of life’s activities. Even if you don’t care about your metabolism, aim to maintain and build muscle because this allows you to live your life to the fullest. Muscles are involved in every movement you make, from playing with your child to carrying a load of groceries.

Ways to Combat a Slowing Metabolism

  1. Aim to strength train at least 2-3 times per week (hint, hint: This is the most important tip!). Whether you’re a gal or guy, prioritize weight lifting in your exercise plan. Adding muscle mass increases your BMR, allowing you to burn more calories even when you’re not exercising. If you’re a newbie to strength training, check out So You Want to Start…Strength Training.
  2. Ramp up the intensity of your aerobic exercise (think running, swimming, biking faster). Exercising at higher intensities allows you to reap the benefits of “after burn,” a phenomena where you burn extra calories post-exercise. To benefit from this effect, you should run, jump, dance, swim, bike, etc. at a pace where it’s difficult to talk. If you can push a little harder, then do so.
  3. Eat enough protein from high-quality sources. High-quality protein sources supply amino acids to your muscles post-exercise so that they can repair and grow. To learn more about how to determine your protein needs, check out this Beginner’s Guide to Protein.
  4. Stay well hydrated. Water is important because all of the chemical reactions in your body requires water—including the ones that burn calories. To work on drinking more water each day, check out 20 Lifehacks for Drinking More Water.
  5. Don’t starve yourself in order to lose weight. You need to consume a moderate amount of calories in order to lose weight. If you eat a significantly low amount of calories, you’ll lose weight rapidly but much of it will be from water and muscle loss. Plus, you’ll likely lose hard-earned muscle mass that’s responsible for maintaining a higher BMR.

Do you have a slowing metabolism? How do you cope with it? Share your tips and tricks below.

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4 Weight-Loss Tips Inspired by Ecuador

On the surface, taking your weight-loss cues from Latin America may not seem like the smartest idea — the region has some of the fastest-growing waistlines in the world, and the prevalence of overweight or obese adults in Ecuador, for instance, has significantly increased in recent decades. But there’s a secret there, where weight gain is not one-size-fits-all.

Outside the bustling, fast-developing (and weight-gaining) cities, Ecuadorians in remote regions from the Amazon rain forest to the Galápagos Islands live the healthy life — one from which most Americans can certainly learn to boost their own weight-loss efforts, says Juan Alejandro Neira-Mosquera, PhD, a nutrition researcher with La Universidad Técnica Estatal de Quevedo.

For instance, Neira-Mosquera’s research, published in Nutrición Hospitalaria, shows that Ecuadorians living in the country’s Amazonian region have a significantly lower incidence of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and liver diseases — all of which are linked to obesity. In the United States, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women, contributing to one of every four American deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are four of the best weight-loss tips — straight from Ecuador’s remotest, healthiest and slimmest regions.

1. Dial up your morning and afternoon meals.
Unlike the U.S., where we’re all about oversize dinners, the largest meal in Ecuador is traditionally lunch, says Neira-Mosquera. In terms of calories, the afternoon snack and breakfast follow close behind, and dinner makes a relatively small contribution to daily caloric intake.

That’s how your daily menu should go if you’re trying to lose weight. While breakfast has been linked time and again to reduced hunger and cravings throughout the day, mounting evidence suggests that shifting some of your food intake from the evening to earlier in the day also can be beneficial to your health and weight.

For instance, while research from Northwestern University suggests that eating at night throws off the body’s circadian rhythms to result in weight gain (even if you don’t eat extra calories), the Centre for Obesity Research and Education has found a consistent association between eating the majority of your calories in the first half of the day and a healthier weight.

2. Eat local.
Hitting up farmers markets and restaurants that source locally is about way more than going green. It’s about boosting your nutrition, says Neira-Mosquera. He notes that Amazonian Ecuadorians are known for diets high in chontaduro, a traditional, locally grown fruit, while people in the Galápagos consume a huge number of oranges and fish, the latter making up a large portion of their protein intake.

How can local foods translate to a healthier waistline? Every day your food spends on its journey from its source to your mouth, it loses health-boosting vitamins and minerals, according to a study by Harvard University. That research also notes that mechanical harvesting techniques, which are common on large factory farms, can contribute to early harvesting, unnecessary processing and damage to produce. However, in these Ecuadorian regions, people catch or pick their food and then immediately eat it, ensuring that meals are as fresh as can be.

Eating local probably doesn’t mean eating packaged, processed or refined foods. While these Ecuadorians follow a whole-foods diet, a recent BMJ Journal study found that ultraprocessed foods — like frozen pizza and soda — make up 58% of the calories Americans consume on a daily basis. They’re also responsible for 90% of our added sugar intake. These ultraprocessed foods and added sugar contribute to weight gain, as well as the onset of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer, according to researchers.

