Photo: Courtesy of Frank Bruni

Amidst a childhood of overeating -- we're talking tantrum-throwing if he didn't get that third burger he wanted -- Frank Bruni, 44, went on his first diet at age 8, beginning a what would become a decades-long struggle of weight-loss and weight gain. "I was born with just an enormous appetite, clearly," says Bruni. "Going on the Atkins Diet at 8, that was a measure of how self-conscious I'd become about my weight, just how much teasing I'd been exposed to and just how intensely eager I was, even at that young age, to do something about it. And so I kind of stepped on that whole binge-purge cycle at an early age."

After reaching his largest size -- upwards of 270 pounds (Bruni, then as now, didn't measure his size by the scales) and a 42-inch waist -- a breakdown helped him confront his compulsive eating habits. A new job with hours he could control allowed him to stress less and exercise more. Bruni, who now wears a size 34, says he's content with the way he's managing his eating. Instead of bingeing three to four nights a week like he did in the past, Bruni has an episode once every three or four weeks, at most.

In an interview with That's Fit, he shares how he quit the yo-yo dieting cycle, what his fitness routine entails and how others can begin to address their issues with food.

That's Fit: How did you break your pattern of yo-yo dieting?

Frank Bruni: A couple of things happened. I hit rock bottom in terms of I just so hated the way I looked and I felt so disgusted by it, there was a certain point where I was like, "I just can't put up with this anymore. It just makes me too sad and ashamed." At that time, I had just changed jobs, so I had less stress because I had more control over my hours. I was able to commit to 90 minutes to two hours of exercise every day -- and that's what I would do. I mean hard exercise. After that, when I was in more of a weight-maintenance mode, I happened to reassigned to Italy and the natural portion control and the emphasis on food quality over quantity that you find in Italy was like the perfect recipe to help me maintain the weight loss.

The stars of the new 90210 have gotten a lot of press for being so slim, but Shenae Grimes, who plays Annie Wilson on the show, is fed up.

She denies having an eating disorder, saying, "Just because people are callin you skinny doesn't mean I'm like, 'Yay!' No! You're telling me I don't look right." The slender star adds, "This is me, this is my body -- I have accepted it." She has a friend who struggled for years with an eating disorder, so while she's familiar with the problem, she doesn't suffer from it.

Grimes also insists that she doesn't look too thin in person, and has "[n]o bones sticking out." But, after hearing these rumors about herself, she admits that she's thinking twice about anything she's ever read about anyone else.

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All too often, we're quick to judge someone who is obese, labeling them in our mind -- and sometimes out loud -- as weak-willed and lazy. Obesity is a very serious health risk, but as far as it's cause goes, it's considered self-inflicted, or as one author says, 'a moral failing.'

But is obesity a disease? Some of you will say no -- cancer is a disease, eating too much and getting fat is not. Calling it a disease implies that the person affected had little to do with the problem. But according to Divine Caroline, The Institute of Medicine says yes: "Obesity is a heterogeneous disease in which genetic, environmental, psychological, and other factors are involved. It occurs when energy intake exceeds the amount of energy expended over time. Only in a small minority of cases is obesity caused by such illnesses as hypothyroidism or the result of taking medications, such as steroids, that can cause weight gain."

What do you think?

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When we think of eating disorders, the image we conjure is of stick-thin anorexics and bulimics. But the most prevalent eating disorder isn't anorexia or bulimia -- it's Binge-eating disorder. Does it affect you?

Let's be clear here -- everyone overdoes it on occasion, eating more than is comfortable and feeling bad about it. But there's a difference between going back for thirds at the all-you-can-eat buffet and suffering from binge-eating disorder. It's a serious problem. Symptoms include food hoarding, eating to the point of pain or discomfort, regular dieting without weight loss and depression or anxiety over eating habits.

The May Clinic has some great resources on this disorder -- click here to find out more, and of course, see your doctor if you suspect with might have this disorder. And for a first-hand account of the disorder, head over to the fabulous Sunny's Shape-up Blog.

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In most cases getting pregnant is beneficial for eating disorders, with many commonly going into remission while the baby is growing. But binge eating, one of the most common eating disorders, has been found to actually get worse for some women during pregnancy -- especially for those with lower incomes.

This data comes from an enormous study of over 41,000 women in Norway, so the results are pretty scary. This urges all doctors and other pregnancy specialists to be aware of these risks when treating their patients, and the next step for researchers is to take a look at how these issues may affect the babies born to women with pregnancy-related binging disorders.

Have you experienced anything like this either yourself, or with a friend/someone in your family?

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Do you know the difference between overeating and bingeing? I think the line is a bit blurry -- is having 2 or 3 helpings of dinner even though you're not hungry considered bingeing? How about filling your large plate to maximum capacity at the all-you-can-eat Indian buffet? I'm inclined to say that neither of these are cases of bingeing simply because they're not emotionally-driven (at least for me they're not); instead, I think they're instances of our eyes being too big for our stomachs, or of our desire to receive the taste and satisfaction of eating something tasty, ignoring the impending guilt that is sure to come.

The Centre for Emotional Well-being looked into this same question and concluded that binge eating has any three of the following qualities:

1. Eating faster than normal
2. Feeling unable to control your eating
   
3. Eating until feeling uncomfortably full
4. Eating large amounts of food when you are not physically hungry
5. Eating alone or hiding eating to avoid embarrassment
6. Feeling ashamed, disgusted, depressed, distressed or guilty about overeating.

