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HONG Kong actor Kenneth Ma issued a public apology for claiming that an actress invited him to a hotel room in a bid to entrap him, reported Sin Chew Daily.

He also urged the public to stop speculating on who the actress was.

If my speech has caused some people discomfort, I sincerely apologise to everyone, he said during a press tour promoting his new TV series Flying Tiger II.In an interview last week, the boyishly handsome 46-year-old revealed that when he was filming in China, an actress gave him her room number and invited him to join her there.

I definitely wouldnt go because there will be a group of men waiting there to catch you.

For people who are that forward, its not about love. They dont love you; they just want to trap you, he was reported to have said.

During the press tour, Ma said he did not mean to look down on the actress.

Ma remains single since breaking up with 30-year-old actress Jacqueline Wong who was caught cheating on him with singer Andy Hui in April 2019.

He was reported to have said that he was leaving romantic matters to fate.

> Singer Rainie Yang implied that she longed to reunite with husband Li Ronghao, whom she has been separated from due to travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sin Chew Daily reported.

I really hope the pandemic ends quickly so that everyone can freely fly here and there to meet the people they want to meet, she wrote on Weibo.

Yang was replying to Lis comment which read: Ive not seen you for a long time, how have you been?

The 35-year-old wrote that she had gained 6kg in just two months but remains the apple of his eye.

Hes okay with anything. He likes me (being) chubby and thinks Im cute.

I told him I wanted to lose weight but he just replied saying he doesnt think Im fat, said Yang.

The two got married last year in China after dating for four years but were separated shortly after due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Being stuck in Taiwan, Yang was not able to spend her birthday this year which was on June 4 with her husband who is currently in mainland China.

Instead, she wrote that she would be celebrating the day by having a meal with a few friends.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.

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Ma sorry for claiming actress wanted to entrap him - The Star Online

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"If a nautical life is something youre interested in then you can absolutely find your fix here."Cambridge University Cruising Club

Sailing is probably not the first boat-based sport which springs to mind when people think about Cambridge, but thats not for a lack of trying or training. The Cambridge University sailing team has been kicking about since 1893, and competing in the strange, cerebral, and tactical team racing since the sport was first pioneered for the Varsity Match against Oxford in 1913. Spending both Saturdays and Sundays training from 9 til 5 on the water or else competing against other universities at regattas as far flung as Turkey and China, Glasgow and Bristol; the twenty-four sailors who make up the mixed squad are as dedicated as we are idiosyncratic.

Almost all British universities compete primarily in Fireflies strange little dinghies manned by two sailors apiece. The first sailor the helm does the steering and the mainsail, whilst the second sailor the crew trims the jib (a smaller sail at the front of the boat), raises and lowers the centreboard (a piece of wood that goes down into the water to keep the boat stable and sailing in a straight line), calls the tactics, and brings the snacks. When the boat fills with water, either due to a dodgy tack (turn), or a leak in the hull, it also falls to one of you to frantically bail the water out with a small plastic tub. Both sailors have to co-ordinate their weight to make the boat go quickly and stay upright, often hooking their toes into straps along the hull and leaning precariously as far as they can over the edge. Eventually you learn to read your helms mind and vice versa, anticipating each others movements before you make them, so as not to risk one or both sailors taking an unplanned swim.

On a single team there are three boats, making any given race three boats vs three boats: six sailors aside. Rather than sailing around a course and crowning the fastest the winner, like in a marathon, or a sailing fleet race, a team race depends upon the entire team making it around the course with a better score than their opponents. If you come first you get one point, and if you come in sixth you get six. This means that in total there are twenty-one total points available for any given race, and a score of ten or below wins. That means that if your teams boats finish in first, fifth and sixth (1+5+6) you lose, but if your team finishes in second, third and fifth (2+3+5) you win.

Sometimes in a team race, you will be in a huge one and will need to give it up in order to help out a teammate flagging in sixth; often its about letting your teammate take the glory of first so that you could keep the sailor in fourth solidly behind you and out of their hair. There is no glory in finishing quickly if that leaves your friends stranded behind you win or lose together. Maybe it is this that makes the sailing team such a tightly knit community and supportive social circle (although it might also be all of the boozy team dinners and late nights spent towing boats).

Before sailing for Cambridge, I had no idea just how much time I could spend feverishly checking windguru.cz and taping the ripped skin back onto my fingers with electrical tape. For me, it all started with a bit of a whirlwind crush on a boy at the freshers fair, which turned into going along to a taster day. I had been a very casual sailor before university, crewing where I could for people who needed a hand on their boat, and had been considering socially sailing, which CUCrC (Cambridge University Cruising Club, which covers all small craft wind-propelled watersports) also offers. Almost immediately however, something about driving far outside the invisible bubble in between Homerton and Girton, zipping back into my neglected wetsuit, and feeling the wind in my hair, had me absolutely compelled to keep going. I came back to college with a sunburned nose, a spring in my step, an unfamiliar ache in my shoulders and a newfound desperation to make the squad.

