2008 Year End Charts

Top Songs of 2008
Rank	Song	Artist	Plays
1	Viva La Vida	Coldplay	140
2	2080	Yeasayer	105
3	No One	Alicia Keys	98
4	I'm Yours	Jason Mraz	97
5	Paper Planes	M.I.A.	95
6	All Summer Long	Kid Rock	94
7	Nude	Radiohead	91
8	Metatron	The Mars Volta	90
9	Connecting Prayer	Medhi	87
10	Electric Feel	MGMT	84
11	Sex on Fire	Kings of Leon	83
12	Red Stars	The Birthday Massacre	80
13	Love Hurts	Incubus	79
14	Rocky Took a Lover	Bell X-1	76
15	Wings	Live	75
16	Race:in	Battles	71
17	All I Need	Radiohead	71
18	Grace Kelly	Mika	70
19	Breakeven	The Script	68
20	Vicious Delicious	Infected Mushroom	68
21	Detlef Schrempf	Band of Horses	67
22	Kill the Lights	The Birthday Massacre	67
23	Bodysnatchers	Radiohead	66
24	No Air	Jordan Sparks, Chris Brown	64
25	Shine Over Babylon	Sheryl Crow	63
26	Now or Never	UnterArt	60
27	I Like to Move It	will.i.am	60
28	Life in Technicolor	Coldplay	60
29	Teardrops On My Guitar	Taylor Swift	59
30	Wedding Bell	Beach House	58
31	Sweet Tides	Thievery Corporation	57
32	Paralyzer	Finger Eleven	57
33	All I Want is You	Barry Louis Polisar	56
34	Weird Fishes/Arpeggi	Radiohead	55
35	One Day Like This	Elbow	55
36	Pork and Beans	Weezer	54
37	Happiness	Goldfrapp	53
38	Aberinkula	The Mars Volta	50
39	You Came to Me	Beach House	49
40	Lost!	Coldplay	49
41	If I Had Eyes	Jack Johnson	48
42	Mercy	Duffy	48
43	Red Cave	Yeasayer	47
44	Little Bird	Goldfrapp	46
45	Bleeding Love	Leona Lewis	46
46	Lovers in Japan	Coldplay	45
47	Heartless	Kanye West	42
48	Time to Pretend	MGMT	42
49	Second Chance	Shinedown	41
50	Cemeteries of London	Coldplay	40
2008
Top Albums
Rank	Album	Artist	Units (M)
1	Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends	Coldplay	8.2
2	In Rainbows	Radiohead	6.9
3	The Bedlam in Goliath	The Mars Volta	5.6
4	Rock N Roll Jesus	Kid Rock	4.5
5	Devotion	Beach House	4.3
6	Walking With Strangers	The Birthday Massacre	4.2
7	Rockferry	Duffy	3.8
8	Radio Retaliation	Thievery Corporation	3.8
9	Detours	Sheryl Crow	3.5
10	All Hour Symbols	Yeasayer	3.4
Top Books
Rank	Book	Author	Units (M)
1	Anathem	Neal Stephenson	3.6
2	Twilight	Stephenie Meyer	3.3
3	Eat, Pray, Love	Elizabeth Gilbert	2.9
4	The Audacity of Hope	Barrack Obama	2.9
5	The World Without Us	Alan Weisman	2.1
6	The Shack	William Paul Young	1.9
7	Water for Elephants	Sara Gruen	1.7
8	The Graveyard Book	Neil Gaiman	1.7
9	The Enchantress of Florence	Salman Rushdie	1.7
10	Mistborn	Brandon Sanderson	1.5
Top Movies
Rank	Movie		Units (M)
1	The Dark Knight		16.8
2	Wall-E		14.4
3	The Bucket List		11.2
4	No Country for Old Men		11.3
5	There Will be Blood		10.7
6	Into the Wild		10.1
7	Slumdog Millionaire		10.1
8	Persepolis		8.6
9	Atonement		8.5
10	The Wrestler		8.4

Expert Fitness Advice: 10 Keys to Losing Weight

 

Losing weight is a science.  A surplus of calories mean you will gain weight, while a deficit means you will lose it.  It's generally recommended that you have no more than a deficit of 500 calories per day if you want to lose weight (anything higher could be seen as starving yourself, which does more harm to your body than good).  This equates to one pound per week (3,500 calories are required to burn a pound) and 5 pounds per month.  So put on your lab coats: here we'll discover how to burn enough calories to get rid of that pesky body fat. 

