How losing weight can change your personality... and it may not be for the better

By Lucy Cavendish


Slimmed down: Lucy lost four stone after dieting but admits keeping the weight off is a constant battle

Three years ago, I was fat. I really was. I was a roly-poly great big lump of lard. I weighed 14st 4lb, far too much for my 5ft 8in frame. I’d go into High Street stores and despair that no clothes fitted me.

I’d stand in front of the mirror and stare in horror at my increasing curves. I didn’t just look fat — I looked as if I was about to give birth. It was so bad that people got up for me on trains.

A woman in a restaurant even came up and congratulated me on my pregnancy. ‘Not long now,’ she said encouragingly. I sat there, burning with shame and close to tears.

That’s what really did it. I decided then and there that I couldn’t bear being fat any more.

Like former Birds Of A Feather star Pauline Quirke, who this week revealed her new svelte figure after losing more than six stone, I decided there was only one thing for it. The excess baggage had to go.

Quirke lost her weight on the LighterLife diet — a drastic regime that requires women to eat no more than 500 calories a day. I lost four stone with WeightWatchers, which offers a less drastic approach. But we both achieved the same result, losing 30 per cent of our total body weight.

I am now — after three years of dieting and being extremely careful about what I eat — a healthy and light 10st 3lb. Every time I climb on the scales, I want to do a dance of pure joy. For the first time in 15 years, I’m slim. In fact, I’m actually lighter than I was in my early 20s.

Yet proud as I am, something crucial and unexpected has changed. It’s not only my body shape that has been transformed, but my personality, too.

It’s as if I have morphed into a different person on the inside, as well as outside.

From being a laid-back type, happy to eat, drink, be merry and have endless parties, I’ve become a rampant control freak.

Instead of cooking or spending time with my husband, I’m either doing stomach crunches in the sitting room or talking about how guilty I feel that I’ve eaten too much. I am, in short, a bore. I have that nervous energy I always used to associate with thin people.

I can’t sit down (if I sit, I might be tempted to eat). I won’t go out for dinner. I won’t let my husband cook for me in case he sneaks fat into things. I feel so sorry for him.

He used to show he loved me by cooking for the family. Now, he just stands there looking like someone’s chopped his arms off. He’s like a forlorn mother bird, desperate to feed me, but not knowing how to.

My lack of eating has probably done untold damage to our relationship. How do you relax with your loved one if she won’t eat or drink?

If we do go out for dinner, I spend so long worrying about what to consume that I’m surprised he doesn’t get up and leave.

I think he preferred me when I was a bit curvier, but he does like the new me. He says ‘gosh you’re tiny’ in an admiring voice, but he definitely misses the intimacy we had when we ate together.

Curvy: Lucy doesn't miss her pre-diet body

Now, he comes in from work and cooks himself a stir-fry and then eats it on his own. He then opens a bottle of wine and pours himself a glass. Meanwhile, I’m on the camomile tea and a slice of cucumber.

It’s a lonely life on both sides!

It’s not helped my relationship with my friends, either. Some of them (the thin ones) are delighted and encouraging. Others (the foodies) are appalled.

When I go round to their houses and refuse pasta smothered in parmesan, chicken cooked in cream, and gateau, I know I am hurting their feelings. It gets worse when I wave away the wine, the brandy and even the glasses of fizz.

‘You used to be such fun!’ they say, giving my husband sympathetic looks. ‘Yes, I was fun, but I was also fat,’ is my retort.

I have also turned into a terrible, judgmental fat-ist. Every time I see someone who is overweight, I want to scream at them: ‘Go on a diet!’

I have friends who drive me so mad with their overeating that I want to tape their mouths shut. Recently, I fell out with a friend when I commented rather acerbically on why she was eating an entire bar of chocolate for her pudding. We haven’t spoken since.

But now I’m thin, I can’t bear fat people’s lack of self-control, their gluttony, their inability to see what harm they are doing to themselves. I’m like one of those TV evangelists.

If I see someone about to munch down one of those huge baguettes filled with brie, I feel like screaming. The sight of a chocolate muffin can bring me out in hives. I feel it’s my duty to explain constantly to everyone how much better I feel now I am thin.

Do I look better? Of course I do! It’s certainly true that people — particularly men — like you more when you are thin. I am sure some of my friends miss the old me, but I don’t.

I don’t want to be bovine, chewing the cud and watching the world go by. I want to be able to move and run and not be weighed down. If my friends don’t like me this way, then tough.

I also get congratulated on how much weight I have lost. People seem so proud of me. ‘You look great,’ is the refrain, ‘and so thin!’