At an extremely windy try-outs my first year I was underdressed and soggy; at lunchtime I shared watery tea from a Styrofoam cup with another hopeful sailor, and then vanished for a long cry in the girls changing rooms. I called my best friend from home and through chattering teeth bawled my fears; that I was embarrassing myself and cold and wet and bruised and scared. When I emerged a Masters student from the previous years first team pulled me aside and gave me his sailing jacket. Im finding it rough out there too, he said, smiling. We were competing for just twenty-four spaces on the University squad, and still everyone was eager to make sure that the nameless freshers were getting their fair crack at the proverbial whip. I took a deep breath, zipped up the coat, and finished the weekend. A fortnight later I got a call from the team captain saying that I had made the cut.

That same year I found myself at both the UK Team Racing Association mixed and RYA Ladies nationals crewing for the first helm I had ever got into a boat with at try-outs. From the development team we grew together as a pair, simultaneously improving as athletes and learning to find the fun in long weekends of training. Playing i-spy during the three-minute start sequences before each race might not have been ideal for our boat speed, but it definitely brought us both a lot of joy. Often my college friends ask how I manage to give up two or more full days to train every week, but really I live for the days I spend on the water. Its not only cherished and hard-won time that I section off to spend away from my degree, but its also I choose to spend with twenty-three of my closest friends who have had my back through the thicks of Varsity wins and BUSA finals, and the very thins of capsizing in the snow, dislocated kneecaps and team shuffles mid-season. Frequently competing against other universities means that Ive met and befriended sailors from teams from all across the country; the nicheness of the sport means the faces I see are usually familiar, and always welcome.

Sailing can seem like a sport with a clear barrier to entry, and most people do not have the privilege of encountering it before university. Whilst Cambridge Sailing has always demonstrated excellence in the sport at the highest level, it is also a space I have found inclusive, supportive and open. With casual sailing weekends for people of all abilities, taster days, RYA learners courses every term, and a dedicated development team; if a nautical life is something youre interested in then you can absolutely find your fix here. Since the first time I launched a Firefly, Ive been utterly hooked.

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding, and during this unprecedented global crisis, we have a tough few weeks and months ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content for the time being.

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as 1, to help with our running cost at least until we hopefully return to print on 2nd October 2020.

Many thanks, all of us here at Varsity would like to wish you, your friends, families and all of your loved ones a safe and healthy few months ahead.

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Rogue Sport of the Week: Cambridge University Cruising Club - Varsity Online

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The "Status Report of The U.S. Weight Loss Market in 2020: Effects of The Pandemic" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This new report presents a wrap-up of 2019 performance for the U.S. weight loss market, and a forecast for 2020 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The value of the total market is projected to decline by 9% to $71 billion this year as a result of temporary closures of weight loss centers and medical programs in March-May. However, some market segments have actually prospered due to shifting dieter behaviors - frozen dinner entrees, meal replacements, weight loss apps and other virtual services, and multi-level marketing channels.

The report covers discussions of:

2019 market/revenue performance, recent competitor developments (Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Medifast, Noom, others), latest dieter trends, shifting of the diet season in 2020, MLM channels, weight loss & fitness apps.

Individual Status Reports and the probable Effects of the Pandemic on operations and revenues, for ALL major weight loss market segments diet soft drinks, artificial sweeteners, health clubs, commercial weight loss chains, health clubs, OTC meal replacements and diet pills, medical programs (physicians, hospitals/clinic programs, prescription diet drugs, bariatricians, modified fasting programs, weight loss surgeries), and low-calorie dinner entrees.

Key Topics Covered

Introduction, Scope, Methodology

Overview: Weight Loss Market Size & Market Segments

Table:

Effects of COVID-19 on Consumer Dieting Behavior

Commercial Weight Loss Programs

Table:

Company Outlooks, 2019 performance & developments, 2020 Revenue Forecasts:

Retail Meal Replacements & Appetite Suppressants Market

Tables:

Company Outlooks & 2020 Sales Forecasts:

Medical Weight Loss Programs

Hospital & Clinic Chains, MD programs

Table:

Physician-based diet programs:

VLCD/LCD Modified Fasting Programs

The Weight Loss (bariatric) Surgery Market

Tables:

The Diet Drugs Market

The Diet Soft Drinks & Artificial Sweeteners Market

The Diet Soft Drinks Market

Table:

The Artificial Sweeteners Market

Table:

Frozen Diet Dinner Entrees Market

Low-cal Frozen Diet Entrees & Low-cal Foods Market

Health Clubs Industry

Reference Directory of Industry Sources

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/n6bry1.

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200604005296/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

Continued here:
United States Weight Loss Market in 2020: Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Yahoo Finance

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IT's said to be the most important meal of the day.

And by picking the right food, you could make breakfast the healthiest too.

2

In particular, there are several different breakfast meals that you could and should start your day with to maximise your weight lossgoals.

And having awell-balanced dietis vital in blitzing body fat, especially around your stomach.

Here, we talk you through the five best breakfasts to eat in order to achieve your weight loss goals...

While many people believe anything carb-heavy can ruin an otherwise gooddiet, they are a vital part when it comes to starting the day.

