Latest news with #weight loss
New York Times
8 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
Thin, White and Right: The Ideal Christian Woman
Conservative Christian influencers are reshaping beauty standards and promoting diet culture — and their messages are resonating with women. In this episode of 'The Opinions,' the Times Opinion editor Meher Ahmad speaks with the columnist Jessica Grose about how religion and weight loss culture intertwine, and why this pairing is gaining traction. Below is a transcript of an episode of 'The Opinions.' We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Meher Ahmad: I'm Meher Ahmad, an editor in the New York Times Opinion section. There's been a resurgence in explicit 'be thin' messaging and culture. With the Ozempic boom, we see the body-shaming of actresses like Sydney Sweeney and red carpets that were already filled with thin actresses becoming even thinner. On the right, there's been a focus on body size that's been bundled up not just with health and wellness, but with religion, morals and politics. And so when everything is political and we're more divided than ever, should the size and shape of our bodies be any different? I'm here today with the Opinion writer Jessica Gross to understand why the right is obsessed with thinness and why that message is winning over women. Jess, I want to start first by asking you what the messaging on diet and thinness coming from the Christian influencer spaces is — what do you see there? Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Will your child become obese as an adult? New tool identifies those genetically at risk
Scientists have developed a tool that can measure a child's risk of becoming obese in later life. This new resource may one day mean that those at highest risk will get targeted support to prevent them from becoming obese in the first place. The tool, which assesses a person's genetic risk of obesity , works twice as well as any other obesity risk predictor, academics said. As well as identifying children at risk, it can also predict how well obese adults will respond to targeted weight-loss programmes. Academics used data on the genetic variations from more than 5 million people to create a tool called a polygenic risk score, which analyses millions of DNA variations to predict a person's susceptibility to becoming overweight. The scientists found that the tool could successfully predict weight gain during childhood from the age of just two and a half. Photo: Shutterstock The tool could explain 17.6 per cent of the variation in the body mass index score (BMI) – calculated from a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in metres – from people in the UK, they found.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Big Brother's Chanelle Hayes reveals horrific ordeal with 'dumping syndrome' after having gastric band surgery to control her weight after it fluctuated between 7 and 17st
Chanelle Hayes has revealed her horrific ordeal with 'dumping syndrome' after having gastric band surgery to control her fluctuating weight. The Big Brother star, 37, whose weight has yo-yoed between seven and 17 stone over the past four years, spoke for the first time about the side effects from overeating once a gastric band is fitted, which include being violently sick as your body rejects the excess food. In an exclusive interview, the former model said the surgery, which she had in 2020, created a 'physical barrier' to prevent her from excessive consumption but she has been left 'terrified' after falling into old habits of eating too much chocolate or pizza, triggering the unpleasant condition. 'Dumping syndrome' is described as a medical disorder where food, particularly sugary food, moves too quickly from the stomach into the small intestine and causes bloating, nausea, cramps, dizziness and a rapid heartbeat among other symptoms including being physically sick. It is often caused by gastric surgery and sufferers are advised to manage it by eating smaller more frequent meals and upping their intake of protein and fibre while limiting sugary foods. And for Chanelle the symptoms are even harder to bare because she has emetophobia, a phobia of vomit, which she says has 'terrorised' her for most of her life. The mother of three, who last year married husband Dan Bingham, told MailOnline that ahead of the couple's nuptials she dropped to an 'unhealthy' seven stone due to stress but she's now the happiest she has ever been with her body following years of battling against disordered eating. She said: 'This physical barrier stops me from eating. I physically cannot, if I eat more than the capacity of my stomach I will vomit, if I eat things that are too bad for me then I could end up with dumping syndrome, diarrhoea, vomiting, sweats, it forces you to stay on the straight and narrow. The Big Brother star, whose weight has yo-yoed between seven and 17 stone over the past four years, spoke about the side effects from overeating once a gastric band is fitted (pictured 2018) 'Don't get me wrong, I will still reach for a chocolate bar or milkshake or a slice of pizza, but I'll have more than what my stomach can fit in, and it does not end well. 