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A recent study of Biggest Loser participants showed that metabolism decreases during weight loss and persists for six years. Recently,San Luis Obispo weight loss expert Carol Rowsemittweighed in as to why this occurred. To view her report, see below:

Dr. Kevin Hall and colleagues have gotten a lot of well-deserved attention for their work on metabolism in weight loss attempts in recent years. Our metabolism is determined by thyroid function.

Rowsemitt: The thyroid gland is in the neck. The hormones from the thyroid regulate metabolism. If your metabolism is high, you burn more calories at rest than would be normal. If your metabolism is low, you burn fewer calories at rest than normal. Symptoms of low thyroid include: cold, cold hands and feet, extreme fatigue, constipation, dry skin, hair loss. And with low thyroid, its hard to lose weight and easy to gain weight. Its also really hard to get out and exercise because you are exhausted.

Rowsemitt: Many different problems can cause low thyroid, including lack of iodine in the diet and eating large quantities of cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussel sprouts). However, what is less well known relates to trying to lose weight.

In 1950, a study showed that young men fed a low calorie diet decreased their metabolism. Studies have confirmed this over the years, but the concept was not well known. That same year, a

Photo credit J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times.

researcher burned a pound of fat and found it contained 3500 kilocalories (commonly referred to as calories). The guy with the pound of fat must have had a better press agent because weve all been taught for years that if you eat 3500 fewer calories, you will lose a pound. But if you put the two ideas together, you get a better understanding of the real problem.

We have a thermostat in the hypothalamus, a small portion of the brain. This thermostat sets your rate of metabolism. Eat less and your thermostat recognizes that youre arent getting enough food to support your current weight; the thermostat resets to a lower rate so youll burn fewer calories at rest. You may be carrying an extra 100 lbs. that youre trying to lose, but the body pays more attention to the lack of current food supply. This response results from eons of evolution so that we can survive famine. So the thyroid has decreased function ON PURPOSE. We currently have no way to convince the thyroid to make more hormone during this time.

Rowsemitt: We were all taught to measure just TSH, the pituitary hormone that tells the thyroid gland how much thyroid hormone to make, rather than the actual thyroid hormones. That works fine most of the time. However, when you are in the famine response, youre burning fewer calories at rest, but TSH is perfectly normal because the thermostat has been reset lower. So if youre dieting, doing everything youre supposed to do to lose weight, and your thermostat is reset down, your doctor or other provider may order TSH, find its normal, and tell you your thyroid is fine. The active thyroid hormone, T3, is likely to be at the low end of normal and your metabolism will be low.

Rowsemitt: Sort of. However, most health care providers are not aware of the resetting of the thermostat and how to effectively treat the thyroid to safely eliminate low thyroid symptoms. I gave a presentation at the Obesity Medicine Association meetings in late September addressing these issues.

For more information about Carol Rowsemitt and her San Luis Obispo weight loss practice, visithttp://www.carolrosey.comor call (805) 748-0954.

Comprehensive Weight Management, A Nursing Corporation 295 Posada Lane Suite C Templeton, CA 93465 United States Phone: (805) 748-0954

Press release prepared bySan Luis Obispo web designersatAccess Publishing, 806 9th St. #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890.

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San Luis Obispo weight loss expert weighs in on Biggest Loser weight re-gain - A-Town Daily News

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This subject is probably one of the most annoying things in my life besides my husband's loud chewing and the kids' toe nail/boogie picking. Don't get me wrong, I've come a long way with my weight issues and nowadays I actually don't care about "the number" and I don't even hate my body anymore. In fact, I totally accept it and most days I quite like it. Sure, it's not a Ferrari, but it's a pretty economical and reliable station wagon and for that I am grateful.

BUT. But. But. But.

How is it that when a man says "I'm going on a diet!" he simply quits one or two things, such as beer or Coke (and instead takes up vodka and creaming soda), eats pretty much as he usually does after the healthy food thing wears off a few days in, then does a gigantic crap one morning and magically loses 6kg? Boom! Goal weight in well under a fortnight, motherf**ker!