In particular, fibre is a powerful appetite suppressant, so starting your day with foods such as a bowl of granola is great way to stay on track with your weight loss journey.

Top nutritionist Susie Burrell says: "Unless you are specifically following a low carb or keto program, adding some wholegrain low GI carbs to your breakfast mix is the best way to help replenish your body after the overnight fast, and ensure your brain and muscles have all the energy they need to be at their best.

"If cereal is your thing look out for low sugar granola options or oats, fresh fruit is a great option to add too."

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With it being low in both fat and calories, yoghurt is the ideal food to eat for breakfast if your hoping to lose weight.

It can help improve your digestive health, and combat against any potential bloating and excessive gas through the probiotics it contains.

Meghan Markle's nutritionist even emphasised the benefits of yoghurt- admitting that she tells her clients to eat the dairy treat before every meal.

And a recent study undertaken at the University of Tennessee revealed just how good yoghurt is for blitzing belly fat.

The results revealed that participants who ate 18 ounces of yoghurt per day (as well as reducing their overall calorie intake) lost, on average, 81 per cent more belly fat compared to those who opted to diet without eating yoghurt.

It's also a great source for vitamins and minerals too, with zinc, iodine, potassium and vitamin B5 all active within yoghurt.

Having protein at the start of the day is a great way to help stay healthy and remain lean.

Nutritionist Susie says: "Consuming 20-30g of high quality protein via foods such as eggs is the easiest way to set the platform for a day of healthy eating.

"Not only will a high protein breakfast help to regulate blood glucose levels throughout the morning and keep you full for several hours, but protein rich foods actually require more calories to digest than carbohydrate rich foods thus helping to boost metabolic rate."

Studies have shown that eating eggs for breakfast significantly increased feelings of fullness and reduced food intake later in the day.

Quick breakfast tips

Source:Diabetes UK

Berries are a bit of a secret weapon when it comes to achieving a slim physique.

Research has found that going for red or blue coloured fruit - such as cherries, blueberries, blackberries and red grapes - can help you lose that unwanted belly fat.

The chemicals which give the fruit their brightly-coloured appearance can also burn stomach fat and help you get the abdominal area youre after.

One quick way you can your daily dose of berries is through the new AroniaX Berry Shot - which is a quick daily shot of berries which helps digestion and improves your gut health.

We don't always need tocut out fatwhen it comes toweight loss.

Susie says: "Goods fats not only offer a range of key nutrients but adding some good fat to a meal helps to ensure that you will be kept fuller for longer after eating.

"Avocado works well with toast and smoothies."

Just make sure you always choose brown over white bread if you're planning on putting avocado on toast.

It may seem a bit contradictory, but one of thebest ways to lose water weight is to actually drink more water.

That's because if you're constantly dehydrated, your body tends to retain more water in an attempt to prevent its water levels getting too low.

Water also boosts your metabolism, cleanses your body of waste and acts as an appetite suppressant, experts say.

It's almost important for your liver and kidney health too.

But it is possible to drink too much, which can have the opposite desired effect, so it's key to strike a balance.

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Guidelines suggest about two litres per day, but it can vary from person to person, so simply drink when you're thirsty and stop when you feel well hydrated.

You can usually use your urine colour as an indicator of hydration - if it's light yellow or fairly clear then you're well hydrated.

When it's dark yellow or amber then you need to be drinking more water.

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The 5 best breakfasts to eat to blast belly fat and lose weight - The Irish Sun

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Infertility is becoming to be one of the most common health issues facing young couples. Estimates suggest that infertility affects about 1520 percent couples globally. Infertility is defined as not being able to get pregnant despite having regular, unprotected sexual intercourse for at least a year. It may result from an issue with either male or female, or a combination of factors that prevent pregnancy. Also Read - Female infertility: 6 herbs that can help you get pregnant

According to studies, infertility levels are rising faster in developing countries than in developed countries. Inadequate healthcare, unsafe abortions or untreated infections of the reproductive organs are cited as some of the reasons behind rising infertility cases in developing countries. In India, infertility affects about 10 to 14 percent of couples in the country as reported by the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction. The cases are higher in urban areas where one out of six couples is infertile. Also Read - Signs of infertility that most women ignore

Of the total recorded cases of infertility in India, approximately 40-50 per cent are said to be due to female bodily conditions. Another 20 per cent are linked to abnormal sperm conditions and the rest are classified as unidentified factors. Multiple factors affect the fertility of an individual, including age, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, smoking, pollution, stress, medical conditions, etc. Also Read - PCOS may make it difficult for you to get pregnant: 5 effective yoga poses to treat the condition

Age is one of the most prominent factors. Fertility usually starts to drop after the age of 32 in women, and after 50 in men. Recent trend and analysis suggest that increasing number of Indian women in the Metro Cities are delaying their pregnancy owing to their career and competitive jobs. Another cause of infertility among Indian women is their lifestyle choices, with sedentary lifestyle and addictions being the major culprits here.