I feel younger, sexier, more agile, more attractive, more powerful — and less paranoid and self-hating.

Transformed: Emmerdale actress Pauline Quirke has lost a huge six stone after years of being overweight with Lighter Life


But, despite it all, there lurks this dark side to being thin, as I am sure Pauline Quirke will discover. There’s a tyranny involved in keeping slim, for in every former-fat person, there is still a fatty waiting to get out again.

I adore cake, biscuits and ice cream, so I find it hard to have anything sweet in the house.

I tend to buy biscuits for the children and the occasional packet of crisps, but I always try to get the flavours I don’t like. If I do, in a moment of weakness, buy a tub of Ben & Jerry’s, I’ll eat the whole lot in one go. Then I’ll feel so sick and full of remorse that I want to kill myself.

I also spend endless hours obsessing about food, dreaming up all the delicious dishes I could eat. To avoid this, I chew on a couple of prawns — no dressing — hoping that my hunger pangs will go away.

Healthy eating: But Lucy admits sticking to low fat foods makes meal times less interesting


Even my dreams have changed. I used to be a good sleeper. Now, I have recurring nightmares in which I’ve eaten so much that I’ve put all the weight back on again.

There are days when all I want to do is eat biscuits. There are days when all I actually do is eat biscuits. But then there’s the terrible guilt afterwards. It’s almost unbearable.

I’ve become the sort of woman who apologises for eating a square of chocolate.

To offset this occasional secret biscuit-eating, I exercise like a fanatic.

I do yoga for an hour or more every day. I walk for an hour-and-a-half. I run and swim and take a boxercise class. If I miss any activity, I beat myself up about it and do extra the next day.

But it’s not all terrible! Honestly. It’s great to feel fitter. It’s wonderful to look better. If I could just stop being quite so paranoid and be more accepting of others and just relax, life would be perfect!

Oh, be forewarned Pauline. Thinness is a psychological battlefield. It really, really is.


source:dailymail

How losing weight can change your personality... and it may not be for the better

By Lucy Cavendish


Slimmed down: Lucy lost four stone after dieting but admits keeping the weight off is a constant battle

Three years ago, I was fat. I really was. I was a roly-poly great big lump of lard. I weighed 14st 4lb, far too much for my 5ft 8in frame. I’d go into High Street stores and despair that no clothes fitted me.

I’d stand in front of the mirror and stare in horror at my increasing curves. I didn’t just look fat — I looked as if I was about to give birth. It was so bad that people got up for me on trains.

A woman in a restaurant even came up and congratulated me on my pregnancy. ‘Not long now,’ she said encouragingly. I sat there, burning with shame and close to tears.

That’s what really did it. I decided then and there that I couldn’t bear being fat any more.

Like former Birds Of A Feather star Pauline Quirke, who this week revealed her new svelte figure after losing more than six stone, I decided there was only one thing for it. The excess baggage had to go.

Quirke lost her weight on the LighterLife diet — a drastic regime that requires women to eat no more than 500 calories a day. I lost four stone with WeightWatchers, which offers a less drastic approach. But we both achieved the same result, losing 30 per cent of our total body weight.

I am now — after three years of dieting and being extremely careful about what I eat — a healthy and light 10st 3lb. Every time I climb on the scales, I want to do a dance of pure joy. For the first time in 15 years, I’m slim. In fact, I’m actually lighter than I was in my early 20s.

Yet proud as I am, something crucial and unexpected has changed. It’s not only my body shape that has been transformed, but my personality, too.

It’s as if I have morphed into a different person on the inside, as well as outside.

From being a laid-back type, happy to eat, drink, be merry and have endless parties, I’ve become a rampant control freak.

Instead of cooking or spending time with my husband, I’m either doing stomach crunches in the sitting room or talking about how guilty I feel that I’ve eaten too much. I am, in short, a bore. I have that nervous energy I always used to associate with thin people.

I can’t sit down (if I sit, I might be tempted to eat). I won’t go out for dinner. I won’t let my husband cook for me in case he sneaks fat into things. I feel so sorry for him.

He used to show he loved me by cooking for the family. Now, he just stands there looking like someone’s chopped his arms off. He’s like a forlorn mother bird, desperate to feed me, but not knowing how to.

My lack of eating has probably done untold damage to our relationship. How do you relax with your loved one if she won’t eat or drink?

If we do go out for dinner, I spend so long worrying about what to consume that I’m surprised he doesn’t get up and leave.

