Congrats to FatFighterTV member – Just_Kelly – for winning last week’s giveaway for the new book, Refuse to Regain! Enjoy!

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It’s official – Oprah is human. That explains how it was possible for her to regain 40 pounds. Today on her show, Oprah will share how she fell off the wagon like so many others before her. In fact, 80-90% of dieters regain the weight they lose! While there’s an endless amount of information about how to shed those pounds, unfortunately there’s not much out there about how to maintain that weight loss. Frustrated by that void, obesity specialist, Barbara Berkeley, M.D., wrote a new book to help post-dieters succeed – Refuse to Regain!: 12 Tough Rules to Maintain the Body You’ve Earned! What does it take? Dr. Berkeley shares a few of her tried and true tips with FatFighterTV.

Losing the weight

First, it’s important to look at the weight loss journey. Whichever diet you chose, you probably follow it to the letter because you want it to work, right? And often, it does. But what happens once you reach your goal weight?

“Most diet books and most diet programs don’t place much of an emphasis on maintenance,” says Barbara Berkeley, MD. “People have just got the idea that once they’ve lost weight, if they go back to what they were doing before – sort of moderately – they’ll be fine. But in fact, they have to enact the same kind of plan they enacted to lose the weight. And what makes it more difficult is they have to permanently enact that if they’re going to keep the weight off. So of course, it’s a much more difficult task.”

It’s like training for a marathon

Dr. Berkeley has worked with overweight and obese patients for 20 years, helping them to control their ideal weight permanently. And her website, Refuse to Regain is an online support system for weight maintainers. This paragraph from her site is so powerful and so true:

No one has ever explained that learning how to maintain a weight loss is like training to run a marathon. Unlike the sprint of weight loss, maintenance is a long distance event which requires a different kind of knowledge and spirit.

Tools to maintain

So, what do you need for this long distance (forever) event? Here are a few tips Dr. Berkeley shared with FFTV:

• Develop a plan. You need to find something that works for you.  Any plan that’s out there should be modified to meet your specific needs.

• Write down your plan and follow it with complete and utter conviction at least for the first three to six months of maintenance until you’ve figured out what’s going to work for you.

• Weigh yourself every day. Consider yourself a scientist in your first year of maintenance, meaning that you’re going to use your scale to tell you what foods do to you. You’re going to look every day. If you’ve added something back, you’re going to see if you’ve had a response to that. You’re going to see what actually is causing you to fall off the wagon or crave things or gain weight.

The book goes into much more detail on these tips and a lot more – all are part of the 12 Tough Rules to Maintain the Body You’ve Earned.

As Dr. Berkeley puts it, “It’s a book for people who are looking to interrupt the cycle of gain and loss at whatever point they are in that cycle.”

Finally, some much-needed attention to a topic too often ignored. Thanks, Dr. Berkeley!

Can anyone out there relate? Share with me where you are right now in that cycle – are you trying to lose weight? Or trying to maintain it? What’s the hardest thing for you?

Just for commenting, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win Refuse to Regain! for free!

A few contest details: It ends at midnight EST this Friday, January 9… you have to have a U.S. mailing address to enter… and a random number generator will pick the winner.

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This year, we cheered as the world’s heaviest man lost 500 pounds then got hitched, we wondered why some of our favorite foods suddenly looked smaller, and worried when the worst foodborne outbreak in a decade spread across the country. Here’s a look back at the year’s headlines in food, fitness, and fat – The top 8 of ‘08:

Hold the tomatoes, hold the peppers…
Tomatoes and peppers were pulled from store shelves and restaurants when a massive salmonella outbreak started in April. It took the government several months to figure out what caused it, making many people question our nation’s food safety system. When it was over, 1,400 people had gotten sick across the country.

F as in Fat
The obesity epidemic continued to climb – up in 37 states – with predictions that 86-percent of Americans could be overweight by 2030 if things don’t change soon. The epidemic brought sobering news about how obesity is affecting children with an influential physicians’ group urging young kids to take cholesterol drugs, and a new report showing the arteries of obese kids can be just as clogged as those of a 45-year-old.

Happy Anniversary (the BIG 5-0) to the Hula Hoop
It was the Hula Hoop’s anniversary – the golden one already? Seems as though it’s come, well… full circle over the years.  Just one year after it came out, the company that makes the hip toy sold more than 100 million Hula Hoops. Fifty years later, the hoop is regaining its popularity as a fun and challenging way to exercise – it’s even a featured activity on Nintendo’s new Wii Fit.

World’s heaviest man marries
First, Manuel Uribe made headlines when he lost 500+ pounds (he used to weigh 1,234 pounds). Then the world cheered him on as he married his longtime girlfriend in Mexico in October. Uribe has not left his bed for six years. His doctors want him to lose a total of 1,000 pounds.

Diabetes doubles
Diabetes is skyrocketing in the United States. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the rate of new cases of the disease has nearly doubled over the past 10 years. The main reasons? The growing number of obesity and sedentary lifestyles. About 1.6 million people age 20 or older were newly diagnosed with diabetes just last year.

Show me the calories
Calorie counts started popping up at restaurants across the country as laws passed in New York City, California, and Philadelphia requiring them to post calories on their menus. Fast food chains like KFC, Taco Bell, and Long John Silver’s also announced they would start putting calories on menu boards in their restaurants nationwide.

Honey, they shrunk the food…
With the cost of ingredients and fuel for delivery going up, some food companies are making their products smaller but selling them for the same price – giving us less, instead of raising their prices. Shrinking products include Breyers ice cream, Mini BabyBel Cheese discs, some varieties of Yoplati yogurt, and Sun Chips Garden Salsa snacks.

Oprah up again
Oprah has been yo-yo-ing for years and this year, she’s back up again. Winfrey says she now weighs 200 pounds and has “fallen off the wagon” when it comes to healthy living. She’s gained 40 pounds back since 2006. She’s expected to talk candidly about her weight on her show in January.

Did you remember all those?

What will 2009 hold? Sign up for FatFighterTV’s daily updates for the very latest. Plus you’ll get the FREE e-book, “Recipes and Tips for Healthy, Thrifty Meals”

[Photo Credit: stock.xchng]

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If you’ve seen Oprah lately, you may have noticed the Queen of Talk has gained some weight… again. In the January issue of O magazine, Winfrey says she now weighs 200 pounds and has “fallen off the wagon” when it comes to healthy living.

She tells the Associated Press she’s mad at herself for gaining back 40 pounds since 2006, and says a thyroid problem made her develop “a fear of working out.”

“I’m embarrassed,” she writes. “I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, ‘How did I let this happen again?”’

Winfrey says her goal is no longer to be thin – instead, she wants to be strong, healthy and fit. She is expected to talk candidly about her weight on The Oprah Winfrey Show in January.

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You saw them compete, win, and proudly grasp their shiny medals. Now celebrate with your favorite Olympic medalists today on Oprah. More than 175 of these incredible athletes will gather for the show’s season premiere.

They’ll all be there – Michael Phelps, Nastia Luikin, Shawn Johnson, Dara Torres, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Lisa Leslie, Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, Jennie Finch and many more!

Find out how they feel about making their Olympic dreams come true and what’s next for these world-class athletes.

They are all so inspiring. I can’t wait to see them on Oprah!

Will you be watching?

Photo Credits: Harpo Productions, Robert Davis, George Burns

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Hey everyone! I’m excited to let you know FatFighterTV is now part of the Oprah Digital Network! What this means is FFTV will have exclusive news, clips, and information about upcoming shows, plus interviews with some of Oprah’s regular guests. Stay tuned…

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• Oprah is “mad, embarrassed” at 200 pounds
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