Once caught, the virus circulates through the body causing runny noses and sore throats. It also causes fat cells to multiply and can lead to massive weight gain.

“This virus goes to the lungs and spreads through the body,” said Nikhil Dhurandhar, an associate professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “It goes to various organs and tissues such as the liver, kidney, brain and fat tissue,” Dhurandhar told BBC2’s “Horizon” program.

“When this virus goes to fat tissue it replicates, making more copies of itself and in the process increases the number of new fat cells, which may explain why the fat tissue expands and why people get fat when they are infected with this virus.”

Victims of the virus could remain infectious up to three months.

Studies show that 33 percent of all obese adults have the AD-36 virus compared to only 11 percent of thinner people. Tests in animals infected with the virus gained weight more quickly than those animals not infected even when they did not eat more.

Regardless of the virus’ role in causing obesity, most scientists agree that the single largest cause of obesity is eating too many and too much of the wrong foods.

Belly fat has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. Now an important new study links belly fat to early death.

Researchers followed about 360,000 Europeans enrolled in one of the largest, longest health studies in the world.

They found that people with the most belly fat had about double the risk of dying prematurely as people with the least amount of belly fat.

Death risk increased with waist circumference, whether the participants were overweight or not.

The study provides some of the strongest evidence yet linking belly fat to early death, says lead author Tobias Pischon, MD, MPH. It appears in the Nov. 12 issue of TheNew EnglandJournal of Medicine.

“Our study shows that accumulating excess fat around your middle can put your health at risk even if your weight is normal,” he says. “There aren’t many simple individual characteristics that can increase a person’s risk of premature death to this extent, independent of smoking and drinking.”
Belly Fat Research

It has long been recognized that people who carry their excess weight around their middles — those who are apple-shaped instead of pear-shaped — have a higher risk for heart attacks and strokes.

Recent research also suggests a link between belly fat and a range of other diseases, including diabetes, some cancers, and even age-related dementias.

But it has not been clear whether the increase in death risk associated with abdominal obesity occurs independently of recognized risk factors like general obesity, Pischon says.

The researchers used two measures of abdominal obesity — waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio — in their attempt to better understand the role of belly fat in early death.

They examined data on 359,387 European adults followed for nearly 10 years who were enrolled in the larger, ongoing European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) health study.

During the follow-up period, 14,723 of the study participants died.

After adjusting for overweight and obesity, as measured by body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and waist-to-hip measurements were both independently associated with an increased risk for early death.

Specifically:

* Men and women with the largest waists (more than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women) had roughly double the risk of premature death as men and women with the smallest waists (less than 34 inches for men and 28 for women).
* Each 2-inch increase in waist circumference was associated with close to a 17% increase in mortality in men and a 13% increase in women.
* Waist-to-hip ratio also strongly predicted mortality.

“The most important result of our study is the finding that not just being overweight, but also the distribution of body fat, affects the risk of premature death,” Pischon says.

The findings come as no surprise to University of Michigan cardiologist and research scientist Daniel Eitzman, MD.

Work by Eitzman and colleagues in mice found that belly fat — also known as visceral fat — produces more inflammation than fat found in other areas of the body.

Inflammation is thought to play a key role in heart disease and a host of other chronic diseases.

Eitzman tells WebMD that measurement of waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio are important for assessing the risk of inflammation-driven disease.

“Studies like this focus attention on the importance of measuring visceral fat, which is not now routinely done in clinical practice,” he says.
Are You an Apple or a Pear?

So how do you tell if you have more belly fat than is healthy?

* To measure your waist circumference, place a tape measure around your waist at the smallest point, which is usually just above the navel. A waist size of 40 inches in men and 35 inches in women is generally considered to indicate increased health risk.
* Waist-to-hip ratio is calculated by measuring your waist at the smallest point and your hips at the widest point — usually at the widest part of the buttocks — and dividing the waist measurement by the hip measurement. A waist-to-hip ratio of greater than 0.9 for men and 0.8 for women is generally considered high risk.