To find out more, or if you think you may be a binge eater, read the full article.

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Thandie Newton, the actress who has appeared in Crash, Mission Impossible II, ER and many other productions, has admitted that she battled bulimia in her younger years. Newton, now 34, says her troubles began when she was 14 and training for Ballet Exams. She would eat nothing but cottage cheese, and claims this wouldn't raise suspicion in her family because her mother was in the healthcare industry and only kept healthy food in the house anyway. As she get older, abusive and personally shameful relationships further perpetuated her disorder, and she became obsessed with her weight. And she still has scars on her knuckles from making herself throw up to prove it.

Pictures of Newton over the past few years have depicted a frighteningly-thin woman, but I think she's appeared healthier over the past few years. What do you think?

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So what's your opinion on Alli? After all the hype leading up to it people have finally had a chance to buy it and try it for themselves -- nasty side-effects and all. But because it's over-the-counter and anybody can buy it, does that lead to a greater chance that people will abuse it? A psychologist from the St Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute thinks so, and he thinks the greatest danger is for people who suffer from eating disorders. Although Alli has been proven safe for those who are overweight, it may not be for people who do not need to lose weight or are already underweight. And since it's so readily available it may be particularly attractive to people with eating disorders -- even the side-effects (like diarrhea) may not deter them as they may be used to dealing with them already.

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Anorexia is generally thought of as a teenager's and young person's disease, but more and more middle-aged and older adults are being diagnosed and treated for the disease every day. Increasingly women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and even older are seeking treatment for anorexia and have often been dealing with the disorder for years. The reasons behind this sudden increase in older patients could be due to a variety of causes, including increased public awareness, increased pressure on women to be thinner, and aging baby boomers who may have been living with the disease since they were younger.

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Keira Knightley has won her lawsuit against the British newspaper "The Daily Mail" for running a picture of the actress alongside the story headline "If Pictures Like This One of Keira Carried a Health Warning, My Darling Daughter Might Have Lived." Knightley's lawyers say the reason she chose to pursue this was because the article made it seem that she was somehow personally responsible for the death of the 19 yr old girl featured, who had lost a battle with anorexia. Knightley contends that she does not have an eating disorder, and that her weight as an adult has never fluctuated by more than a few pounds.

The court awarded Knightley £3,000 ($5,965) and she plans to donate it along with £3,000 of her own to BEAT, a charity that helps people with eating and mental disorders.

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There appears to be a gap in the health care system (ha! one among many...) when it comes to identifying eating disorders in boys and some ethnic groups. Obviously, boys and some foreign cultures don't display the same behaviors and symptoms as the "white females" the system was designed for, and so these patients inevitably "fall through the cracks." One example is the fact that doctors and clinicians are trained to pay special attention when patients express an interest in being "thin," but most boys will instead say things along the lines of "fit" and "healthy," and those terms don't set off the same alarms.

So it's pretty obvious at this point that some of the training in this area needs closer examination and perhaps even a complete overhaul. As news about the rising obesity epidemic in this country continues, the pressure for our children will only get worse.

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Researchers have found a link between individuals who are strongly right-handed (meaning they rarely if ever use their non-dominant hand to lead tasks) and distorted body image/eating disorders. Experts say it seems to have something to do with the fact that the brain processes body image mostly in the right hemisphere and right-handed people often have "decreased access" to that entire right side. No definitive word in the article on how this may help with treatment.

I don't like the idea of "decreased access" to any area of my brain (I need every cell I have!), and aren't the majority of us right-handed? How unfortunate.

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More and more older women are being diagnosed everyday with eating disorders -- it's not just a teenager's issue anymore. It's not clear why so many women in the their 30s, 40s, and 50s are now showing symptoms of anorexia and bulimia, but some experts think it may not necessarily be an increase in eating disorders so much as increased awareness and more accurate diagnosing of eating disorders. They say also say that in most cases the older patients previously had some kind of eating disturbance (when they were a younger, more typical age), suggesting there was an underlying problem the whole time that just finally came to the surface due to midlife stresses.

There is some good news, however: experts are reporting increased success with new team-based treatment approaches -- as long as family and friends are on board for support.

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Anorexia is no small matter, as the eating disorder can lead to a very unhealthy state for many sufferers of it. It's been widely publicized that anorexia is brought on by societal factors (notably: the media), but for one of the first times I can recall, new research is stating that anorexia may be caused by genetic factors.

A decade-long study into anorexia nervosa by a Tulsa, Oklahoma researcher has led to the conclusion that a genetic predisposition to the condition may exist in some people.

The study involved eight cities in North America i addition to two European cities. The overall conclusion? Researcher Craig Johnson says that there is a 12X possibility of someone developing anorexia nervosa if it has been seen in a family member. Johnson went on to add that "Genetics loads the gun. Environment pulls the trigger."

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Mental illness drugs used to treat diseases like schizophrenia have been known to cause unexplained weight gain in some patients, but new research shows scientists that pinpoints the cause of this has just been announced.

Antipsychotic medications have been linked to the increase the activity of an enzyme in the part of the brain that regulates eating behavior. But the challenge, according to researchers, is to treat the underlying cause without affecting this area of the brain for psychotic patients.

It's not really a good thing that certain mentally ill patients using antipsychotic drugs end up taking on so much weight that other complications arise -- things like diabetes and heart disease.

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