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Your health: Burn up that fat

Smart burn

There’s a smarter way to burn fat, and website FabFitFun.com has rounded up their favorite nutritionists to share their best fat-burning secrets to maintain a healthy weight.

Keep track of time: Registered dietitian and author of “A Recipe for Life By the Doctor’s Dietician,” Susan Dopart recommends eating a high-protein breakfast within an hour of waking and getting at least eight hours of sleep to keep your insulin, ghrelin and leptin (aka: your hunger hormones) in check. “If you get too little sleep, ghrelin increases and thereby makes you hungry and crave salty, sugary snacks.” Don’t go more than four hours without food to keep your metabolism strong.

Get enough vitamin D and calcium: “Research suggests that calcium and vitamin D play a role in helping your body burn more fat (called fat oxidation), particularly belly fat,” says Kate Geagan, registered dietitian and author of “Go Green, Get Lean.” For those who don’t do dairy, Kate suggested a nondairy beverage like almond or coconut milk fortified with calcium and vitamin D.

Balance your blood sugar: When trying to lose weight, a balanced blood sugar level is key. Integrative nutritionist and registered dietitian Breea Johnson suggests including good sources of protein, carbs and fat in all meals and snacks. This will help increase satiety and weight loss.

Go nutty: “Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food” author and celebrity nutritionist/chef Christine Avanti says nuts not only help protect against obesity, but also studies have shown that eating nuts can boost serotonin levels, helping to speed up weight loss.

A virtual pillbox

The pillbox, which sorts medications by dosage and day, is getting a digital makeover.

Balance, an iPhone app ($3.99), was released last month by the New York-based National Alzheimer Center as a way to track dosages of medications used to treat Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, which can affect a person’s memory and behavior.

A virtual pillbox, the app lists medications, dosages and the time of day each treatment should be taken. Users can mark a check box when a pill has been swallowed, making the app a useful tool for a caregiver to communicate with a patient or doctor and for multiple caregivers to communicate with each other. The app includes a schedule that alerts users to dose times and doctor’s appointments.

The app also allows caregivers to track a patient’s physical, behavioral and emotional changes, manage doctor’s notes, find caregiving tips and read articles relating to the disease.

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