Source: WebMD

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps may have an appetite for gold, but he has a bigger appetite for food.

“They say he took in 10,000 to 12,000 calories a day,” said St. Mary’s dietician Tammy Fumousa.

Phelps’ typical breakfast is three fried egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayo, one five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast with powdered sugar, three chocolate chip pancakes and energy drinks.  “The normal individual needs about 2,000 calories (a day) if they’re active,” said Fumousa.

But Phelps is anything by normal.”He needs that many calories,” said Fumousa. Phelps’ workouts are grueling.

Michael Phelps Diet - Mayo

“Michael Phelps, I know for a fact that he puts in a lot of yardage,” said swim coach Jason Verhelst. Verhelst coaches Madison Memorial’s swim team and he swam for the Badgers while in college.  He said no matter what the level of competitive swimming, the advice is the same. “They have to eat,” he said.  “You have to be able to replace the calories. You can’t skip a meal.

“Phelps isn’t exactly chowing down on vegetables. “He’s not really eating Ho Ho’s and Twinkies,” said Fumousa. “He’s eating protein. He’s eating carbohydrates.

“The mayonnaise Phelps eats actually helps absorb the nutrients in his body. “He has to add all this other stuff like the mayo to his sandwiches to give it a little fat,” said Fumousa.

The only change Fumousa said she would make to Phelps’ diet would be to exchange some of the calories for fruits.

Michael Phelps diet is making me fat

Dear Cuckoo,
I’m surprised you don’t have ripped stretchmarks. Write back after you’ve worked out along side the human dolphin for a month.
Abby

Phelps, 23, will swim 17 times over nine days of competition at the Beijing Games – meaning that he will need all the calories he can shovel in his mouth in order to keep his energy levels high.

Phelps’ diet – which involves ingesting 4,000 calories every time he sits down for a meal – resembles that of a reckless overeater rather than an Olympian.

Phelps lends a new spin to the phrase “Breakfast of Champions” by starting off his day by eating three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise.

He follows that up with two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes.

At lunch, Phelps gobbles up a pound of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo on white bread – capping off the meal by chugging about 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

For dinner, Phelps really loads up on the carbs – what he needs to give him plenty of energy for his five-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week regimen – with a pound of pasta and an entire pizza.

He washes all that down with another 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

Alternate-day fasting is the latest diet craze. But is it good for your waistline or your health? Our expert investigates

News that detoxing is potentially dangerous will have caused ripples of panic among those who rely on it for inner cleansing and occasional inch loss. Dawn Page, a 52-year-old mother of two from Oxfordshire, made headlines when she received more than £800,000 after suffering permanent brain damage while on a detox diet that instructed her to reduce her salt intake and consume large amounts of water.

Long before this case, reputable dieticians were questioning the effectiveness and safety of detoxing. A detox diet can last anything from 48 hours to 21 days, and most involve drinking two litres or more of water a day, along with dandelion coffee and herb teas that are thought to help expel environmental nasties. Most also recommend additional fluids – carrot and apple juice are favourites because of their “digestion boosting” properties – and some allow unlimited consumption of raw fruit and vegetables, but little else. Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George’s Hospital in London, says she has seen dozens of people with debilitating detox side effects, usually as a result of consuming more water and less salty food, often in conjunction with increased activity.

One was a 23-year-old patient who had slipped into a four-day coma as a result of hyponatraemia (water intoxication, which causes blood sodium levels to plummet and the brain to swell) induced by a three-week detox diet. Too much fluid and too little dietary sodium mean body salts, or electrolytes, in the blood become dangerously diluted. “Sticking to a detox regimen for a day or two won’t be harmful for most people – neither will it have any effect on their long-term health – as there is no scientific basis for it,” Collins says. “But when detox plans promote longer periods of severe dietary restriction, which many do, they can cause problems.”

