“I have a paper to write, I can’t waste an hour waiting for the only elliptical that works.”
“I need to run on the treadmill for at least 45 minutes, and since I have a paper due tomorrow, that’s out of the question. I probably just shouldn’t go at all.”
“I’m not waking up at 7am to get in an hour workout before class.”

You know the deal.

I know that if I don’t clock in at least thirty minutes of cardio per session, I feel like my gym outing has been a waste and a failure. And I’m always hard on myself if I leave without doing crunches, even if I’ve run a couple of miles. In short — going to the gym has become about the time clock, but according to a study published in the New York Times, I’m going about things all wrong!

A couple of years ago, researchers from the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Japan observed two groups of rats paddling in a small pool. The first group completed two 3-hour workout sessions, and the other group engaged in interval training, moving for twenty seconds and then resting for ten seconds for a total of 14 reps. The scientists were trying to figure out if prolonged exercise did more for the body’s endurance (ie., your ability to work out for longer, which translates into more calories burned) than the shorter/quicker exercise method. They found that both groups exhibited the same molecular changes that correspond with endurance gain, coming to the conclusion that we might be working out for longer than we really need to.

“There was a time when the scientific literature suggested that the only way to achieve endurance was through endurance-type activities,” Dr. Martin Gibala, a professor at McMaster University in Ontario, told the Times. He explained that people often choose to exercise casually for hours instead of just exerting as much energy as possible for a shorter amount of time. “We describe it as an ‘all-out’ effort,” Gibala said, noting that it is the kind of exercise that often forces people “out of their comfort zone.” While Gibala’s team has only studied this method for swimmers and cyclists, he believes that it might prove true for runners as well.

Gibala says that this method – pushing yourself to your limit for a shorter period of time – might aid in weight loss in addition to contributing to increased endurance in athletes and ordinary gym-goers alike. “The rate of energy expenditure remains higher longer into recovery,” meaning that you might continue to burn calories for a longer period of time after you leave the gym.

Less time at the gym?
More calories burned and increased endurance?

Put away the clocks and timers and get moving!

Some of us love it (like that girl who never goes to the gym and eats french fries for every meal and somehow still wears a size 00) and some of us hate it (when we eat an apple and our thighs starts rubbing together). But does anyone really know what metabolism is or how it works?

Your (my, our) metabolism is really just your metabolic rate, or BMR, which is roughly the amount of calories that you burn when at rest. Like right now as you sit on your couch, feet up, laptop on your lap and a bowl of cereal in your hand. This is the energy that your body uses to keep organs, cells, and digestion all going. It is influenced by your age, sex, height, weight, and the amount of muscle mass that you have.

There are lots of myths around about things that will “speed up” your metabolism, causing you to burn more calories. There are also many surprising truths. I’m going to separation the fact from the fiction and give you all the tools to control your metabolic destiny. Here we go!

Myths

If your mom has a “slow” metabolism, you will too: This is one is half-true. Heredity does play a role in metabolism, but just because mama passed on that snail’s-pace metabolism doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. There are many ways to speed things up: build muscle mass, eat a balanced breakfast and overall diet, snack throughout the day on low-calorie foods, include protein in your diet, and keep moving!

Grapefruit increases your metabolic rate: Its fiber and water will fill you up, and the Thermogenic Effect of the fruit means that your body will use extra calories to digest it, but it won’t speed your metabolism up more than any other food.

Celery is a negative-calorie food: I wish! That would be easy. And I’d be eating a whole lot more celery. But, nope, it’s not so. Celery still has calories, no matter how difficult it is for our bodies to eat and digest it.

Truths

Ice cold beverages and foods rev up your metabolism: It’s true, but the number of extra calories that you’ll burn are definitely not enough to burn off the damage done at Thirsty Thursday. Studies have suggested that drinking five to six glasses of ice cold water could help you burn an extra 10 calories per day. Not too exciting, but those calories could help you burn up to a pound a year without even trying!