Yet when a woman says "I'm eating healthy and changing my lifestyle" it is a serious declaration. She gives up coffee, she gives up wine, she gives up sugar and flour and starchy carbs. She takes up green drinks that taste like cold vegetable soup mixed with the grass out the back... in fact, she increases her intake of everything remotely green grass looking. She limits her portion sizes at meal times using a side plate to trick her brain, she drinks 2 litres of filtered water and exercises for a minimum of 30 minutes every day. She meditates and cleanses her soul, keeps a food journal and spends most of her day in the kitchen preparing and cleaning up healthy meals for her and her family. She has never been 'healthier' yet she is constipated for six out of seven days and when she's not in the kitchen prepping/cooking/cleaning she is on the toilet urinating like some kind of wee God. She resists the urge to weigh in because it is about a lifestyle choice and not a number but surely 18 days of pure good health will harbour some results that are worth seeing...

Am I right?

Arrrr... Nup! A measly 300g gone! How can that be?

Lucky for him, I feel good about myself anyway. I'm not hangry which means he gets to live and I am okay with not losing a single kilo which is good because otherwise I might just have to lace his food with laxatives. But then he would gloat even more over the diarrhoea weight loss. He actually would.

So what the f**k is happening here?

Well this is what it feels like is happening...

The Man body says: "Let's not f**k around mate. We've got a piss up next week and we ain't telling the boys we can't drink coz we are on a diet. So process every fat cell in sight at lightening speed and drop an ungodly 2kg log on day six! Job done!" Cue the naked mirror happy helicopter dance and bicep pashing.

The Woman body says: "Huh? What? We are trying to lose weight? Oh, I thought you said wait! Wait and hold on to every fat cell and digested green bit until it is safe to let it go... Let it go... Let it goooo... Oh, but I can't. Yes you can! Let's do this! This is your time! No... No... I'm not ready... Oh but you are... But what if we need to reserve our fat cells for possible starvation? What the f**k are you on about?" and on and so forth...

What is actually happening?

Simply put, men have more muscle than women and the more muscle you have the more fat you burn. Hence the reason they shed it quicker. Men also have 10 times more testosterone than women, which means their metabolism is 5-10 percent faster than women.

Women have oestrogen -- which helps with the obvious procreation thing -- but this funny little hormone makes it harder for us to burn fat after a meal. Yes, it makes us hold onto it. Which is great if we are in the dark ages and food is scarce. Women also have more cravings -- I don't know why but the research says so. Research also says we are more likely to turn to emotional eating -- yay for us.

And this all must be true because I googled it. So blame the testosterone/oestrogen you don't have/have. Men may have the weight loss edge over us but we can do so much more than they can -- like get aroused without anyone noticing, have multiple orgasms, wear male clothing without anyone raising an eyebrow, multi-task and, if we want, we can push a gigantic baby out of our vagina.

So f**k the testosterone and their fast weight loss. Feel good inside and outside because that is all that really matters.

___________ If you would like to submit a blog to HuffPost Australia, send a 500-800-word post through to blogteam@huffingtonpost.com.au

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Why Men Lose Weight So Much Faster Than Women - Huffington Post Australia

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Women's Health

7 Ways To Lose Weight Even If You Never Get Enough Sleep Women's Health Getting seven to nine hours of sleep every night is clutch for weight loss. It regulates your hormones, keeps your from going into Cookie Monster mode when you spot treats in the break room, squashes stress hormones, and fuels your trips to the gym.

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Sorry, white bread fans, but you might need to hop on the whole grains train after reading this.

A new studyby researchers at Tufts University that was published by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compares how eating whole grains compared to refined grains effects can affect weight management formen and postmenopausal women. The study begins by explaining that though its generally recommended that people eat more whole grains than refined grains, the link between how eating whole grains helps adults to manage their weight hasnt been totally clarified. Given that the obesity epidemic is, well, an epidemic, Tufts researchers performed this study to find out if replacing refined grains could help with weight management.