'I have a huge phobia of vomit too, it's awful, it terrorises me... I can handle all the other bodily fluids, I can handle all the others from any area but not vomit, it terrifies me. 'The advice is to make sure you chew enough times whereas I can just ravage everything off the table, just shoving it in my mouth, so it's being mindful and recognising not to be on my phone while I'm eating or watching TV, just concentrate on what you're doing.' Chanelle, who rose to fame on Channel 4's Big Brother in 2007, says she has struggled with harmful eating habits and body image since she was a teenager but having a gastric band fitted, she was given the opportunity to maintain a healthy size. At her biggest, the former lads' mags model was a size 20, but after dropping to a six, she underwent several surgeries to remove excess skin plus a breast reduction and uplift, which saw her go from a G cup bra to a D. The level that her weight has fluctuated over the years has resulted in Chanelle regularly buying an entirely new wardrobe to fit her changing body including her swimwear. After being pictured wearing a slinky black bikini while on holiday last month in Tenerife, Chanelle said: 'I never ever wear the same bikini twice and I always leave them on holiday. 'I have fluctuated so much in weight over the years that I could have a bikini in one size and the following year it's two times too big or two times too small, so I wear my bikinis and then buy new ones every time I go away. At her biggest, the former lads' mags model was a size 20, but after dropping to a six, she underwent several surgeries to remove excess skin plus a breast reduction and uplift 'I have to shop at Asda for my clothes, for vest tops and pyjamas because otherwise I would have thrown away a fortune. 'Luckily, it's stable now since I had my gastric sleeve but before it was just up, down, shake it all around, it was ridiculous. What can you do? There's no point in spending loads and loads of money on a wardrobe you might not fit into in six months' time.' Chanelle credits the gastric sleeve surgery for her newfound confidence but admits there are still areas of her body which make her feel insecure. The procedure, which has also helped the likes of Vanessa Feltz and James Argent, reduces the size of the stomach by 70-85 per cent to restrict food intake, which helped Chanelle to gain back control. But once she dramatically lost the weight, she was left with excess, saggy skin, causing further distress. She said: 'With my sleeve, they take about 70 per cent of your stomach out and leave you with, instead of it being like a round poach, it is more like a sausage shape, it's massively decreased compared to a normal stomach, which means that I can't eat or drink as much. 'It's perfect for me because it's always been such a psychological thing, I automatically reach for anything. It's been good to have that physical barrier there and from that I lost a lot of weight quite quickly. 'My breasts were droopy, my stomach was, well in fact, my stomach was ripped to bits. 'Half of my abs were on one side, and the other half were on the other but that was because of pregnancy. After two breast surgeries, multiple rounds of liposuction, and several procedures to tighten her loose skin, Chanelle vows she is finally done with going under the knife 'When they did my skin removal, they put my muscles back together to help strengthen my core, so I've had that done as well.' After two breast surgeries, multiple rounds of liposuction, and several procedures to tighten her loose skin, Chanelle vows she is finally done with going under the knife. She said: 'On a regular day, I am feeling great, I am so happy that I had the sleeve done and then I had some skin removal surgery after that, and my breast implants changed. 'Although I feel much more confident I would still like my arms to be tighter, but I don't want to have the surgery. 'For me, I would rather feel 90 per cent with my body and not undergo another operation. There is always room for improvement but who looks in the mirror and thinks they're perfect.' Chanelle, who famously modelled her image on Victoria Beckham, explained her complex relationship with food is triggered by how she feels in her everyday life, which was emphasised in the weeks leading up to her wedding last year. In July 2024, Chanelle married accountant Dan in a ceremony attended by the star's two children, a 15-year-old son she shares with ex-footballer Matthew Bates, and Frankie, seven, from her relationship with PE teacher Ryan Oates. She's also now a stepmother to Dan's daughter Amelia, 17, and the family lives together in Yorkshire, where Chanelle recently trained as a nurse. Chanelle said: 'I have always been an emotional eater so when I was celebrating, I would go out for dinner, when I was commiserating, I would eat, if I was upset, happy, it's always been a thing... it didn't even just develop; it has always been there for me. 