By simply skipping the supermarket’s packaged foods for the farmers market, you’ll go a long way toward automatically reducing your intake of refined carbs and trans fats, and eating more whole, nutritious foods.

3. Make movement part of your lifestyle.
Here’s a stat from Neira-Mosquera: “The majority of the population in the Amazon region dedicates itself to fieldwork. All of this physical work allows for the men to eat more than 4,000 calories a day and maintain healthy weights.”

We aren’t recommending eating 4,000 calories per day, and you don’t have to quit your desk job and take up farming to slim down either, but Neira-Mosquera raises a great point. Weight loss isn’t just about the calories that you put into your body. It’s also about how many calories you burn through activity and exercise. And apparently, these Ecuadorians are burning a lot by working in the fields.

That’s because, rather than making exercise something they have to squeeze into their lives, exercise is their lives. So instead of just factoring 30 minutes of structured exercise five days per week, think through ways that you can make the other 23.5 hours more active. After all, research published in The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that women who regularly exercise spent just as much time sitting per day as those who skip the gym.

4. Soak up the sun (but wear sunscreen).
Ecuador means “equator” — it’s one of 13 countries through which the equator passes. That doesn’t just mean balmy weather; it also means Ecuadorians don’t deal with the same vitamin D deficiencies as we do in North America.

Our bodies use UVB rays to manufacture the majority of the vitamin D that’s found in our bloodstreams. In the winter, especially in northern locations, the angle of the sun is so indirect that UVB rays can’t break through the atmosphere for us to make enough D, according to research from the Boston University School of Medicine. Plus, the number of light-filled hours in the day are very limited.

That lack of vitamin D — four in 10 Americans are deficient in D, according to Nutrition Research — has grave health consequences. Low levels increase your risk of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, prediabetes and metabolic syndrome, according to the Endocrine Society.

This summer, you can easily boost your vitamin D levels by spending time outside. And don’t worry about sunscreen blocking out the best parts of those rays — most studies show that while it’s essential for protecting your skin, the recommended amounts of sunscreen don’t actually prevent a healthy amount of vitamin D from entering your bloodstream.

Your doctor can also assess your vitamin D status to determine if your levels are where they need to be or if you need to up your intake of fortified foods (like milk) or consider taking a supplement.

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5 Tips for Simpler, Healthier Family Meals

Simpler-Healthier-Family-Meals

Imagine your perfect family meal: Smiling kids, a variety of healthy foods on the table and clean plates afterward. An easy, hassle-free process from start to finish. It may seem like this ideal meal is just out of reach, but the truth is there’s no one perfect way for a family to eat healthy. All families are different, and our healthy eating styles can — and should — reflect that.

When you’re balancing work, life and kids, healthy eating is sometimes the last thing on your mind. Luckily there are some quick tricks that make it easier to eat healthy as a family. Remember: Healthy eating is all about a variety of foods, especially vegetables, fruit, whole grains, lean protein and reduced-fat dairy. Here are some ways to get the whole family to eat healthier (no drastic lifestyle overhaul required):

  1. Prioritize sit-down meals. Sit down with the family for dinner most days of the week. If you can’t do dinner, try breakfast. Having at least one sit-down meal with your family gives you a chance to bond and teach your kids what healthy choices look like.
  2. Make only one meal. What you make for dinner should be the main option. Encourage your kids to try new, unfamiliar foods — but don’t force it. Doing so only creates a power struggle you will surely lose. Research shows that kids are more likely to accept new foods after multiple exposures and in fun, stress-free environments.
  3. Engage your kids in the cooking process. It’s never too early to develop a love for healthy eating. Sharing the meal-prep process with kids helps them learn how the food is made. They will be more likely to accept new foods (even veggies!) when they are invested in the process. Also, it never hurts to have some extra hands around the kitchen.
  4. Plan ahead for the week. Choose one meal-planning day per week, and stick to it. You can take the kids shopping, then have them help with preparation and serving. Put half of the servings in the freezer so you’ll have quick, healthy meals at the ready later on in the week.
  5. Eat by example. If you want your family to eat well, you have to eat (and enjoy) a range of healthy foods, too. Children are more likely to try new or “yucky” foods if they see parents and siblings enjoying them repeatedly. As a best practice, refrain from expressing dislike or disinterest when trying new foods yourself, especially in front of impressionable family members.

— By Liz Sanders, MPH, RDN

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5-Move Low Impact High Intensity Workout

Low-Impact-High-Intensity-Workout

Get all of the body-shaping benefits of high-intensity training without the impact with this no-equipment-needed workout

High intensity interval training (aka HIIT) is making major headlines lately for all of its incredible benefits, including maximum calorie burn (both during and after a workout), anti-aging effects (did you know it can help boost your body’s natural production of human growth hormone?) and belly-fat-blasting power. There is no doubt that HIIT is a super effective way to work out, but many typical high-intensity moves, like squat thrusts, burpees, tuck jumps, etc., can not only be tough to do, but they can also be tough on the joints too—especially if you have existing conditions or previous injuries. The good news: You don’t have to jump to get your heart rate into the HIIT zone. The following low-impact moves can help you pump up your fat-burning potential without the impact.

