By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter Latest Exercise & Fitness News

FRIDAY, Aug. 3 (HealthDay News) -- I rolled into the St. Helens, Ore., rest stop, 172 miles into my single-day ride of the 204-mile Seattle-to-Portland Bicycle Classic, truly unsure how I was going to make it the rest of the way.

Despite my best efforts, I had hit the wall. I had been eating and drinking the entire long day, focused on replenishing the thousands of calories I'd been burning, and still it hadn't been enough.

"When you're out there for extended periods, your body gets depleted," said Nancy Clark, a registered dietitian in Boston who has written about nutrition for cyclists. "It gets depleted of water, it gets depleted of calories. You want a constant infusion of carbs to fuel your muscles and brain, and liquids to replace the loss of sweat."

Nutrition and hydration had been my two major concerns as I trained. I had only ridden in bicycle "centuries" (100 miles) before, so the STP -- a one- to two-day race held on July 14-15 this year -- would be double any previous exertion.

I tried different sports drinks and supplements during my training rides in the months leading up to the big event, and experimented with snacking at different times during the rides.

This, it turns out, is the right way to go. "Upon starting to train for an endurance event, you should also start to create your fueling strategy," Clark said. "While training, you need to determine what food and fluids you prefer for fuel during exercise."

I stopped training the week before the Seattle-to-Portland ride, to give my legs time to be fully rested.

"It takes 24 to 48 hours for muscles to become completely fueled, after you've tapered off your exercise," Clark said. "You probably didn't need to take that much time off, but it didn't hurt."

In the couple of days just prior to the big day, I began loading up on carbs.

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Race-Day Diet Can Make or Break a Competitive Cyclist

Let's face it: The rules of weight losseat less, move more, treats in moderation are a drag.

And they don't fit with most dieters' quick-fix, thinner-by-dinner expectations. Cue diet crutches: tricks, based on scant science, that may speed up results. So if a friend swears that munching on grapefruit gets her into skinny jeans, or a coworker credits ice water for his sleek physique, should you try it too?

Not so fast. Some diet crutches are helpful, some harmful, and some won't do much either way. We asked registered dietitians for the bottom line ("skip it," "try it," or "do it right") on the most common diet crutches:

1. "Cleansing" your system: Skip it It sounds simple: Drink "body-flushing" liquids and eat little or no solid food. But just because celebs do it doesn't mean you should.

"Will you see the weight loss? Absolutely. But it isn't safe, in terms of getting the nutrients you need," says Amy Shapiro, RD, founder of Real Nutrition NYC. Once you eat solid food, you'll gain back the pounds.

Because the liver and kidneys remove toxins, a "cleanse" is unnecessary and even harmful, says Sonthe Burge, RD, a nutritionist. It can cause diarrhea, "so you can't go far from a bathroom," she says. Other side effects: Headaches, lack of energy, and trouble focusing. _______________________________________________

More From Health.com:Best Superfoods for Weight Loss

Little Daily Tricks to Wake Up Slimmer

25 Ways to Cut 500 Calories a Day ________________________________________________

2. Filling up on fiber: Try it "Fiber is not absorbed well by the body, but is also very filling, which makes it a great choice for people trying to lose weight," says Dr. Natalie Digate Muth, an American Council on Exercise spokesperson.

See more here:
Diet crutches: What works and what doesn't

A change in your food habits that leads to a well-balanced and relatively low calorie diet will pay dividends both in your immediate food bill but also in your personal energy level, and appearance.

Anyone who has ever paid attention to their health, even a little, knows that there is some correlation between their personal health and well being and what they choose to eat. Eating a well-balanced and relatively low calorie diet is good for almost anyone (though youll find yourself getting into a lot of debate when you get more specific than that).

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A change in your food habits that leads to a well-balanced and relatively low calorie diet will pay dividends both in your immediate food bill but also in your long term health costs, your personal energy level, and your appearance.

At the same time, anyone who has attempted to make radical changes to their diet all at once has found it very, very difficult to stick with. We are creatures of habit on both a mental and a biochemical level, and there is a very strong push to maintain our current diet.

So, what do we do? Recently, I talked about utilizing a buddy to help with adopting a positive new habit in your life. Today, were going to look at the benefits of taking it one step at a time.

For me and for most of the peole Ive interacted with in my life the key to success with any challenging habit is to take steps that are sustainable above all else. If you cant sustain a particular routine in your life, youre going to revert back to your previous routine.

