With a growing number of overweight people, you're likely to see at least one pot belly on your morning commute.

A pot belly, or beer belly, is excessive fat in the center of the abdomen which makes the belly round and protruding. While women can get a pot belly, they tend to be more prevalent in men. The biggest causes are overeating and a sedentary lifestyle.

The only way to lose a pot belly is to lose weight. You cannot spot train body parts, but crunches may help tone the stomach muscles. Additionally, you must burn more calories than you consume each day, which is easier if you follow a low-fat, reduced-calorie diet and include at least 30 to 60 minutes of vigorous exercise in your daily routine.

Even if you don't have an excessive amount of fat hanging over your jeans, but still want to slim your stomach, avoiding foods that contribute to bloating can help. Cut back on salt and eliminate gassy foods like broccoli, onions and cauliflower. Carbonated drinks (like soda), alcohol, fried foods and spicy meals can also lead to bloating.

If you don't have a pot belly, but want to tweak another body region try these tips from That's Fit:
Love handles
Arms
Shoulders
Legs
Thighs

Photo: Steven M 61, Flickr

While well-intentioned do-gooders like us usually spend our time touting the shear greatness of wholesome and fresh food, we just have to tell you about a concoction that's so mind-bogglingly unhealthy, you can't help but be kind of in awe of it: Deep-fried butter. That's right, pure fat fried in fat. It's possibly the least healthy thing ever invented (hey, at least this calorie shocker has protein) -- in fact, the only thing I can think of that would be worse would be deep-fried butter wrapped in bacon and smothered in Velveeta. Do not try this at home, people.

Deep fried butter is the brain child of Abel Gonzales Jr., and it's vying for the top prize at the Big Tex Choice Awards, which showcases la creme de la creme (so to speak) of the fair food at the Texas State Fair. Just where did he get the idea? A love of buttered toast led him to the natural conclusion that his favorite staple would be much better deep fried (isn't everything?). The dish is made with frozen balls of whipped butter -- each about the size of a golf ball -- which are then covered in dough and deep fried. They can be injected with flavor, sprinkled with sugar -- or enjoyed in their natural, artery-clogging state.

But in case you're thinking this is your food dream come true, please heed the (totally obvious) warning of its inventor, who cautions that this should be just an occasional indulgence. "[The fair] is a special time of the year where you want something good. You work it off for the next few weeks eating salads," he says. Though if you actually want to burn this off, we think it will take more than a few salads -- a quick jog to Buenos Aires sounds about right.

Curious about other fair foods, like the funnel cake? A whopping 760 calories in this one.

Though I know the benefits of healthful eating, I'm all for having a treat now and then. I love a good batch of fish n' chips as much as the next person. But some of the foods that people dunk into a deep fryer just amaze me. How -- and why -- would anyone ever come up with these ideas?

Fitz just told us about chocolate-covered bacon. That's pretty outlandish (not to mention it sounds utterly disgusting). But the deep fryer holds it's fair share of nastiness, too. Maybe you've spotted some different concoctions -- like deep-fried Twinkies -- at your local greasy spoon. Or maybe you've visited your state fair and sampled some of the newest trends in fried foods.

If you must indulge, just remember to keep high-calorie, high-fat foods like these to extremely rare treats -- your arteries will thank you.

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Yuck! I just watched a little news bit about Minnesota on Fox News. They were featuring the state as it is hosting the Republican Convention in St. Paul. (That title is meant to be read with an adorable accent.)

Apparently all the folks in Minnesota aren't in "the know" about health. On display in this feature was an obnoxious amount of fried food being carried around on sticks. Mmmmm. Heart disease. Corn dogs, fried chips, fried meat and to top it off, chocolate covered bacon!

Would you ever even consider eating this? It looked pretty fowl to me, though I am fairly particular about what I put in my mouth. I can only imagine some guy sitting in a diner one day thinking, "how could I improve on this strip of pig fat? I know! Let's dip it in chocolate!"

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There's no stopping the hands of time. We're all going to age, and there's not a thing we can do to stop the process.

I don't know about you, but I'm happy to get older. The older I get, the better, in fact – because right now, I'm not too fond of the alternative.

If, like me, you want to keep tacking on the years, try these five Woman's Day magazine secrets for aging long into the future.

• Don't smoke. And avoid secondhand smoke. These two practices will help prevent cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung disease.

• Do play. Working too much can increase your risk of high blood pressure and heart attack, so take a breather from work-related fatigue and stress whenever you can. Start this weekend.

• Don't eat fried foods or drink soda. Too much fast food and soda contributes to weight gain and can cause chronic inflammation, which prompts the entire body to age.

• Wear sunglasses and a hat. Protecting your eyes from the sun's UV rays will cut your risk of cataracts and macular degeneration -- it's the leading cause of blindness by about 45 percent.

• Get important health screenings. Get checked for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high blood sugars. Get screened for cancers of the skin, breast, cervix, colon, prostate, and more. Catch any of these conditions early, and you have a good chance of surviving them.