The Low Impact HIIT Cardio Circuit

For best results, perform these exercises in a circuit format. Complete each exercise for the recommended time, allowing for 30-60 seconds of rest before moving on to the next move. Do three full rounds of the complete circuit for a full, low-impact cardio session. Depending on how long your rest periods are, this full workout can be completed in approximately 15-20 minutes.

A few training notes:

  • In order to get the full benefits of HIIT, you’ll need to really push your intensity level during the moves.
  • Focus on making your movements as quick as possible, performing as many reps as possible (AMRAP) without losing good form.
  • Aim for maximum effort during the interval (talking should be difficult, and you should need to catch your breath by the time the minute is over).
  • Take 30 seconds, or longer if needed, to catch your breath before moving on to the next exercise.
  • As you become more fit, your recovery time should shrink, and the moves will begin to feel easier, so keep looking for new ways to challenge your intensity level.

Low Impact HIIT Move #1: Single-Leg Running

Reps: AMRAP for 30 seconds on each side

Benefits: Blast fat faster—without the impact on your knees or hips—with this coordination-building cardio move!

How to:

1. Begin in a lunge position, with left foot forward and right arm bent in front of body and left arm back.

single-leg running A

2. Quickly bend right knee in front of hip as right arm swings back, bringing left arm in front.

single-leg running B

3. Repeat as quickly as possible for 30 seconds, then complete on opposite side.

Low Impact HIIT Move #2: No-Jump Jack

Reps: AMRAP for one minute

Benefits: Targets the inner thighs, and provides calorie-burning cardio

How to:

1. Stand with feet together, arms by sides. Take a wide step out to the right as arms swing overhead (similar to a traditional jumping jack).

no jump jack A

2. Step left foot in to right as arms lower by sides.

no jump jack B

3. Repeat quickly for one minute, alternating sides each time.

Low Impact HIIT Move #3: Jump-Free Squat

Reps: AMRAP for one minute

Benefits: Sculpts thighs, glutes, calves and core while building balance and blasting calories

How to:

1. Stand with feet hip-width apart, arms by sides. Bend knees and sit back into hips (as if sitting down on a chair), bringing hands to tops of thighs.

jump free squat A

2. Quickly stand up, rising up on to balls of the feet as arms reach overhead with explosive energy, as if you’re about to jump off the ground.

jump free squat B

3. Repeat as quickly as possible for one minute.

Low Impact HIIT Move #4: Fast Feet

Reps: AMRAP for one minute

Benefits: Builds agility and coordination while firing up the muscles in the thighs and glutes

How to:

1. Stand with feet together, arms by sides. Bend knees and sit back into hips, lowering into a semi-squat position. Quickly step right foot out wider than hip, and then immediately repeat with left foot, swinging arms naturally as feet move.

fast feet A

2. Quickly step right foot back in and then left, continuing to swing arms, staying in semi-squat position.

fast feet B

3. Repeat as quickly as possible (think, “out, out, in, in” to help find a quick rhythm for the movement of the feet) for one minute.

Low Impact HIIT Move #5: Figure 8 Flying Lunge

Reps: AMRAP for one minute

Benefits: This move coordinates upper and lower body movement to target the core muscles while raising your heart rate quickly

How to:

1. Stand with feet wider than hips (about 3 feet apart), with hands clasped and abs drawn in tight. Shift weight into right leg, bending knee and sitting back into hips as arms swing down and across right hip, tracing a circle from back to front.

figure 8 flying lunge A

2. As arms swing up to complete the circle, extend both legs, and bring arms in front of body in preparation to switch sides.

figure 8 flying lunge B

3. Repeat to opposite side, continuing figure-8 pattern of tracing two circles on either side of hips, connecting them in the center.

figure 8 flying lunge C

Repeat as quickly as possible for one minute. The lower you lunge and larger you make the figure-8 pattern while maintaining speed, the more intensive the move becomes.

If you like this workout, or are looking for additional options for low impact HIIT, don’t miss our “30-Minute Low Impact HIIT” session included in our “Walk On: 21 Day Weight Loss Plan” program! It’s the perfect place to get started with HIIT, and the workout includes options to help you advance your intensity level once you get more fit.

