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?

Nuts and olive oil are clearly good diet choices. But ever wonder which one is better? RealAge names nuts as the healthier option.

In a year-long study, people who ate a Mediterranean diet and added an extra ounce of nuts (a small handful) had a lower rate of metabolic syndrome compared to those who ate the same diet but upped their olive oil intake by four to five ounces per day. The theory behind this finding is that olive oil is extracted from olives, but nuts are a whole food and have more fiber, protein and minerals. Olive oil is still important -- just like nuts do, it helps reduce abdominal fat more than low-fat diets do.

A healthy diet, exercise and regular physicals can help prevent metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Conditions include obesity (mostly the "apple shape"), elevated blood pressure, elevated level of blood fat (triglycerides), a low level of good cholesterol (HDL) and resistance to insulin.

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My son has taken a recent interest in my workout DVDs. Usually we do them together, but the other night I was working while he was exercising. I heard him pause the DVD and I thought he went to get a drink of water. Instead, I looked over and saw him eating pudding while working out. I had to laugh. While it was incredibly counterproductive, I'll admit that I was a little impressed with his coordination!

Obviously snacking while working out doesn't make much sense, but research now says that a snack after working out doesn't do much good either (unless you're an elite athlete). During a recent study, participants walked on a treadmill for an hour (burning an average of 500 calories). Half of the group was given a high-calorie carbohydrate drink immediately after exercise; the other half had nothing. Those who had nothing had a 40% increase in insulin efficiency post-exercise. The benefit was completely wiped out in those who had the high-carb drink. Researchers saw similar results in a follow-up test using high and low-carb foods instead of drinks.

Your best bet after exercising is to just have a glass of water. Unless you've just participated in really intense, prolonged exercise, there's no need for sports drinks. And hold off on snacks unless you're feeling really hungry or weak.

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Exercise, a healthful diet, and maintaining an appropriate weight add up to a power play for health. The benefits are numerous, but one important perk is reducing your risk of diabetes. For improved blood sugar control and a reduced risk of developing diabetes, practice these five habits:

• Lose weight or maintain your healthy weight. Even a small weight loss can have a positive impact on blood sugar. More than 80% of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight -- controlling this factor significantly lowers your risk.
• Exercise regularly. Not only does physical activity help you with weight maintenance, it also offers diabetes risk reduction of its own.
  
• Eat less saturated fat and total fat. For some people, higher fat meals trigger a blood sugar response. Some researchers think that high-fat meals make insulin less effective. In addition, reducing the bad fats in your diet helps with weight control and is definitely a heart-healthy move.
• Keep excess calories to a minimum. When it comes to weight, you need to burn more than you eat. So keep treats and high-calorie foods to a minimum.
• Increase fiber intake. Dietary fiber -- especially soluble fiber (found in oatmeal, for example) -- isn't just for a healthy heart; it also helps regulate blood sugar.

[via FitSugar]

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I love a good baked potato. But it's not the best around -- sweet potatoes are tops.

Sweet potatoes help stabilize blood sugar and lower insulin resistance, says John La Puma, MD, author of ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine, which makes them an ideal diet item for diabetics -- unsteady blood sugar is a big risk for these folks.

So, out with the white -- white potatoes can send blood sugar levels soaring and crashing -- and in with the sweet, with their lower glycemic index and carotenoids, which may help you body use insulin better.

More good sweet potato news: The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) ranks the sweet potato number one in nutrition of all vegetables due to its fiber, naturally occurring sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium. Sweet!

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So you say chocolate is calling your name? You're not alone! From sugary sweets to salty treats, we all deal with cravings from time to time. Divine Caroline shares four reasons you might be having a craving:

• You're pregnant. It may seem like an old wives' tale or fodder for a TV sitcom, but many pregnant women do experience cravings. Jacki recently told us that Rebecca Romijn does.
• You're premenstrual. Women can crave certain foods just before their periods.
• You have low insulin levels. When your insulin level or blood sugar is low, your body will naturally crave foods to correct the imbalance.
• You have low serotonin. When you're stressed, your body may send out signals for something to ease the pain.
  

When you understand your cravings, you can take control and make wiser and healthier decisions.

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Cutting fat - let's just get right to it. Exercise? Of course. Proper diet? Absolutely. The former is pretty straightforward; move around, burn some calories - that sort of thing. The latter, however, can sometimes involve a bit more complexity.

To effectively burn fat, your dietary changes must not interfere with your fitness progress or quest for overall health. As such, a massive calorie-cutting diet isn't really the answer. Instead, try these vie fat-torching tips on from size.

1 - Cut Calories by a Reasonable Percentage. Again, this does not mean starving yourself; rather, it means taking an honest look at your daily caloric intake and calculating a percentage (be it 10, 20, or even 30 percent) you can cut it by.

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It isn't surprising that pregnant women are supposed to eat healthfully. Good nutrition will help a baby develop properly. But did you know that poor nutrition can not only negatively effect a baby's development, but it can also cause long-term damage?

A study by the Royal Veterinary College and London's Wellcome Trust, shows that when pregnant rats are fed fatty, processed foods during pregnancy, their offspring have high levels of fat in their bloodstream and around major organs -- even into their teenage years.

