Just when you thought it was OK to relax with a glass of well-earned wine and nibble on a few whole-grain crackers, nutrition researchers ask, “Did you have enough protein today??
Yes, we know you’re not into body-building competitions, but get a load of this midlife reality check: You could be losing muscle mass and strength — a condition called sarcopenia — if you don’t consume enough high-quality protein on a daily basis.
Paige Gilmore used to be so large she couldn't buckle up a seat belt in a car, or go on a roller-coaster ride with her son. No chair was big enough to hold her 420-pound, 5-foot-7-inch frame.
Dieting had never helped Ms. Gilmore, who has been overweight since the age of 9. "Once you get past 350 pounds, you can't even be weighed on a regular scale," she said. "I was desperate. I was hiding food and eating it for comfort. It was like a tic."
Two years ago, Jack Koukerjinian was so overweight that just walking up steps without pain was impossible, and jumping out of a window blindfolded or scampering down a ladder seemed, well, beyond impossible.
Now, after battling obesity for nearly 18 years, the 42-year-old single father is a volunteer firefighter in Prince William County.
Mr. Koukerjinian, who was born in Beirut and grew up in Greece, came to the United States in 1979 for treatment of leukemia, which returned in 1990 when his father was battling cancer.
"I turned to food and nearly doubled in weight, and ever since then I was obese," he said.
In 1999, a door opened when Mr. Koukerjinian was hired in the financial department of Sibley Memorial Hospital in Northwest, where he still works.
Mayo Clinic research shows a correlation between inadequate vitamin D levels and the amount of narcotic medication taken by patients who have chronic pain.
This relationship is an important finding as researchers discover new ways to treat chronic pain.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic pain is the leading cause of disability in the United States. These patients often end up taking narcotic-type pain medication such as morphine, fentanyl or oxycodone.
Q: If fat cells are only reduced in volume, not eliminated, when you lose weight from diet or exercise, and the fact that the fat cells still remain makes it easy to regain the weight, is liposuction the best way to decrease body fat permanently?
A: No! It's tempting to believe that sucking fat cells out is a reliable solution, but it's not. There's still so much to understand about how bodies lose, gain and store fat. Scientists still haven't stumbled on a way to reduce fat permanently, other than through a lifestyle dedicated to long-term healthful, calorie-controlled eating and regular exercise.
I'm fat.
Not heavyset.
Not husky like my boyhood blue jeans used to say on the tag.
No, I am F-A-T, fat.
I believe obese is the politically correct way to say "I'm fat" these days.
A DALTON mum has praised the surgeon who fitted her gastric band, helping her lose 12 stones in a year and changing her life.
Louise Thomas says she wishes she had opted for the surgery sooner.
But her success story was revealed just days after an inquest told how Ossett man Jarrod Fahey died following a gastric bypass at Dewsbury District Hospital.
Unlike most dieters, she succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. In nine months, the 46-year-old Streamwood woman dropped from 210 pounds to just 125 through diet and exercise.
But it was hard to enjoy her new look, because her successful weight loss also left her with sagging, stretched-out skin all over her body.
Windsor's Justin Derochie says he didn't want to face the truth: He was fat. More than fat, actually -- obese.
"I had a decent job working in tool and die. Didn't really watch what I ate. Had a little bit of expendable income, so I ate out a lot. Next thing I knew, I was 300 pounds," Derochie remembers, chuckling.
In about two years, Darin Dillinger of Athens dropped 365 pounds -- from a peak of 525 to the 160 he has maintained on his 5-foot-9-inch frame since January 2008.
His methods: diet and exercise.
