Diet & Weight Loss Archive

Understand the risks and limitations before embarking on this last-ditch option.

An operation that changes how the stomach and intestines digest food has been hailed as a potential lifesaver for people who are severely overweight. It can dramatically improve blood sugar, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, lessen sleep apnea (a dangerous pattern of breath holding during sleep), and improve heart function. But these benefits, which accrue only with a lifelong commitment to healthy eating and exercise, must be balanced against possible risks.

Apple, pear — it doesn't matter which of these fruits your body shape resembles. Extra body fat, whether you carry it around your midsection (apple shape) or your thighs (pear shape), is bad for your heart and health. So say researchers who reviewed the health records of more than 220,000 men and women taking part in 58 long-term studies (The Lancet, published online March 10, 2011).

The findings are the latest salvo in a spirited debate about the best way to gauge the health effects of overweight and obesity. The three most common measures are as follows:

Two volunteers testing the new “Harvard Medical School 6-Week Plan for Healthy Eating” describe following Week 5 of the plan: Making sense of snacks. Both related the challenge of avoiding the bowl of M&Ms in the office. Tonya realized how many calories she got from snacking each day, while Helen made herself some simple rules, like planning her snacks and drinking water first if she thinks she’s hungry.

One of the big health news stories of 2007 was a study showing that your friends influence your weight. A new study from Arizona State University suggests that this happens because people consciously and subconsciously change their habits to mirror those of their friends. Here’s an example: You’re at a restaurant with friends and the waiter brings over the dessert menu. Everyone else decides not to order anything, so you pass, too, even though you were dying for a piece of chocolate mousse cake. The study provides another motivation for making healthy diet choices—in addition to helping your weight, it could help your friends and family members weights, too.

Two volunteers testing the new “Harvard Medical School 6-Week Plan for Healthy Eating” describe following Week 4 of the plan: Make dinner a winner. Week 4 came at a tough time for Helen, since she had several business dinners. She describes how she navigated restaurant menus and big portions in ways that fit the 6-Week Plan. Tonya, who often eats out, made a week’s worth of dinners and discovered that eating at the table, instead of in front of the television, has its rewards.

Helen and Tonya, two volunteers testing the new “Harvard Medical School 6-Week Plan for Healthy Eating,” share their experiences from week three, which focuses on healthier lunches. Helen writes about trouble finding healthy lunch options at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, and the importance of planning for lunch the day before. Tonya relied on salads, with one small break–a bit of fried calamari she purloined from a lunch buddy.

Two volunteers testing the new “Harvard Medical School 6-Week Plan for Healthy Eating” share their experiences from week two. Helen Hoart writes about her efforts to eat more mindfully and to have a healthy breakfast every day. Tonya Phillips regretted starting week two on Easter Sunday. She talks about her efforts to swap a breakfast bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for multi-grain toast and some fruit or toast and oatmeal with fruit, as well as getting more exercise by walking up and down the stairs at work.

Two volunteers are testing the new “Harvard Medical School 6-Week Plan for Healthy Eating.” This plan offers week-by-week steps to help you analyze your diet, establish goals for healthy meals and snacks, and incorporate practical changes to make your healthy diet a reality. Each week builds on what you accomplished in the previous weeks. At the end, you’ll have made important changes that can last a lifetime. Tonya Phillips and Helen Hoart share their experience from Week 1 of the 6-week plan.

One of many hot topics about the upcoming royal wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton is whether Middleton has lost too much weight in preparing for the ceremony. Prevailing theories about Middleton’s presumptive weight loss include stress, “brideorexia,” and a popular French diet. Harvard Health Letter editor Peter Wehrwein discusses all three possibilities.

Extra fat that accumulates around the abdomen goes by many names: beer belly, spare tire, love handles, apple shape, middle-age spread, and the more technical “abdominal obesity.” No matter what the name, it is the shape of risk.