Colleen Travers

If you want to lose fat while building or maintaining muscle mass, you'll need to do more than cut calories. Eating enough protein is key, because protein — or more specifically, a type of protein called amino acids — serves as the building block of muscle, Torey Armul, MS, RD, LD, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told POPSUGAR.

Why do our immune systems always seem to take a hit when our lives are at their busiest, leaving behind a cold that makes us want to curl up in a ball on the couch despite looming deadlines and family or friend commitments?

It seems intuitive in the colder months that you need to be proactive about your health, from religiously washing your hands to prevent catching a nasty bug to making sure you've got the right amount of layers on to stay warm and protect your skin. But it's important to be proactive about your health during the Spring, too. Here are three things you should work on now so that you're ready to embrace lighter, warmer days ahead.

Taking chances in your 20s — when much of your life is already unstable — can feel scary, but the risk can be well worth the reward. One of the biggest chances you should take is to trust yourself to be okay once you stop smoking.

It's responsible for carrying lower body blood back to the heart.

It causes a lump in the testicle but often goes away on its own.

Whether you’re training for your next Spartan Super, Beast, or Ultra you know staying hydrated is essential. In fact, your performance in the race is directly linked to it. “Proper hydration can be the difference between first and second place in a race,” says Naresh Rao, D.O., F.A.O.A.S.M., partner at Sports Medicine at Chelsea in New York, NY, and author of Step Up Your Game. “Our bloodstream is mostly made of water, carrying glucose to muscles and carrying away waste. Dehydration can be in...

The current trend in running and training sneakers: minimalist zero drop shoes. Thing is, there’s no one-size-fits-all (or one-style-fits-all) solution when it comes to fitness footwear. Here, we break down the details on zero drop sneaks, what type of training they’re best for, and how to know if they’re the right shoes for you.

Whether you’re doing a Spartan race with your co-workers, family, or friends, the team you train with has put in many miles, hours of sweat, and maybe even some blood (if you’ve had a misstep on an obstacle or two). Not to mention the tears along the way (real talk: we’ve been there, too). But once you cross that glorious finish line you’ve earned the right to some serious celebrating.

Training for a Spartan race can do a number on your body if you’re not smart, which is why you make it a point to make the right choices from your nutrition to your recovery days. But what you may not be taking into account is whether or not you have low electrolytes, and this can have a direct influence on your performance.

Whatever your reasons for going vegan, there are a number of ways you can expect to benefit from that decision. "Eliminating animal products will typically make a diet very low in saturated fats, which can be beneficial for heart health," Rebekah Blakely, a registered dietitian nutritionist for The Vitamin Shoppe, told POPSUGAR.

A cherry angioma (also commonly called cherry hemangiomas, Campbell de Morgan spots, or senile angioma) is a bright red or purple spot made up of blood vessels. They often appear on the torso of the body, though they can develop anywhere, including the arms, legs, chest, and even the scalp. Cherry angiomas are benign (non-cancerous) skin growths and are extremely common in adults after the age of 30 years old.

It's no secret that diet plays a much bigger role than exercise when it comes to weight loss, including shedding dreaded belly fat. It isn't a quick fix, though — and that's a good thing.

While any form of exercise can help you burn calories and lose weight — including shedding stubborn belly fat — there's nothing simpler than running. After all, you don't need a gym membership to lace up your sneakers and head outside, nor do you have to worry about working out on someone else's schedule. But if you want to see results, you'll need to be disciplined.