Shopping Smart

Amazon has come a long way from its days as “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” It still holds that title, but it also holds much more, as founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ventures to offer a selection of products as “wide as the Amazon.” Health and fitness aficionados will not be disappointed by a trip to Amazon’s wide range of specialty stores. Besides the thousands of health- and fitness-related books it offers, Amazon has a Kitchen & Housewares store, a Health & Personal Care store, an Electronics store, and a Medical Equipment & Supplies area to satisfy any gadget freak. Plus, Amazon’s Outlet store offers used and reconditioned products at a significant discount. Because some of these “stores” are managed by third parties, you don’t always get Amazon’s free shipping offer on orders of $25 or more. For example, at the Vitamin Shoppe in the Health & Personal Care store, shipping is free after you spend $40 or more.

To make things easy, Amazon uses the same structure for every page. If it can, it strives to make recommendations to you based on your previous purchases and/or searches. It offers specials on the home page as well as featured sellers, a list of bestsellers, and links to related stores. You can browse by section, just as you would in an offline store, and you can buy multiple items from separate stores using the same shopping cart. In general, Amazon discounts books by about 30% (although that varies). Its other discounts vary as well, so shop wisely.We found that their prices for health gadgets, such as body fat monitors and pedometers, were competitive but not great. But their selection was good, with offerings from many different vendors, although they were scattered throughout the site.

Amazon also sells other gadgets, such as heart rate monitors and body monitors. One fun new feature on Amazon is their Gourmet Food store. While many of the offerings are not the healthiest, being able to get foods from Dean & Deluca, Godiva, Harry and David, Legal Sea Foods, and literally hundreds of others all in one place is very convenient. And among the numerous vendors are a variety that specialize in low-carb and lowcalorie foods, so you can shop there guilt free. Amazon also offers an Outlet store, where reconditioned and closeout products are available. We found some great bargains there, but you have to shop carefully. Many of these products are offered by third parties. Check those third parties out before buying anything from them.

Make Them Count

A pedometer can help you lose more weight than the foods that you eat. Pedometers count your steps, and some track the distance you go, the speed at which you walk or run, and the calories you burn. Used along with a fitness tracking spreadsheet or other journal, a pedometer can get you motivated to keep moving.

You wear a pedometer along your waistline, usually along your dominant leg. Pedometers are built to clip there; some also include a safety strap so that you don’t lose them. In general, pedometers have pendulums inside that move along with your hip; they record a step when the pendulum swings past a magnetic field each time you move. Electronic pedometers count a step when your foot hits the ground.

Most pedometers have a built-in display that tells you the basic statistics of how many steps you took. For a pedometer to know how far you walked, it needs to know your stride length, which you can easily measure by taking 10 steps, measuring how far that is, and dividing by 10. For calories burned, the pedometer needs to know your gender, age, and weight. Like a food diary keeps track of what you eat, pedometers keep track of the amount of activity in which you engage. After getting a pedometer, I parked my car farther from the office each day, walked a little more each evening, exercised more, and tried to take as many steps as possible each day. As a result, I lost weight without even trying. Experts say that you should aim for at least 10,000 steps per day for optimal fitness (the average American averages approximately 6,000 steps per day). For weight loss, I recommend at least 15,000 steps per day. One mile equals approximately 2,000 steps.To be useful, a pedometer must be accurate. Otherwise,
it either overestimates or underestimates your steps, which won’t provide you with the information you need to ensure that you’re exercising enough. This problem is similar to a food diary that underestimates the number of calories you’re eating. Pedometers are great for walking or running, using a treadmill or an elliptical trainer, or
engaging in a sport, such as baseball, soccer, or football. But you can’t wear one while swimming, and they are close to useless for biking. The price of pedometers varies widely. McDonald’s is giving away pedometers with their new Go Active! adult Happy Meals. You can also buy one for as little as $10. I recommend spending a little more than that and getting a pedometer that calculates your distance and speed during workouts, as well as counting steps. Some of the best pedometers come from vendors such as DIGI-WALKER, OMRON, and SportBrain. But there are others from Freestyle, Sportline, and Walk4Life that are also very good quality.

The really cool pedometers, of course, are those that work with your computer. To date, the only pedometer in this category is from SportBrain. However, there are many step-counting software programs that will provide you with the ability to keep a record of your steps no matter what pedometer you use.

What's Wrong With Carbohydrates?

If you mean what's wrong with a spear of broccoli or a bunch of spinach, the answer is nothing, they're magnificent foods. When I speak negatively of carbohydrates, I'm referring to the unhealthy ones-those lurking in the sugar bowl and the bin of white flour, along with milk, white rice and processed and refined foods of all kinds. I also must include concentrates, such as fruit juices.

During the weight loss phase, even your intake of potentially healthy carbohydrates such as fruits and whole grains must be controlled. Once you've bid adieu to your extra pounds, you can return to fruits and some starches to the degree that they won't upset your metabolism and reactivate the cravings that result in weight gain. But the refined and processed foods I've just mentioned simply aren't good for you-ever. Am I advocating a high-fat diet? Not in the long run. As you increase the percentage of carbohydrates, while advancing through the different phases, the percentage and actual amount of fat you consume will diminish. However, as long as you are at the lower end of carbohydrate consumption, higher-fat consumption poses no threat to your health."

Don't Excess Calories Cause Weight Gain?

It is true that gaining weight results from taking in more calories than you expend. But excess calories certainly cause you to pile on the pounds-and this is a gigantic "but"-only when you are eating a lot of carbohydrate along with fat. So it's time to abandon the assumption that the only way to lose weight is to strictly control your intake of calories. Many people think that only one thing matters: how many calories you take in and use up. It's not that simple.

When you follow a controlled carbohydrate approach, you get what I call a "metabolic advantage. When you control carbohydrate consumption sufficiently, your body will switch from burning glucose derived from carbohydrate to burning primarily fat for energy. This means you could eat, say, 2,000 calories and still begin losing pounds and inches.

In contrast, if you were consuming 2,000 calories on a low-fat diet, you might not lose weight, and you might actually gain weight. The metabolic advantage is that burning fat takes more energy so you expend more calories. And if you eat fewer calories-as many Atkins people do because their appetite is usually diminished-you'll likely lose weight even faster. So it's not that calories don't count, it's just that you will burn more of them, with less hunger, when your body is operating on a fat-based metabolism.