Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Updated : May 20, 2014 11:35 AM IST
This week we have some amazing weight loss stories from around the web. While experts are worried about the impact junk food will have on the public, while we also find out about the life story of a food addict who can't stop eating despite getting 8 gastric band surgeries! Read on for the quirkiest weight loss tales from around the web.
Junk food, the new cigarettes in town?
International groups around the world believe that junk food should be regulated like the tobacco industry before the situation gets out of hand. Consumers International and World Obesity Federation are calling for the adoption of more stringent rules which could include pictures on food packaging of damage caused by obesity, similar to the images found on cigarette packets.
Many believe that dragging our foot could result in a situation similar to the tobacco industry's situation in the 60s and such a situation should not be allowed. The global deaths due to obesity rose from 2.6 million in 2005 to 3.4 in 2010. New rules governing junk food should include the reduction of salt levels, saturated fat and sugar in food and also impose stricter advertising controls and increase public awareness about healthy eating. Artificial trans-fats should be removed from all food and drink products within five years, said the recommendations. Read more on the BBC...
Food addiction - the problem is in your head and not your stomach!
While the argument about the existence of food addiction continues, Chris McDonnell's case suggests that food addiction is very real. The hospice worker has had his gastric band adjusted eight times and actually liquidises kebabs and deep-friend Mars bars to cheat his gastric band. And UK's public healthcare system means that GBP 30,000 of taxpayers' money has already been spent on him. The 31-year-old has been addicted to eating since he was 12 and reveals how even surgery couldn't help him. Like he says: 'The problem isn't in your stomach, it's in your brain.I did it without thinking. Huge portions four, five times a day, with several courses. Kebabs, pizzas and burgers were my favourites. Kids would point at me in the street and comment to their parents about how big I was. People told me to diet and I tried - but I just loved food too much. It was the most important thing in my life.' Read more on the Daily Mail.
The truth about life after weight loss
Magazines will have you believe that weight loss stories are magical, that once you become thin the world will be your oyster and everything will be hunky dory. Candice Russel sadly discovered that it's not the case. She writes that living the 'after' life isn't that hunky dory after losing 180 pounds. She reveals the woes of having some 20 pounds of excess skin, the roadmap of scars, stretch marks and more. She reveals the conflict that comes from loose skin which still hangs everywhere, that despite being able to fit into clothes at virtually every store and still being unable to buy clothes that fit. Candice adds: 'Life as an 'after' is not perfect. You won't suddenly get the guy, the promotion, or the popularity you've always wanted just because you are thin. If you are looking for a fairytale ending, you won't find it no matter how much weight you lose. And if you focus only on the aesthetics, your journey won't ever really be complete. Why? Because you don't suddenly develop self-esteem when you drop 10 pants sizes or fit into a small. It has taken me a few years, but I am learning how to accept this fact myself. I'm learning to not be ashamed of the physical manifestations of my hard work. Learning to trust that there is someone out there who will love me regardless of whether or not I can ever afford to pay for the reconstructive surgery I so desperately need.' Read more on HuffingonPost.com
Shape Magazine to publish true weight loss story
Brooke Birmingham was told by a Shape magazine freelance writer that they couldn't accept her bikini photo (which showed her with extra folds of skin) and she shared the tale in her blog and the story went viral. She was told it was against Shape's policy to put pictures in bikinis which turned out to be not true. 'If I couldn't have the picture of me in my bikini to go along with my story, then it wasn't MY story,' she wrote. 'The story I wanted to tell and shout out to the world, not their ideal story. So, if I couldn't tell it my way, then they weren't going to be able to tell it at all.'
'It was a miscommunication with a freelancer who is not employed by Shape,' Editor-at-Large Bahar Takhtehchian explained. 'Unfortunately she said there was an editorial policy that simply doesn't exist. So that's where things went awry a little bit.' Read more on her blog...
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