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LEWISTON, Maine — Army and Navy recruiters took one look at 330-pound Ulysses Milana and told him to forget about joining. "You've got to lose weight," Milana remembers them saying. But Marine recruiters were willing to work with him as he began his weight-loss journey in December 2007. Now, 11 months later, Milana is 140 pounds lighter as he leaves Monday for Parris Island, S.C., to begin boot camp.

Women who want to lose weight - and keep it off - need to be exercising for almost an hour, five days a week, according to US experts. The University of Pittsburgh study found the 55-minute regime was the minimum needed to maintain a 10% drop in weight. Only a quarter of the 200 women in the study managed to lose this amount. A UK expert said it was clear that regular moderate exercise was the way to lose weight, and keep it off. Approximately two-thirds of adults in the UK are overweight or obese, with some estimates suggesting this...

WASHINGTON: A new study has found that lesbians are nearly twice as likely to be overweight than heterosexual women. Researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing are now using an extraordinarily successful, predominately lesbian weight loss group in Atlanta, as a model system for discovering how to target obesity in a lesbian population. Sarah Fogel, Ph.D., R.N., associate professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, is studying the group, and her findings are giving her a different view on weight loss. "All weight loss groups offer an environment of like-bodied people (overweight or obese), but this is...

It’s not likely dieticians will be endorsing his regimen, but a Virginia man demonstrated it is possible to regularly dine at a fast-food restaurant without being criticized for signing your own death certificate. Despite media attacks on fast-food for being unhealthy, ABC’s “Good Morning America” showed that healthier options are available without heavy-handed involvement from government in its June 19 broadcast. “Meet Chris Coleson – for years the Virginia man said he was eating too much and, of course, no diet seemed to work,” co-host Diane Sawyer said. “Then last December, he tipped the scales at 278 pounds and made...

I Read a story in the Washington Post about the death of a young woman. This ultra-huge died in her sleep. Her mom blamed it on obesity. Possibly so ... her mom is obese herself. In the story the mom bemoans the lack of "affordable" weight loss clinics and exercise facilities. Oh boy ... here we go. As we know, in the modern USA every single item or service that a person could possibly need or even want must be affordable. The new mantra is that there is something wrong with our country, our economy and our government if someone...

In India the LAP-BAND System has been proven the safest, simplest and effective way to treat severe obesity. If you are seriously overweight, the LAP-BAND System can help you achieve a happier, healthier life! In India the Lap-Band system is the least invasive of all weight loss surgeries. The system includes an adjustable silicon elastic band that is surgically placed around the stomach. The band induces weight loss by restricting food intake; when eating less, your body draws from its own fat to get the energy it needs. The Lap-Band is the only adjustable weight loss surgery; in fact, band...

Swedish opera star Tito Beltran has lashed out at his adoptive country ahead of his forthcoming rape trial, describing the country as "worse than Chile during the dictatorship". Believing himself to be the victim of ethnic discrimination, the popular tenor has vowed to burn his Swedish passport after the trial. "Swedes are as racist as they come," Beltran told Chilean newspaper Las Últimas Noticias. "This country doesn't tolerate 'blackheads' [svartskallar], of which I am one," he added. Beltran, 42, is accused of raping an 18-year-old nanny at a hotel in Nötesjö in Skåne following his participation in a Rhapsody in...

Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss—and the Myths and Realities of Dieting, by Gina Kolata, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 257 pages, $24 Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, by Brian Wansink, New York: Bantam Books, 276 pages, $25 Gina Kolata says losing weight is nearly impossible. Brian Wansink says it’s easy. But they don’t really contradict each other, because they’re talking about different kinds of weight loss.Although their new books offer very different messages for dieters, Kolata and Wansink share a suspicion of collectivist responses to the “obesity epidemic.” Both writers are intensely...

Huckabee's Record: Freed a Rapist Who Became a Killer, Destroyed Gov't Hard Drives, Raised Taxes, Misappropriated Funds Extremist Religious Views Appeal to Christian Nationalists But Will Repel Normal Voters in the General Dems Should Pray He's on the Ticket Recent polls show that Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and Baptist preacher, is rising in popularity in Iowa, where he is cutting into Mitt Romney's lead. (Romney has 28 percent, Huckabee has 24 percent in the ABC news survey; Romney is at 27 percent and Huckabee's at 18 percent in the local KCCI-TV poll.) He's also moving up in...

