dieting-related stories
After Eating Food from the Trash, Man Loses 275 Pounds
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When Gregg McBride stepped on the scale one day, he thought it was broken. He later discovered the "error" message it displayed did not mean it was broken after all -- it just didn't go over 450 pounds, which was how much Gregg weighed at the time.
The 36-year-old's struggle with weight began in early childhood when his parents told him he couldn't eat junk food. But instead of setting a healthy example, this strict diet only hurt Gregg, so much so that he would steal money from his father's wallet to buy junk food and secretly scarf it down. "They thought they were helping," Gregg told the Today Show. "But in hindsight, I can see that they created a forbidden fruit. I ate junk food like it was going out of style."
Gregg's food addiction continued to get worse over the next 30 years. He was consuming nearly 9,000 calories a day on a menu that included soda for breakfast; several cartons of Chinese food and milkshakes for lunch; and a family-of-four-size meal from a fast-food restaurant for dinner, with a whole bag of cookies for dessert.
Despite Gregg's many attempts to lose the weight, nothing stuck ."I tried every diet out there: the wacky ones, the public ones, the dangerous ones," he said. "But I just kept getting bigger and bigger."
Gregg even tried a liquid fast where he didn't consume solid food for weeks. But when he spotted a half-eaten bag of potato chips in his trash, he stared at it for an hour before finally reaching in and devouring it.
Yo-Yo Dieting: Like a Drug (Really)
Photo: javiercit0, Flickr
In fact, there are a few parallels between yo-yo dieters and drug addicts, says co-author of the study and Boston University neuroscientist Pietro Cottone. It's not just the good feeling you get when you eat, say, chocolate cake, that makes you go back for more. The study found that dieters also seek out those foods to avoid the negative feelings they experience when they don't have those foods, similar to an addict trying to avoid withdrawal, he explains.
Researchers in the study gave rats cycles of normal and then chocolate-flavored rat chow, and saw some surprising results. Rats in the control group (all regular food) ate about the same amount every day, while rats who occasionally got chocolate food began to eat far more when they got the chocolate-flavored food, but less when presented with regular food. Additionally, according to ScienceNOW, the chocolate-fed rats exhibited signs of anxiety when the chocolate-flavored food was taken away. (Um, how many of us can relate to that?)
Quit Yo-Yo Dieting: Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat
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| Photo: Michelle May, M.D. |
The reason? In her book, she explains that the very basics of dieting -- the counting, planning and constant need to think and plan your eating based off of someone else's rules (often "before you're even out of bed!") is tiring. So much so, that any good aspect of the diet is essentially canceled out by the end result: "This constant effort and vigilance may wear you out and cause you to return to overeating to escape." Once Dr. May ditched diets, and adopted long-term successful strategies she describes below, the weight came off.
That's Fit: What do you think was most effective in helping you achieve a healthy weight?
Dr. Michelle May: I had to pay attention not just to what and how much I was eating, but why I was eating in the first place. I didn't have any deep, dark emotional issues, but I had certainly learned to comfort and entertain myself with food. Even when I was on a diet and following the rules about what to eat, I was still eating when I was bored, stressed or tired. When I felt too deprived of the foods I loved, I'd go off my diet. Nothing had fundamentally changed about my relationship with food so I just went back to overeating my favorites. This is what I called my eat-repent-repeat cycle.
I've since worked with thousands of people who are doing exactly the same thing, and the reason is that with yo-yo [dieting you don't] have any middle ground -- you are either on your diet or off. I kicked yo-yo dieting by changing the paradigm completely from a yo-yo to a pendulum. There is still the possibility of extremes but as you give overeating and dieting less of your energy, the pendulum settles into a smaller arc in the middle where you have the flexibility and the mindfulness to nourish your mind, body, heart and soul.
SlimQuick: Fat Loss Especially for Women or Diet Scam?
Reviews of SlimQuick are mixed. On the positive side, the SlimQuick program advocates an exercise program to accompany the use of the product. One testimonial on the SlimQuick web site said, "I was faithful to the diet and exercise program that was outlined. I have never had such quick and excellent results in any diet program."
But there are dissenters out there, too. "Products like SlimQuick perpetuate the growing trend of misinformation under the guise of 'science.' At best, it offers false promises of health and fitness in a bottle," said Melissa Urban, owner of CrossFit 603. "At worst, it could be dangerous to your health."