So, with detox phobia rife, is there a more moderate and less risky alternative? Some scientists think so and are advocating an approach called alternate-day fasting (ADF), which should appeal to those who have trouble sticking to a harsh dietary regimen in the first place. For most of us, diets are a calorie seesaw: you cut down your intake with grim determination one day, only to be ravenously hungry the next. And, according to the scientists who have studied ADF, this may be no bad thing. Their admittedly controversial research has shown that restricting calories for 24 hours and reintroducing them the following day will not only help you to shift pounds and fat cells, but also to live longer.

A quick internet search reveals there are hundreds of visitors to ADF and “intermittent-fasting” chat rooms, along with thousands of sites detailing the purported benefits of this bizarre trend for self-imposed semi-starvation. In America, a raft of books on the subject, such as The Alternate-Day Diet and The QOD Diet: Eating Well Every Other Day, have further raised its profile and appeal. “Alternate-day fasting lets you focus your hunger in manageable periods,” says Brian Delaney, author of The Longevity Diet. “You are not a little hungry all the time, like you are on a normal diet, but you are very hungry for a little time.” And with a growing body of scientific backing for its health benefits, AFD is, potentially, more than just another diet fad.

Recently, nutritionists at the University of California found that eating half as much as usual every other day could shrink fat cells and boost some of the mechanisms that break down fat. Krista Varady and her team put some mice on a full alternate-day fast, while others were allowed to eat half as much as usual on their fasting days. The results showed that, while the first group lost more weight, the fat cells of all the dieting mice shrank by at least 35%. Another study, published three years ago in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that people who followed the ADF diet for just three weeks lost an average 2.5% of their body weight and 4% of their body fat.

Even if you fast one day, then are so chew-off-your-arm hungry the next that you gorge on highly calorific goodies, there seem to be health benefits. In a study carried out at the National Institute on Ageing, American scientists allowed mice to eat nothing one day and trained them to tuck into as much food as they wanted during the next 24 hours. Although they were too greedy on their eating days to shed weight, they still had improved insulin sensitivity – meaning they cleared sugar from the bloodstream more efficiently, a vital factor in preventing diabetes – and a longer life span than the mice who ate regular meals every day.

So, how does ADF work? Like our hunter-gatherer ancestors, who spent days searching for food and ate only intermittently, we are genetically programmed to adapt to cycles of fasting and feasting. Scientists say the temporary withdrawal of food for short periods appears to stress the body in a positive way, so that a gene called Sirt1 is switched on. This gene is also activated by resveratrol, the antioxidant present in red grapes and wine that is known to ward off heart disease and help the body to use fats in the bloodstream for energy.

Not all nutritionists think ADF is the way to go, however. Some argue that it is impossible to stick to long term. In the few human studies carried out on ADF, subjects have often reported feeling tired, tetchy and hungry on the days they were required to fast. Critics suggest that those looking to lose weight do not need to subject themselves to such a harsh regimen. They point to a study by researchers at Cornell University that showed that simply restricting calories for one meal a day could help to shift pounds. When a group of people were asked to cut their usual lunch to 200 calories, they didn’t compensate by eating more during the rest of the day.

Those who try ADF should bear in mind that food must be ultra-healthy, as “with no calories to spare, every bite you take needs to be packed with nutrition”, says Susan Bowerman, assistant director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California, who has reviewed the trend. “There is a lot of research to be done before the animal studies that have proven it to be healthy are replicated in humans,” says Lisa Miles, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation. “If you have overeaten one day, then it will help to balance out your calorie intake by eating less the next, but it is not something that we would recommend on a long-term basis.”

Detox fads: the big three

• Master Cleanse: Also known as the Maple Syrup Diet or the Lemon Detox, it involves drinking glasses of Madal Bal natural tree syrup mixed with lemon juice and cayenne pepper — see The Complete Master Cleanse by Tom Woloshyn (Ulysses £6.99). During the recommended 10-day fast, it is suggested that no food is consumed. Beyoncé reportedly lost 22lb on this.

  Verdict: Contains too few nutrients and might be dangerous.

