"weight loss" news and stories

Our future robot masters aren't ready to take over the world just yet, but they're definitely interested in keeping us puny humans fit and healthy (possibly as a future slave-labor force). Enter Autom, a wide-eyed talking robot that keeps your food intake and workouts in check with the press of a few buttons.

Autom, which made an appearance at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, works like this: Check in with your robo-pal once a day, answer a series of questions, and follow its coldly logical advice.

Of course, like any well-mannered robot, Autom breaks the ice with a little small talk about the weather before asking you to log your meals and how much time you spent exercising that day. The robot has a built-in food database (pulled from the comprehensive Calorie King web site), which makes it easier to keep track of your caloric intake. Once you've logged everything, Autom will offer some basic advice along the lines of "drink eight glasses of water a day."

In your mind you're downing a pint of dulce de leche ice cream, or, if you're a savory fanatic, maybe you're daydreaming of lacing into a bowl of gooey mac and cheese. You do this often. Before too long, miracle of miracles, your waistline gets smaller.

According to a recent study published in the journal Science, it all makes sense. When it comes to weight loss, suppressing cravings doesn't work. Visualization does. Remember "inner tennis," where sports psychologists determined that concentration and thinking through a game improved play? Apparently, indulging in food fantasies leads to diet success.

Maybe it's time to concentrate on chocolate. Find out more about this study, and the psychology of eating, by reading the whole story at AOL Health.

And, while we're on the subject, check out today's chocolate giveaway from Chocri. Just in case you want to put the daydreams on hold.

A professional nutritionist lost 27 pounds in ten weeks. His secret? Twinkies.

Well, not only Twinkies. Throw in some Little Debbie Star Crunches and Zebra Cakes, and Duncan Hines chewy fudge brownies to boot.

If the Atkins diet seemed counterintuitive (eat meat; lose weight), then Mark Haub's so-called Twinkie diet seems downright Bizarre-O with a capital "B." Haub, who works as a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University no less, set out to prove in August that when it comes to dieting, counting calories is more important than what you eat.

As CNN reports, Haub upended any notion of a balanced, healthy diet, replacing his usual meals with sugary snack cakes instead. The key, he argues, was that he dropped his daily calorie intake to 1,800 calories, as opposed to the roughly 2,600 calories that a man of his size typically consumes.

Let's face it -- dieting and exercise can be a drag. Even if you only have a couple of pounds to lose, it can be tough to get motivated. But what if your boss offered you a handful of cash to slim down?

As America's weight balloons, employers are increasingly concerned about rising health care costs. One solution? Pony up cash to get workers to drop the pounds. Estimates suggest that a third of U.S. companies offer financial incentives for weight loss and other healthy living initiatives like smoking cessation programs.

Companies "are making best their guesses about what might work and giving it a shot," Robert Jeffery, a University of Minnesota professor, told the Associated Press.

Rewards for weight loss vary from company to company. Some offer small cash rewards for every pound dropped, while others, like OhioHealth, a Midwestern hospital chain, pay employees to get up and move. OhioHealth's walking program gives their workers up to $500 for a certain number of steps, a number they came up with largely on a hunch. "It just sounded right to us. We thought that would be a big enough number to help people think twice," Lisa Meddock, OhioHealth's benefits manager, told the AP.

If the Memphis & Shelby Country Music Commission has its way, local musicians may soon be singing the blues about their sore pecs and cholesterol counts.

The commission is challenging soul singers, rockers, bluesmen and their partners to lose a collective 2,010 pounds in 2010 through a free health program that includes cooking classes, yoga sessions and nutrition coaching.

"We want our musicians to look as good as they sound," commission director Johnnie Walker explains. According to Walker, musicians' waistlines are often stretched by a steady diet of pub grub and alcohol.

"We're providing them with a variety of options so they don't have to eat hot fries and greasy potato skins," says Walker, who's planning to take the program's 55 participants on a tour of a Whole Foods grocery store this week. Walker hopes the field trip will inspire gig-going musicians to pack lunch boxes with carrots and celery sticks instead of ordering their meals from nightclub menus.