Happiness May Hinder Weight Loss
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| Photo: jupiterimages |
Having a glass half-full attitude may be hampering your weight loss. Optimism is generally regarded as a good thing, but when it comes to dieting, research shows that having an overly happy-go-lucky outlook on life can negatively affect weight loss success.
A Japanese study published in the journal BioPsychoSocial Medicine found that people who are happy are less likely to successfully lose weight compared to those who have a slightly negative and cautious outlook. Researchers conducted psychological profiles of 101 obese men and women who participated in a six-month weight loss program. Those who started out the program with a slightly negative outlook showed more weight loss success than those who were more optimistic.
While the study didn't find that being happy means you're doomed to see the scale remain stagnant, it does point out that being too optimistic can have its downfall. Essentially, having a sanguine attitude can help control negative emotion, but it can also cause people to give in to temptation because they believe everything will work out.
The Idiot-Proof Diet
Diet & Weight Loss, Motivation, Nutrition & Supplements
Two self-proclaimed "unusually greedy, cocktail-loving moms" lost 140 pounds between them in under a year -- without giving up completely on the foods they crave. Their book, "Neris and India's Idiot-Proof Diet: A Weight-Loss Plan for Real Women," explains how they dropped the weight with little effort. For their best diet tips head over to AOL Health to learn one bad habit to keep and six to ditch.
Which Celebrity Dieter Are You? This Week on AOL Health
Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment
An Apple a Day Keeps Hunger Away
Welcome to Walking the Walk, a feature that takes a deeper look at commonly shared diet and fitness advice. Every other week, I'll choose one piece of advice and practice it for seven days. Then I'll report back on what I discovered about making it work in real life and how it affected my own personal fitness -- and how it ultimately can affect your own efforts.
A big, crunchy, juicy apple is the perfect snack to fill up on between meals. But did you know that eating an apple before a meal just might help you cut back on calories?
A 2007 study, out of Pennsylvania State University, found that when participants were given either fruit juice, one and a half peeled apples or applesauce 15 minutes before a meal, the people who ate the apple ate -- on average -- 187 fewer calories from their plates.
Apples have been shown to control blood sugar, but that's not the only thing going on here. Researchers believe that it's the volume of food -- whole fruit is more filling than applesauce or juice, for instance -- and the act of eating that helps keep hunger pangs at bay.
I'm going to put this theory to the test this week, eating an apple (with the peel -- more fiber and nutrition that way!) before each lunch and dinner.
Walking the Walk - Day 3
Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
It was researchers out of the State University of Rio de Janeiro who got everyone talking about apples. They found that overweight women who ate three apples or pears every day lost more weight than women who didn't. Not only that, the women in the fruit group also had a decrease in blood glucose levels. Apples have been shown to help control blood sugar, another key factor in keeping hunger at bay.I ate a half an apple at 11:30 this morning, a half hour before I usually eat lunch -- only half because I wasn't particularly hungry. At noon, I made a salad (and cut the other half of the apple up to put on top). I was definitely satisfied with a smaller, lighter salad than I'd usually make.
A half hour before dinner, I grabbed another apple. Dinner is always my most dangerous meal. I'm hungry, I'm tired, and since it's more of a family style meal (rather than lunch, which I just make for myself), it's easier to go back for seconds. But I didn't feel like I wanted seconds tonight.
Walking the Walk - Day 5
9 a.m.: Time to really test out if this apple thing works. Tonight we're hitting a favorite restaurant with friends. Eating out is a big danger zone for me -- and don't even ask me to just order a salad ... what's the point in paying for a night out if I can't enjoy myself? My plan (it's always important to have a plan when you're losing weight) is to budget my calories wisely at breakfast and dinner, eat my apple a half hour before we leave, skip the drinks and leave half of my dinner on my plate. 9 p.m.: The apple didn't cure my love of good food, but I felt much more in control when my meal came. I felt satisfied before I hit the half-way point and managed to bring home half my meal in a takeout box.
Crazy Diets
Crazy Diets
By Jennifer Fields and Mary Kearl
Fad diets are so alluring with their promises of fast weight loss and their skinny celebrity followers. The problem is that they're often unhealthy and make outrageous claims that are untrue. Here's a roundup of the some of the most strict and downright ridiculous diets around and the famous names that champion them.
