A massive new meta-analysis of medical studies involving tens of thousands of subjects has shown that even "healthy" obesity is often a precursor to health problems — but then again, so is unhealthy non-obesity. So why are news outlets once again making it all about tongue-clicking fat people?
In news that you will make you think Willy Wonka is behind all those vast global media conspiracies we keep telling you are just 'silly,' Gossip Girl thespian and perfect dress wearer Blake Lively says NOPE, when it comes to her famous figure, she doesn't exercise or train or diet or count calories or get illegal…
William Howard Taft was, notoriously, our fattest president, weighing in somewhere between 314 and 340 pounds during his term. One time he got stuck in a bathtub or something (maybe). This is literally the only thing anyone remembers about President Taft, even though—little known factoid—he was actually doing all…
If Hillary Clinton were to run for President in 2016, she'd have a lot of ducks to get in a row — fundraising, amassing an army of volunteers, getting key endorsements, building a killer staff to fuel her unstoppably Hillary Machine. Dozens of extra-shiny flag lapel pins, I'd imagine. Here's something that would…
Why can nothing be easy in this country? First you have to submit to ten personality tests to get a job folding jeans at Old Navy, then your vacation days are whittled down to six per millennium, and now you have to relinquish full blood work, a pint of urine, and your soul to get reasonably priced healthcare (lest…
Cory Booker must be one of those dudes who holds his weight in a bag stored in an invisible realm, because he allegedly claims he's lost 40 pounds — and has "another 30 to go".
Are you familiar with guyets? Not to be confused with it feminine cousin, the diet, a guyet is, you know, for dudes. Because when men diet, it's different.
Here's some more dieting advice
If you'd asked me a week ago what the future of dieting would look like, I would've told you I think it could go one of two ways. Either we become a society that grows to accept people of different sizes or we're gonna start literally torturing fat people into becoming skinny. You know, for their own good.
David Zinczenko the chief yahoo Editor in Chief at Men's Health has written new weight loss manifesto The 8-Hour Diet: Watch the Pounds Disappear Without Watching What You Eat!, argue that eating around the clock is responsible for the country's high rates of diabetes and obesity. Their solution? Eat between 9am-5pm.…
If you think about it, things are pretty terrific, but they are also pretty fucking terrible, too. Your life is going perfectly well, but looked at from another angle, you are a complete and utter disappointment to everyone. You're really pretty, except when you are not. And the world is a welcoming, open place, when…
Equalities minister Jo Swinson is sick and tired of magazine features on how to lose 10 pounds in 48 hours by only eating cayenne pepper while turning counter-clockwise three times under a full moon — the sort of stories that appear without fail after the holiday stress-eating trend pieces
Weight Watchers is an institution. For almost five decades, it's been seen as the sane alternative to the dump truck of more intense dieting programs that surround us. Unlike incredibly restrictive programs such as Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem, which include their own chemical-death meals in Lilliputian portions, or fad …
Have you heard about Six Weeks to OMG: Get Skinnier Than All Your Friends, the fad diet du jour that claims "broccoli carbs can be worse than soda carbs" and "small, frequent meals pack on the pounds"? We haven't covered the book (because the title alone represents everything we oppose), but if you commute to work, you…
New fragrance Prends-Moi, which claims to be the world's first slimming perfume (but probably won't be the last, since we love spending money on bizarre weight loss scams
Is there any culture on earth whose food culture we fetishize as abjectly as we do the French? Like, oooooooh my god! The French! Did you know that in France, veal calves weep with pride and moo "La Marseillaise" as they're being slaughtered? Did you know that in France, they're so committed to freshness that they bury…
Beer goggles are famous for making everything look better, and a new pair of diet goggles are designed to do something very similar. Created by researchers in Japan, the goggles have a little computer inside that magnifies the size of whatever the wearer is holding while keeping their hand the same size. This makes…
The Atlantic's June cover story, "The Perfected Self," is about how infamous Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner, who became an industry scapegoat for his much-maligned "fascist and manipulative" behavior modification theory (which is, in a nutshell, that "gentle, punishment-free behavior-modification techniques could…
When mice eat high-fat, high-calorie meals but "fast" overnight — meaning, they don't nibble on anything after an active eight-hour day, not even the tiniest piece of cheese — they stay as slender and healthy as mice that eat leaner food, according to a new study. Scientists think this means that humans, too, would…
Hey, all you engaged ladies out there!!! Now that you've found the love of your life and have tricked him into buying you a conflict diamond, it's time for you to focus on the next step in your life: becoming insufferable, and gradually completely unhinged as you prepare for your big, important Princess Day! Today's…
Hey, you guys, this is super weird: some scientists have done a bit of research and figured out that it is possible for obese people to lose weight by doing something other than going on The Biggest Loser. Crazy, right? What's even more bizarre, though, is that the way for them to lose weight does not even involve…
Weight Watchers has some new commercials starring Charles Barkley, in which, much like Jennifer Hudson did, he stands against a black background while wearing a black dress. Apparently dudes think dieting is girly stuff, so Barkley wants guys to know they can "lose like a man."
Scientists, ever on the hunt to find ways to keep us looking slim and trim, have done a new study and discovered a revolutionary new way for us to trick ourselves into taking smaller bites. No, it's not by simply saying to yourself, "Why don't you take a smaller bite this time, friend?"—that would be too easy, silly…
The socialites who write personal essays for Vogue aren't known for their kindness and humility, but Dara-Lynn Weiss, who opened up about putting her 7-year-old daughter on a Weight Watchers-style diet in Vogue's April issue, has to go down in history as the one of the most fucked up, selfish women to ever grace the…
It doesn't take a PhD in How Shit Works Studies to understand that the notion that any of us can really "have it all" is absurd. The perfect family, the perfect career, the perfect sex life, and the perfect body are all such demanding mistresses that unless we prioritize and choose one or two, we end up with none of the…
As every late night infomercial for electrodes that give you sexy abs tells you: dieting is terrible. No one likes dieting. In fact, it seems the only people who like dieting are involved in the dieting industry, and they stand to profit immensely from people's desire to be lose weight. To make matters worse, research…
In the year 2012, Americans will likely spend more than sixty billion dollars on diets. 95% of those diets will result in people being as heavy or heavier than they started, with the medical dangers involved with weight cycling, and having taken the self-esteem hit of trying and failing at a diet.
She tells NPR: "We always think of a diet with a big groan. But I think diets are fun. I think it is an American pastime for a lot of women. I don't know. I think that Kelly thinks of dieting as a fun hobby to have."
Several months ago, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill announced to her Twitter followers that she wanted to lose 50 pounds. Yesterday, she took to the 'net again, informing her followers that she'd met her goal. While I'm happy for her for doing what she set out to do, it's depressing that the standard by which women…
A new study alleges that British women think about food more than sex, and that a significant minority think about it more than they think about their partners. Take this with a grain of salt, though — the study was conducted by Atkins.
