Tag Archives: dieting

Hold That Diet Pill!

Hold that diet pill! The Food & Drug Administration recently recalled a whole slew of diet products made by Universal ABC Beauty Supply International due to safety concerns.

The company didn’t officially declare the products contain an ingredient called Sibutramine. While Sibutramine is FDA-approved for weight loss, the FDA says products containing it must be labeled as such because it can “substantially increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients.” Yeesh.

Thirty-four of the company’s different dieting products are coming off the shelves. The most recognizable among them is Slim Fast. Other products include Slim Express, Royal Slimming Formula, and Body Creator. All products can be returned to the store you bought them from for a full or partial refund. Get rid of those diet pills, and play it safe—blogger’s orders. You know there are healthy and do-able ways to fit into a size six that aren’t dangerous. It’s not worth it to put your health at risk. [FDA] Keep reading »

Do You Struggle With Your Body Image?

“Do You Struggle With Your Body Image?” If you answer Margaret Ruth’s question with a “No,” you’re either a robot or a liar. But according to this guru, weight loss may have more to do with what’s in your heart rather than what’s in your stomach. Keep reading »

Us Weekly Flip-Flops On Celebrity Diets!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my least favorite issue of Us Weekly — their annual “Diets That Work!” extravaganza. As usual, they lauded the absurd diet and fitness habits of already totally skinny celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Beyonce, and Molly Sims. But three weeks have passed and the editors have seemed to come to a realization — many of the fad celebrity diets which result in the super slim bodies they praised for “28 Bonus Pages!” are actually, GASP, dangerous and unhealthy. The latest issue of Us reports on “the new and risky cleanses stars” — like Paltrow, Beyonce, and Sims — “use to slim down.” Wait, you mean Gwyneth needs to do more than work out 14 hours a week in order to have those enviable stems? Say WHAT?! Keep reading »

Us Weekly Helps You Drop Weight Like A Star!

Hey look! It’s my least favorite issue of Us Weekly — “2009 Diets That Work!”! That is, CELEB diets that work — all of the diets, workout plans, and “weight loss tricks” are ones that have worked for big money stars like Jennifer Aniston (such a fatty before, RIGHT?), Britney Spears, and Beyonce. And by the way, only women are featured in the “28 page bonus” section (ZOMG, I am tots getting my $3.99 worth). Sure, the vast majority of Us‘s readers are female, and presenting the perfectly perfect bodies of celebs is supposed to be aspirational, but c’mon. Gimme a few male chubsters who lost some weight and how they did it — like Horatio Sanz and Seth Rogan. I want to know how those guys — who were truly overweight — lost the lard. Keep reading »

Happy Women Have Curves

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight and drop a dress size or two, you may want to reconsider. In a recent poll in the UK of about 3,000 women, size 14s (a US size 12) rated their happiness higher than everyone else, with about a quarter saying they liked their appearance, half reporting career satisfactions, and a third rating their love lives as the best possible. Size 12 women (a US 10) were the second happiest group of women, with nearly three quarters reporting satisfaction with their friendships and almost half satisfied with their careers. Size 8 (US 6), 16 (US 14), and 10 (US 8) rounded out the happy camp, respectively. Nigella Lawson, a TV cook, thinks the secret to curvy girls’ happiness is a pleasurable sex life, saying: “I do think that women who spend all their lives on a diet probably have a miserable sex life: if your body is the enemy, how can you relax and take pleasure?” Still, not all women with curves are happy with their lives. Those who wear sizes 20-24 (US 18-22) were among those who reported being most unhappy with their lives. Maybe dropping a dress size in the new year isn’t such a bad resolution after all? [Dailymail.co.uk] Keep reading »

Quick Pic: A Shrinking Top Model

That’s Whitney from America’s Next Top Model Cycle 10 — she’s the plus-size model in the final three in tonight’s season finale. I have no idea if this is Whitney before she was on the show or if it’s a recent picture, but girlfriend is significantly skinnier. I hope this is a picture from awhile ago and Whitney has since embraced her more natural, fuller figure. If this is recent and she’s lost as much as 20 pounds? Boo! Stupid diet industry… [Oh No They Didn't!] Keep reading »

Weight Loss Wears Relationships Thin

I once covered a national fat acceptance convention for the old Jane magazine. As I sat in a room full of men who were the spouses of big beautiful women, they all had one unanimous lament: why doesn’t my wife think she’s sexy, especially when I, her husband, do? These guys would tell their special ladies that they were hot, but just by the mere fact that they had to constantly reinforce their wives insecurities made the men feel like they were wrong for loving them. Their taste was insulted by the very object of their affection. Now a new study has shown that dieting really affects both people in a relationship. Keep reading »

Elizabeth & Jessica Wakefield Go On A Diet

I basically lived for reading Sweet Valley High when I was in elementary school — as I previously wrote, SVH #3 Playing With Fire was the first time I read the word “breast” in print in a somewhat sexual way. I remember vividly thinking that SVH was the way high school would be like, in a wonderful dream world, and in order to be a part of that dream, I would need to be “a perfect size six” just like Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. Make that a “perfect size four.” The books are getting a major makeover — when Random House re-releases the series, they are giving the books new covers (featuring soap star Levin Rambin as the twins) AND updating some of the content so they’re not so ’80s. Oh and they’re trimming a size off Liz and Jess, because everyone knows that four is the new six and six is fat. That was sarcasm, by the way. [Feministing] Keep reading »