Donna Simpson weighs 603 pounds. But she says she’s still too skinny, and needs to weigh nearly 1 000 pounds before she can be recognized in the Guinness World Book of Records as the world’s fattest woman – a goal she’s set her sights on.

The 42-year-old mother of two is determined to double her size to reach her goal by eating mounds of junk food and moving as little as possible, even though she can only move 20 feet before needing to rest currently.

“I’d love to be 1,000lb,” Donna says. “It might be hard though. Running after my daughter keeps my weight down.”

The New Jersey resident isn’t alone in her quest to supersize herself; her long-term partner, 49-year-old Phillipe (who she met on an online dating site for obese individuals), encourages her every step of the way and is a self-confessed fat admirer. He only weighs 150 pounds though. Donna’s other motivators are the men who pay to watch her eat fast food on her website. And with a weekly shopping bill of $750, Donna needs all the extra income she can get. To reach her goal, Donna needs to consume up to 12 000 calories a day – the healthy average for a woman is 2 000.

Donna started to pack on the pounds at a young age as her mother always cooked big meals for the family. During her teens years, however, she became a little worried about her weight and started taking diet pills, but soon gave up because she was unhappy all the time. Thus continued began Donna’s spiral down the slopes of fatty fast foods and a ballooning body.

Surprisingly, Donna’s proud of her weight and her goal to become the world’s fattest woman.

“I love eating and people love watching me eat,” she says. “It makes people happy, and I’m not harming anyone.”

If you live the life of a couch potato, you might be reading the wrong blog. Nonetheless, you may be in the perfect position to earn around $36 000. A company in the UK is looking for couch potatoes to do nothing, eat more and test the fat binding properties of their new weight-loss product.

The firm, Proactol Ltd, is looking for men and women to 400 extra calories every day by eating fatty meals like pizza and chips so they can test their new product ‘in the real world’. Participants, who will be monitored by doctors, will be paid an annual salary of $35 750 to eat 16% more calories a week with “no strings attached”.

“We are looking to hire the ultimate average Joe who isn’t afraid to eat more, be themselves and become a professional couch potato for a living,” the ad says. “The ideal candidate should not already be on a diet but eat a healthy balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins and be prepared to increase their existing calorie intake by 16% a week by eating fatty foods such as Chinese takeaways, fish and chips, pizza or McDonalds.”

According to a spokesperson for Proactol, the individual will assist their team of scientists and doctors to better understand the benefits of their drug, which they claim absorbs up to 30% of fat intake. The tester will at first be observed in their facility, but will soon be able to ‘work from home’ with the weight-loss product delivered to his or her door.

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I always enjoy reading about ridiculous fad diets inspired by celebrities. The latest one is the Air Diet, inspired by Dolce & Gabbana’s campaign featuring Madonna. Created by the French, the diet is pretty self-explanatory – you eat only air.

The biggest and probably only rule of the diet is to eat nothing except water and salt soup. You can, however, do everything else like buying groceries and preparing the food. Setting the table and serving the food. You can even hold it up to your mouth as if you were about to eat it, but then put it back down and not eat it. (Ridiculous hey?!)

Apparently the diet has been around for quite some time, but was made famous by Dolce & Gabbana. According to the Institute for Psychoactive Research in England, the goal is to breathe more by setting aside time every day for concentrated, rhythmical, deep breathing.

“Eventually, the effect will spread over the rest of the day, even when the technique is not being consciously performed, and you will be able to breath deeper. Without any change in the rest of your diet or exercise regimen, you will slowly start to lose weight.”

Celeb Diet Doc…
Sounds like torture to me…

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Hula hooping is not just something the kids do for fun, it’s something First Lady Michelle Obama and actress Marisa Tomei do to keep fit. Hooping strengthens your core, improves your balance and can even serve as a really good aerobic workout, adding variety to your current one.

