To keep her gorgeous physique, "The Biggest Loser" trainer Jillian Michaels used to work out eight hours a week, eat only 1,200 calories a day and felt tired all the time. She was also addicted to Diet Coke and into fat-free foods. After a poor report card from her endocrinologist, Michaels started paying attention to metabolism -- your hormones -- to keep her biochemistry in balance.

Mastering her metabolism delivered big: Now she eats about 2,000 cals a day, works out strenuously two to three hours a week and has written a new book, "Master Your Metabolism." I recently reviewed the book and found the hormonal connection to weight loss a worthy, fascinating read. Here are a few highlights:

• Metabolic Hormones -- Jillian explains your metabolism is more like a chemistry lab, not a furnace. The trick is having the right balance of hormones in your system to properly burn fat and build muscle, not the opposite. She painstakingly covers 12 key metabolic hormones in a way the average Joe can understand. I finally know what ghrelin is and how to pronounce it (it's a hunger hormone and pronounced like 'grill-en').
• Endocrine Disruptors -- Get ready to be scared straight on how yo-yo dieting, processed foods, environmental toxins and our sleep-deprived, stressful lifestyles influence our metabolisms toward the Land of Fat. I knew about the yo-yo, sleep/stress part, but I've thought less about how processed foods and environmental toxins impact my hormones -- my metabolism.
  
• Remove --Learn the first step of The Master Plan -- get rid of these six Antinutrients and eight Less-Than-Stellar-Foods that trigger your fat-storing hormones. Bye-bye diet soda.
  
• Restore -- Step 2 is to reach for the Master 10 Power Nutrients, including winners such as legumes, alliums (e.g., onions, leaks, chives), the right meats and soluble fiber. Jillian stresses that if your food doesn't come from a mother or grown from the earth, don't eat it.
  
• Rebalance -- Step 3 explains when to time your eating, how much to eat and what foods you should combine for effortless weight loss. Yes, you have to eat breakfast, eat every four hours, don't overeat and reach for the right combo of fat/carbs/protein.

Has anyone else read this book, yet?

You're eating right and exercising, but that stubborn scale won't budge. Are you making one of these mistakes?

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Could the obesity epidemic be coming to an end soon? Perhaps. The so-called 'cure' for obesity is only a few years away, according to leading scientist in the UK. This 'cure' would be a drug, most likely administered in needle form, which could control the hormone responsible for hunger (called ghrelin) and put an end to overeating. And it's hoped this drug could totally wipe out the need for invasive gastric bypass surgery.

I think the term 'cure,' is a bit optimistic. After all, this surgery is supposed to do what gastric bypass surgery does -- eliminate hunger and reduce how much you can eat. And yet gastric bypass surgery often doesn't lead to long-term weight loss. And compulsive overeating often isn't based on hunger -- it's based on emotional factors like stress. And hunger control doesn't automatically lead to healthy habits.

If you ask me, teaching and preaching healthy habits is a much better option for treatment of obesity than a quick fix. What do you think?

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If fitting into a smaller dress size or a new pair or pants is high on your list of goals, there's actually a very easy and extremely relaxing step you can take to help make that happen.

It does not require a pair of $150 running shoes, a special membership, or even a minute more of your effort. This weight loss aid is something that's available to many of us, yet fewer and fewer of us choose to take advantage of it. If you haven't guessed it by now, I'm talking about sleep. Of the three major ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle (diet and exercise being the others), sleep is the one we seem to skimp out the most -- despite the fact that it is free and requires very little effort. With specific regard to weight management, a growing body of evidence shows that getting an ample amount of shut-eye encourages your body to produce more leptin (a hormone that makes you feel full) and less ghrelin (the hormone that makes you feel hungry).

So, instead of staying up late and just spinning your wheels -- whether it's online or in front of the tube -- close down early for the evening. Get 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night on a regular basis, in addition to exercising and following a sensible diet, and you'll be fitting in that dress or those new pants before you know it.

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Americans are extremely productive people. If there is one thing we are good at doing, it's working. The unfortunate downside of our productivity in the workplace, however, is our consequential lack of sleep.

All work and no play may make Jack a dull boy. But, all work, some play, and no sleep make Jack an extremely unhealthy boy. Getting less than seven to eight hours of sleep each night can cause an increase in ghrelin levels, the hormone responsible for making you crave salty, sugary, and fatty foods.