I think he preferred me when I was a bit curvier, but he does like the new me. He says ‘gosh you’re tiny’ in an admiring voice, but he definitely misses the intimacy we had when we ate together.

Curvy: Lucy doesn't miss her pre-diet body

Now, he comes in from work and cooks himself a stir-fry and then eats it on his own. He then opens a bottle of wine and pours himself a glass. Meanwhile, I’m on the camomile tea and a slice of cucumber.

It’s a lonely life on both sides!

It’s not helped my relationship with my friends, either. Some of them (the thin ones) are delighted and encouraging. Others (the foodies) are appalled.

When I go round to their houses and refuse pasta smothered in parmesan, chicken cooked in cream, and gateau, I know I am hurting their feelings. It gets worse when I wave away the wine, the brandy and even the glasses of fizz.

‘You used to be such fun!’ they say, giving my husband sympathetic looks. ‘Yes, I was fun, but I was also fat,’ is my retort.

I have also turned into a terrible, judgmental fat-ist. Every time I see someone who is overweight, I want to scream at them: ‘Go on a diet!’

I have friends who drive me so mad with their overeating that I want to tape their mouths shut. Recently, I fell out with a friend when I commented rather acerbically on why she was eating an entire bar of chocolate for her pudding. We haven’t spoken since.

But now I’m thin, I can’t bear fat people’s lack of self-control, their gluttony, their inability to see what harm they are doing to themselves. I’m like one of those TV evangelists.

If I see someone about to munch down one of those huge baguettes filled with brie, I feel like screaming. The sight of a chocolate muffin can bring me out in hives. I feel it’s my duty to explain constantly to everyone how much better I feel now I am thin.

Do I look better? Of course I do! It’s certainly true that people — particularly men — like you more when you are thin. I am sure some of my friends miss the old me, but I don’t.

I don’t want to be bovine, chewing the cud and watching the world go by. I want to be able to move and run and not be weighed down. If my friends don’t like me this way, then tough.

I also get congratulated on how much weight I have lost. People seem so proud of me. ‘You look great,’ is the refrain, ‘and so thin!’

I feel younger, sexier, more agile, more attractive, more powerful — and less paranoid and self-hating.

Transformed: Emmerdale actress Pauline Quirke has lost a huge six stone after years of being overweight with Lighter Life


But, despite it all, there lurks this dark side to being thin, as I am sure Pauline Quirke will discover. There’s a tyranny involved in keeping slim, for in every former-fat person, there is still a fatty waiting to get out again.

I adore cake, biscuits and ice cream, so I find it hard to have anything sweet in the house.

I tend to buy biscuits for the children and the occasional packet of crisps, but I always try to get the flavours I don’t like. If I do, in a moment of weakness, buy a tub of Ben & Jerry’s, I’ll eat the whole lot in one go. Then I’ll feel so sick and full of remorse that I want to kill myself.

I also spend endless hours obsessing about food, dreaming up all the delicious dishes I could eat. To avoid this, I chew on a couple of prawns — no dressing — hoping that my hunger pangs will go away.

Healthy eating: But Lucy admits sticking to low fat foods makes meal times less interesting


Even my dreams have changed. I used to be a good sleeper. Now, I have recurring nightmares in which I’ve eaten so much that I’ve put all the weight back on again.

There are days when all I want to do is eat biscuits. There are days when all I actually do is eat biscuits. But then there’s the terrible guilt afterwards. It’s almost unbearable.

I’ve become the sort of woman who apologises for eating a square of chocolate.

To offset this occasional secret biscuit-eating, I exercise like a fanatic.

I do yoga for an hour or more every day. I walk for an hour-and-a-half. I run and swim and take a boxercise class. If I miss any activity, I beat myself up about it and do extra the next day.

But it’s not all terrible! Honestly. It’s great to feel fitter. It’s wonderful to look better. If I could just stop being quite so paranoid and be more accepting of others and just relax, life would be perfect!

Oh, be forewarned Pauline. Thinness is a psychological battlefield. It really, really is.


source:dailymail

How losing weight can change your personality... and it may not be for the better

By Lucy Cavendish


Slimmed down: Lucy lost four stone after dieting but admits keeping the weight off is a constant battle

Three years ago, I was fat. I really was. I was a roly-poly great big lump of lard. I weighed 14st 4lb, far too much for my 5ft 8in frame. I’d go into High Street stores and despair that no clothes fitted me.

I’d stand in front of the mirror and stare in horror at my increasing curves. I didn’t just look fat — I looked as if I was about to give birth. It was so bad that people got up for me on trains.