Photos by Vanessa Rogers Photography

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The Truth About the Fat-Burn Zone

Truth-About-Fat-Burning-Zone

Heart-rate zones are one the best-known yet least understood aspects of exercise. We’ve all encountered them at some point. And in that, you’ve probably noticed inconsistency around names, number of zones and overall information. What you may not know is that there is no governing body of heart-rate zones. Some folks swear there are three zones, some five and others seven. Others argue it’s based on sport — for example, runners get five zones and cyclists get seven. However, there is one heart-rate zone that pretty much everyone knows, especially those of us who frequent the cardio machines at the gym: the fat-burn zone.

What’s not to like about the fat-burn zone? The name alone makes it sound like the ultimate weight-loss hack. And as far as intensity goes, the fat-burn zone falls relatively low on the toughness scale, meaning it’s an easy zone for most of us to hit. Even better news for those of us looking to burn a little belly fat, right?

Unfortunately, that’s not quite how weight loss and fat burning work. To better understand the misconception of the fat-burn zone, we have to look closer at the relationship between body fat and exercise.

Not All Body Fat Is Created Equal
To understand how to burn that annoying tummy fat, you must first understand there is more than one type of fat. Among others, there are subcutaneous fat stored under the skin (Think: pesky tummy fat) as well as intramuscular fat stored inside of muscles (Think: marbling in a nice cut of steak). Fat stored under the skin functions as insulation and provides cushioning when we fall (seriously!), but it can build up in excess. Meanwhile, fat stored inside muscle is used for energy. Thus, these two types of fat are used in very different ways.

Unfortunately when it comes to the fat-burn zone, you primarily rely on the fat stored in the muscles, especially for workouts lasting less than one hour. So in reality, that cardio session you thought was melting away those annoying love handles really wasn’t.

Does that mean working out is a waste of time? Certainly not, since exercise burns calories, the driving force behind weight loss. The fat-burn zone may not target belly fat explicitly, but the reality is none of the zones do. So what do we do to get rid of excess fat?

A Better Approach to Exercising for Weight Loss
Exercising for fat loss — whether on your belly, back, arms or butt — involves a lot of factors; one of those is burning the optimal amount of calories with each exercise session, not some singular or magical combination of heart-rate zones. A rough rule of thumb is this: The harder you work out, the more calories you burn. For example, a low-intensity 30-minute workout will burn fewer calories than a high-intensity 30-minute workout. Since we all have a finite amount of time we can devote to exercise, in theory we should aim for the hardest zone we can manage every time we exercise. However, this isn’t the best practical approach because working out as hard as possible every day of the week makes us more likely to burn out or get hurt — both of which will work against us in the long run.

A better way to exercise for weight loss is to alternate high-intensity workouts (a 4 or 5 out of 5 on the toughness scale) with more moderate ones (a 2 or 3 out of 5). With this approach, your strategy should be to burn as many calories as possible for the type of workout you’re going for during that exercise period.

The Difference Between Burning Fat and Sugar
At this point you may be asking yourself why we even call it the fat-burn zone if the goal of weight loss (burning fat) is really about calorie burn? Well, because technically you are burning more fat than other fuel sources, like sugar, in the fat-burn zone. It’s just not the type of fat most of us envision melting off.

The Difference Between Burning Fat and Sugar Muscle moves by burning fuel, primarily derived from fat or sugar. Think of these two as a balancing scale. At low exercise intensity, the scale is heavily weighted toward fat, while at high intensity, the scale is heavily weighted toward sugar. There’s a lot more to the story, but, in short, there is only a finite amount of sugar available for energy in your body. As a result, if you’re doing a very long event, you want to exercise at an intensity that maximizes the balance between fat burn and sugar burn. That, in turn, is typically the fat-burn zone.

Key Takeaways
You know the saying — if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. The fat-burn zone gets a lot of hype but often for the wrong reasons. Thus, it is not the life hack we all wish it were. Keep these three points in mind the next time you hit the gym for a cardio workout:

  1. While exercising in the fat-burn zone (Zone 2) may not directly burn the type of fat you want it to burn, technically your body does burns a lot of fat in this zone. However, overall calorie burn occurs at a slower rate.
  2. If your goal is weight loss, instead of focusing on the fat-burn zone, focus on burning the highest number of calories that’s appropriate for each exercise session, keeping in mind this should be a balance of higher-intensity and lower-intensity workouts.
  3. If you participate in extremely long endurance events, you may benefit from exercising in this zone as a way to preserve fuel and maximize endurance.

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Tuna Avocado Egg Salad

Tuna Avocado Egg Salad

Today, we’re featuring Kim’s Cravings‘ recipe for creamy tuna avocado egg salad rolled into a whole-grain wrap.

lee215resizedKim is the healthy living blogger behind Kim’s Cravings, a blog designed to inspire others to make smart choices when it comes to feeding their bodies. Kim enjoys learning about food and creating healthy recipes for her family. For more from Kim, visit her blog and connect with her on FacebookTwitter and Pinterest.

Photo courtesy of Kim Lee. Original recipe published on Kim’s Cravings.

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