'At my lightest, I got really stressed last year before the wedding and I went down to seven stone, which was horrific. I looked ill. Now I am back up at about 50kg, which is around eight or nine stone. I was 17.8 stone during the Covid years, so I have lost a lot altogether.' As an increasing number of celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Amy Schumer have admitted to taking Ozempic, has Chanelle ever tried the weight-loss drug to achieve her body goals? She said: 'I wouldn't be illegible try to Ozempic because of my BMI, I wouldn't be prescribed it, but I am all for people doing whatever makes them feel healthier. 'My husband for example, we are working with a company, and he's been doing the Mounjaro injections, and he's lost three stone, and he feels and looks amazing, he has cardiac issues, and it's made him much healthier overall including his heart. I am really behind it but it's individual to every patient.' And after growing up fixated by Victoria and aspiring to have a figure which resembled the WAG's slim frame and previously surgically enhanced breasts, Chantelle is even more concerned for today's generation of Instagram and TikTok loving youngsters, saying there's no escape from the pressures of having to conform to beauty body standards. She added: 'I've had these feelings since I was a teenager and more so when I left high school and started college. The magazines were all circling normal and healthy-looking women and it made me think if Kate Moss can't have cellulite, then how can I? Now that is amplified, everywhere you look. 'I have experienced trolling, God yes, but I don't read the comments anymore. I live in my own world and everyone's always going to have an opinion. It doesn't matter if there's 100 positive comments, if you see one negative, it's so easy to stick onto that. I would advise people to not look. It's just so much harder now because everything is online and bleeping through to their phones. The girls on Love Island get picked to shreds.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Nurse, 26, Lost 270 Pounds After Making These 3 Lifestyle Changes
When his doctor prescribed the first blood pressure medication, Kevin Goode knew his weight probably contributed to it. He was 465 pounds, but he thought his high blood pressure wasn't 'too serious.' Still, it remained high, and his doctor prescribed him a second drug to try to lower it. Soon after, he learned he had sleep apnea and his A1C was 'shooting upward.' If it didn't lower, Goode would need to add insulin to his growing list of prescriptions. Then his doctor gave him a warning. 'My doctor told me that I wouldn't live past 40 with this trend,' Goode, 28, a nurse at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, tells 'That's the moment that everything changed.' At the time, he was 26 and visited a bariatric surgeon for a consultation. The doctor advised Goode that he needed to lose weight before he qualified for surgery. He immediately headed to the gym and sat on a bench to lift some dumbbells. Soon, he started eating a moderate-fat, low-carbohydrate and high-protein diet. '(The doctor) wanted me to lose 20 pounds because that would show that I was dedicated enough for surgery,' Goode explains. 'I ended up losing 80 pounds.' In December 2023, he underwent surgery. As he recovered for six weeks, he was anxious to get back to his exercise routine. 'I was very much like, 'How soon can I get back to the gym?'' he says. 'I was sitting around doing nothing, and I'm not liking it.' Six weeks later, he was cleared to return to his regular exercise routine. Over time, he shed more weight, reaching 176 pounds. 'My goal from the beginning of this whole journey back in February of 2023 was, bluntly, to win back my life. It was never about the weight, never about the bodybuilding, never about looking good,' he says. 'It was very much about (how) I was told that I wouldn't live past 40, and that didn't sit right with me, and I wanted to get rid of all the diagnoses.' This year, Goode took his love of weight training to the next level and is working toward becoming a certified personal trainer. One of the trainers in the gym approached Goode and suggested he consider participating in a bodybuilding competition. 'He was like 'Have you ever thought about doing a show?' and I was like, 'No, I just love it here and I come for the health aspect,'' Goode recalls. 'That's when I looked into the transformation competition.' A transformation competition generally focuses on people who have lost weight. Goode will compete in October in Chicago. As part of his preparation, he has focused more on lifting and less on cardiovascular exercise. 