Official hooping classes usually last for an hour – they begin with stretching and then progress into the basic moves, where you not only use your waist, but your arms and legs too. If you’re new to hooping the best hoop to buy would be a large size, handmade one that’s weighted and has grip tape that will grip to your skin and clothes.

The video above shows exactly how you can get your hoop moving as well as a few progressions for more advanced hoopers.

“Most people want to make little circles with their hips, but actually you’re really just have to rock back and forth, from your front to your back foot,” says Valentina Martin, a hooping instructor, of the basic motion.

Celeb Diet Doc…
Looks like fun… an oldie but goodie is making a comeback.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been told to rather buy fresh vegetables than frozen ones. But with the current rise in fresh produce prices, I’m having a tough time putting fresh veggies on my dinner table. Recent findings, however, say that buying cheaper, frozen veggies may not only be better for your wallet but also for your diet as they retain more nutrients than their fresh counterparts.

The study conducted by the Institute of Food Research for frozen foods company Bird’s Eye, found that 80% of shoppers think fresh vegetables available in supermarkets are only four days old, when in fact they could be more than 16 days old! And the older they are the more nutrients they’ve lost. Breaking it down into specifics, the study says at times green beans can lose up to 45% of its nutrients, broccoli and cauliflower 25%, garden peas 15% and carrots 10%.

When compared to vegetables that are frozen soon after harvesting, it’s pretty obvious that frozen produce retains more nutrients than fresh ones.

“We must disregard the mistaken view that ‘fresh’ food is always better for us than frozen food,” says researcher Charlotte Harden. “Frozen food can be nutritionally comparable or in some cases nutritionally superior.”

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If you’re having difficulty shifting those last three pounds, it may be because you’re not on the right diet. And choosing the perfect weight-loss program for you may be as simple as a DNA test. This is the latest news in the growing field of nutrigenomics – an area of study where scientists look at the how food interacts with genes.

Previous studies have found that people with a different genetic makeup react differently to different nutrients. But new preliminary research into the weight-loss programs of 101 women found that DNA testing could determine whether you’d lose more weight by simply changing diets.

Researchers at Stanford University divided the Caucasian female participants into three genotypes (low carbohydrate diet responsive, low fat diet responsive and a balanced diet responsive) and found that the women on the matching diet for their genotype lost two to three times more weight over 12 months than when on a different diet.

“It fits pretty well with some of our own studies which show that certain genotypes are more responsive than others to certain types of fats, e.g. diets high in omega-3 fatty acids,” Professor Christine Williams, from the University of Reading told the BBC.

Because the results are still preliminary, more research is needed before DNA-testing can be used commercially.

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Despite the nation’s alarming obesity figures, the Food and Drug Administration’s latest Health and Diet Survey shows that Americans’ nutrition knowledge has in fact increased over the years. The results of the telephone survey conducted with more than 2 500 adults, was released today.

According to the survey, the 10th since 1982, more than 50% of consumers read the food labels of products they’re buying for the first time. There’s also been an increase in the number of consumers who know the link between diet and heart disease – this figure has increased by 8% since 2002.

In the same year, the survey discovered that only 53% percent of Americans knew that unhealthy fats are related to heart disease. The latest figures show this knowledge has increased by 9% to 62, while the awareness that trans fats might raise the risk of heart disease has nearly doubled, from 32% in 2004 to 62%.

With a margin of error of 2 percentage points, the survey found that 54% said they eat breakfast (8% skip it completely) and 86% eat dinner every day (1% say they skip it). The survey also found that less than half of Americans trust the information on food labels: 41% believe all or most ‘low fat’ and ‘high fiber’ claims, compared to 56% who say only some or none are true.

Celeb Diet Doc Says..
These are encouraging results. But of course the best foods do not come with a label… and this fruits and veggies of course! So skip the labels and think whole foods for optimal health and weight loss!

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At some point or another we’ve all had our mothers scold us for eating too quickly and told to slow down. There might be some truth to the old wives tale that eating slower will help you lose weight too, according to a new study.