Drinking water can help you burn more calories: Say it with me, “I LOVE WATER.” Seriously, you need it. And not just when you’re working out and not just when you’re hungover (or chugging water late-night to prevent a hangover). We all need water all the time! Getting enough water per day for your body weight helps to keep your metabolism, as well as all of your body’s other functions, running at full speed and maximum capability.

Dieting slows your metabolism: Yep! This one’s true, even if it seems counter-intuitive. For every pound you lose, your Basic Metabolic Rate (a fancy term for your metabolism) drops about 2 to 10 calories a day. So, if you manage to lose 10 pounds, you now have to eat 20 to 100 fewer calories per day.  Counteract this effect by gaining muscle as you lost weight; more muscle mass means a faster metabolism!

Protein speeds it up! Protein is far superior to fat or carbohydrates when it comes to your metabolism, because it requires more of your body’s energy (fat!) to digest!  Studies show that you may burn up to twice as many calories digesting protein as carbohydrates. To get enough protein per day, take one third of your body weight and convert it into grams. That’s about how much protein you need to eat to keep things running smoothly.

YOUR BURN MORE CALORIES WHEN YOU’RE PMSING!: I wanted to believe it, I prayed it was true…and it actually is! Pass the Oreos, please!! Yes, PMS cravings ARE related to the boost in your metabolism before your period. Your resting metabolic rate increases between ovulation and the first day of your period and can burn up to an extra 300 calories per day! Woohoo!

Eat well, and often: Though it seems a little backwards, eating balanced meals and snacks every 2-4 hours keeps your metabolism in high gear! This includes breakfast – eat it, people! Even a tablespoon of peanut butter is better than nothing. Breakfast gets your metabolism kick-started for the day and then you can keep it at maximum speed by eating small meals and snacks throughout the day.

Drink Some Coffee and Green Tea: This one’s tough because it is true, but like water, isn’t a huge metabolism booster. The caffeine in coffee will help you burn more calories after drinking it, but very few. Green Tea, which contains a substance called EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), may also help you burn more calories, but so few that any weight loss effects are almost impossible to detect.

Lift! For every pound of muscle in you, your body burns 35 calories per day. The body burns just 2 calories for each pound of fat. Conclusion? Weight train!! Increased muscle mass and density will lead to an increase in calories burned because the muscle takes more energy to maintain than the fat. This means that even when at rest you will be burning more calories! (Here are some great exercises that you can do just about anywhere!)

Some Like It Hot: Some studies have shown that hot pepper and very, VERY spicy foods can raise metabolic rates by about 20% up to 30 minutes after a meal. If burning your mouth, turning red, dealing with heartburn and sweating are worth it to you, go for it! But if you’re willing to put in that much work, why not just hit the gym instead?

"Am I skinnier yet?"

Ah, weight loss: the subject that’s sold a thousand glossies. I just got finished reading People magazine’s latest “Half Their Size!” spread, a semi-regular feature that celebrates regular people who have shed an entire person’s worth of pounds. While their stories are certainly inspirational—at least, as long as you believe that those who are overweight are inherently worth less than people with low BMIs—the madness that surrounds the weight-loss industry is chock-full of bad advice for women.

It’s hard to focus on just one bad advice source here, since weight-loss tips are always a mix of the glaringly obvious (did you know that if you drink water instead of Mountain Dew and eat carrot sticks instead of bacon-wrapped candy bars, you’ll get thinner?) and the mind-numbingly ridiculous (try eating only these processed cookies! Try eating dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner! Try not eating!).

Even so, while perusing Good Housekeeping’s “30 Ways to Drop 5 Lbs …and keep it off for good,” I came across a few pieces of advice silly enough to make me slap my forehead with my palm and groan. For instance, here’s what the ladies at GH think you should do if you’re in the mood for something sweet:

“Try an almond stacked on top of a dried apricot — it tastes like a cookie. Really.”

Um… no. I’m not exactly a foodologist, but I’m pretty sure that this snack would taste like a nut on top of a dried piece of fruit. That is not the same thing as  an Oreo. Tell us to eat fruits and nuts all you want, Good Housekeeping—just don’t piss on us and then tell us it’s just raining.

