5 Reasons You Can't Lose Weight

Libby Weaver is the health expert Hugh Jackman called "a one stop shop" for well-being. In her new book, she reveals the underlying factors that sabotage weight loss.

When Libby Weaver was studying dietetics and later biochemistry at the University of Sydney in Australia it was the late 90s and the prevailing wisdom on weight gain and loss was calories in, calories out. Then she started practicing in the real world and found clients running marathons or calorie counting obsessively would be gaining rather than losing weight. 13 years and hundreds of clients later the woman Hugh Jackman called ‘a one-stop shop in achieving and maintaining ultimate health and wellbeing’ is convinced there are lesser known but powerful reasons people can’t lose weight. Read more

4 Ways French Women Stay Thin (without the Gym)

There's nothing wrong with lifting weights or doing aerobics, but some women just don't like going to the gym to do their workouts. Does that mean they're doomed to a life of creeping weight gain and poor health? Not at all. French women are famous for their svelte figures, but they don't get them from working out at the gym. Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don’t Get Fat, reveals four ways French women stay thin (without the gym).

From the 15th floor windows of my New York City apartment, I have a clear view of a big and many windowed "health center," (aka a four-story gym complex). September is one of the gym’s busiest months. Right after Labor Day, active women, who I hope are incorporating daily outdoor activities with a seasonal summer flavor into their daily routines, flock indoors to the gym and an artificial routine of treadmills, exercise bikes and medieval torture devices. I see them sweating early mornings and late at night from my windows. I see them going and coming from my daily walk as I pass the gym.

It is a sign of the times — but also our American culture — that many women seem to have only two modes: sitting or spinning. They’re either avoiding even the slightest heart rate increase (like those women in my apartment building who take the elevator to the second floor) or they’re sentencing themselves to hours at the gym as punishment for their indulgences throughout the day. So often I see the begrudging look on women’s faces and hear the phrase, "I don’t want to go to the gym, but I have to." Pourquoi? If you are eating mindfully, and eating the correct portion sizes, you don’t have to torture yourself on those metal contraptions or run a marathon to stay trim. French women reject the notion of "no pain, no gain," opting for a more pleasurable notion of mild, sustained exertion. We prefer all-day movement, what I like to call "the slow burn," and we practice it as second nature instead of attacking it like boot camp. Read more

The Best Kept Diet Secret

What's the best kept diet secret? The right soups tame the dieter's worst enemy: hunger.

Imagine a typical lunchtime meal – say, chicken and vegetables with a glass of water.

If you eat the food and drink the water, you will feel full for a couple of hours before hunger kicks in. But if you blend the food with the water – to make soup – you will stay hunger-free for much longer, and less likely to snack through the afternoon.

How can blending the food into soup make such a difference? The answer lies in the stomach. Scientists have used ultrasound and MRI scans of people's stomachs to investigate what happens after eating solid-food-plus-water meals compared with the same food made into soup. Read more

11 Get-Slim Secrets

Get the skinny on weight loss with these research-based tips.

Have you tried diets, workout plans, calorie calculators—even natural health products or pills to lose weight? If so, you’re not alone. A whopping 80 percent of Canadian women want to lose weight and 58 percent feel pressure to be thin or shed pounds, according to a recent Ipsos Reid survey sponsored by Dairy Farmers of Canada. And with good reason: we know excess pounds can raise our risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and more. A scientific analysis published in a February 2008 issue of Lancet, for instance, linked excess body weight to 20 different types of cancer, including endometrial and gallbladder cancers. Fortunately, winning the battle of the bulge may be easier than you think. Just take it one meal at a time, with these research-tested tips in hand. Read more