Smoking is major factor leading to infertility. Women who smoke do not conceive as efficiently as non-smokers and they are also at a greater risk of miscarriage. Smoking can also decrease sperm quality in men. Obesity and sedentary lifestyle are also linked to increased risk of infertility in both females and males. Women with lifestyle issues like obesity and diabetes are more likely to suffer from infertility than the heathy peers. Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), premature ovarian failure, damage to fallopian tubes, fibroids, widespread use of emergency contraception, surgical abortions are other common factors for infertility in women.

A balanced diet and lifestyle changes can help significantly boost your fertility. Here are a few natural ways to increase your fertility and become pregnant faster.

Eat antioxidant-rich foods: Antioxidants fight free radicals in your body, which can damage both sperm and egg cells. Foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains are loaded with antioxidants like vitamins C and E, folate, beta-carotene and lutein.

Stay active: Regular exercise can do wonder to your health, including increased fertility. However, excessive high-intensity exercise can have the opposite effect. Exercising too much may disrupt the energy balance in your body, and negatively affect the reproductive system.

Keep stress away: Too much stress can decrease your chances of getting pregnant. Stress can lead to hormonal changes and reduce your chances of conception.

Maintain a healthy weight: Both underweight and overweight are associated with increased infertility. So, lose weight if youre overweight and gain weight if youre underweight.

Avoid Excess Alcohol: Studies have linked high alcohol consumption to infertility in women. Therefore, it is advisable to reduce or avoid alcohol to improve your chances of getting pregnant.

Published : June 4, 2020 5:12 pm | Updated:June 4, 2020 5:15 pm

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Infertility cases are rising in India: 5 natural ways to improve your chances of getting pregnant - TheHealthSite

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People who weigh themselves regularly are more successful at losing weight and keeping it off. But standing on a scale, in itself, doesnt help people to magically lose weight. Rather, standing on a bathroom scale every day may encourage some people to think about their eating and exercise habits, plan ways to lose weight, and help them resist temptation. In other words, the bathroom scale might help people self-regulate.

To find out whether this is true, we asked 24 people to record their thoughts during daily weighing for eight weeks. We found that most people didnt use self-regulation, but those who did were more likely to lose weight. This led us to wonder whether we could teach people self-regulation skills to make weighing more useful.

We developed a programme called PREVAIL that aims to guide people who want to lose weight through the process of self-regulation. Participants were instructed to weigh themselves daily and record it on an app. We developed a list of 53 weight loss actions, such as snacking only on vegetables, cutting out alcohol or walking 10,000 steps. We asked people to try out all the actions they felt were relevant to them and to use their weight change over time to learn which behaviours worked.

We asked them to do this based on their weekly weight trends, as weight can change from one day to another for reasons that arent linked to fat loss or gain. We then encouraged people to continue with the strategies that worked well for them, building their personal set of effective weight loss tools.

We tested this programme in an eight-week randomised controlled trial with 100 people. The participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Half the participants followed the PREVAIL programme and the other half were instructed to weigh themselves without further support (the control group).

People who used the PREVAIL programme lost on average 3.2kg (half a stone) more than people in the control group. The feedback we received from participants following the PREVAIL programme was overwhelmingly positive, with many saying that the programme let them take control of their weight loss and flexibly manage their weight alongside their busy lives.

We were quite surprised by the amount of weight people lost because none of the 53 weight loss strategies we had come up with were revolutionary, and each one would probably have had only a modest effect. By combining these actions and putting them into context with weight data, people were able to gain insights into how their diet and physical activity affected their weight. The process of self-regulation and experimentation allowed them to develop their own highly personalised weight loss plan.

Some people experience negative emotions when they weigh themselves. We hoped that guiding people through a process to help make use of their weight measurements would help them overcome this. Responses from the participants showed that they were indeed able to use the daily weighing positively, as constructive feedback. If something didnt work, they could move on to a different strategy rather than becoming frustrated with the lack of progress. It seemed as though our participants found a way to use their scales as a helpful tool to work towards their goals.

Our trial showed promising results for the first eight weeks, but it often takes a bit longer than that for people to reach their goal weight. Also, people may struggle to keep weight off after losing weight. We hope to test this programme in a bigger and longer trial, to see how people do in the long term.

In the meantime, with many people finding it hard to manage their weight during lockdown, our list of weight loss actions may come in handy. You can find them here.

See the original post here:
How to use your bathroom scale to find the right weight loss strategy - The Conversation UK

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Less than a year ago, Boris Johnson was taking a stand. Milkshakes, he said, should not be taxed.

If we want people to lose weight and live healthier lifestyles, we should encourage people to walk, cycle and generally do more exercise. Rather than just taxing people more, we should look at how effective the so-called sin taxes really are, and if they actually change behaviour.

Since then, the world has been hit by a coronavirus pandemic, with the prime minister one of those infected. And Johnson, at least on the face of it, has changed his mind.

Obesity was a problem before Covid-19, but this is an infectious disease that hits obese people disproportionately hard, no matter their income.

Countries with high obesity rates from western Europe to the US are struggling to keep people alive in intensive care units. Britain, long described as the fat man of Europe also has the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in Europe. Almost 30% of adults in the UK are classed as obese. The figure is nearly 40% in the US, where Covid deaths have topped 100,000.