And also, if you’re craving a cookie, why not just eat a cookie? As long as you don’t eat, like, twelve cookies, you should be fine, right? Again, I am not a licensed diet advice dispenser, so you should take my recommendations with a grain of salt. (Unless the lady mags have decreed that even a grain of salt is too much sodium.)

Then there’s this gem:

“Laugh Off 40 Calories! A study from Vanderbilt University showed that you can burn up to that many calories by laughing genuinely for 10 to 15 minutes. (Watch Groundhog Day to giggle off even more weight.)”

These guys think Groundhog Day is a funny movie that chuckling for a full 10 to 15 minutes—that’s the length of half of an episode of Friends!—in order to burn as many calories as there are in one apple is a worthwhile use of our time? How about spending those 15 minutes, I don’t know, exercising? Or reading a novel? Or doing ANYTHING besides forcibly exhaling breath like a crazy person in a misguided attempt to shed pounds?

It’s also a good idea, according to this article, to take a leaf out of Violet Beauregarde’s book by chewing gum so that your mouth will be occupied, preventing you from continuously cramming Pringles down your gullet the way you obviously would were it not for that stick of Orbit. As an added bonus, they write, “Chomping on gum burns 11 calories an hour (hey, every little bit helps).”

But does it really? Why do magazines like this assume that women have so little self-control that some sort of constant mouth-occupation is necessary in the first place? And again, who in their right mind is going to chew on a piece of gum for an entire hour?

Ugh. This crap makes me so mad that I could stress-eat my way through, like, 20 almonds on top of 20 apricots right now. See what you’ve done to me, Good Housekeeping?

It's time to try something new. And that includes wearing an actual shirt to the gym.

If magazines like Women’s Health or Fitness are considered a part of your required monthly reading (or, really, as long as you haven’t been living under a rock), you have probably learned that switching up your workout routine is vital. In addition to being a surefire way to speed up weight  loss by ensuring that you’ll burn more calories, varying the things you do at the gym will ensure that your body is up for any challenge.

Now, if only I had listened…

Last week, I returned home from school for the long-awaited Christmas break and was informed by my mom that I would be accompanying her to her training session. She works out once a week with a nice (and semi-attractive) man who seems to be pretty un-intimidating, and seeing that she is a 52-year-old mom and I’m a 22-year-old rock star in pretty good shape, I figured that it would be a piece of cake. I can run on the treadmill, right? I can do bicep curls with ten pound weights! Bring it on!

Instead, I was forced to endure pull ups (I cannot do these), lunge and squat around the entire room while carrying crazy weighted sticks, lie down on that squeaky medicine ball while doing sit ups, fling around little black weights that looked like cowbells and bruised the inside of my wrists, and lower myself into numerous machines while I pushed and pulled and panted until I could barely breathe. Meanwhile, my mom was just humming to herself and completing her tasks without a word.

Five days later, I can still barely move. When I lift my arms to put my hair in a ponytail, shooting pains soar through my shoulders. Every time I sit down in a chair, my thighs burn. My shoulder blades ache when they press up against the seat of the car. And every time I take a step, I have to hunch over a little bit to ease the pain resulting in a Hunchback of Notre Dame-esque stride that I know must be pretty unattractive. My parents, my friends and my boyfriend are going to kill me if I complain of soreness another time, and I might just lose it if I still have to roll out of bed like a toddler just learning to walk tomorrow morning.

Now, I don’t need Shape to tell me that what I thought was a pretty legit exercise routine – my usual 45-minute run on the treadmill or stride on the elliptical – wasn’t really enough. I wasn’t lifting enough weights (so my strength was suffering), I wasn’t doing enough core work or improving my flexibility (since I kind of hate sit ups and never take Pilates or Yoga classes), and I wasn’t switching up my cardio.