A woman in a restaurant even came up and congratulated me on my pregnancy. ‘Not long now,’ she said encouragingly. I sat there, burning with shame and close to tears.

That’s what really did it. I decided then and there that I couldn’t bear being fat any more.

Like former Birds Of A Feather star Pauline Quirke, who this week revealed her new svelte figure after losing more than six stone, I decided there was only one thing for it. The excess baggage had to go.

Quirke lost her weight on the LighterLife diet — a drastic regime that requires women to eat no more than 500 calories a day. I lost four stone with WeightWatchers, which offers a less drastic approach. But we both achieved the same result, losing 30 per cent of our total body weight.

I am now — after three years of dieting and being extremely careful about what I eat — a healthy and light 10st 3lb. Every time I climb on the scales, I want to do a dance of pure joy. For the first time in 15 years, I’m slim. In fact, I’m actually lighter than I was in my early 20s.

Yet proud as I am, something crucial and unexpected has changed. It’s not only my body shape that has been transformed, but my personality, too.

It’s as if I have morphed into a different person on the inside, as well as outside.

From being a laid-back type, happy to eat, drink, be merry and have endless parties, I’ve become a rampant control freak.

Instead of cooking or spending time with my husband, I’m either doing stomach crunches in the sitting room or talking about how guilty I feel that I’ve eaten too much. I am, in short, a bore. I have that nervous energy I always used to associate with thin people.

I can’t sit down (if I sit, I might be tempted to eat). I won’t go out for dinner. I won’t let my husband cook for me in case he sneaks fat into things. I feel so sorry for him.

He used to show he loved me by cooking for the family. Now, he just stands there looking like someone’s chopped his arms off. He’s like a forlorn mother bird, desperate to feed me, but not knowing how to.

My lack of eating has probably done untold damage to our relationship. How do you relax with your loved one if she won’t eat or drink?

If we do go out for dinner, I spend so long worrying about what to consume that I’m surprised he doesn’t get up and leave.

I think he preferred me when I was a bit curvier, but he does like the new me. He says ‘gosh you’re tiny’ in an admiring voice, but he definitely misses the intimacy we had when we ate together.

Curvy: Lucy doesn't miss her pre-diet body

Now, he comes in from work and cooks himself a stir-fry and then eats it on his own. He then opens a bottle of wine and pours himself a glass. Meanwhile, I’m on the camomile tea and a slice of cucumber.

It’s a lonely life on both sides!

It’s not helped my relationship with my friends, either. Some of them (the thin ones) are delighted and encouraging. Others (the foodies) are appalled.

When I go round to their houses and refuse pasta smothered in parmesan, chicken cooked in cream, and gateau, I know I am hurting their feelings. It gets worse when I wave away the wine, the brandy and even the glasses of fizz.

‘You used to be such fun!’ they say, giving my husband sympathetic looks. ‘Yes, I was fun, but I was also fat,’ is my retort.

I have also turned into a terrible, judgmental fat-ist. Every time I see someone who is overweight, I want to scream at them: ‘Go on a diet!’

I have friends who drive me so mad with their overeating that I want to tape their mouths shut. Recently, I fell out with a friend when I commented rather acerbically on why she was eating an entire bar of chocolate for her pudding. We haven’t spoken since.

But now I’m thin, I can’t bear fat people’s lack of self-control, their gluttony, their inability to see what harm they are doing to themselves. I’m like one of those TV evangelists.

If I see someone about to munch down one of those huge baguettes filled with brie, I feel like screaming. The sight of a chocolate muffin can bring me out in hives. I feel it’s my duty to explain constantly to everyone how much better I feel now I am thin.

Do I look better? Of course I do! It’s certainly true that people — particularly men — like you more when you are thin. I am sure some of my friends miss the old me, but I don’t.

I don’t want to be bovine, chewing the cud and watching the world go by. I want to be able to move and run and not be weighed down. If my friends don’t like me this way, then tough.

I also get congratulated on how much weight I have lost. People seem so proud of me. ‘You look great,’ is the refrain, ‘and so thin!’

I feel younger, sexier, more agile, more attractive, more powerful — and less paranoid and self-hating.

Transformed: Emmerdale actress Pauline Quirke has lost a huge six stone after years of being overweight with Lighter Life


But, despite it all, there lurks this dark side to being thin, as I am sure Pauline Quirke will discover. There’s a tyranny involved in keeping slim, for in every former-fat person, there is still a fatty waiting to get out again.

I adore cake, biscuits and ice cream, so I find it hard to have anything sweet in the house.

