FIT SQUAD’S top slimmer, Natasha Cavey, was so huge at 26½st she had to IMPORT clothes from America.

The account manager from Birmingham — single mum to eight-year-old Chloe — lost nearly 15st with our programme, a record.

Many severely obese patients who undergo weight loss surgery remain severely obese after the operation and yet their quality of life and obesity-related diseases - like diabetes and high blood pressure - improve, new research shows.

As reported in the Archives of Surgery, Dr Michel Suter, of Hopital du Chablais, Aigle-Monthey, Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleagues assessed the outcomes of 133 super obese patients and 492 morbidly obese patients who underwent gastric bypass weight loss surgery.

Evidence is mounting that America's rising rates of obesity and asthma are not coincidental. They suggest a causal link. But does the link, if valid, hold for both men and women? Research varies.

A 1999 Harvard Medical School study found a definite obesity-asthma link among nearly 86,000 subjects, but the subjects were all women. The author insists his findings hold for men too. However, a 2001 Canadian study of both sexes found that obese women-but not men-were more likely to develop asthma than thinner women.

Inactivity is killing us. Researchers in the United States, as well as those from universities and think tanks in Europe, Australia and China have documented the causal relationship between inactivity and poor health in general, and between inactivity, obesity and diabetes in particular.

Bariatric surgery is generally thought of as a last resort for weight loss. But it can be an important and sometimes life-saving option for some. Those who typically are candidates for bariatric surgery are severely obese. They often also have serious weight-related health problems, such as diabetes, sleep apnea or heart disease.

There are several options for bariatric surgery. They all restrict food intake. Some procedures also interfere with the body's ability to absorb calories and nutrients. They do this by surgically bypassing part of the small intestine.

''I was like this gigantic, white blob,'' she said. ''I was dumbfounded.''

Post weight loss plastic surgery, also called bariatric plastic surgery, is a growing specialty within the field of plastic surgery. I use the word “specialty? deliberately, as it truly takes a special plastic surgeon to put beautiful finishing touches on a newly slim body safely.

Weight loss patients should look for a plastic surgeon who—with their skills, experience and commitment to the specialty—can demonstrate that they’re ready for the challenge of resculpting the body. Here’s why.