While getting 45 minutes of exercise in each day is good, that alone will not get the job done. Variety is important. And that means variety within your cardio workout – like interval training – and variety in the types of workouts you do – like weight training, core training and flexibility. In order to burn the most calories and see the greatest results from your exercise routine, you must train your entire body, and you really gotta spice those workouts up in the process. Otherwise your body will get used to your routine and it won’t have to work as hard to complete it. Which means, over time, that 45 minutes on the elliptical will burn less calories. And still be just as boring.

As we sit on the cusp of a new year, it’s time to think about what you want to look and feel like in 2010. I don’t know about you, but I know for a fact that I don’t want to feel the pain of getting out of bed. Or sitting in a chair. Or brushing my hair. And I wouldn’t mind getting a little stronger and leaner.

Basically, I’m ready to make some major changes in my routine and you should, too. Sign up for some weight training classes on campus. Seek out a Pilates studio and build up that core. If you’re an elliptical rat, get on a treadmill and start running. Not only will these small changes make your workouts more interesting and effective, but your new strength will increase your endurance, making you able to get even better workouts in down the road.

It’s a win/win. Unlike my current situation, which is a pain/more pain.

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There are days when not even a new playlist, the latest issue of Glamour, AND Tough Love on VH1 could make my 45 minute elliptical sesh fly by. My mind is bored, and so is my body. And when my body is bored, it’s not burning as many calories. The human body is designed to be efficient so when I do the same exercise day after day (which gets boring), my body uses fewer calories to do the same amount of work on day 30 than, say, on day 1.

The same goes for you, people.
If your mind is bored, your body is bored.

As college students, we’re bored enough sitting in lecture each day; our workouts should be something that we look forward to! And at the risk of sounding like your mom, college is the time to try new things, so why not new methods of exercise? Cross-training (varying different types of exercise or activity), also helps you burn more calories by tricking your body with new and unfamiliar movements. It can also prevent exercise-related injuries, as you’re working different muscle groups and using different parts of your body for each activity. And, taking group fitness classes is an awesome way to meet people. Studies have shown that exercising with other people increasing the level of endorphins that we release during a workout, keeping us coming back for more!  Some universities even let you take sports or fitness classes for CREDIT! You pretty much just have to show up. Good motivation if you find it hard to get out of bed and to the gym, or wouldn’t otherwise have time to exercise.

If you’ve been doing the same 45 minute elliptical workout for the past few months (or few years!) it’s time to switch things up. Here are a few ideas to add a little mix to your workout:

Spinning / Group Cycling: An intense workout on a stationary spinning bike set to upbeat music in which an instructor will take you through a ride that will get your heart pumping, your legs working, and engage your core! Cycling can be adapted to your fitness level, and helps build endurance and muscle strength. It also tones your glutes like nothing else will and is an amazing cardio alternative.

Hooping: (As in hula.) Woooo, third grade! The hoops are bigger and weighted so that anyone can get the hang of it. Hooping builds core strength, tones the entire body, increases flexibility, and is a great cardio workout! You’ll also look sexy moving those hips!

Pole Dancing: A workout to make your Papa proud.

Belly, Ballroom, Salsa, or Hip Hop Dance: Any of these forms of dance will give you a great cardio and toning workout, while teaching you concentration, grace, and coordination!

Fencing: Fencing helps improve coordination, mental speed, discipline, and athleticism while giving you a great cardio workout. Learn to outwit your opponent and feel like a pirate. Cool? Clearly.

Surfing: Cameron Diaz attributes her body to surfing. Enough said. But really, surfing is a great workout for toning each and every muscle in your body. Legs help you up and keep you on the board, arms paddle out, and your core helps you keep your balance. Hot surf instructor also a plus.

Excursion Sports: Many schools have excursion clubs that take members on kayaking, rock climbing, and hiking adventures.  Each of these activities is a way to get some fresh air, a great workout, and an opportunity to flirt with your kayaking guide or trail guide.

Yoga (any variation): There are countless variations of Yoga classes available today, but don’t think that you need to take one with a name that you can’t pronounce to get the best experience. Good old Yoga will do the trick too. Yoga is wonderful for improving posture, flexibility, muscle strength, relaxation, strengthening the skeletal system, and releasing stress.