Fat gathered around internal organs has been linked to development of type II diabetes. Male rats tended to have higher insulin levels and normal blood sugar, while female offspring tended to have low insulin, high blood sugar, and tended to be more overweight.

While further research is obviously necessary, this is just one more link between healthy diet and a healthy life.

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Remember the Grapefruit Diet? Here at That's Fit, we avoid fad diets like Big Macs, but you might be surprised to hear that this one might actually have some merit.

What do you do after your workout? If you're like me you gulp down the last of your water, head home for a shower and prepare a meal. Not the most thoughtful set of steps when it comes to your muscles.

Carbo-loading before a big race was all the rage in the '90s. But new research has identified a more efficient way to stock the muscles with fuel -- by re-fueling immediately after your workout. Ingesting a combo of protein and carbs within 30 to 45 minutes after your workout takes advantage of an improved insulin response sparked by exercise. Insulin increases glycogen muscle uptake, so those muscles absorb more fuel and are better prepared for tomorrow's 10K.

The gym smoothie bar is looking even better now. Think ahead and have that carbo/protein recovery drink standing by. Down it right after your workout and then eat a standard meal within two hours post-workout to take advantage of potentially four to six more hours of increased insulin levels and accelerated recovery.

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Did you eat breakfast today? How about yesterday? If you answered "No," you may be interested to learn that starting the day off with a substantive meal can help keep your weight in check.

The American Journal of Epidemiology reports that participants in a recent study who sourced 22 to 50 percent of their total daily calories from their breakfast gained an average of only 1.7 pounds over a four-year span. By contrast, those who did not eat breakfast -- or only sourced up to 11 percent of their daily calories from breakfast -- gained about three pounds.

Researchers posit that eating a meal after a long period of fasting -- as in, sleeping through the night, skipping breakfast, and then eating at around noon -- releases excess amounts of insulin, leading to fat storage and, as a recent Japanese study revealed, prevents the breakdown of stored fats.

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A recent Japanese study, published in the Kobe Journal Medical Sciences and most recently highlighted in Fitness Rx magazine, confirms what we've known for quite some time: eating foods high in simple, fast-digesting carbs can cause you to pack on more fat. The difference this time around, however, is that this study provides an additional explanation for why this happens.

When you drink copious amounts of regular soda and chomp on white bread, you spike your blood glucose levels (also known as blood sugar). You may be familiar with this concept from your own knowledge base or from hearing of this process from someone who has diabetes. In response, your body produces a large amount of insulin in efforts to bring your blood glucose back down from orbit by moving the glucose out of the blood and into the cells (whereas a person with diabetes may have to use synthetic insulin -- administered either by shot or pump -- to make up for what their pancreas is not able to sufficiently do on its own in this regard). After this occurs, all excess glucose is stored for later use as fat in white adipose tissue.

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Last week, Diabetes Alert Day was celebrated on March 25th. According to popular diabetes website dLife.com, this awareness campaign is aimed at people becoming more aware of type 2 diabetes and taking a few minutes to assess their own diagnosis potential.

But, what about type 1 diabetes?

Wait a second ... did you even know there were two types of diabetes? If not, you're not alone, as it seems that there are many people who also lack awareness of this difference. Unlike people with type 2 diabetes, people with type 1 are usually diagnosed when they are children after their pancreatic beta cells stop producing insulin. This cessation has nothing to do with weight, diet, or even blood sugar fluctuations at its onset. It simply happens, and it does so for reasons unknown.

Many feel that the differences between type 1 and type 2 are so stark that they should not both fall under the umbrella category of "diabetes." Pointing to the fact that various types of cancer have their own respective names (as opposed to merely being labeled Cancer 1, Cancer 2, and so forth), many feel that type 1 should be renamed entirely, as doing so will help raise awareness of this much lesser known (and incurable) version of the disease.

To that end, Monday, April 14th has officially been designated Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day. Though the name of the disease remains the same, the level of awareness will surely be raised through this campaign. To help spread the word about the "Raise Your Voice: Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day" campaign, be sure to pass this information along to as many people as you can!!

Researchers have found that, in patients with type 2 diabetes who require insulin treatment, a new formulation that only has to be injected once daily controls blood sugar as well as the more typical three-shots-a-day formula. Not surprisingly, patients in the study were more satisfied with the once-a-day formula. (Seriously... who would want three shots each day if they could have only one?) There was no added benefit in insulin control, however.

For many patients with type 2 diabetes can control their blood sugar with diet, exercise, and oral medications. But for those that require insulin treatments a once-a-day treatment could be a welcome change.

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When researchers asked a group of healthy, active men to cut their activity levels down considerably, something interesting happened. Though the men did not gain weight or noticeable fat, their visceral (belly) fat increased by 7%. Belly fat is the more dangerous type of fat because it surrounds the internal organs and is linked to cardiovascular disease. Exercise reduces belly fat, and according to this study, not-exercising allows it to return.

In addition to increased belly fat, the men also became less sensitive to insulin and their triglycerides also increased. All of these changes occurred in just two to three weeks time.

While the men were still healthy after the study was over, it's clear that exercise is an important part of a healthy life. Even if you can only manage a short or moderate workout, keep moving to help your body stay at the top of its game.

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