There is no doubt that a clean diet and exercise are keys in healthy weight management. So why is it that many of us eat well and are active but still have difficulty in losing weight?

What does the term 'negative calories' mean?

I know it has something to do with eating foods that actually make you lose weight - even though these foods contain calories. The foods are healthy but this concept is counter intuitive to me. Some people swear by it, others say it holds no merit.

Any ideas? And does this concept really work?

Crumbs Count: If you don't believe me, just ask your thighs.

Who's Foolin' Who? by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, author, 50 pounds big-time-loser.

Crumbs Count
A bunch of years ago I stumbled upon Nancy, the star of Ernie Bushmiller's comic strip of the same name, "Nancy." As I remember it, Nancy was pictured with a box of cookies in one hand and a hammer in the other. Her aunt was yelling from another room. "Don't spoil your appetite. Dinner will be ready soon." To which Nancy replied, "I'm only eating the crumbs."

SUNDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- Most women don't need a survey to tell them a basic fact of female life: They're often sleep-deprived and feel too sluggish to make it through the day with vigor.

Whether they're single career women, newlyweds, new moms, single moms, empty-nesters or grandmothers, many -- if not most -- women acknowledge that they just don't get enough shut-eye.

A recent episode of the television show The Secret Lives of Women (seen on We TV @ www.wetv.com), highlighted women of different sizes. Some extremely tall or small and some extremely heavy.

The heavy women called themselves Big Beautiful Women or BBW's - a now common term used by women of size.

The women were gorgeous, smart, happy and successful, running a business devoted to the empowerment of large women.

Part of me really champions them. Why should they conform to the size society (or their doctor) tells them they should be if that's not what they want to do?

So I've just learned that I'm obese. And I had NO IDEA. But not only that, no one I've shared this with believes me! Not even my team here at EmpowHer! People have been laughing and rolling their eyes at me all day long. And I can't say I blame them because when you see me, obesity is the farthest thing you think of.

The American Diabetes Association has two great interactive tools for determining one's risk for diabetes.

The first is the Diabetes Risk Test and can be found here.

The second is what they call Diabetes PhD.

These are valuable tools because according to the ADA's Web site, about 20.8 million children and adults in the US have diabetes -- and nearly one-third of them (or 6.2 million people) don't know they have it.

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- A potbelly in middle age more than triples the risk of senility decades later, according to a large study that pinpoints a new link between obesity and dementia.

That's what I've been calling it! Sometime in my mid-40's, I started going through the "change of life." Whereas I had weighed 110 lbs at most, the weight started creeping up. At first, that was okay, because, well, let's just say my childhood nickname (that stuck through college) was "Bones."

By Randy Dotinga EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, Feb. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Surprising research suggests a popular artificial sweetener has the unexpected and unwelcome effect of packing on the pounds. Purdue researchers report that saccharin altered the ability of rats to control their appetites. However, the head of an artificial sweetener trade group scoffed at the findings, saying they don't necessarily translate to humans.