It is striking, experts say, that wealthy countries appear to have higher mortality rates than impoverished ones. Africa so far has not experienced the explosion of deaths that Europe has. There will be many factors, and absence of good data collection will be one. But low rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and the chronic disease of the heart and other organs are likely to play a part.

Epidemics of infectious diseases behave in different ways but the1918 influenza pandemicthat killed more than 50 million people is regarded as a key example of a pandemic that occurred in multiple waves, with the latter more severe than the first. It has been replicated albeit more mildly in subsequent flu pandemics.

How and why multiple-wave outbreaks occur, and how subsequent waves of infection can be prevented, has become a staple of epidemiological modelling studies and pandemic preparation, which have looked at everything from social behaviour and health policy to vaccination and the buildup of community immunity, also known as herd immunity.

Is there evidence of coronavirus coming back in a second wave?

This is being watched very carefully. Without a vaccine, and with no widespread immunity to the new disease, one alarm is being sounded by the experience of Singapore, which has seen a suddenresurgence in infectionsdespite being lauded for its early handling of the outbreak.

Although Singapore instituted a strong contact tracing system for its general population, the disease re-emerged incramped dormitory accommodationused by thousands of foreign workers with inadequate hygiene facilities and shared canteens.

Singapores experience, although very specific, has demonstrated the ability of the disease to come back strongly in places where people are in close proximity and its ability to exploit any weakness in public health regimes set up to counter it.

What are experts worried about?

Conventional wisdom among scientists suggests second waves of resistant infections occur after the capacity for treatment and isolation becomes exhausted. In this case the concern is that the social and political consensus supporting lockdowns is being overtaken by public frustration and the urgent need to reopen economies.

The threat declines when susceptibility of the population to the disease falls below a certain threshold or when widespread vaccination becomes available.

In general terms the ratio of susceptible and immune individuals in a population at the end of one wave determines the potential magnitude of a subsequent wave. The worry right now is that witha vaccine still months away, and the real rate of infection only being guessed at, populations worldwide remain highly vulnerable to both resurgence and subsequent waves.

Peter Beaumont

Prof Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health in the US, says obesity weakens greatly our immune system.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says 73% of critically ill patients with Covid-19 in Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands are obese.

In the UK, according to Prof John Wilding, the president of the World Obesity Federation, obesity doubles the chances of death.

The non-profit organisation is publishing a dossier of evidence and guidance about obesity in Covid-19 on its website on Wednesday, setting out what has been established so far.

According to a yet to be peer-reviewed study of the electronic health records of 17 million adult NHS patients, the risk of a coronavirus-related hospital death increases from between 1.5 to 2 times for people with a body mass index of 30, which is the lowest level of obesity, to more than 2 for those with a BMI of 40 or more. It is a very significant increase, says Wilding . And the reasons for that are probably pretty complicated.

Although not an intensive care doctor, Wilding says one of the reasons is the difficulty ventilating somebody who is obese.

Its much harder to ventilate you effectively if you have a higher bodyweight. The lung capacity for the body size is lower, so theres less reserve in the system. So of course, if you do have a severe respiratory infection, that affects the ability of the lungs to help get oxygen into the blood. The system is going to have to work a lot harder for you than it is for somebody who is much lighter and much smaller.

It could make sense to advise everyone who is morbidly obese to shield but GPs do not always put people on the scales or keep a record. So there is no register of who they are.

When Johnson was admitted to St Thomas hospital in London with Covid-19, he was reported to have weighed 17-and-a-half stone (111kg), which would have given him a BMI of about 36. BMI is a ratio of weight to height: 18.5 to 25 is normal and 30 is obese.

Over 40 is morbid obesity and the point at which people can be referred to specialist care and may be eligible for bariatric surgery to reduce their stomach size. Johnson was vulnerable when he was infected and he appears to have recognised his weight was a factor.

Ive changed my mind on this. We need to be much more interventionist, he told senior ministers and advisers, according to the Spectators political editor, James Forsyth.

This is exactly what doctors at the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS) have been waiting to hear; they have long feared that the UK is not taking the condition seriously.

Hospitals deal with the consequences of obesity such as soaring rates of type 2 diabetes, blindness and amputations and the cost to the NHS is high. But the UK offers only a tenth of the stomach-reducing surgery that France does: 6,000 operations a year compared with 60,000.

Prof David Kerrigan, the president of BOMSS, and colleagues wrote an open letter to the prime minister to draw his attention to last years call by the Royal College of Physicians for obesity to be recognised as a disease not a lifestyle choice.

There has been a curious reluctance on the part of the NHS to grasp this particular nettle, they said, adding that bariatric surgery to shrink the stomach and reduce appetite was often regarded as a quick fix.

But a quick fix is precisely what is needed if we are to avoid needless suffering, ICU admission and death in patients with obesity who subsequently become infected with Sars-CoV-2, they wrote to Johnson.

Like so much of Covid-19, it is unclear why people who are obese are at higher risk of severe illness.