Going Bananas
Eat bananas for breakfast and lose weight? That sounds easy enough. But the Morning Banana Diet -- such a craze in Japan that grocery stores there can't keep the fruit in stock -- involves a little bit more than just eating this favorite breakfast food. On this plan, which is supposed to boost metabolism, you'll eat one or more bananas with room-temperature water for breakfast and have an optional snack at 3 p.m. You can eat anything you want for lunch and dinner. There are no desserts, dinner has to be eaten by 8 p.m. and you have to go to bed by midnight. Does it work? Japanese opera singer Kumiko Mori announced on a TV show that she lost 15 pounds using the Morning Banana Diet. The creator's husband is also said to have lost 37 pounds. We're not sure those two instances count as solid proof of its effectiveness, but this diet certainly rates high on wackiness.
C is for Cookie
We like the sound of any diet that involves eating cookies and promises you'll lose 15 pounds in a month. Sanford Siegal, M.D., is the creator of the Cookie Diet in which followers eat six of his specially formulated cookies along with one meal a day. It's not surprising people lose weight on this diet, considering they're eating a mere 800 calories a day -- a calorie count so low that experts would classify this as a crash diet that is not sustainable. We classify it as just plain crazy.
Dubious Cure
Kevin Trudeau's book, 'The Weight Loss Cure,' made HCG a household name. HCG, a hormone extracted from the urine of pregnant women, is used to treat reproductive problems, but injections of the hormone are also thought to curb appetite. We suspect any weight loss might be the result of the 500-calorie-a-day diet you're supposed to follow on the plan, not necessarily the self- or doctor-adminstered shots. The FDA denies weight loss claims about HCG, but the hard-to-find shots are still widely sought after. Aside from the obvious ick factor, there are some intense side effects including water retention, mood alterations, headaches, and high blood pressure. Men who receive the injections may get positive results on pregnancy tests.
Part-Time Diet
Who wouldn't go for a diet that promises you can eat whatever you want and as much as you want? But the s have more than one third of your daily sodium allowance. 'Alternate-Day Diet' by James B. Johnson, M.D., has a pretty big catch: You can only indulge every other day; on alternate days you'll be eating a mere 200 to 1000 calories total. Switching between overeating and starving sounds like torture, but does it work? A review published in a 2005 issue of the 'American Journal of Clinical Nutrition' found that non-obese followers of the plan did lose weight on the diet, but they reported high levels of hunger and irritability that would likely prevent this from becoming a long-term plan.
Pain in the Rear
Sure, the Martha's Vineyard Diet calls for mud treatments, but following it is no day at the spa. You'll also be drinking most of your meals and enduring weekly colonics and enemas. Robin Quivers does look great since she tried the detox, but with all those trips to the spa, this diet is heavy on the pocketbook and light on lasting results.
Diet in Vein
Any diet that requires a test of your blood type raises our eyebrows. And depending on the results, you could be stuck shopping for an all-veggie diet or one where the main component is veal. Why? the Blood Type Diet claims certain foods react differently with various blood types. A better idea than eating politically incorrect meat? Cut back on your portions.
jupiterimages
Cuckoo for Coconuts
Another contender in the realm of the single-food eating plan is the Coconut Diet. Jennifer Aniston swore by this plan where you load up on coconut oil (Almond Joy doesn't count), which is supposed to boost metabolism and help you lose weight quickly. Most experts agree you should limit coconut in your diet because it's rich in saturated fat which can raise cholesterol, so it's best to avoid this one.
Funny Face
Voluptuous Kate Winslet swears the Facial Analysis Diet helped her drop baby weight. On this wacky plan, a so-called facial analyst proposes a special diet based on food intolerances revealed in the texture of your skin, eyes and hair. But the only reason this diet ever works is because people tend to drink more water, get more sleep and eat more fruits and vegetables while on it.
Tart Diet
Beyoncé revived interest in the Master Cleanse when she used the juice fast to slim down for 'Dream Girls.' Drinking a mix of maple syrup, lemon juice, water and cayenne pepper for days is hardly a healthy approach to weight loss. Even Beyoncé said she wouldn't advise anyone follow her diet lead.
Trigger Foods, Soft Drinks and Diet Detectives - Week in Review - May 25 to May 31
Sure, everyone deserves a treat now and then. But if you have trouble controlling yourself around a sugary or salty food, it's probably your trigger food and best to avoid most of the time.Laughter is the best medicine, and it can even help you stay fit, says Laura. Got any good jokes for us?
One more reason not to drink soda: It can lead to muscle damage. Drink water instead, says Bev.
If you're on and off the weight loss wagon, then do yourself a favor and read Jonny's fantastic post on staying in the game. You can't win if you don't keep playing.
