These experts generally stress a common-sense regimen that includes fruits, vegetables, grains and lean protein. In thermogenesis, your body burns off 10 of every 100 calories consumed from carbohydrates, but only one or two calories of 100 calories from fat, he says. Better still, if you exercise within a couple hours of a meal, you'll use up more. A business lunch of veal in cream sauce with mousseline potatoes and wines, for example, is not very thermogenic, says Angelo Tremblay of Laval University in Ste.-Foy, Quebec. Exercise-averse gourmands shouldn't throw in the towel.
Exercise is very much an investment.
You get out what you put into it. His studies are finding even trained athletes gain pounds as they age. So think of exercise as dividend-bearing shares, and redouble your investment. So the ideal fitness program would alternate aerobics such as brisk walking, running or cycling, with strength training using hand weights or gym equipment. While men traditionally gravitate to weight training, and young women have joined them in droves, getting more mature women to pump iron has been a tougher sell.