Shaw Somers, a consultant bariatric surgeon and a former BOMSS president, says people who are overweight have what is known as a pro-inflammatory state.

Excess fatty tissue, when it reaches a certain point, starts to secrete certain hormones which make your body think that its inflamed. When it becomes extremely severe, at very, very heavy weight, it is the thing that drives the damage to all their organs. Their body thinks its chronically inflamed and this just basically trashes a lot of their essential systems like the kidneys, the lungs, the heart, etc, Somers says.

With severe obesity, your immune system is working overtime. What we know from Covid is, those who do badly have an exaggerated inflammatory response that comes on after seven to 10 days. Their immune system goes berserk and kills them. And we think that obesity just amplifies it and just makes it much worse.

People who are obese also fare worse if they get Sars, flu or pneumonia. The highest risk is with the highest BMI, but it is a sliding scale. Even those who are overweight, with a BMI of 25, are running health risks.

If you look at the prime minister, for instance, his BMI is 36. So its not far from 40, where hed be eligible for NHS treatment, says Somers. If his BMI is 36 and he got another illness like blood pressure or diabetes, he would be eligible for NHS treatment for his obesity.

Even someone who is maybe a couple of stone overweight will have a degree of impairment of the body function and the degree of impairment of the resilience of their body. Because of that obesity, they may not be aware of it until they get serious illness like Covid-19, such as bad influenza. Then it will hit them.

Somers says the UK should be treating far more people who cannot reduce their weight by themselves. It does not have to involve surgery. He talks about the gastric balloon, for example, which is swallowed in a deflated state and then inflated to the size of a grapefruit in the stomach. Four months later, it effectively disintegrates and is passed in the normal fashion.

Wilding hopes that people will be thinking of living healthier lifestyles as we come out of lockdown.

We would encourage people to try and eat a healthier range of foods, fresh foods, and try and make sure the constraints weve all had to go through are not actually putting us at even higher risk of developing severe infection or severe illness from coronavirus because we put on weight while sitting at home worrying about it, he says.

In the aftermath of Covid-19, it is likely that more people will cycle and walk in order to avoid crowded trains, tubes and buses. More dedicated cycle lanes may be built.

The link between obesity and Covid-19 may encourage better nutrition, curbs on junk food and better access to obesity treatment for far more people when they need it.

There are some positive things that can come out of this, Wilding says.

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Obesity and coronavirus: how can a higher BMI increase your risk? - The Guardian

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Those whove just started the keto diet are always anxious for one important event to occur.

Am I in ketosis?

Sure, most peoples primary goal on a ketogenic diet is to lose weight. A lot of weight.

But the body has to go into fat-burning mode, more accurately known as ketosis, before the weight begins to disappear. Going into ketosis is the first important signal that the diet is starting to work.

Fortunately, it doesnt take a lot of time for most people. And when the body is entering that all-important phase of the keto process, its usually not a secret.

Heres how to tell when youre in ketosis.

How Ketosis Works

Experts could write long dissertations on the biology and physics of ketosis. But well try to explain it in three short paragraphs, so you can understand why its so important.

The body relies on carbohydrates for the energy it needs to function. Those carbs come from the food we eat; theyre broken down into glucose, a type of sugar thats utilized by the body as fuel. Any glucose thats left over is stored in a form called glycogen.

When you start a keto diet youre virtually eliminating carbs as an energy source. That forces the body to look for fuel somewhere else. It starts by using previously-stored glycogen, but what happens when the glycogen runs out?

It starts burning stored body fat to create a secondary energy source known as ketones. And when the body begins producing ketones for energy, it enters the metabolic state called ketosis. (You knew wed get there eventually.) Thats why you lose weight on the keto diet: youre withholding carbs to force the body into ketosis, so it will burn stored fat for energy.

So ketosis signals that youve entered the stage of your diet when youll be able to start shedding pounds.

The Physical Signs of Ketosis

You can tell when youve entered ketosis by using one of two methods. You can test your blood, breath or urine for the presence of ketones. Or you can simply recognize the physical signs of ketosis that your body is exhibiting.

The Keto Flu

The body doesnt normally use ketones for energy, so when it has to make the switchover from glucose things dont go smoothly at first. Ketosis begins in fits and starts, which usually result in a series of very noticeable symptoms. Taken together, the symptoms have been dubbed the keto flu, since they closely resemble the effects of a bad case of influenza (even though theres no virus or bacteria involved).

Within a day or two of starting a rigorous keto diet youre likely to feel tired, even exhausted. It will be difficult or impossible to complete your normal workouts, and you may suffer muscle cramps even if you havent exercised. Youll also have to urinate a lot, because excess ketones bind to water in your body and have to be excreted.

In more serious cases, you can experience nausea and vomiting, difficulty in focusing, constipation or diarrhea, headaches and insomnia. The good news is that the keto flu lasts no longer than a week for most people, and there are ways to short-circuit it.

Many of the symptoms are because frequent urination leads to dehydration and the loss of important minerals. Drinking lots of water or broth, and getting more salt, magnesium and potassium (via diet or supplements) will help quite a bit but dont do it with store-bought electrolyte drinks, because they contain sugar that will knock you right out of ketosis.

