7 Reasons You're Still Overweight and How to Get Slim Fast

Why do some people pack on the pounds effortlessly? It’s not always genetics and it’s not always gluttony, and you can’t always blame it on lack of exercise. Indeed, becoming overweight is often a result of some simple—and easily correctible—bad habits, especially when it comes to dining out.As we began researching Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Survival Guide, we discovered plenty of egregious examples of super-fattening foods in both America’s supermarkets and our chain restaurants. And we learned that if you simply know what to order and what to avoid, you can shave off pounds effortlessly. For example, does On the Border really need to stuff more than a day’s worth of calories into its Dos XX Fish Tacos? (Remember when fish was healthy?) And shouldn’t Chili’s warn parents when a selection...

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Should I use hormone replacement therapy (HRT)?

IntroductionOver the past decades, menopausal women have been encouraged to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for its apparent health- and youth-preserving benefits. It is true that HRT lowers the risk of osteoporosis and possibly colon cancer. But, compared to women not taking hormones, women taking HRT have slightly higher rates of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, heart attack, stroke, blood clots, and Alzheimer's disease as well as other forms of dementia.Although HRT risks are not high for most women, on average, the small risks outweigh the small benefits. As a result, women's health experts now recommend that, for most women, HRT use should be limited to one or both of the following: Short-term menopausal symptom relief.Severe osteoporosis risk (when nonhormonal treatments have been...

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90 seconds to slim

Tired of countless sets and reps? Make "one and done" your workout mantra. With this get-lean routine you'll do each move only once, which will leave you twice as much time to enjoy your sleek new physique!Slow down to firm up. You can tone all over with a single rep. The key? Stretch out each exercise over a full 90 seconds. "Stop-and-hold training is more effective than traditional strength training because it maximizes muscle tension throughout the total range of motion," says Pete Cerqua, author of The 90-Second Fitness Solution (Atria Books), who created these slow-mo moves exclusively for SELF. You'll need A pair of 5- to 10-pound weights and a stability ballYou'll do One rep (or one on each side) of each sculptor twice a week on nonconsecutive days. Go with the sl...

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Busted! 5 Major Eating Mistakes

By Holly McCord, RD, with Gloria McVeigh, PreventionEver get the guilty feeling that you're being watched as you toss the double fudge brownie mix into your grocery cart? Well, you are! We checked with some of the top US nutrition experts, who admitted they secretly spy on the rest of us as we make real-world choices in restaurants and grocery stores. Here are their top five gripes.1. We can't tell the good fats from the bad ones. "Most people still don't get that some fats are actually good for you," says Alice Lichtenstein, DSc, an American Heart Association spokesperson. "You want to avoid saturated and trans fats, but you need more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Good sources are fish, nuts, avocados, and soybean and canola oils."Smarter: Fit in good fats. "If you keep track...

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