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Years ago, before having babies Apple and Moses, Gwyneth Paltrow stayed slim and trim by sticking to a strict macrobiotic diet. She abandoned the diet during her first pregnancy, though, and has never gone back.

"I was seriously macrobiotic for four years," says Paltrow. "When I [first] got pregnant, it changed. I couldn't go near anything healthy."

Now a fan of anything fried (fish and chips are favorites) and red wine, and all sorts of food and drink found in London -- where she lives with husband Chris Martin and her two little ones -- Paltrow somehow looks just as good as she did all those years ago. How can his be?

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I'm always shocked and amazed that anyone would actually consider the doughnut an appropriate part of breakfast. I imagine most folks would snub the idea of eating cake as a good idea in the morning. The doughnut is literally FRIED CAKE! Who the hell thought that would be a good idea for a meal?

In my younger years, I suppose I just considered doughnuts, well.......doughnuts! My parents always seemed to have a bag or box of them on the counter and they were a fairly regular part of my breakfasts growing up. (My Mom probably never thought about what she was actually feeding me either!) Then one day I had the epiphany. Doughnuts are made by frying cake batter in oil for about 90 seconds. They're also often filled or covered with cream, chocolate or just pure sugar.

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We all know that deep-fried foods are bad for us, but there are always those moments when you just can't help yourself. So Japanese scientists have been working on a way to make fried fish lower in fat but still crispy, and the trick they came up with is to make the pores in the fried batter bigger. Bigger pores trap less oil.

Makes perfect sense! But I can't help but wonder how long it took them to figure that out, and how much money was spent on the research? Priorities people, priorities!

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For me, fast-food is a turn-off. And I fear the day I have no other option than to end up in line at McDonald's. What ever will I do when faced with the unhealthy options available at such as establishment? Have no fear, says one Kansas dietitian, who reports there are tactics for surviving my worst fear. Here are a few:

• Go plain. The plainer the food, the healthier it is. A plain hamburger at McDonald's has nine grams of fat; a double cheeseburger has 23.

• Choose mustard and ketchup. Say "no thanks" to mayo and special sauces and you'll save 10 to 17 grams of fat.

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Confused about how many trans fats your body needs? Let me help. Zero.

Trans fats -- abundant in cookies, candies, pastries, fried food, and margarine -- are not necessary in any way, shape, or form. There's no need to eat them at any level, especially because they seriously up the risk of heart disease.

Make it your project, starting today, to buy only foods with zero trans fats. Nutrition labels now make it easy to identify trans fat-free foods, and there are more of these products on the shelves than ever before. Head to the outside aisles of your grocery store for fresh fruits, veggies, fish, and whole grains -- OK and maybe small amounts of healthy oils like olive and canola. This way, you'll be sure to stay out of trans fat trouble.

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Southern cooking is famous for being not only delicious, satisfying, and filling, but also high in fat and calories. As good as fried might taste it doesn't do much for our bodies other than pack on the pounds. But a new trend, called by some the South Eats Diet, is taking all that goodness and modifying it in a way that helps it do less damage to waistlines without losing flavor.

By switching up the cooking method and adding in some new innovative ingredients meals can have that rich southern flavor without the guilt. Sounds good to me!

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I've talked about Dr. Katz's healthy advice before, and he's recently weighed in on his tips for eating out. He says that there are two important choices when going out for a meal: The restaurant and what you order. When picking a restaurant, it's important to choose one that has healthy options that you enjoy. Choosing a restaurant with a salad bar is a great idea, or if you want some protein, choose a place the offers grilled meats.

When ordering, avoid meats that are breaded and/or fried. Here's one clue that I find helpful: if it says 'crispy', it's probably breaded and fried. As for your side, choose the salad or veggies always. Skip the fries -- you'll feel better about it.

What are your eating out tips?

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If you're interested in losing weight, you should begin by making small steps towards a healthier life. So what should these changes be? This article suggests the following:

-Stop drinking juice, soda and any other high-sugar beverage
-Cut down on the fat you use, even if it's healthy fat like olive oil
-Hold the mayo -- it will save you 110 calories per tablespoon
-Boost your fiber intake by switching to whole grains and increasing the amount of veggies you consume
-Opt for grilled instead of fried. And for the record, when something is described as 'crispy' (think chicken) that almost always means it's battered and fried. And if you're not already, pick the skinless variety of chicken over the original version.

Sounds simple enough. What do you think?

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We all know fried foods are bad, but are they completely 100% devoid of all nutrients? Is a fried vegetable better than no vegetable at all? Or the other way around? I think a lot of parents ask this question because their kids refuse to eat veggies cooked in a healthy way, and it seems that frying them is the only way to get them on the menu.

But be careful -- the negative side effects of fried foods can outweigh the benefits, no matter how healthy a vegetable you started with. Your best bet is to try other ways of convincing your children to make the right choices, like trying a variety of recipes and educating your children in fun ways about how good they'll feel (think Popeye) when they eat their greens.

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