Get lots of sleep, slow down on exercise and stick to your diet, and youll get past it and remember, it means youre going into ketosis.

Dry Mouth and Bad Breath

The frequent urination associated with the keto flu often leaves your mouth feeling dry, and youre thirstier than usual, since its easy to become dehydrated. Youll often notice the smell of one ketone, acetone, on your breath as well; most people simply notice this as bad breath thats difficult to get rid of. These are both signs that youre going into ketosis.

Digestive Problems

It probably wont come as a surprise, but your digestive tract has to adapt to functioning in a very different way when you enter ketosis. Thats not just because of the glucose/ketone energy switch, but also because of the drastic micronutrient changes youre making in your diet. That can result in stomach pains, constipation and diarrhea above and beyond the effects of the keto flu. Those will go away, too.

The Start of Ketos Real Effects

When you start to feel less hungry, your focus and concentration improves, and you start to lose some weight, its time to relax. Those are all signs that not only have you entered ketosis, but your body has become fat adapted. In other words, its made the long-term metabolic adjustment to run completely on ketones rather than glucose. This usually occurs after 2-3 weeks on keto.

Just dont be disappointed if the weight loss isnt extreme or only lasts for a little while; at first, youre just losing water weight. The real keto weight loss comes as you continue to stick with your diet.

Measuring Your Ketones

Its unlikely that your body will enter ketosis without making you very much aware of it.

However, some people who only experience a mild case of the keto flu or dont really notice anything different at all will understandably be anxious to find out whats going on with their body.

There are three ways to test for the presence of ketones in your body, and the most reliable is with a blood test. You can certainly ask your doctor or lab to do it, but there are also home testing kits which will analyze your blood. The tests look for a ketone called BHB, and results are measured in millimoles per liter (mmol/L). Once the reading is above 0.5 that means youve started ketosis, and a reading of 1.5-3.0 (or above) means youve reached stable ketosis,

The second-best choice is to use a different meter to check for the presence of acetone in your breath. Those readings are measured in parts per million (PPM) and you should be between 10 and 40 PPM if youre in ketosis. Finally, you can use urine strips which change color to indicate whether youre in ketosis; theyre not as reliable, but theyre less expensive and easier to use.

Even if you rely on physical symptoms to know if youre in ketosis, its still a good idea to have some method of testing your ketones if you plan to stay on the keto diet. It will allow you to make minor adjustments to the diet and remain comfortably in ketosis for the duration.

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HOW TO TELL IF YOU'RE IN KETOSIS - Island Echo

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Food fears: Eating disorders and autism may share underlying biology.

Laurence Mouton / Getty Images

Children with social difficulties are more likely than those without to develop disordered eating by age 14, according to a new study1. The researchers analyzed data from a longitudinal study to understand the relationship between autism and eating disorders over time.

At least 20 percent of adults and 3 percent of children with eating disorders also have autism. But much of what researchers know about link between the two conditions has come from studies of people seeking treatment for eating disorders, which makes it difficult to understand whether one condition sets the stage for the other or something else explains the overlap.

It is possible that eating disorders can cause traits that look like autism, says lead investigator Francesca Solmi, senior research fellow at University College London in the United Kingdom. Research suggests, for example, that the starvation associated with anorexia nervosa can cause problems with emotional processing2.

From all the research we had so far, we cannot see really well whether autism comes first and eating disorders second, or whether people with eating disorders have high levels of autistic traits because its somehow a manifestation of the eating disorder, Solmi says.

To investigate whether autism traits precede disordered eating, Solmi and her colleagues analyzed data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which tracks nearly 14,000 people born in Bristol, England, in 1991 and 1992.

Mothers of individuals in the cohort filled out a questionnaire about social behaviors associated with autism, such as persistent interrupting or being unaware of others feelings, when their children were 7, 11, 14 and 16 years old.

At age 14, the children answered questions about their eating habits, such as whether and how often they fasted, purged or used diet pills to lose weight. They were also asked about the frequency of binging behavior.

Of the 5,381 adolescents included in the new study, 421 nearly 8 percent engaged in some type of disordered eating at least monthly. Almost 3 percent, or 148 children, did so every week. Girls were roughly three times as likely to report such behaviors as boys were.

The Avon study does not include data on food habits before age 14, but other work shows that disordered eating rarely occurs before puberty3.

The researchers found that adolescents with disordered eating habits had more autism traits at ages 7, 11 and 14, suggesting that these traits raise the odds of developing an eating disorder. And the more autism traits a teenager had, the more frequent her disordered eating behaviors.

Those patterns held true for both boys and girls, which was surprising, Solmi says. Autism tends to be underdiagnosed in girls, and eating disorders are underdiagnosed in boys, making it difficult to study both conditions in people seeking treatment4.

The work was published 3 May in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

The study could help researchers better understand early childhood behaviors that lead to eating disorders, says Susanne Koch, associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, who was not involved in the research.

Its not enough just to look at persons when they have had an eating disorder, Koch says. We need to look at the development of the eating disorder.

