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Eating Disorders/Disordered Eating

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Food & Hydration

Why Weight Loss Programs Don’t Work

The weight loss business generates massive revenue, yet the industry seems to have little effect on waistlines. Recently, researchers took an in-depth look at the efficacy of popular weight loss programs.

Yes, You Can Develop Better Eating Habits

Analogous to laying out your exercise gear so it’s the first visual reminder you have of your commitment to exercise each day, imagine what creating strong visual cues for food might do for your eating habits. Placing a simple, attractive bowl of fruit on the counter instead of stowing the fruit out of sight in a refrigerator drawer could make the difference in your quest to eat “5 a day.”

The Transformative Power of a Single Good Choice

Jonathan Ross has received numerous accolades for his work in the fitness industry, including recognition as the 2010 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, the 2006 ACE Personal Trainer of the Year, and the 2003 Personal Training Director of the Year by

PFP

magazine. He possesses a rare combination of fitness knowledge and personal experience with obesity, which he acquired while growing up with nearly “800 pounds of parents.” Ross has served as the fitness expert for Discovery Health and hosted its series

Everyday Fitness.

His book,

Abs Revealed,

Mindfulness is the Best Sweetener

At your favorite lunch spot, they bake bread on the premises, and the delicious aroma of warm loaves has you salivating before you have even placed your order. You weren’t feeling especially hungry in the car and were thinking of eating a salad, but gosh, now that you’re here, wouldn’t you just love a chunk of that cinnamon-raisin bread with butter?

6 Key Factors That Predict Weight Gain

Fitness professionals expend considerable energy helping people to lose weight, but there’s another way to view this challenge: What are the main factors that cause people to gain weight??
Research shows that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese (Ogden et al. 2014), a health condition associated with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression and various cancers (breast, endometrial, colon and prostate) (Malik, Schultz
&

Kids Allowed to Play With Their Food May Get a Health Boost

Parents everywhere know all too well how challenging it can be to introduce new foods to their young children, especially fruits and vegetables.

A study from the University of Reading, in Reading, England, may give these battle-weary parents some unexpected ammunition to try in the next food sortie: Let the children play with, touch, poke, smell, draw and have some fun with the food first.

Obesity’s Impact on Lifespan

Here’s more reason to encourage individuals who are obese to move more and improve their diets: Obesity can chop up to 9 years off a lifespan.

What’s the Best Diet for Me?

At any given time, over 100 million Americans are on a diet (MarketResearch .com 2014). That’s about a third of the U.S. population. Despite the hundreds of best- seller diet books and the $60-plus billion Americans spend trying to lose weight each year (Marketdata Enterprises 2014), permanent weight loss remains elusive for most. Even so, dozens of diets remain on the market, each with ardent followers and outspoken opponents.

Building Self-Efficacy in Overweight and Obese Clients

You know them well: your obese clients who have tried everything: weight-loss meal programs, fat-burner pills, crash diets, gym memberships; nothing worked for very long. When they turned up at your door, low self-efficacy was all they had to show for their sincere efforts to change.

How One Man Lost More Than Half His Body Weight

Intervention. At 493 pounds and with a pants waist size of 78, Josh was close to hitting rock bottom. The significant weight he carried caused him to lose his job and his house, forcing him to move in with his parents. Concerned for his well-being, Josh’s family encouraged him to seek guidance from a qualified fitness professional. That’s when he met Kevin Buchanek, a personal trainer at Personally Fit by Chris Hill.

Obesity’s Workplace Burden

The negative effects of obesity are many—ranging from personal health problems to global healthcare costs. A fresh report from Yale University’s Rudd Center has found that obesity also takes a significant financial toll in the workplace.

Obesity-related absenteeism has been costing the United States $8.65 billion per year in lost productivity, according to the report. Researchers calculated this staggering number by analyzing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance.

The Hunger-Obesity Paradox: There’s an App for That

More than one-third (78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese. But according to a 2014 report by Feeding America, a hunger relief charity, 49 million Americans are “food insecure,” meaning they eat smaller amounts, go hungry or eat less nutritious foods because they can’t afford to eat better. Almost one-third of America’s food insecure are children, the report says.

Social Media and “Weight Talk”

The Internet offers plenty of opportunity to share helpful, positive content. However, it’s also a hotbed of negativity, especially when it comes to discussions on weight.

A study facilitated by researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland, wanted to understand the types of conversations that are taking place on this subject. Using a commercial Web-crawling tool, the investigators explored popular social media sites and pulled posts that included fat, obese/obesity and/or overweight. The process lasted 60 days and culminated in 1.37 million posts.

Overeating, Indulgence Tied to Positive Emotions

Which is more likely to send you head first into a big bowl of mac and cheese or your favorite dessert (or both?): a really good day or a really bad day?

Contrary to the idea that negative emotions drive people to overeat or to indulge their cravings, a recent three- part study that appeared in Appetite (2013; 68, 1–7) has shown, surprisingly, that positive emotions can influence eating indulgences as much as—or more than—negative emotions.

Detox Diets: Myth vs. Reality

Your review of detox diets [“Detox Diets: Myths vs. Reality,” February] overlooked potential benefits of detox and cleansing diets.

Men Also Struggle With Binge Eating

Because of the wealth of research on eating disorders in women, people often mistakenly think of these illnesses as exclusively female problems. However, binge eating—defined as eating excessive amounts of calories over short periods of time and often in private (but without purging, as in bulimia)—is
a disorder that affects both men and women.

Facebook and eating disorders in adolescent girls

Eating disorders and disordered eating already comprise very complex sets of thoughts and behaviors. Past studies have shown that women and girls are most vulnerable. Can exposure to media such as Facebook make young girls even more susceptible?