The study involved two groups of 81 men and postmenopausal women. While both groups were fed similar diets intended to maintain each participants current weight, one group was fed more whole grains while the comparison group was fed refined grains with less fiber content. After six weeks on these diets, the researchers found that the whole grains group had an increase in their resting metabolic rate (i.e. how much energy your body burns at rest) as well as an increase in stool weight and energy content (i.e. how many calories end up in the toilet). Altogether, researchers found that these differences contributed to the whole grains group losing or burning 92 more calories each day than the group that had eaten refined grains.

While weve known for a while that eating whole grains is generally better for you than eating refined grains, this Tufts study provided all the food that the participants ate over the course of thesix-week study. This level of control over the studyand the fact that it was a parallel-arm trialallowed the researchers to more clearly see the difference that the two types of grains can have on your metabolism.

This is pretty great news if you love whole grainswho wouldnt want to lose about 100 calories a day from switching out their cereals and sandwich breads for whole grain versions?Susan Roberts,a senior author on the study who is the director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory atTufts University, says that they incorporated whole grains into the study groups diets primarily with whole grain bread, whole grain cereals, and brown rice. But one thing to keep in mind before you start filling your grocery cart with whole grain productsis labels can be misleading. While you may have good intentions in mind, make sure youre getting real whole grains in your diet by reading the ingredient list, not just the front of the package.

A good rule of thumb is to look at the ingredient list, not the Nutrition Facts. You are looking for products that dont have anything like enriched flour, sugar, etc., says Roberts. [You want] just whole grain flour, wheat flakes, brown rice, natural ingredients, not refined and white ones.

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Can Eating Whole Grains Help You Lose Weight? - Washingtonian.com

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The Jackson Sun 10:53 a.m. CT Feb. 9, 2017

Tom Purcell(Photo: Cagle Cartoons Syndicate)

I know Democrats and progressives are going nuts over President Trump's first few weeks in office I know the Middle East is a mess and that we have no small number of incredible challenges at home but I have my own worries.

Like millions of other Americans, I'm on my annual February diet.

You see, it's not easy to be trim and fit in America. Our culture is saturated with an abundance of high-calorie, processed foods that turn into instant fat.

We work long and hard in sedentary office jobs, then eat our stress away, two or three fast food treats at a time.

We've become so fat, to quote Rodney Dangerfield, that our bathtubs have stretch marks.

We know our increasing tubbiness isn't healthy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity-associated diseases such as diabetes have soared in recent years. Gallbladder diseases, sleep apnea, high blood pressure and heart disease are all caused by carrying too much weight.

And so we are on a continuous mission to lose weight. Our challenge is that the fad diets that promise to get us there go in and out of fashion faster than the white patent leather shoes and belts my father used to wear to church.

According to the website The Daily Meal (thedailymeal.com), the Mediterranean Diet it features natural, plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts is in.

So, too, is the Paleo Diet, which apparently is similar to the Mediterranean Diet, except legumes are forbidden.

Which is a shame, too, because I just learned that legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupin beans, mesquite, carob, soybeans, peanuts and tamarind which go well with the bourbon I am driven to drink as I try to figure out which diet to go on.

Volumetrics is another in diet. It encourages the consumption of low-energy-density foods, which make you feel full with fewer calories than high-energy-density foods. It also sounds like too much math is involved.

The Gluten Diet is on the outs, though, according to The Daily Meal. Apparently, it puts people at risk for different deficiencies such as B vitamin deficiencies, calcium, fiber, vitamin D and iron.

The Daily Meal no longer favors the Atkins Diet, either, which makes me sore.

Dr. Atkins said we could eat delicious steaks, pork, chicken and fish. He said we could eat as much eggs and cheese and other tasty no-sugar treats as we could stuff into our bellies. His diet was all the rage for years.

