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Superfoods for Weight Loss - This Week on AOL Health

AOL Health Bloggers, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements


Now here's a diet story I can get behind -- eating more to weigh less. The key is, eating the right kinds of food. At AOL Health, you can find 20 kinds of fat-fighters. Like having protein-packed eggs for breakfast, which will keep you feeling full longer. Or, steak for dinner, which can help you maintain calorie-burning muscle mass while you continue to lose weight.

These are just two of the many of the foods, which if served up in proper portions, may help you shed those last pounds! Learn more about these slimming foods.

What about you, do you have a favorite superfood that has helped you bust through a diet rut, or do you think superfoods are just a lot of hype?

Daily Fit Tip: 5 important (and unexpected) weight loss foods

Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Looking for something new and unexpected to make your diet more interesting and help you lose weight? Check out these 5 foods.

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Can diet foods help you lose weight?

Healthy Habits, Diet & Weight Loss, Reviews & Products, Nutrition & Supplements

Most nutritionists will tell you that the safest, healthiest way to lose weight is a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and plenty of fiber. But many people aren't ready to give up the foods they love, and they depend on diet foods to have their cake and eat it too. Sugar-free foods, pre-portioned snacks, and diet dinners are all very popular with people who are struggling to lose weight.

But do these heavily processed foods really aide weight loss? The jury seems to still be out, according to this article from MSNBC. Diet soda drinkers, for instance, are usually heavier than people who don't drink soda at all. And those 100-calorie snack packs are great, as long as you can stick to one pack. Frozen diet dinners, such as Lean Cuisine, get a thumbs up for veggie content and perfectly sized portions, but are loaded with sodium.

I think it's a matter of personal preference and also a matter of balance. If you're eating sugar-free Jello all day long, you'll probably lose weight, but you won't be getting the vitamins and antioxidants you need in your diet. On the other hand, if you have a raging sweet tooth and fruit isn't cutting it, a 100-calorie pack of cookies is better than eating a whole box. What do you think? Do processed diet foods have their place in a healthy menu?

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Calorie-free foods

Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Ah, the calorie. For those who want to lose weight or maintain a weight loss, there's just no use trying to avoid it. Calories count. When we eat too many for our activity level, we gain weight. To lose weight, we must burn more calories than we eat. How you go about doing that depends on your own personal program, but the fact of the matter is that calories in vs. calories out is very important to weight management.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were some foods that were just free from calories? Foods that you never had to count or worry about, but could just eat and enjoy? Well guess what? There are. Though with few exceptions these foods do have calories, the act of eating and digesting them burns enough energy to make them not "count". In many cases, they're also high in nutrition, so you just can't lose when you eat them:
  • hot tea
  • berries
  • citrus
  • sugar-free Jello
  • egg whites cooked in cooking spray
  • crunchy vegetables
  • water
What's your favorite no-calorie food?

Diet-friendly Coffee Choices(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Watch the MilkA cool treatGo gourmetWatch the syrupIf all else fails, try tea!

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Prices of low-calorie foods rising very fast

Nutrition & Supplements

Are you finding that those low-cal dinners and entrees are costing you more in the grocery store these days? A new report in the December issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association said that lower-calorie foods are rising the fastest as overall food prices rise.

Fruit and veggie prices are up about 20 percent in the last two years alone, according to the report. What this means is that a healthy and nutritious diet may be starting to get out of reach for some consumers.

But therein is a disagreement I have -- a healthy lifestyle should take spending precedence over everything in most cases. That's simply not the case, as many of us are too busy wolfing down cheeseburgers, sitting in front of the television with a microwaveable meal or spending time at the movie instead of exercising. It's always a choice, isn't it?

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Diet foods cause taste bud cues to malfunction

Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

If you're into diet-this and diet-that so you can eat and drink while not ingesting as many calories, some new research may be of interest to you regarding what happens to your sense of energy intake.

In Canada, researchers discovered in a study of rats that the ability to assess the amount of energy (calories) were being eaten was thrown into disarray when the diet of these rodents primarily consisted of diet foods and drinks.

What happened apparently was that, over time, these rats somehow learned that sweet foods (sweetened with non-sugar diet products) did not contain that many calories. When exposed to full-calorie sweetened foods later on, these same rats overate since their systems did not know the difference.

Although humans and rats are far separated in cognitive ability, what do you think about this study? Why do we eat so many "diet" products instead of just consuming less "normal" products?

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Diet foods 'increase obesity' in children

Healthy Kids, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Especially given all the news about the growing obesity epidemic amongst children, it seems there's even more reason to be feeding your kids diet food and drinks.

But apparently not, say researchers, who, in a recent study, discovered that these so-called "diet" options may actually be part of the problem.

The reason, say scientists, is that, because the foods are artificially low in calories, they hinder children's ability to associate taste with calorie content. Subsequently, they'll reach adulthood without understanding which foods are most-likely to cause weight gain, and be at greater risk for obesity later in life.

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Nine diet-busting foods to avoid

Diet & Weight Loss

If you're currently dieting for the purpose of losing weight, those "cheat days" can sound mighty tempting. You work hard all week and then splurge a bit on Saturday night at a dinner. While this in and of itself it not that bad, the foods you choose to "cheat" with can erase some of that hard work put forth during the week.

So, which foods should you avoid at all costs when dieting, even on "cheat days?" The list below may be hard to read, but it will save you from having the "yo-yo" effect of losing weight (and seeing it!) but then having to put it back on in one fail swoop.

• White bread
• White pasta
• White potatoes
• Pastries
• Doughnuts
• Cookies
• Cakes, pies, and other sugary baked goods
• Candy and candy bars
• Potato chips and other packaged and fried snacks

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Be successful at losing the weight

Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness

Why should you lose weight? Okay, dumb question. But maybe not for everybody, because sometimes it's easy to get bogged down in the everyday and lose your real motivation. So make a conscious effort to find it again, whether it's to have more energy for playing with your kids/nieces/grandchildren/etc, reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke, or simply to breathe better and feel more energetic.

This article will give you a quick boost in your weight loss plans, reminding you of good ideas for everything from "feel fuller" foods to fun ways to burn calories, and even how to get a flatter stomach. There's so many tips and information out there, sometimes you just need to see it again to stay on track.

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Don't be fooled: Some 'diet' foods aren't good for your waistline

Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Do you think you're doing yourself a favor by ordering light beer and buying those fat-free cookies instead of the regular version? Well, think again. This article reminds us that 'light' isn't always that light and 'fat-free' doesn't mean calorie free. Other 'diet' foods on the chopping block? Light Bread, which apparently is just sliced thinner than the regular kind; turkey burgers, which are typically made with skin and fatty dark meat; cereals, which have are usually loaded with sugar and lacking in whole grains; protein bars, which are packed with calories, fat and sugar; and juice, which is mainly made of just sugar, color and flavoring. Olive oil also made the list because despite its healthy qualities, it is still a fat -- many people forget this and load it on items they would usually use a bit of butter on.

Do you know of any other 'diet' foods that you think should make the list?

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