If it weren't for chronic exhaustion, Linda Taylor might not have realized that something was wrong. "I just couldn't stay awake at my job," says Taylor, calling her behavior peculiar since she was normally adept at navigating the daily stress of her then "high-pressure" occupation. When her work began to slide, a friend suggested that Taylor undergo a sleep study to see if her terrible snoring might be a sign of a possible explanation. She did. Diagnosis: obstructive sleep apnea. "It was a hidden problem I didn't know I had," says the 59-year-old from Decatur, Ga., who has recovered so successfully with the help of a nighttime breathing apparatus that she now dreads going to sleep when the power is out.

For nearly three decades, Lynn Blanco's body was her enemy.

A sexual assault in college left her feeling as though her body had betrayed her. She didn't take care of herself. She gained weight. She felt unhappy in her own skin.

But now Blanco, president and CEO of the Rape Crisis Center for Children & Adults, is working to change that. She has lost weight and is training to run a marathon.

Want your children to eat less? Let them serve themselves. They probably won't dole out a supersize portion on their own.

Or pour drinks into tall, narrow glasses rather than short, wide ones; they'll think they are getting more (so will you).

With Americans spending billions of dollars a year on fat-loss techniques ranging from celebrity diets to stomach-stapling surgery, the relatively new field of behavioral nutrition examines more down-to-earth questions.

A physical exam prior to the experiment showed that Spurlock, who had been on a mostly vegetarian diet, was the picture of health. His cholesterol was 168 (most Americans struggle to keep their cholesterol below 200), and his weight was 185, with only 11 percent body fat instead of the 18 to 25 percent carried by a typical American male.

Health plans queried by HPW have launched a slew of efforts that target obese and overweight members. And, they say, a growing number of their employer clients intend to include weight-management programs in coverage options offered during this fall’s open-enrollment period.

Eyes don't lie: Take a look around any crowded public place in this country and you can't help but notice that America has a supersized problem with obesity.

We're bulging and the problem is growing: Since 1960, the number of American adults classified as obese has nearly tripled, from 13 percent to 35 percent, according to a study for the Urban Institute reported by columnist Rick Casey in last Sunday's Chronicle (“A ‘fat tax' for Texas? Chew on it,? Page B1, Aug. 16).

In June we told you about Jennie Staines, the 41 year old obese woman who was among the first to try a new procedure that’s now being offered in Belize. It’s called a gastric balloon – basically a specialized balloon that’s put in the patient’s stomach to make it so that they always feel full don’t have the capacity to eat too much. We were there when Jennie Staines got her one put in and though we said we’d check on her three months later – with the progress reports we’ve heard we didn’t even have to wait that long. When we visited her today the results were very visible. And even more impressive when you consider that we found her at her workplace which is a kitchen.