• 21-day detox: Oprah Winfrey tried it recently. Devised by Kathy Feston — it featured in her American bestseller Quantum Wellness (Weinstein £12.70) — it advocates adopting a vegan diet of whole grains, beans and legumes, and steamed or sautéed vegetables for three weeks.

  Verdict: Cutting out whole food groups, such as meat, can leave you prone to serious nutritional deficiencies.

• The Longevity Diet (Four Walls Eight Windows £6.99): the author, Brian Delaney, is president of the Calorie Restriction Society, a group that practises what they preach. This regimen has been shown to increase life expectancy in animals.

  Verdict: Too strict — followers are allowed to consume only 1,200 calories a day.

My week of hunger

There comes a time every summer when you wish you had started on that bikini diet a little earlier. Two weeks ago, that time struck me. So, in a blind panic at the thought of baring my unprepared body by the pool, I embarked on a detox. The General Motors Diet — so called because it was invented for the overweight employees of the American car manufacturer — promises to help you shed 10lb-17lb in a week. Perfect, I thought.

It is marginally easier to follow than some other detoxes, in that each day is different. So, it’s fruit only on day one (but you can eat as much as you like), veg on day two, fruit and veg on day three, bananas and milk on day four (odd, yes), beef and tomatoes on day five (even odder), leading you to the end of the week, when you start to eat things that actually resemble meals. And there’s no sugar or alcohol.

The rules are simple, but sticking to them? Harder. I started off the week with gusto, keenly munching on copious amounts of melon, and cancelling all plans in favour of a camomile tea in front of the telly. But by day three, I caved in — felled by a vodka and tonic — and it was all downhill from there. I discovered that, if you have a normal job and social life, you can forget about doing them and a detox at the same time. Not only do you feel faint, hungry and listless — you also feel stifled, bored and boring. Much like the diet itself. So it’s sarongs and kaftans again for me this year.

Carbs are evil. Grapefruit burns fat. And water mixed with cayenne pepper and maple syrup can make you look like Beyonce.

Uh-huh. There’s all sorts of advice out there on how to lose weight. And a lot of it, even if it seems semi-plausible, is based on questionable science.

We asked some experts — registered dieticians — to debunk those weight-loss urban legends and share tips on how you actually can get closer to your ideal weight.

1. NEXT TIME YOU EAT OUT, TRY ORDERING THE DOGGIE BAG FIRST: Eating out is fine occasionally, but the usual portion sizes at restaurants are not. Try asking for a container at the beginning of the meal, not the end, Pappas says. That way, you’ll be less inclined to eat everything in front of you. Also think about splitting your meal with a friend, even if the restaurant charges you extra for it.
2. EXERCISING EARLIER IN THE DAY DOESN’T BURN MORE CALORIES: One of the most-persistent myths about weight loss is that it’s best to work out early in the morning. But the number of calories you burn depends on your metabolism, food intake and body composition — things that aren’t dependent on when you choose to exercise. Get your activity whenever it fits into your schedule, even if it’s just 10 minutes at a time. “Without exercise, you have to continually eat less if you want to continually lose weight,” says Celia Pappas, a dietician at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
3. EATING AFTER 7 P.M. WON’T MAKE YOU FAT: Yes, Oprah says she lost weight by staying away from her kitchen after dark. But it’s not because calories consumed after a certain hour stay with you longer. The real problem with most people is that, when they eat late at night, they’re usually skipping meals during the day, says Annie Neuendorf, a dietician at Northwestern Memorial’s Wellness Institute. That puts the body into deprivation mode, slowing your metabolism and making you more inclined to overeat later on. Better to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.
4. IT’S OK TO TREAT YOURSELF ONCE A WEEK: No matter how committed you are to losing weight or sticking to a healthy diet, you can’t be good all the time. Allowing yourself to have something decadent every now and then is not only OK, it’s encouraged. “It’s really helpful to people to have one day a week when they can kind of let go of whatever they’ve been doing,” says Mary Russell, director of nutritional services at University of Chicago Medical Center. But you have to know yourself, she says: “If you’re the kind of person that can eat 10,000 calories in one day, it’s not a good idea to do that.”
5. WHEN YOU DO SPLURGE, DON’T STARVE YOURSELF THE NEXT DAY: One mess-up isn’t going to make or break your health. “A lot of [people] go out to eat, and then skip breakfast, thinking they’re fixing things. That’s probably the worst thing you can do to your body,” Neuendorf says. Instead, get lots of activity on days when you know you’re going to be eating more than you normally would.
6. IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS. Any diet plan that recommends cutting out an entire food group or loading up on a so-called superfood is suspect, Russell says. Eating what you like in moderation is the key to keeping the weight off. “People are always discovering things, but the basic principles have been in place for some time,” Russell says. “Try not to focus on the latest and greatest.”
7. LIQUIDS CAN SABOTAGE WEIGHT-LOSS EFFORTS: Fruit juice might seem a healthy choice, but eating the fruit would be better, since liquids leave you feeling less full than solid foods. Likewise, drinking pop on a regular basis can add unnecessary calories. Consider: A 12-ounce can of regular pop has 9 teaspoons of sugar and about 100 calories. “If you do that three times a day, that’s almost a pound a week of calories,” Pappas notes. Water and low-fat milk are smarter choices.