Portland, Maine (AP) -- Maine researcher says standing on a vibrating platform for 15 minutes a day could help people achieve washboard abs. Clifford Rosen from The Jackson Laboratory and Maine Medical Center Research Institute says his study put mice on a vibrating platform for 15 minutes a day for 15 weeks.

Obesity is more dangerous than smoking and will dramatically shorten the lives of millions, a landmark study has found. While smoking reduces life by an average of ten years, the research says being seriously overweight can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years. The Foresight report, written by 250 leading scientists, says Britain's obesity crisis is so severe that it would take at least 30 years to reverse. If current trends continue, by 2050 about 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children in the UK will be clinically obese...

As America gets fatter, policymakers are seeking creative approaches to legislating health. They may have entered the school cafeteria -- and now they're eyeing your neighborhood. Amid worries of an obesity epidemic and its related illnesses, including high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, Los Angeles officials, among others around the country, are proposing to limit new fast-food restaurants -- a tactic that could be called health zoning. The City Council will be asked this fall to consider an up to two-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South L.A., a part of the city where fast food is at...

AN EPIDEMIC of obesity could have serious consequences for America's economy and its ability to defend itself, according to a leading politician. Self-confessed "recovering foodaholic" Mike Huckabee, a Republican Party presidential candidate, told a group of governors from the American South that the increasing numbers of people who were either over-weight or obese meant more and more people were having to take time off work for health reasons. And Mr Huckabee, who lost 110lb - nearly 8st - several years ago when he was governor of Arkansas, said he was concerned by reports that nearly two-thirds of American military personnel...

Every once in a while I run across a bit of information that sounds just too good to be true. When I heard that a group of researchers from Vanderbilt University’s Department of Medicine announced that laughing caused people to burn extra calories, I just had to investigate it. I wondered if there could be at least a kernel of truth in their study, which hinted that laughter might be a way to lose weight. After all, studies have shown that laughter, which has been said for years to be good medicine, can enhance the immune system, reduce stress, and...

A widely publicized non-prescription diet drug named alli, which is believed to cause weight loss by blocking fat absorption, finally hit the drugstores nationwide this weekend, according to an announcement made June 12 by GlaxoSmithKline, the marketer of the diet drug. Alli, made by Roche of 60 mg orlistat, the active chemical that has been used for years for a prescription version known as xenical, obtained FDA approval in the February of 2007 for marketing in the United States as an over-the counter weight loss drug . The drug is indicated for those who are overweight, but not obese adults...

Think work feels like a treadmill now? Try a new desk designed at the Mayo Clinic. They built what they called a "vertical workstation" -- a desk fitted over a standard treadmill. They persuaded 15 obese people to work at this treadmill-desk and measured how many calories they burned. If an overweight office worker used this vertical workstation all day, every day for a year, he or she could lose up to 66 pounds (30 kg), the researchers report in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. James Levine and Jennifer Miller measured how many calories their 15 volunteers burned using...

 "Cardio kills," says Jim Karas in his new book, "The Cardio-Free Diet." "Cardiovascular exercise kills a weight-loss plan, your internal organs, your immune system, your time and your motivation. If your true goal is to lose weight, interval strength training is the only way to go," says Karas, an ABC News correspondent, celebrity trainer and fitness expert.    When he first tried to lose weight as a 21-year-old, Karas found that he would work up an enormous appetite after running several miles. So while his cardiovascular health improved he still wasn't losing weight. The Program He grew more interested in strength...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

Dirk Jackson says he weighed 450 pounds. His doctor does not know his exact weight because the scales in the clinic were not big enough to weigh him. But in January 2004, the North Richland Hills man made a New Year's resolution to lose weight through a disciplined regimen of diet and exercise. Since then, Jackson has lost 184 pounds. He's barely recognizable in photographs showing him wearing size 60 pants. He now wears size 38 pants and can bench press 450 pounds. He said he had always been overweight as an adult. Jackson's still a "big guy" largely because...

Looking to redeem itself after its fallout with pharmaceutical giant Merck, Nastech announced positive results Thursday for early phase trials of a nasal spray for the treatment of obesity. The spray, dubbed PPY (3-36) was well tolerated when given to a group of 24 obese patients during a testing for variables such as food intake and appetite. The study was intended to find the most effective dose of the drug for further trials. Nastech said that, when administered by IV, the PPY caused patients to reduce their calorie intake by 30 percent, which matches results from previous studies of PPY....