I tend to buy biscuits for the children and the occasional packet of crisps, but I always try to get the flavours I don’t like. If I do, in a moment of weakness, buy a tub of Ben & Jerry’s, I’ll eat the whole lot in one go. Then I’ll feel so sick and full of remorse that I want to kill myself.

I also spend endless hours obsessing about food, dreaming up all the delicious dishes I could eat. To avoid this, I chew on a couple of prawns — no dressing — hoping that my hunger pangs will go away.

Healthy eating: But Lucy admits sticking to low fat foods makes meal times less interesting


Even my dreams have changed. I used to be a good sleeper. Now, I have recurring nightmares in which I’ve eaten so much that I’ve put all the weight back on again.

There are days when all I want to do is eat biscuits. There are days when all I actually do is eat biscuits. But then there’s the terrible guilt afterwards. It’s almost unbearable.

I’ve become the sort of woman who apologises for eating a square of chocolate.

To offset this occasional secret biscuit-eating, I exercise like a fanatic.

I do yoga for an hour or more every day. I walk for an hour-and-a-half. I run and swim and take a boxercise class. If I miss any activity, I beat myself up about it and do extra the next day.

But it’s not all terrible! Honestly. It’s great to feel fitter. It’s wonderful to look better. If I could just stop being quite so paranoid and be more accepting of others and just relax, life would be perfect!

Oh, be forewarned Pauline. Thinness is a psychological battlefield. It really, really is.


source:dailymail

Now even your work-out can be bad for you: The dangers of extreme exercising

By Daisy Dumas


Buff: Jake Gyllenhaal and Heidi Montag are extreme exercisers. Gyllenhaal became addicted while training for Prince of Persia while Montag exercised for up to 14 hours a day before the MGM Grand pool party last month


We all know that exercising is a vital part of staying healthy.

But, even when it comes to fitness, anything in excess can be damaging.

A worrying new trend points to some Americans over-exercising, in what is known as ‘extreme exercising’.

High-profile addicts include Hollywood actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, and reality TV star, Heidi Montag.


Gyllenhaal, who completely transformed his body for the buff title role in Prince of Persia, admitted in March that he became addicted to exercise after working out for the blockbuster movie.

In an interview with Men’s Journal, the ‘cardio monster’ said he even suffered shin splints and has ‘had to teach [him]self to slow down a bit.’

Montag has replaced an apparent addiction to plastic surgery with a hours at the gym. Following drastic facial augmentation in 2009 - in which she underwent 10 dangerous procedures in a single day - Heidi Montag told ABC News in an interview last year that she ‘almost risked everything, all my relationships and myself, for vanity.’

Whether or not driven by the same urge, the fake-breasted celeb reportedly worked out for up to 14 hours a day before the MGM Grand's Wet Republic VIP pool party in Las Vegas last month.


Her dedication to the gym has raised alarm with experts.

Fitness expert, Michael Shaw, owner of New York Personal Training, told MailOnline, 'Like anything in the extreme, extreme exercise is a problem.'

'The most obvious danger is injury, overusing and overloading joints. The body's not meant to withstand that type of training.'

He says that the central nervous system can be affected, causing sleeplessness, while problems can also arise from 'the body not being fuelled right.'

Perhaps most worrying is his observation that extreme exercisers 'tend to have an unrealistic view of what the body is', suffering from body dismorphia.

Extreme exercise can lead to anorexia athletica, when working out becomes compulsive.

Addicted: Extreme exerciser, Brooke Mora, works out for up to 30 hours a week


Shaw recommends that his clients do not work out for more than 45 minutes to an hour at any one time.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends just 2 and a half hours of moderate aerobic activity a week for adults, while the American College of Sports Medicine recommends doing moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or vigorously intense cardio 20 minutes a day, three days a week.

Both Gyllenhaal and Montag's work-out routines far exceed the recommendations – and it's not limited to celebrities, either.

In an interview with Good Morning America, extreme exerciser Brooke Mora described how a bad break-up lead to a fitness compulsion.

Forgetting the balanced lifestyle mantra, 'everything in moderation', the 31 year old works out for up to 30 hours a week, fitting training in before and after work and on her lunchbreak.


source:dailymail

Now even your work-out can be bad for you: The dangers of extreme exercising

By Daisy Dumas


Buff: Jake Gyllenhaal and Heidi Montag are extreme exercisers. Gyllenhaal became addicted while training for Prince of Persia while Montag exercised for up to 14 hours a day before the MGM Grand pool party last month


We all know that exercising is a vital part of staying healthy.

But, even when it comes to fitness, anything in excess can be damaging.