Buddies help you build sustainable routines, of course, but another strong tactic is to simply take it gradually. Adopt a single new tactic or a very limited number of them and focus entirely on making those work in your life.

Read this article:
How to change your diet. Gradually.

It's too late to lose that unwanted weight for summer. But if you start now and aim to shed a modest 2 pounds a week you could drop as much as 40 pounds in time to ring in 2013.

The hardest part, however, might be choosing a new diet. This season's crop of cookbooks includes a whiplash-inducing array of advice. For every book urging you on to eat: More carbs! More protein! More fat! there's another seemingly well-reasoned argument to do the opposite. As if this isn't confusing enough, there's a new bogeyman on the diet scene: gluten.

The naturally occurring protein found in wheat, barley and some other grains is being blamed for a variety of health woes, including gut unrest, inflammation and those love handles. (People who suffer from a gluten intolerance such as celiac disease must shun it for far less glamorous reasons.)

Among the highest-profile proponents of a gluten-free diet? Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus. Kardashian set the Internet on fire earlier this year when she tweeted a sexy photo of her famous curves, crediting a gluten-free approach. The newly engaged Cyrus has slimmed down so much in recent months that some tabloids have begun whispering about an eating disorder. Cyrus, however, says she's healthier than ever after adopting a new diet and a Pilates-inspired exercise regimen to get her ready for the altar.

Of course, it's not exactly surprising that people lose weight on a gluten-free diet. Eating gluten-free often means slashing plenty of high-calorie breads, cakes and cookies.

There is one consensus among the most popular new diet books on the market: They are largely free of food extremes. All emphasize the need to scrutinize food labels and ditch chemical-laden products in favor of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats. Dig in:

"Eat to Live": If you need to be scared straight about your health, this book is for you. Dr. Joel Fuhrman makes a powerful case that Americans are courting cancer and disease by the forkful. He urges ditching low-calorie diets and piling the dinner plate high with nutrient-dense fruits and raw veggies. You certainly won't be hungry. Sample dinner: Fish fillets with mango salsa, kale with cashew cream sauce, rice and chocolate cherry "ice cream" made from almond milk.

"It Starts With Food": Need some tough love cleaning up a lousy diet? This is your drill sergeant. Dallas and Melissa Hartwig ask that you enlist in their 30-day boot camp dump the processed junk and embrace whole foods and you'll emerge a brand-new person. It would be hard to be hungry on this diet: You're encouraged to eat plenty. Recipes such as Asian stir fries, frittatas and soups are ultra simple and encourage creative substitutions based on what you and your family enjoy.

"The Manhattan Diet": Dieting has never been so fabulous. Eileen Daspin adopts an everything-in-moderation approach as she name-drops her way through living, dining and dieting on the world's chicest island. Ditch the unfulfilling junk, she says, in favor of celeb-chef recipes such as a Mario Batali fennel-and-arugula salad and Eric Ripert's grilled salmon with a ponzu vinaigrette. Plus: You have to love a diet book with a whole chapter dedicated to cheating.

"Paleoista": The paleo diet meets fashionista, courtesy of Los Angeles' Nell Stephenson. Ditch flours, sugar, grains and dairy. What's left, you say? Steak and eggs for breakfast. Seared sea bass with a coconut curry sauce or sun-dried tomato-and-basil stuffed tenderloin for dinner.

More:
Many new diet books avoid food extremes

Diet soda sounds like an easy way to cut calories, but new research shows it may not be good for weight loss, according to everydayhealth.com. Studies show that diet soda may not be any better for you than regular soda. In fact, it may even be worse.

Recent literature suggests that those who drink diet soda weigh more than those who dont. That shouldnt surprise anyone. Does diet soda cause weight gain? I think that is the wrong question. I dont think people should drink diet soda, whether they have weight problems or not, says Darwin Deen, MD, senior attending physician at Montefiore Medical Centers Department of Family and Social Medicine in the Bronx, New York.

Of top concern, drinking diet soda has been linked to developing metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a group of conditions that include expanding waist size, increased blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, lower levels of good cholesterol, and high fasting blood sugar levels. Having three or more of these findings increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Here are some other research findings you should know about diet soda:

According to the San Antonio Heart Study, the more diet sodas you drink, the greater the chance that you will be overweight or obese. For each diet soda you drink there is a 65 percent increase in your risk of becoming overweight.