It's like "What Not to Wear" for overeaters. Diet Detective Charles Stuart Platkin teaches people easy ways to eat right and exercise in a new show called "I Want to Save Your Life."
Think you're ready for summer? Stay safe and fit in the hot weather with Fitz's list of summer essentials.
Tired of saddlebags or flabby thighs? Fitz has the solution for you: Exercuffs.
After the loss of her husband, Rosie Swale Pope went for a little run ... around the world. "I've learned not to fear things the way I used to. I no longer worry about how tall I am or how old I am. I've learned to celebrate life - and to live it to the full," she says.
If you've ever had your weight yo-yo, then you know the pain of regaining lost weight. Tune in to Bob Greene on a new special called "I'm Fat Again" to follow three weight loss journeys.
Finally, if you're looking for a way to make your workouts more interesting, consider a time machine. Retro workouts are all the rage.
Jumpstart Your Weight Loss (With Real Results) in 2 Weeks
Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Motivation, Nutrition & Supplements
Whether it's a high school reunion, summer beach trip or friend's wedding, we all have that one calendar date marked in red when we just want to look a little better than our best. Here, Chris Freytag, author of "2-Week Total Body Turnaround," lets us in on a few of her quick weight-loss secrets. Reality check: You're not going to lose a pound a day; in the first week, you might shed some water weight, so it's possible you'll see a drop of five or more pounds, but after that, one to two pounds is what you should expect, says Freytag. She also promises an "intense... kick in the butt, a mental challenge, a contest to keep you going for 14 days... designed to give you the skills and tools to move forward."
That's Fit: OK, I have two weeks before a big event, and I want to slim down. What are some dietary and fitness changes I can make?
Chris Freytag: First off, cut out the packaged junk food ... all of the chemicals, preservatives, extra sodium, extra fat and extra sugar can cause inflammation and lethargy. Eat real food -- lots of fruits and veggies, lean meats and fish, low-fat dairy and whole grains. To do this, you have to get organized. Make a shopping list and go to the grocery store. This will keep you from going for takeout because 'you don't have any food in the house.' And, don't starve yourself. Eat six small meals instead of three large ones. By eating smaller portions more regularly, you can fend off possible binges.
Lose Weight for a Bet
Motivation is a big part of weight loss. Without some driving force, it's easy to slip back into bad habits and forget about your weight loss goals. Sources of motivation range from wanting to improve a certain health condition to fitting into those skinny jeans again. But how about your wallet? Would cash be a motivator for losing weight?The bet dieting trend has taken hold in the U.K.. Dieters set the amount they think they can lose by a certain date (or dates); if they don't make their goal, money is subtracted from their account and donated to a charity of their choice.
The trend has actually been in the U.S. for a while now. One staked service is stickK.com. You can sign up for a free account, set your goal and then make a commitment contract where you set your own stakes. On weeks when you don't meet your set goals, you can opt to donate money to a charity you support or to a friend. For added incentive, you can even choose to donate money to a foe or to a charity with goals you oppose. If the money thing isn't for you, you also have the option to set non-staked goals. According to the sticK website, a commitment contract can more than triple your chances of success.
Hungry Girl Feeds a Nation of Snackers
Hungry Girl, aka Lisa Lillien, laughs in the face of that common piece of nutrition advice: Shop the perimeter of your grocery store. "People are hypocrites," she recently told the Washington Post. "They say 'shop the perimeter of the store, never eat anything that's not organic,' but it's B.S., because people can't live like that forever." Instead, Lillien shows them how to enjoy their favorite -- mostly processed -- foods without the extra calories (or guilt). It's a formula that seems to work for a lot of people. With her Hungry Girl website, Lillien has done for processed diet foods what Oprah did for books. Her email list is 700,000 strong, and when she recommends something sales go through the roof. "I know exactly what people will like," Lillien says. "I just know. I'm that way. When I taste something, I can say, 'You know what? I like it okay, but only 20 percent of the people will like it,' or 'If I really like it, then 99 percent of people will like it, too.'"
But should fit and healthy girls really follow Hungry Girl's lead? Take a look at her latest book, "200 Under 200: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories." On the cover are cupcakes and rolls, french fries and donuts. They might be under 200 calories, but are they really the slim secret to success? After all, that advice to shop the perimeter of the store (organics aside, because I don't think everyone has access to or can afford organics) isn't just for weight loss ... it's for nutrition.
