Weight Loss

  Baltimore Ravens cheerleader Courtney Lenz, 23, says she has been barred from the Super Bowl because she weighs too much. Lenz made the comments during an interview on "Access Hollywood" on Wednesday evening. "They said that I had quote, unquote, a rough year," Lenz said. "I'd been benched earlier in the season for a little bit of a weight gain. We do get weighed every week during the season, and you can't fluctuate at all. I gained, I think it was 1.8 pounds. I had been consistent and they let me cheer previously and then I gained 1.8 or 1.6 pounds and they said because I had gained weight and they wanted me to be consistent or they wanted me to lose, they benched me for a game and because it was a disciplinary action, that was the reason.

Attention dieters: Many of the “facts” you think you know about obesity and weight loss are wrong. So says a report published in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. An international team of dietitians, doctors and other experts examined more than a dozen ideas about obesity that are widely believed to be true but aren't actually supported by reliable medical evidence. It's not just dieters who buy into these mistaken notions, the study authors note - much of this incorrect conventional wisdom is espoused by physicians, academic scientists, government agencies and (gulp)

Measuring accurately can make or break a recipe, especially when it comes to baking. When you need to rely on precise measurements, nothing beats a scale. Especially when it comes to flour. Flour amounts can vary dramatically by volume depending on how you measure each cup: whether you scoop and level, lightly spoon, or sift it into the dry measure. Even using the same method, weight can vary from cup to cup. Three years ago, we ran an experiment in the Test Kitchen in which everyone measured a cup of flour by lightly spooning it into the dry measure.

The Philadelphia Phillies have given Delmon Young a huge incentive to shed a few pounds. $600,000 worth of motivation, to be precise. According to the Associated Press, Young will be weighed by the Phillies six times this season and each time that he's within the agreed-upon weight, he'll receive $100,000 on top of of the $750,000 for which he signed. Young weighed 238 pounds during his initial physical with the team on Tuesday. He'll have to weigh 230 pounds or less the next time he steps on the scale to receive his first bonus, according to philly.com.

Men and women, particularly those categorized as obese, have grown increasingly likely over the years to underestimate their true weight, according to a recent study. In a paper published Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers at University College of Cork examined height and weight data for Irish adults over a nine-year period. In three separate health surveys, men and women were asked to estimate their height and weight, and those figures were used to calculate body mass index, or BMI. Afterward, they were weighed and measured for accuracy.  What researchers discovered was that while people routinely misjudged their true dimensions, their weight estimates had grown increasingly inaccurate over time.

With two-thirds of U.S. adults overweight, it's not rocket science to conclude that we don't have a clue about how much to eat. But now there's a countertop gadget that looks a little like a kid's cooking set - perhaps not for nothing - that is meant to help with portion control. It's called Lifesize and was created by Myles Berkowitz, who'd had it with being overweight, and trainer Stephen Kates, who says, "You have to eat less food - that's the whole secret. " "Don't change what you eat; change how much you eat" sums up the idea behind Lifesize, a set of plastic measuring vessels marked for meats, toppings, saucy dishes and other categories of food.

People who cut down on added sugars in their diets lost an average of about 1.7 pounds - a result researchers called small but significant. The result was in a paper published online Tuesday in the British Medical Journal that analyzed 71 studies of sugar intake and weight. The World Health Organization recommended in 2003 that sugar intake be limited to 10% of calories; the agency commissioned this study as part of its intention to update its recommendation. The studies also showed that increasing consumption of added sugars led to gaining about 1 1/2 pounds, the researchers from the University of Otago and Riddet Institute in New Zealand wrote.

The band Shinedown has been around for more than a decade, selling more than 10 million albums worldwide. In 2012 they launched their fourth album, "Amaryllis," which made its debut at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. But the last year has been more than just about launching a new album for Brent Smith, the band's lead singer. After battling drug and alcohol addiction, becoming obese and being insulted on national television for his weight, a loving woman and the inspiration of his son and fans straightened him out, he said.

After all those well-intentioned New Year's resolutions have yielded to the force of habit, many of the nation's 79 million obese adults will have a day of reckoning with their primary care physicians. Lose weight and get active, the doctor will order, or risk developing diabetes. Then the MD will scribble a prescription. For most patients, the prescribed treatment will not be a pill. It will be a 12-week program aimed at preventing Type 2 diabetes by getting obese adults to shed as little as 10 pounds and exercise for a little more than 20 minutes a day. That regimen -- the Diabetes Prevention Program -- may soon become the blockbuster prescription medicine you've never heard of. In 2013, it is poised to become the envy of pharmaceutical companies, a new rival to programs such as Weight Watchers, and a target of opportunity for healthcare entrepreneurs.

Re "Why we diet," Opinion, Jan. 4 Abigail Saguy intermingles the social and medical aspects of obesity. Certainly, discriminating against someone because of body habitus is inexcusable. However, ignoring the adverse health consequences of obesity is also indefensible. It is the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. because of an increased incidence of heart attacks, strokes, 12 types of cancer, liver disease, diabetes, sleep apnea and more. Obese people should obviously be treated with respect and dignity, but that does not mean we should ignore the benefits of healthful eating and regular exercise.