The emergence of disordered eating may be related to the social stresses of adolescence, Solmi says, and that stress can be particularly intense for people with autism traits.

If you have difficulties relating to your peers, this might result in feelings of anxiety or depression, Solmi says. In the case of eating disorders, it could be that eating then becomes one way in which people cope.

Other experts say further work is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying both social difficulties and eating disorders. It is likely that they share common biology, rather than one condition causing the other, says Walter Kaye, executive director of the Eating Disorders Program at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the work.

Until we understand more about mechanisms and neurobiology, its going to be hard to come up with better treatments, Kaye says.

Regardless, the study may hold a valuable message for clinicians who work with autistic people and those who treat eating disorders, says Jennifer Wildes, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago in Illinois, who was not involved in the research. They can be on the lookout for eating disorders in autistic people as adolescence approaches and watch for social difficulties in people struggling with eating disorders, including typically developing individuals.

That may inform how they work with those people in treatment and how they work with their families as well, Wildes says.

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The ketogenic diet, or keto for short, may seem like just another fad, but scroll through social media and you'll see many showing off their weight loss success. The keto diet works by literally changing the way your body uses energy.

Normally, the body converts carbohydrates, or sugar, into glycogen for energy. But on the ketogenic diet, carbs are drastically reduced so that the body can enter a metabolic state called ketosis where you burn fat for energy instead of glycogen.

However, it's not always easy to enter ketosis. And your body won't immediately reach this fat-burning state after a day of cutting carbohydrates. It takes time, and it may be difficult to know when you've reached that point. Here are some tips to help you know when you've reached ketosis and how to get there a little faster.

To reach ketosis, you must first reduce your body's glycogen reserves. The keto diet helps you do that by limiting carbohydrates to less than 50 grams per day. That's about the equivalent amount of carbs in two large apples.

After about two days to a week of restricting carbs, your body should start tapping into fat reserves for energy. But this can vary person to person and may take slightly longer. Some ways you can speed up the process is:

Common symptoms of the keto diet include:

These symptoms are often called the keto flu, and are a side effect of your body's transition to a constant state of ketosis. After four to six weeks your body will adapt and these side effects should resolve.

Other ways to check that you're in ketosis is with urine test strips or at-home blood and breath tests. These tests measure the ketone levels in your system. Ketones are the byproduct of fatty acids the body breaks down when you're in ketosis.

A blood test is the most accurate way to measure ketones and is used in doctor's offices, but involves a needle prick. However, urine strips and breath meters are also accurate and less invasive. According to one small 2016 study, urine strips offer the most accurate readings early in the morning and right after dinner.

The keto diet was developed in the 1920s as an effective treatment for children with epilepsy who were not responding to drugs that were available at the time.

Today it's also used as a medical diet to treat other diseases, like type 2 diabetes and obesity. Studies show that ketones provide energy without elevating blood sugar levels, which reduces the need for insulin. In one clinical trial, people with type 2 diabetes were able to decrease their medication dosage after 12 months of a ketogenic diet.

There are also hints this diet may be good for brain health. In 2019, a small study showed a low-carb diet may improve memory in adults who have mild cognitive problems, potentially an early sign of Alzheimer's disease. One possible explanation is that brains of people with Alzheimer's disease don't use glucose as efficiently, and ketones may be an easier source of energy for overall brain function.

But beyond low blood sugar levels and possible brain health, the keto diet's recent claim to fame is for weight and fat loss. Low carbohydrate diets, in general, have been shown to lead to more rapid weight loss compared to other diets, but not necessarily more weight loss long-term.

For example, in one trial, lasting six months, obese women following a low-carb diet lost nearly 10 pounds more than participants following a low-fat diet. They also lost significantly more body fat 10.5 pounds versus 4.4 pounds.

Researchers note, though, that most weight loss studies have been short term, so it is unclear how this diet performs for long-term weight loss.

Despite the weight loss and other potential health benefits, Lorraine Turcotte, a metabolism researcher at the University of Southern California says she would not recommend this extreme diet over a more moderate approach to eating.

"There is a potential benefit [for weight loss] but I would never recommend it unless you are clinically managed," she says.

One reason she would not recommend the diet, especially to athletes, is because it can lead to a breakdown of musclesthe body cannot operate optimally without carbohydrates, so it may resort to using muscle stores instead.

"The body breaks down muscle protein into amino acids and then uses the amino acids to make glucose," says Turcotte. It is not clear if consuming so much fat, especially if the diet is heavy in saturated fat, is good for cardiovascular health long term either cardiologists say the diet could lead to high cholesterol. In addition, over time, ketosis can cause side effects like kidney stones and constipation in children following the diet for epilepsy treatment.

Turcotte also says that leaving out carbohydrate-rich food groups like fruits, whole grains, and legumes can also lead to a nutritionally-deficient diet lacking many vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, which are essential to overall health. Besides that, she says, it is just a very strict regime to stay on for a long period of time even for the most "die-hard keto dieters."

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Ketosis is a metabolic state that can help you shed fat fast here's how to reach it - Insider - INSIDER

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