A worrying new trend points to some Americans over-exercising, in what is known as ‘extreme exercising’.

High-profile addicts include Hollywood actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, and reality TV star, Heidi Montag.


Gyllenhaal, who completely transformed his body for the buff title role in Prince of Persia, admitted in March that he became addicted to exercise after working out for the blockbuster movie.

In an interview with Men’s Journal, the ‘cardio monster’ said he even suffered shin splints and has ‘had to teach [him]self to slow down a bit.’

Montag has replaced an apparent addiction to plastic surgery with a hours at the gym. Following drastic facial augmentation in 2009 - in which she underwent 10 dangerous procedures in a single day - Heidi Montag told ABC News in an interview last year that she ‘almost risked everything, all my relationships and myself, for vanity.’

Whether or not driven by the same urge, the fake-breasted celeb reportedly worked out for up to 14 hours a day before the MGM Grand's Wet Republic VIP pool party in Las Vegas last month.


Her dedication to the gym has raised alarm with experts.

Fitness expert, Michael Shaw, owner of New York Personal Training, told MailOnline, 'Like anything in the extreme, extreme exercise is a problem.'

'The most obvious danger is injury, overusing and overloading joints. The body's not meant to withstand that type of training.'

He says that the central nervous system can be affected, causing sleeplessness, while problems can also arise from 'the body not being fuelled right.'

Perhaps most worrying is his observation that extreme exercisers 'tend to have an unrealistic view of what the body is', suffering from body dismorphia.

Extreme exercise can lead to anorexia athletica, when working out becomes compulsive.

Addicted: Extreme exerciser, Brooke Mora, works out for up to 30 hours a week


Shaw recommends that his clients do not work out for more than 45 minutes to an hour at any one time.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends just 2 and a half hours of moderate aerobic activity a week for adults, while the American College of Sports Medicine recommends doing moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or vigorously intense cardio 20 minutes a day, three days a week.

Both Gyllenhaal and Montag's work-out routines far exceed the recommendations – and it's not limited to celebrities, either.

In an interview with Good Morning America, extreme exerciser Brooke Mora described how a bad break-up lead to a fitness compulsion.

Forgetting the balanced lifestyle mantra, 'everything in moderation', the 31 year old works out for up to 30 hours a week, fitting training in before and after work and on her lunchbreak.


source:dailymail

Now even your work-out can be bad for you: The dangers of extreme exercising

By Daisy Dumas


Buff: Jake Gyllenhaal and Heidi Montag are extreme exercisers. Gyllenhaal became addicted while training for Prince of Persia while Montag exercised for up to 14 hours a day before the MGM Grand pool party last month


We all know that exercising is a vital part of staying healthy.

But, even when it comes to fitness, anything in excess can be damaging.

A worrying new trend points to some Americans over-exercising, in what is known as ‘extreme exercising’.

High-profile addicts include Hollywood actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, and reality TV star, Heidi Montag.


Gyllenhaal, who completely transformed his body for the buff title role in Prince of Persia, admitted in March that he became addicted to exercise after working out for the blockbuster movie.

In an interview with Men’s Journal, the ‘cardio monster’ said he even suffered shin splints and has ‘had to teach [him]self to slow down a bit.’

Montag has replaced an apparent addiction to plastic surgery with a hours at the gym. Following drastic facial augmentation in 2009 - in which she underwent 10 dangerous procedures in a single day - Heidi Montag told ABC News in an interview last year that she ‘almost risked everything, all my relationships and myself, for vanity.’

Whether or not driven by the same urge, the fake-breasted celeb reportedly worked out for up to 14 hours a day before the MGM Grand's Wet Republic VIP pool party in Las Vegas last month.


Her dedication to the gym has raised alarm with experts.

Fitness expert, Michael Shaw, owner of New York Personal Training, told MailOnline, 'Like anything in the extreme, extreme exercise is a problem.'

'The most obvious danger is injury, overusing and overloading joints. The body's not meant to withstand that type of training.'

He says that the central nervous system can be affected, causing sleeplessness, while problems can also arise from 'the body not being fuelled right.'

Perhaps most worrying is his observation that extreme exercisers 'tend to have an unrealistic view of what the body is', suffering from body dismorphia.

Extreme exercise can lead to anorexia athletica, when working out becomes compulsive.

Addicted: Extreme exerciser, Brooke Mora, works out for up to 30 hours a week


Shaw recommends that his clients do not work out for more than 45 minutes to an hour at any one time.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends just 2 and a half hours of moderate aerobic activity a week for adults, while the American College of Sports Medicine recommends doing moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or vigorously intense cardio 20 minutes a day, three days a week.