In order to find out how many calories you should be eating, first calculate your basal metabolic rate and factor in any activities you do.  You can easily find this using a Google search; all you need is your height, weight, age, and sex.  Don't forget to add calories for any activities that you burn a lot from doing throughout the day.   A high activity level means working out 5-6 times a week, or working at a strenuous job.  A medium level means working out 3-4 times, or working at a moderately strenuous job.  Low level means you're pretty much a couch potato and work at a desk. 

In order to lose weight, your goal is to reach 500 calories less than your BMR every single day.  Here are some tips that will help you achieve that: 
 
1.  Only eat when you are hungry.  This will help keep your metabolism high.  A high metabolism means you will burn more calories through the day.  In order to do this, eat slowly and stop at the exact moment you feel full.  When you stuff yourself it slows down your metabolism because a lot of blood goes to your stomach to aid in digestion.  Only eating when you are hungry means you will eat smaller portions, but you will be doing it about 6 times per day to keep your metabolism up. 

 
2.  Break a sweat at least once a day.  Exercise is crucial to any diet plan.  You don't always have to do the same exercise.  Find a nice balance by engaging in different activities throughout the week.  If you accidentally eat too much, a good way to remedy that is simply by burning it off. 

It's also important to break a sweat because the modern diet is loaded with sodium.  Think of sweating as a detoxifier of all the excess salt you might be eating.  One liter of sweat- meaning the 1 liter of water required to replenish it- rids your body of about 900mg of sodium, which is almost half the daily recommended value for most people.  The DRV is about 2,000mg.  It would be a good idea to keep track of your sodium intake for a few weeks, just to see if you're eating too much of it. 

 
3.  Walk more.  Over its long history, the human body evolved to walk and run.  The principle is simple: do more of what the body was meant to do, and it will look more like it should.  Modern living provides many shortcuts that our ancestors never had the privilege of using.  Don't be lazy!  Unless you're late for a meeting, park farther away from buildings and take the stairs more often. 
 
4.  Remain confident and determined.  Don't check the scale every day to see if you lost any weight.  Body weight fluctuates daily depending on hormones, how much you ate, and your digestive efficiency.  Furthermore, it discourages you to keep going because the tendency is to notice how little change is being made. 

 
5.  Drink water only: no soda or sports drinks.  Many excess calories come from soft drinks, which provide energy early on, but can cause a crash later. 

 
6.  Moderate sugar intake.  If you're addicted to sugar, outsmart it.  Only eat it before you worked out.  Doing it this way will give you more energy for your activities.  

Foods high in sugar tend to be high in carbs as well.  Go for a high carb diet if you're losing more than 500 calories every work out.  A lot of diet experts will tell you to eat low carbs, but don't do this if you're working out a lot.  Carbs are important for athletes because they're efficient at storing energy.  Marathon runners and high endurance athletes engage in something called "carbohydrate loading" the day before their events.  Keep in mind that when carb loading, you shouldn't be eating foods that contain a lot of sugar. 
 
7.  Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night.  This should be a no brainer.  Sleep deprivation means you won't burn your calories as efficiently, and are less likely to have a good work out.  Adequate sleep also gets rid of the need to drink caffeinated beverages or consume other stimulants. 
 
8.  If you accidentally binge, just drink water.  If you get really sharp hunger pangs hours after you've binged, drink some water and don't eat anything.  You won't feel hungry for another hour or two, and the pangs won't be as sharp.  If you binged on only one thing, your body's nutrients will likely be out of balance.  Water helps regulate this as well. 
 
9.  Your diet needs variety, including protein and vitamin D rich foods.  Make sure you're eating all five food groups in moderate balance, and that you're getting your vitamins. 

Protein helps repair our bodies after strenuous exercise.  Good sources of protein are dairy products, meats, seafood and poultry. 

An often overlooked vitamin deficiency is vitamin D, which we mostly manufacture from the sun hitting our skin.  Indoor living is a high risk factor.  Seafood and dairy products are high in vitamin D, but still not enough.  A supplement can help. 

 
10.  Seek encouragement.  Let your friends know how you're doing: we'll support you!