Oprah's Weight Loss Show - June 19th 2006

Oprah is planning a special show for this Monday. It will be all about weight loss and will feature two success stories. One is a man who lost 500 pounds without surgery. The other is a woman who lost 85 pounds and will show off her new slim body in a bikini. I'm guessing that the surprise female guest might be Kirstie Alley? I'll update on the show here later next week.

Oprah has also just signed on to write a book about weight loss. See more about Oprah's personal struggle with weight loss here.

Who is the Sexiest World Cup Player?

Who is the sexiest World Cup player? Someone was telling me their version of the answer the other day. I don't follow the game but it seems everyone is talking about soccer these days. Especially my husband.

I found this free poll at Meg Wilson's site. Do Ballard and Ronaldo qualify as two of the sexier players out there? Which of the World Cup players are sexier than these guys in your opinion?

There are over 700 players participating in the World Cup in Germany right now. I doubt a single one of them would qualify as overweight according to BMI standards. Apparently soccer players typically run or walk at least 8500 meters per game. That would enable them to eat a lot of food without getting fat. In fact, a recent study shows they typically don't eat as many carbohydrates as they should;

Soccer is a glycogen-dependent sport, making carbohydrate feedings repletion of critical importance. Therefore, the ability to sustain late-game running speed and goal-scoring and to avoid injuries are dependent on glycogen levels. Adequate dietary carbohydrate in the days and hours before strenuous training and competition is critical to maintaining adequate glycogen levels in the muscles. Similar to the detrimental effect of inadequate carbohydrate intake, even slight dehydration can be detrimental to impair performance in soccer, and sports drinks containing moderate amounts of carbohydrate and electrolytes, especially sodium, are better than plain water in maintaining hydration during soccer play and in rehydrating during recovery. Soccer players typically do not eat enough carbohydrate and begin soccer matches with less than optimal stores of muscle glycogen. Moreover, they usually do not drink enough fluids during practice and competition to adequately replace their sweat losses. Coaches and athletic trainers must continually reinforce the need for dietary carbohydrate and fluid replenishment, ensure that fluids are available on the sidelines, and, when possible, supervise the eating and drinking behavior of the players. All levels of play can benefit by following sound nutritional guidelines.

Update: Apparently Ronaldo is being accused of being overweight and out of shape for this World Cup now.

Success with Weight Watchers

Here are the before and after photos of Naketa Ferguson, 27, who was successful in losing 70 pounds over the past eleven months. She's one of the leading contestants in New Zealand's Weight Watchers Slimmer of the Year contest. She now weighs 140 pounds.

Her asthma has disappeared along with the excess weight. Before the weight loss she was on nebuliser treatment every two weeks and was frequently using her asthma inhaler.

The photo on the right is by Richard Robinson. See the full story at The New Zealand Herald.

Celebrity Weight Loss Stories

I've been focusing on writing celebrity weight loss stories for the past few weeks.

See some recent posts here about celebrity weight loss, including Jessica Simpson, Janet Jackson, Jessica Alba, Star Jones, Britney Spears and Kirstey Alley.

There seems to be a very big interest in this topic. I can personally relate, as I share the fascination with how celebrities get slim and stay that way.

I would love to see a book that interviewed many celebrities and detailed their precise diet secrets and exercise plans. I'd like to know how they eat and workout on a daily basis. The book would allocate one chapter to each celebrity. We would hear from celebrities who have succeeded in losing a lot of weight, from others who have always been slim and how they stay that way, and maybe a few chapters on celebrities who have a hard time maintaining a normal weight and have been overweight for most of their life.

I think many other people would enjoy reading a book about this. I've never seen a book such as this? Does anyone know if something like this already exists?

I don't think it's out there yet. That's why I would like to make a proposal to Oprah about this.

She is one person who could pull this off in a great way. She could easily get other celebrities to talk frankly about their personal weight loss issues. And the timing is perfect for this. Oprah has just received the largest non-fiction book advance in the history of book advances. She will receive more than $12 million to write a book about her experiences with weight loss. She will start working on this book, together with her personal trainer, Bob Greene, very soon.

So I'd like to get the word out to ask her to consider interviewing different celebrities for several of the chapters. I think this would make the book even more fascinating and even more of a best-seller.

Treadmill Motivation: One Man's True Story

Ralph Klein, 63, decided to do something to lose some weight and get back in shape. This was twenty years ago. At the age of 43, the 5'8" politician weighed somewhere between 230 and 240 pounds. He says he was 'grossly overweight' at the time.

That's when he started running on a treadmill. At first he found it very difficult to complete even one mile. It took him six months to get up to three miles. He soon got down to 185 pounds. And he has maintained this weight, give or take a few pounds, for the past 20 years.

His method has been to do an average of 3-4 miles on the treadmill each day. He seems to have incredible will power; he says he has probably only missed less than five days in the past twenty years. Klein says he doesn't pay much attention to his diet and that he has a weakness for hamburgers and pizza.

But the exercise has more than compensated for this. Klein is happy with his weight and doesn't see himself stopping the exercise routine when he retires next year.

A Slimmer Waist in the Imaginary World

Those magazine covers in the check-out counter of your local grocery store are terribly misleading. It's amazing how much retouching goes on to make beautiful people look even more unrealistically beautiful.

Because young girls are the most susceptible to comparing themselves to unreal standards of slimness and beauty, the Swedish government recently hired an ad agency to create a campaign showing young girls how magazine retouching works.

Check it out for yourself. You can see the before and after pictures at this link. You'll see how they've made the models waist skinnier, her breasts bigger, lips fuller, eyes brighter and teeth whiter.

Anna Nicole Smith is Pregnant

Anna Nicole Smith, 38, has announced that she's pregnant.

Smith created a lot of interest in TrimSpa a couple of years ago when she lost a great deal of weight. She will continue to be a TrimSpa spokeswoman while pregnant.

She's keeping the father's identity a secret for now.

Update February 9th: Anna Nicole Smith is dead at the young age of 39. She died yesterday, February 8th 2007. Her son died only a few months ago and it seems this was a tragedy she was not able to cope with. She leaves behind her baby daughter, Dannielynn Hope. ET reports that she had tried to commit suicide earlier in December when she was found unconscious in the bottom of her pool in Bahama. Her bodyguard was able to revive her.

An autopsy is taking place this morning in Florida.