Both Gyllenhaal and Montag's work-out routines far exceed the recommendations – and it's not limited to celebrities, either.

In an interview with Good Morning America, extreme exerciser Brooke Mora described how a bad break-up lead to a fitness compulsion.

Forgetting the balanced lifestyle mantra, 'everything in moderation', the 31 year old works out for up to 30 hours a week, fitting training in before and after work and on her lunchbreak.


source:dailymail

Where have all the telly tubbies gone?: TV stars and their dramatic weight loss

By Daily Mail Reporter


As Pauline Quirke becomes the latest TV star to show off her dramatic weight loss, we look at other famous television faces who have slimmed right down...

Nadia Sawalha, 47, lost 3½ stone, going from a size 18 to a size 10, by working out with a personal trainer three times a week and eating healthier meals

Pauline Quirke, 51, went from 19½ stone to 13 stone on the 500-calories-a-day Lighter Life diet after doctors told her she was in danger of needing a hip replacement

Dawn French, 53, has shed three stone, dropping from a size 20 to a size 16. Denies rumours of gastric band and says it's down to walking plus no chocolate or chips

Fern Britton, 53, lost five stone and dropped from a size 22 to a size 12. Claimed it was down to diet and exercise before admitting to having a gastric band

Claire Nasir, 41, went from 10st 4lb last year to eight stone and a size 6, thanks to a five-meals-a-day diet and exercise sessions that burn up to 1,000 calories

Anne Diamond, 56, ballooned to 15st 10lb after having five sons. Tried diet and exercise, but lost four stone only after having a gastric band fitted five years ago

Lorraine Kelly, 51, slimmed from a curvy 14 to a slim 12 after running the London Marathon last year. Keeps the weight off by eating bananas instead of sweets

Vanessa Feltz, 49, lost weight after her marriage break-up in 1999, but regained it all. A size 24 before gastric band surgery last year, she's now a size 16


source:dailymail

Where have all the telly tubbies gone?: TV stars and their dramatic weight loss

By Daily Mail Reporter


As Pauline Quirke becomes the latest TV star to show off her dramatic weight loss, we look at other famous television faces who have slimmed right down...

Nadia Sawalha, 47, lost 3½ stone, going from a size 18 to a size 10, by working out with a personal trainer three times a week and eating healthier meals

Pauline Quirke, 51, went from 19½ stone to 13 stone on the 500-calories-a-day Lighter Life diet after doctors told her she was in danger of needing a hip replacement

Dawn French, 53, has shed three stone, dropping from a size 20 to a size 16. Denies rumours of gastric band and says it's down to walking plus no chocolate or chips

Fern Britton, 53, lost five stone and dropped from a size 22 to a size 12. Claimed it was down to diet and exercise before admitting to having a gastric band

Claire Nasir, 41, went from 10st 4lb last year to eight stone and a size 6, thanks to a five-meals-a-day diet and exercise sessions that burn up to 1,000 calories

Anne Diamond, 56, ballooned to 15st 10lb after having five sons. Tried diet and exercise, but lost four stone only after having a gastric band fitted five years ago

Lorraine Kelly, 51, slimmed from a curvy 14 to a slim 12 after running the London Marathon last year. Keeps the weight off by eating bananas instead of sweets

Vanessa Feltz, 49, lost weight after her marriage break-up in 1999, but regained it all. A size 24 before gastric band surgery last year, she's now a size 16


source:dailymail

Where have all the telly tubbies gone?: TV stars and their dramatic weight loss

By Daily Mail Reporter


As Pauline Quirke becomes the latest TV star to show off her dramatic weight loss, we look at other famous television faces who have slimmed right down...

Nadia Sawalha, 47, lost 3½ stone, going from a size 18 to a size 10, by working out with a personal trainer three times a week and eating healthier meals

Pauline Quirke, 51, went from 19½ stone to 13 stone on the 500-calories-a-day Lighter Life diet after doctors told her she was in danger of needing a hip replacement

Dawn French, 53, has shed three stone, dropping from a size 20 to a size 16. Denies rumours of gastric band and says it's down to walking plus no chocolate or chips

Fern Britton, 53, lost five stone and dropped from a size 22 to a size 12. Claimed it was down to diet and exercise before admitting to having a gastric band

Claire Nasir, 41, went from 10st 4lb last year to eight stone and a size 6, thanks to a five-meals-a-day diet and exercise sessions that burn up to 1,000 calories