Mixed drinks like daiquiris can pack in more than 400 calories in an 8 ounce glass.

Dieticians say most people gain extra weight because they don’t account for the calories in the drinks they consume.

If you’re going to drink, what’s a safe level to enjoy when you fancy a night out?

Well, your personal dietician may well encourage you to drink as little as possible, since alcoholic drinks are usually full of calories, once you have one you tend to drink another and you can very quickly pile on the pounds!

However the official guidelnes are:

• Men are advised to drink no more than 3 to 4 units a day.
• Women are advised to drink no more than 2 to 3 units a day.

So whats a unit?

1 unit is equal to.

• 1/2 pint beer
• 1 glass wine
• 1 measure of spirits

The government recommended safe limits are:

• Men 21 units/week
• Women 14 units/week

The list below shows the number of units of alcohol in common drinks:

• A pint of ordinary strength lager (Carling Black Label, Fosters) – 2 units
• A pint of strong lager (Stella Artois, Kronenbourg 1664) – 3 units
• A pint of ordinary bitter (John Smith’s, Boddingtons) – 2 units
• A pint of best bitter (Fuller’s ESB, Young’s Special) – 3 units
• A pint of ordinary strength cider (Woodpecker) – 2 units
• A pint of strong cider (Dry Blackthorn, Strongbow) – 3 units
• A 175ml glass of red or white wine – around 2 units
• A pub measure of spirits – 1 unit
• An alcopop (eg Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezer, WKD, Reef) – around 1.5 units

How do you change your drinking habits?

• Try to eat before you drink, so you won’t miss out on essential nutrients.
• Try low alcohol or non-alcoholic drinks instead of alcohol sometimes.
• Dilute alcoholic drinks with low calorie mixers or water.
• Try drinking more slowly – take smaller sips and pace your drinking.
• Refrain from drinking for 48hours after a heavy drinking occasion.
• Don’t snack while drinking alcohol, remember that eating chips and nuts will add to the calories and fat you consume. Salty foods make you thirstier.

Good sources to ask for referrals are:

• Family members
• Friends
• Co-workers
• Church or congregation members
• Your physician
• Your pharmacist
• Neighbors

Some important factors to consider when looking for a new dietician might be:

• The location of the office
• Availability of appointment times and office hours
• After hours emergency care
• Is the dietician a member of a state or national dental society like the American Dietetic Association?

Take your time and write down what is important to you. You also might have to visit several dieticians before you find one that you are comfortable with, but there is nothing wrong with that.

Finding a good dietician that you like is important.

It is OK to change dieticians if you are not happy with your current one.