Published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, the study conducted by researchers at Athens University Medical School in Greece was to determine whether eating the same meal at different speeds produces different post-meal hormones (glucagon) that signal feelings of satiety and fullness to the brain.

Participants were each given the same serving of ice cream on different occasions but were told to eat the first serving within 5 minutes and the second serving within 30 minutes. Blood samples were taken after participants ate each serving and insulin and gut hormone levels were measured.

It was found that the participants’ bodies produced more glucagon when they ate slowly, which meat they felt fuller quicker. As a result, if you feel fuller quicker, you naturally tend to eat less – therefore cutting the amount of calories you consume.

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While America is facing the very real problem of childhood obesity, across the pond the British are dealing with another problem. Apparently half of the country’s six-year-old girls want to be thinner.

When I was six I was more concerned with Barbie than my weight, but a recent study conducted at Cambridge University has revealed that the nation’s young girls are scarily preoccupied with their weight, and actually think they’re overweight when they’re not. The experiment will be aired on Tuesday 2 March on the Channel 4 program Jo Frost: Extreme Parental Guidance, and reveals that most of the girls involved in the study think they will be too fat by the time they turn 12.

In the study, the girls were presented with digitally altered photographs of themselves and asked to choose their ideal shape. Half of them chose the image that was three sizes smaller than their current size, which happened to be the skinniest they could pick. Even more surprising is that these girls think being skinnier will make them more popular.

The Sun tabloid interviewed two of the girls’ mothers who blame the fashion media and its Photoshopping craze.

“[My daughter] Saffron looks through my magazines and says her legs are fat. There is a worrying culture of girls thinking they’re overweight from a very young age,” says one mother. The other mother told the daily newspaper: “These girls idolize models and get depressed.”

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Over the years there’s been a significant rise in the amount of meal delivery weight-loss programs. We take a look at some of the most popular, and what they will cost your pocket…

eDiets
Each meal is freshly prepared then flash frozen and shipped to you chilled. There are weekly deliveries with no long-term contracts or commitments, but the food won’t go bad for 10 to 14 days. You can speak to registered dietitians and personal trainers telephonically as well as chat to the community online. The program costs $19.95 a day ($139.75 a week, $559 a month) plus $19.95 for shipping per week. You can customize your plan with more than 100 meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack or dessert.

Healthy Chef Creations
Consisting of organic ingredients and free-range meats, you may order a week’s supply which is FedExed in a cooler. Shipping is included in the $59.95 a day, $419.65 a week or $1,678.60 a month fee. The meals, breakfast, midmorning detox shake, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner and mini dessert, or planned for you but you may make specific requests. Specific calorie ranges and vegetarian requests are accommodated. Although the meals are very similar, you won’t receive exactly the same one twice in four months.

Jenny Craig
It’s not just a meal plan as it encompasses weight management consultations, over the telephone or in person, and motivational materials as well. There’s a $20 three-month trial membership; otherwise $359 for a year and the meals, which are either frozen, shelf stable or canned, cost extra. The food costs $12 to $18 a day ($84 to $126 a week, $330 to $504 a month) and you can purchase them at a centre near you. Otherwise shipping costs are $2.32 a day or $65 for a four-week shipment. With more than 80 entrees and snacks, seasonal items are introduced every six to eight weeks.

Nutrisystem
Delivered on a monthly basis, all meals are shelf stable, but you also gain access to telephonic counseling. For $369 a month for men and $333 a month for women ($18 for shipping), there are 150 meals to choose from which include breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. But you can also have your meals pre-selected for you.

Do-It-Yourself
It you prefer to create your one meal plan, Healthy Choice, Kashi and Lean Cuisine microwave meals are the way to go. The price depends on your location but shouldn’t be more than $5/meal. The meals have very small portions and calorie counts, which means you’ll need to supplement them with fruit, vegetables, soup or salad.

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