'Instead of doing 45 minutes of strength training and 30 of cardio, it's more like an hour strength training and maybe 15 minutes cardio,' he says. This caused him to gain some weight, and he's now at 210 pounds, but it's 'more muscle.' His diet has changed, too, and he focuses on counting macronutrients. He still eats a lot of protein, but with lower-fat foods and now incorporates complex carbohydrates into his diet. Losing fat while gaining muscle has changed his outlook on calories and how important they are for energy, he says. Since losing weight and transforming his body with lifting, Goode feels he's become 'more emotionally intelligent.' 'I share a lot more about myself,' he says. 'I'm 20 times more confident than I have ever been in my life.' Ahead, Goode shares what worked for him when it came to transforming his body. 'Nutrition Is Going To Be Your Biggest Thing' Eating fewer calories than he burned, what's known as a calorie deficit, helped Goode shed the weight. 'Nutrition is going to be your biggest thing,' he says. 'The biggest advice as far as actually losing weight is just (being in) a calorie deficit.' 'Fall in Love with the Small Wins' Focusing too much on the scale can feel overwhelming. People might think they look great, but the scale shows their weight increased slightly. Instead of focusing on the numbers, Goode urges people to 'fall in love with the small wins.' Goode keeps a running list of his in his notes app. 'I don't have to pick up my foot to tie my shoe. I can just bend over,' he says. 'I always made a joke that laptops are not laptops. There's no way that is sitting on my lap. But now I'm like I got all this room.' But his 'biggest non-scale victory' has been the difference he's noticed at work. 'Being able to move around (the hospital) room a lot easier, being able to play with the kids without getting out of breath,' he says. 'I enjoy it so much more now because I'm not getting (to) the end of the 12-hour shifts completely, like, dead.' Find Support While Goode taught himself how to work out, he hasn't been entirely alone in his process. 'I had the community support from the gym. My mom has been a huge supporter. All the nurses at work, they've been fantastic,' he says. 'I can't go without mentioning my amazing girlfriend. She's just been super supportive.' This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
22-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
I lost four stone WITHOUT Mounjaro - this is how much I actually eat in a day
A woman who lost four stone without the help of any weight loss drugs has insisted that 'volume eating' is the way to go. Ashleigh Wilson shared her full plate of lunch that included chicken flatbread with vegetables on TikTok, promising that she will feel 'sickly full' after it. But the 26-year-old from Blackpool claimed that despite the meal being large in size, it was low in calories. The respectable volume also meant that she 'will not be going to that snack cupboard' later as she will not be feeling peckish. The influencer, who once weighed 15st 8lbs, said: 'So I've now lost four stone and if anybody asks me how I did that, I always talk about volume eating. 'This whole plate is 398 calories and just over 40 grams of protein. It's just a chicken flatbread, veggies. 'So beetroot, cucumber, tomato, onion, and then some chicken breast I seasoned and chopped up and put over it. 'Got a little bit of balsamic glaze and a little bit of honey, cause I'm a sucker for honey. 'I will eat this and I will probably feel sickly full after it. 'However, best believe I will not be going to that snack cupboard, and I'll be fine, more than fine, until dinner time. 'So, yeah, you want to lose weight, start with volume eating.' In May, a mother revealed how she lost nine stone in just 12 months without resorting to weight loss jabs or surgery - instead turning to an 'old school' meal replacement diet. Mother-of-two Amy Swan began her transformation in January 2024, swapping all meals for formula products such as soups, shakes and snack bars. The strict regime - just 800 calories a day - helped her drop six stone by June, and nine stone by the end of the year. Alongside the plan, she drank three litres of water a day, but did very little exercise. In a TikTok clip that has now been viewed 2.5 million times, Ms Swan, 33, wrote: 'Here's how I went from being severely overweight, under-confident and chronically people-pleasing to nine stone, getting my spark back and setting loving boundaries—in just one year. She lost the hefty pounds by going on a total meal replacement diet where she swapped all foods for formula products such as soups, shakes and bars After six months she slowly came off the meal replacement plan and spent the rest of the year steadily working up a healthy balanced diet that doesn't involve axing sweet treats all together 'I started a total meal replacement diet—that's four products a day. 'I did this for six months. I fell off the wagon three times but got straight back to it— remember that part please. I lost six stone by my birthday at the end of June!' The strict weight loss method is designed to provide essential nutrients and a reduced calorie intake which results in rapid weight loss.