Boot Camp: Be prepared for pain with any boot camp! The instructor acts as a drill sergeant and will have you doing calisthenics, running steps, pushups, pull-ups, and pushing you to the limit. Be ready to work for this whole body cardio and toning workout. If your school is near the beach, the class may be held there. It’s tough, but it’s worth it!

IM Sports: Intramural sports are a great way to play the sport that you loved in high school, or to try a new one. It’s also a great way to meet people. Most teams are co-ed, and there are different skill-level options. Form a team with your floormates and sign up!

Water Aerobics: Old ladies in swim caps DOES come to mind, but it’s a great low-impact cardio workout. Resistance from the water also helps you tone without feeling like you’re doing that much work!

Circuit Training: Taught as a group class, circuit training classes can include cardio dance, cardio circuit, kickboxing, step interval, hi-lo, body pump, buts and guts…the list goes on and on! These classes combine high intensity cardio and typical weight training with small hand weights or resistance bands.

Self Defense / Martial Arts: Relieve stress, kick ass, and build muscle strength and endurance? AND be able to not only dress up like Lara Croft for Halloween but also roundhouse kick like her? Yes please.

Pilates: Tried and true, Pilates is a great toning workout for your whole body. Focused breathing and relaxation are also benefits of this low-key workout.

Every school or gym will offer some or all of these classes, so check your school’s fitness center and see what they got. Just find something you like and you’ll not only enjoy working out more, but see greater benefits, too.

It’s not like we don’t know what is healthy and what isn’t – we do. And we all vow that the next year will be different – that we’ll stop getting seconds at the caf and drinking 6 nights a week – but then classes start, beer pong ensues and it all goes out the window right to our asses.

To most of us calories are just confusing; who the hell knows how many calories we actually consume on a daily basis. How much work we need to do in order to burn off dollar pitcher night.  How many calories we burn walking to the library? But those things definitely need to be figure out if we want to steer clear of the not-so-attractive muffin top.

So, I thought I’d break it all down in a way everyone could understand: comparing the things we love to eat to our daily activities.

There’s always going to be that day when you have two tests to study for and an essay to write, which means zero time to cook yourself a healthy meal. But perhaps those days will be a little further in between knowing that you’ll have to wash dishes for five hours the next day to burn it off:

Two Slices of Domino’s Cheese Pizza (540 calories)= 3 hours of vacuuming (which is probably 1,214 laps around that 10X12 box of yours)

One Order of “General Tso’s Chicken” From Your Favorite Chinese Place (844 calories)= 2 hours of running on the treadmill at the gym

One Grande Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Latte (330 calories)= 3 hours of taking notes in class

One Plain Bagel With Cream Cheese (436 calories)= 1 ½ hours of dancing at a party

One Bowl of Ramen Noodles (296 calories)= Walking around campus for an hour

One Subway 6” Philly Cheese Steak (520 calories)= 4 hours of doing laundry

Happy Hour Anyone? Think twice before ordering another round:

One Corona (148 calories)= standing in line at the bookstore for 2 hours

One Vodka Shot (100 calories)= 1 hour of sexual activity (Okay perhaps the vodka shot isn’t such a bad thing…)

One Long Island Iced Tea (275 calories)= 3 hours of reading/highlighting in a text book

Despite all the diet mumbo jumbo that overwhelms women on a daily basis, weight loss is a rather simple formula: burn more calories than you eat. The end.

How do you burn those calories? Duh, you workout. You run, you swim, you blade, you work so hard your shirt is soaked with sweat and you smell like one of the guys asking you for money on your way to class. It’s brutal and it’s annoying, but you gotta do it if you don’t want all those late night pizza runs to stick to your booty.

But a new study from LSU has proven that exercise may not help us lose weight after all. In fact, what it does do is make us all hungrier so we end up consuming all those calories we just worked so hard to burn…and end up with the same results we would have had if we had simply stayed home and watched Real World Cancun on the couch.

According to an article in Time Magazine, which cited the exercise study, “Whether because exercise made them hungry or because they wanted to reward themselves (or both), most of the women who exercised ate more than they did before they started the experiment. Or they compensated in another way, by moving around a lot less than usual after they got home.”

