Can chewing gum with sugar affect your day’s calorie allotment - and your weight-loss efforts? … and more of your questions answered here.

Every day I chew two packs of bubble gum containing sugar. (I don’t like sugarless gum.) Can chewing this much gum cause weight gain?
Yes. One piece of Bubble Yum has 25 calories, as much as one Hershey’s Kiss or two gumdrops. If you chew 10 pieces a day - two packs - you’re consuming 250 empty calories. Big Red, Doublemint and Juicy Fruit contain 10 calories per stick.

Although Sugarless Bubble Yum contains 20 calories a piece, most sugar-free gums contain just 5 calories a stick. “Give sugar-free gums another try,” says Gail Frank, Dr.PH., R.D., a nutrition professor at California State University, Long Beach, and a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. “There are several different sweeteners, and you might find one you like.” If you switch from a brand that contains 25 calories per piece to a 5-calorie brand, you’ll save 200 calories a day, enough to lose 1 pound in 18 days.

Gum can be a low-calorie way of satisfying a sweet craving, but it can be tough to determine how many calories are in the gum you chew. While most sugarless gums have a nutrition label on each individual pack, most gums with sugar don’t. That’s because on small items like gum, the government requires labels only on the box, not on each pack. At some stores, the gum might not be displayed in the box it came in

I eat an apple in the car on the way to the gym every day after work. But after 40 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of weight training, I’m absolutely starving, and I eat way too much for dinner. Should I choose a different pre-workout snack?
Your problem may not be your choice of snack - an apple is a fine choice - but rather that you have gone too long without eating. “What you eat earlier in the day can influence your hunger after your workout,” says Cindy Moore, M.S., R.D., director of nutrition therapy at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Are you eating a substantial breakfast and lunch?

In addition to snacking on an apple in the car, Moore suggests a midafternoon snack, such as a whole-grain granola bar, another piece of fruit or lowfat yogurt. As a rule, don’t go more than three hours without eating. “If you eat earlier in the day, you’ll be more in control after your workout and won’t experience nearly the degree of hunger afterward,” Moore says.

A Web site I visited claims applecider-vinegar tablets are a “natural way to jump-start weight loss.” Is this true?
Sorry, the claims on the Web site are false. “The way to evaluate any product is to look at research published in scientific journals,” says Seattle nutritionist Susan Kleiner, Ph.D. You won’t find any valid research to back up the claims about vinegar and weight loss.

Although it is illegal for companies to make false claims, the Federal Trade Commission simply does not have the manpower to shut down every misleading Web site that touts quick-fix weight-loss products. “The responsibility lies with the consumer,” Kleiner says. There is simply no shortcut to weight loss. The old standby formula - regular exercise combined with nutritious eating - is the only one that works.