If you're having trouble squeezing in enough sleep at night, you can still benefit a great deal from a 30-minute power nap during the day. The trick is to not nap past the 30-minute mark, for it is as that point when your body begins entering in the deeper stages of sleep. And, waking up during this portion of the sleep cycle could potentially leave you feeling tired again. So, stick to 30 minutes and under and you should feel plenty refreshed and recharged, in addition to being able to stave off cravings for comfort foods.

Go to the grocery store hungry and you're bound to crave everything in sight. Blame your "Mmm" hormone, says new research that names the natural molecule ghrelin the responsible party.

Why ghrelin? Because it improves perception and memory when it comes to food. When hunger strikes, watch out, because ghrelin makes the brain find just about every food appealing, sending us on a path to diet destruction.

Researchers have long known that ghrelin, a hormone secreted in the gut, rises and falls before and after meals. Now they're learning that this "Mmm" hormone has even more power -- it causes hunger and encourages eating.

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Did you know that brushing your teeth right after dinner can help you stick to your diet? That's just one of the many sneaky little tips to help you lose weight in this article. You might think twice about reaching for that bag of chips if it means messing up those smooth, freshly brushed teeth!

You can also try eating a little bit of healthy fat right before dinner to activate ghrelin, a hormone that helps you feel full. Or pack most of your calories in at breakfast and lunch to help prevent late afternoon hunger (and snacking.) And don't forget the old stand-by: eat every three hours to keep blood sugar stabilized and hunger pangs at bay.

Losing weight can be hard work, but these sneaky little tricks can help ease the way by helping you feel full and satisfied. Does anyone else have a "sneaky little trick" to share?

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When I became a mother, I quit sleeping. First it was pregnancy, then it was nightly feedings, colds, flu, toddler separation anxiety, pretty soon it just became permanent. It's like there's this switch in my brain that never lets me shut down and rest -- even when I've tucked everyone in and completed my to-do list. Now I lay down each night and try my different tricks -- deep breathing, relaxing each muscle, and counting backwards from 100. I get there eventually, but eight hours of sound, unbroken sleep? That just doesn't exist for me anymore.

I can see its effects in the morning. I have circles under my eyes that concealer won't cover and my face looks puffy. The mid-afternoon slump hits me hard and I know my memory and mood are often affected. According to this interesting article, though, what's happening inside my body may be even more serious. Losing just an hour or two of sleep each night puts people at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. In fact, in one study, participants were allowed only four hours sleep for two nights in a row. In just that short period of time, their bodies showed a marked increase in ghrelin -- a hormone that causes hunger -- and a significant decrease in leptin, which tells the body it's full. That fact struck home with me, because on nights that I really miss out on sleep, I can feel those changes. I'm constantly reaching for carbs to fill me up and boost my energy.

So I'm going to start making sleep a priority and get it under control. I'm setting a new, earlier bedtime for myself and allowing only relaxing activities an hour before. I'm cutting out caffeine and planning to exercise every morning to boost my energy instead. It's going to mean giving up a lot of my "me" time and probably most of my favorite TV shows, but I think the payoff will be worth it.

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Ahhhh ... sleep. One of my favorite pastimes. No, I'm not just lazy -- I've embraced the restorative power of sleep, which I've heard can have a positive effect on everything from the shininess of your hair to the smoothness of your skin to your risk of getting sick and so on. So I'm no surprised to read this, which makes the bold claim that sleep can help you lose weight. Okay, let's clarify. It won't help you burn more calories, but it helps in other ways, such as by balancing your hormones.

Here's something I didn't know. Leptin and ghrelin, two hormones in our bodies with help regulate our appetite, can be influenced by how much or how little we sleep. So when we aren't well-rested, these hormones will influence our appetite, making us feel hungry when we're not. Wow - I have totally noticed that after a late night and now I know why!

Being overweight can also affect our sleep negatively by increasing our chances of developing sleep apnea.

I'm going to bed early tonight. What about you?

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I've never thought much of Prevention Magazine. For me, it is a mass market publication that seems to carry stories that parrot the latest confusing study results ("Is Coffee Good For You?", "Are Bald Men Happier?") rather than helping give us context and explanation.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I read this title:

It Raises Diabetes Risk and Robs Bone. It's Wrecking Our Teeth. And It's Making Us Fat. The Culprit? SODA.

Are you kidding me? Has criticism of soda, heard for so long among holistic health practitioners, finally going mainstream? I think it just did. Here are the highlights of this great article (which is not online yet). We've talked about soda before on this blog, but the Prevention article adds a few new wrinkles to the story.

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