Well, that’s interesting. Everything we’ve been taught from nutritionists/doctors/The Biggest Loser has been wrong? I don’t need to smush myself into a sports bra 5 days a week and run in place for 45 minutes in a basement gym?

Part of me wants to jump for joy at this news (“NO MORE 6am WORKOUTS?! WOOOO!”), but I can’t shake the little guy in the back of my head that’s telling me about all the other health benefits of working out.

But, thinking about how much my legs hurt from my Spin class yesterday, that little guy is easily silenced and the urge to jump for joy (which I can’t do, due to said intense pain) returns once more.

What do you think of these findings? Do you see some truth? Would you stop working out?

With the sun shining and the weather heating up, it’s hard to motivate yourself to spend an hour inside a dark and smelly gym. At the same time, if you’re not into running, getting a good workout outdoors isn’t always easy. Or fun. So what can you do to take in the beautiful summer weather and burn some serious calories?

Join a summer sports league.

It doesn’t matter if you are living in a big city, or crashing with the parentals in suburban America – you can find a summer sports league near you. They range from softball to dodgeball (and everything in between) and are a great way to meet people, get a little workout, and have a really good time doing it.

I spent last summer playing kickball twice a week. Sure, kickball requires a lot of standing around (especially when your team is full of boys who can’t stand losing and thus do most of the work for you), but we’d do some warm up runs (serious calorie burning), I’d run at least one base every time I kicked (serious calorie burning), and there were many times that bright red ball flew right over my head and I’d have to run after it (serious calorie burning).

Next week I’m starting a summer volleyball league, which can burn between 450 and 700 calories in an hour! All that while hanging out with some cute boys (that’s how I chose my team…) and keeping my toes in the sand. That definitely beats 45 minutes on the Stairmaster.

Summer leagues are easy to find and easy to join. You don’t even have to know other people doing it – there are plenty of teams that need extra players and you can hop right in. And don’t worry; if you’re not good, that’s OK, too! Most of these leagues are just about the fun, so it’s OK if you aren’t the star softball pitcher for your university.

My summer leagues really get me excited about working out and there is nothing better than that. I highly recommend everyone try one out – it’ll be the easiest 400-ish calories you ever burned.

To find a summer league near you, Google the sport you want to play and your city (Softball league, Boulder CO). If kickball is your thang, check the WAKA (World Adult Kickball Assocation…for real) website to find a league near you.

1 Minute Abs
The one minute abs workout can be done anywhere – from the gym to your dorm. It’s a routine that works every ab muscle and will get results if done properly without rest in between moves. It’s a combination of 3 moves, each for 20 seconds.

*Leg Lifts – To get started, lie on your back with legs straight, lifted about 6 inches above the ground. Feel free to put your hands underneath your butt so your low back doesn’t arch. Lift legs to 90 degrees so they are right above your hips and lower them. Repeat for a total of 20 seconds. This move is commonly referred to as leg lifts.
*Toe Taps – Immediately go into the next move called toe taps. Bring legs above hips, out straight or with a slight bend and reach your hands towards your toes. When you come back down, stay about 3 inches above the ground and reach right back up. You don’t have to actually touch your toes but reach as far as you can without putting too much strain on your neck. Complete toe taps for 20 seconds.
*Bicycle Crunches – Without rest, bend knees into table top position. Bring hands to the temples of your head and crunch up bringing opposite elbow to the opposite knee while straightening out the other leg, and switch sides. Make sure you don’t rock side to side.

Here is a video of the workout if you are more of a visual type person.

Want more quick workouts? Try the world’s fastest workout that promises to burn over 400 calories post-workout by raising your heart rate and metabolism. If you try that and still want more (are you crazy?!), check out the bicycle version that is sure to break a sweat in less than 4 minutes.

Got a question about this workout? Follow me on Twitter and send me a message. If you liked this article, check out my blog for updates throughout the week, including a 1 Minute Buns video that will be live later today on our channel on YouTube!