Just in time for Spring, you can now buy FitFlops from The BE FIT Store powered by Amazon.com. I love the idea of simply wearing shoes that tone your legs, the concept is genius.

 FITFLOP DETAILS:

Get a workout while you walk. Engineered to engage muscles, lessen joint impact and absorb shock, FitFlops burn calories and tone legs with every step. From running errands to working around your house, it's finally easier to stay in shape and multitask your fitness with a sexy, sporty look. Imported leather/cotton/polyester.

• Strengthens and tones muscles in your feet, legs, buttocks, stomach and back
• Absorbs shock on your feet, knees and back
• Tones and trims your thighs, calves and glutes
• Recreates the gait of barefoot walking with a built-in micro-wobbleboard workout-enhancing effect
• Improves balance and posture

 You can buy them HERE ($50)

 If you like FitFlops, you may also want to check out Hello! Skinny Jeans and Yummie Tummie Tanks!

The actress is getting on her bike – stationary bike, that is – for a spinning class at Montana Avenue's Revolution Fitness in Santa Monica. The actress was spotted taking a class from teacher Bobby Neely on Sunday, sporting a white T-shirt, black leggings and, of course, her baby bump. Kidman sat on a bike next to her personal trainer and rode to a soundtrack including songs by Mary J. Blige, Bon Jovi and everybody's favorite '80s icons, Culture Club. But Kidman seemed especially tickled by a Keith Urban song, a fellow gym-goer says. SOURCE

ABOUT SPINNING (AOL):

• Cost: Ranges widely. Individual sessions can be as low as $5 or as high as $20
• Time Commitment: 2 to 4 classes (typically 45 minutes) a week will help with toning and weight loss.
• Location Limitations: N/A.
• Special Equipment Required: Padded shorts are recommended.
• Potential Pitfalls: N/A.
• Boredom Rating: The fast pace of the class and the upbeat music typically overrules the ‘lack of scenery’ element.
• Potential Injury Risk: As long as the bike is set up properly, injury risk is low.
• Level of Fitness Required: N/A.
• Calories Burned (based on a 150 pound woman exercising at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes): 200 to 325 calories.
• Body Parts Worked: Legs, butt.
• False Myths: If you’re steered away from spinning out of fear of developing ‘bulky’ legs, it’s time to change your tune. The quick rotations will leave your thighs and calves lean and sculpted.

CNN reports that interactive video games could help some children lose weight. Considering the average child watches 4 hours of television each day, active video games are a good alternative to sitting on the couch. Some studies show that kids are 3 to 4 times more likely to lose weight using these video games vs. nothing. Until playing the Nintendo Wii I've never had any interest in video games. The active games are much more fun and they defiantly get your heart pumping. They're perfect for boring rainy days but I don't think they could ever build a system that would take the place of fresh air and sunshine.

A study by the British Medical Journal looked at how they interactive activities matched up to the real thing:

Interactive Boxing: 175 Calories

Real Boxing: 384 Calories

Interactive Bowling: 168

Real Bowling: 192

The results show that some interactive video games may be closer to the real thing than others. Although these video games are great additions to the world of fitness, they haven't yet replaced the real thing and I don't see them doing so any time soon.

SOURCE

AOL REPORTS:

Exercise physiologists say there is little in the world of exercise as wildly exaggerated as people's estimates of the number of calories they burn.

Despite the displays on machines at gyms, with their precise-looking calorie counts, and despite the official-looking published charts of exercise and calories, it can be all but impossible to accurately estimate of the number of calories you burn.

You can use your heart rate to gauge your effort, and from that you can plan routines that are as challenging as you want. But, researchers say, heart rate does not translate easily into calories. And you may be in for a rude surprise if you try to count the calories you think you used during exercise and then reward yourself with extra food.

One reason for the calorie-count skepticism is that two individuals of the same age, gender, height, weight and even the same level of fitness can burn a different amount of calories at the same level of exertion.

Claude Bouchard, an obesity and exercise researcher who directs the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., found that if, for example, the average number of calories burned with an exercise is 100, individuals will burn anywhere from 70 to 130 calories.

Part of that is genetic and part is familiarity with the exercise. The more familiar you are with an exercise, the fewer calories you use at the same level of effort, he found in a research study. Subjects rode stationary bicycles six days a week for 12 weeks. They ended up burning 10 percent fewer calories at a given level of effort after their training. The reason, he said, is that people perform an exercise more efficiently as they become more accustomed to it.

There also is a seldom mentioned complication in calculating calories burned during exercise: you should subtract off the number of calories you would be using if you did nothing. Almost no one does that, Dr. Bouchard said. But for moderate exercise, the type most people do, subtracting the resting metabolic rate can eliminate as much as 30 percent of the calories you think you used, he added.

Resting metabolic rates, though, differ from individual to individual and also differ depending on age, gender, body mass, body composition and level of fitness, so guessing at your resting rate also is fraught with error.

Even if you wanted to get a rough estimate of the calories an average person your size might burn at the gym, you might not want to trust the displays on cardio machines, with the possible exception of treadmills, said William Haskell, an exercise physiologist at Stanford. And with treadmills, the calories are not accurate if you hang on the bars.

Dr. Haskell once studied people using treadmills. Hanging onto the rails reduced the number of calories burned by 40 to 50 percent. The same thing happened with stair-climbing machines.

SOURCE