Anne Diamond, 56, ballooned to 15st 10lb after having five sons. Tried diet and exercise, but lost four stone only after having a gastric band fitted five years ago

Lorraine Kelly, 51, slimmed from a curvy 14 to a slim 12 after running the London Marathon last year. Keeps the weight off by eating bananas instead of sweets

Vanessa Feltz, 49, lost weight after her marriage break-up in 1999, but regained it all. A size 24 before gastric band surgery last year, she's now a size 16


source:dailymail

How to tame your tum: Is yours a spare tyre or a stress bulge? Finding out your tummy type is the key to getting a perfect midriff

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER


Get a flat stomach: First you need to identify your tunny type


For many women, getting bikini ready means tackling one dreaded area in particular — our tummies.

Most of us still think the best way to achieve a washboard stomach is by doing hundreds of sit-ups. Not so, says A-list trainer and body guru James Duigan.

James, who sculpts supermodels Elle Macpherson and Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley among others, insists there is no ‘one size fits all’ method for getting a flat belly.

Instead, he’s identified five key ‘tummy types’, all of which require a different approach to achieve successful toning.

Once you’ve identified your type, you can transform it following James’ tailor-made plan and get that flat tummy fast.



THE SPARE TYRE TUMMY
The spare tyre: This is one of the easiest tummy troubles to eliminate because it's caused by eating the wrong foods and not exercising enough


HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE
These people are likely to lead sedentary lives, perhaps with jobs that keep them desk-bound. They may also have an emotional attachment to sugary foods.
Luckily, this ‘spare tyre’ is one of the easiest tummy troubles to eliminate as, according to James, it’s caused by eating the wrong foods and not exercising enough.

TYPICAL BAD HABITS
‘If you exercise very little, eat lots of sugar and refined carbohydrates in products like biscuits, cakes and white bread, or rely on starchy carbs like pasta and rice, you probably have an overweight tummy with accompanying fat on your legs and hips,’ says James.



THE STRESS TUMMY
Stress tummy: These types are typically over-achievers with perfectionist personalities


HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE
Stressed-tummy types are typically over-achievers with perfectionist personalities. They are usually also susceptible to digestive conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which can cause bloating and make their tummies look far worse.
‘Stress tummies are easy to spot, as the weight is specific to the front of the midriff and the umbilical area,’ explains James. ‘When stressed, we produce cortisol, a hormone which encourages the body to cling on to fat around the stomach.’
Stressed tummies will also be fairly hard to the touch, rather than wobbly.

TYPICAL BAD HABITS
It’s likely you skip meals, abuse your adrenal system with too much caffeine and grab junk food for convenience.



THE LITTLE POOCH
The little pooch: These women are likely to be busy mums or have demanding careers - hey may even be a gym junkie


HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE
These women are likely to be busy mums or have demanding careers. ‘They may even be a gym junkie, but stuck in a workout-and-diet rut, perhaps always eating the same foods and doing the same routine at the gym, which keeps you slim but leaves you with a lower belly that spoils your silhouette,’ says James.

TYPICAL BAD HABITS
‘Doing excessive crunches and using gimmicky gym items such as ab-rollers can place a strain on the hip flexors and the lower back, causing the tummy muscles to protrude so your belly sticks out,’ says James.



THE MUMMY TUMMY
The Mummy tummy: Women with these bellies have usually given birth in the past few years, and, being a typical mum, have little time for themselves


HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE
Women with these tummies have usually given birth in the past few years, and, being a typical mum, have little time for themselves. ‘After giving birth, the uterus drops and is much heavier than it was pre-pregnancy,’ says James. ‘It takes at least six weeks to return to its usual size, so don’t even think about trying to get a flat stomach until after then.

‘You need to re-train your pelvic floor and lower abs to increase blood flow and strengthen loose muscles.’

TYPICAL BAD HABITS
Rushing back to exercise too quickly. ‘I would suggest waiting around two to three months,’ says James. ‘Being stressed about getting rid of your baby weight will only make you cling onto it more. Give yourself a break!’



THE BLOATED TUMMY
Bloated tummies: These are often flat in the morning, but swell throughout the day with gas or indigestion


HOW TO IDENTIFY THIS TYPE
Bloated tummies are often flat in the morning, but swell throughout the day with gas or indigestion. Bloating affects both slim and overweight women. It is almost always caused by food intolerances and allergies, or sluggish bowels as a result of a poor diet.

TYPICAL BAD HABITS
You eat the same foods and may have done so for a lifetime without realising you’re intolerant to them.


source : dailymail