Obesity

It is easy to criticise the parents of overweight children, but would you know what to do if your child was obese? It’s not as simple as cutting out the junk food, as childhood obesity expert Dr Matt Sabin explains. Sabin, who runs an obesity clinic at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, says putting an overweight […]

Scientists are discovering just how hard our bodies fight to keep fat, shedding new light on why it is so hard to lose weight, writes Jordan Baker. Kath Read has been fat since she was a kid and, for the past 30 years, she has been picked on for it every day. She has been […]

Like more than half the Australian population, Chrissie Swan is overweight. Unlike most of us, she’s not ashamed of it. Chrissie — who found fame on Big Brother in 2003 and went on to host morning show The Circle before she quit in December 2011 — has never let her size hold her back. Her […]

One in four Australian children are overweight or obese but should their parents tell them they are fat? US socialite Dara-Lynn Weiss has sparked worldwide controversy for doing just that. Weiss opened up about her seven-year-old daughter’s battle with her weight in the April issue of US Vogue. Related: Why girls are having sex at […]

Women spend their whole lives trying to lose weight but once they turn 85, research suggests they’d be better off fat. Obesity contributes to the deaths of millions of people every year, reducing a person’s lifespan by an average of six to seven years. Related: A DIY guide to living longer But a new study […]

As the title suggests, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead documents filmmaker Joe Cross’s extraordinary transformation from being sick and obese to fit and healthy in just 60 days, which has inspired a health movement among nearly 250,000 people in America. By consuming only vegetables and juices in those 60 days, Joe changed his life, and […]

Overprotective parents are raising a generation of anti-social, obese and excessively cautious children, experts have claimed. Two parenting experts discussed the impact of ‘hovering helicopter parents’ in an article in the American Journal of Play. The claim that today’s children have virtually no opportunity for unsupervised ‘free play’, leaving them prone to obesity, poor physical […]

If you’re putting off going to the gym because you still fit into size 12 clothes, dust off your running shoes — the average size 12 garment fits women who are medically obese. Australian fashion houses have expanded the measurements of the average size 12 item of clothing so it fits women with a waistline […]

It is no secret that Australia has an obesity problem, having pipped the US to become the world’s fattest nation in 2008. But many people would be shocked to discover that severely obese children are being admitted to hospital at an alarming rate. In pictures: How to lose kilos without noticing Victoria’s Royal Children’s Hospital […]

Being obese doesn’t just put a strain on your health, it hits your hip pocket too. Researchers at George Washington University in the US have calculated the annual cost of being obese to a person’s wage at US$4879 ($5105) for women and US$2646 ($2769) for men, the Associated Press reported. The researchers took into account […]