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Healthy Minute: Can diet soda cause weight gain?

Once, when I was nine years old, my older sisterthen 15invited me to her room. This in itself was an honor and a privilege, but today there was something even better: Kira was about to embark on a disciplined but rewarding diet of fat-free foods, and she wanted to know if I would join her. We would be partners! We would support each other, encourage each other,lose weighttogether! There would be challenges, of course, but together, we would succeed.

The first step, Kira explained, was to eliminate existing temptations, such as the great stock of Halloween candy currently occupying a corner of my bedroom closet. It wouldnt do to try to ignore it, or to save a small selection for later, or even to enjoy one final fun-size Milky Way. The candy must go.

I complied without hesitation. I did not pause to consider the fact that this was by far the largest supply of treats I had ever amassed. I did not linger on the memory of shuffling through the streets of suburban Portland for hours, dressed as a housewife in slippers and robe, in the rain. I did not immediately recall growing steadily colder and more miserable as I followed my brother Gabe from door to door in his relentless and dogged pursuit of a full pillowcase, or the descent into hypothermia, or lying in bed later that night, shivering uncontrollably while my mother buried me under a heap of blankets.

I didnt think of any of that. I toted my stash to the garage, breathed in the sweet confusion of all its artificial scents one last time, and emptied my pillowcase into the trash.

In family lore, that day is remembered as the time Gabe got caught digging through the garbage for Emilys candy, but in my personal history, it also marked the beginning of a long and inglorious legacy of dieting. Im embarrassed enough of this history that I might actually have managed to forget it, except that much of it is written down in a diary I somehow still have.

The diary begins in seventh grade, two years after my first adventure in dieting. In one entry from that year, I make a pact with myself to lose 15 pounds in three weeks. A few days later, I confess that I need some motivation to help shed the pounds and hope that being around my best friend will help:We were carrying eachother(sic)around on our backs and she is so much lighter than me! I felt so bad and fat and slobby maybe Ill be able to stay away from everything that tastes good now.

Of course, like most people, I always reallylikedeverything that tastes good. Once, around first grade, I spent the night at my friend Kathleens house and woke to the smell of bacon. When I sat down at the kitchen table, Kathleens mom put a full plate of glistening, curling red-gold strips in front of me. Soon, Kathleens older sister came in and asked, Wheres the bacon? The mom looked from the empty plate to me to her daughter, who said, She ateallthe bacon?

I was not, in other words, a naturally talented dieter. But after a few dozen false starts in the middle school years, I discovered a trick that made it easy to stay away from everything that tastes good. All I had to do was remember four words:

Food is the Enemy.

As an adult who hopes to someday raise children of my own, the fact that I learned this trick from my momwho is an extraordinary human being and an amazing motherterrifies me. She had not intended to instill in me a fear, animosity, and distrust of food. She told me, in her characteristically open and honest way, about her own struggle with anorexiahow refusing to eat had been a prolonged act of teenage defiance and rebellion; how it had given her the feeling of agency and the illusion of control.

More:
My lifelong diet

Most on Gluten-Free Diets Don't Have Celiac Disease, Study Shows

By Brenda Goodman, MA WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Aug. 1, 2012 -- For a lot of people, gluten-free diets are more trend than treatment, a new study shows.

The study estimates that 1.8 million Americans have celiac disease. Another 1.6 million are on gluten-free diets, the recommended treatment for celiac disease. Yet there's almost no overlap between the two groups.

"So here' we've got this kind of irony where those who need to be on [a gluten-free diet] aren't on it, because they don't know they have it. And those who are on it probably don't need to be on it, at least from a medical point of view," says researcher Joseph A. Murray, MD, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "It's a little frustrating."

The study is based on data collected through the government's NHANES survey, which takes regular snapshots of the health of the U.S. population.

Celiac disease is a disorder that's triggered by eating gluten, a protein found in grains like wheat, barley, and rye.

Some people with celiac disease have no symptoms. Others experience non-specific complaints like chronic fatigue, depression, brain fog, abdominal pain, weight loss, anemia, diarrhea, and other stomach problems.

Along with using the survey data, the researchers also used blood tests to screen nearly 8,000 people, ages 6 and up, for antibodies against the gluten protein. Those who showed gluten antibodies were given another test to look for proteins that indicate the body is attacking itself. A total of 35 people were considered to have celiac disease.

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Most on Gluten-Free Diet Don't Have Celiac Disease