But now The Daily Meal says his diet is a no go? That it is not heart-healthy and that most users are not compliant over the long term?

Not so fast! Several prominent studies have concluded that old Doc Atkins was onto something. Low-carbohydrate diets may actually take off more weight than low-fat diets and may be surprisingly better for cholesterol, too.

One of my greatest dieting disappointments of the last 20 years, though, was the failure of the exercise pill, which had shown promise at Duke University around 2002.

Researchers had located the chemical pathways that muscle cells use to build strength and endurance. With that knowledge in hand, there was hope that a pill could be created that would pump up muscle cells WITHOUT the need for actual exercise.

Dieting Americans could have sat on the couch, chomping potato chips and dip, while their biceps got as round as cantaloupes and their abs got as hard as stone but this uniquely American dieting innovation wasn't to be.

I think I'll try a new, restrictive diet this February: the Democrats in Congress Diet.

I'll deny myself everything.

Tom Purcell is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com.

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Unlike fat, choices for the right diet keep shrinking - Jackson Sun

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Its February, so the New You ads for dieting and weight loss have let up a little. This barrage of you can look like this model/celebrity media messages on TV, and social media and magazines can leave even a healthy, strong and fit person feeling out of shape and out of sorts.

The fad diets, popular diet books, and all diets and overzealous work out systems that promise permanent weight loss dont deliver except for a tiny percentage of people. What is much more likely to happen is any weight lost during the calorie-restriction / over strenuous part of the program will return, plus more weight will be gained, when your bodys desire for adequate calories eventually comes roaring back. Thank goodness it does! We cant starve ourselves into good health. We can however do our best to support our health by choosing good foods that we are hungry for and regular activity that we enjoy.

The next time you are sucked into watching an infomercial about a diet or exercise system with before and after pictures and testimonials think about this: You dont know if the weight returned within 6 months to a year after they shot the video odds are it did and you will never see this part of the results.

The 3-Step Detox Cure for Fad Dieting Overload

Here is the viewing diet I recommend to fill up on nourishing, science-based healthy eating and activity facts, while restricting your access to fad diets and exercise ads.

Step One: Load up your saved websites, and Facebook or Twitter feed with groups that promote body-positive, healthy eating and weight.

Here are a few to start with:

Step Two: Find science-based healthy eating guidance that is simple and that is filled with the foods you enjoy. Hint: You wont need to buy any supplements or other expensive add-ons; real food will give you what your body needs!

Step Three: Explore moving your body in ways that appeal to you- you never have to go to a gym. Or you can be a gym rat- its up to you. Your body was meant to move- so move it, joyfully, every day.

For ideas - try these sites:

Love and Take Care of the Body You Have

Learning to love the body you have, right now, at this weight, is probably the best thing you can do for your health. We tend to care for things we love better than for things we hate- right? Ill leave you with this nourishing thought from the body-positive website, Beautyredefined.org: Having positive body image isnt believing your body looks good; it is believing it IS good, regardless of how it looks

Nutrition911 dietitian Mary Saucier Choate, M.S., R.D.N., L.D., of Monroe, N.H., helps busy people to find delicious and affordable ways to eat and move for energy and health. She is the author of Better Eating for Life an easy, step-by-small-step guide to your best nutritional health ever! Now available as a free PDF: http://s.coop/1uzj4

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Nutrition 911 by Mary Saucier Choate: Try the Media Detox Diet - Caledonian Record

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Edmund Fountain / Food & Environment Reporting Network

Theresa Dardar is leading an effort among several Louisiana tribes to restore their food sovereigntythe sustainable production of healthy, culturally appropriate foodas the land around them disintegrates.

When Theresa Dardar was growing up in Houma, her mother used to take her to visit relatives in the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe community. They would drive 20 miles toward the Gulf of Mexico, park at the local grocery store, and ask someone to ferry them across the bayou. From there, theyd walk across land thick with oak, hackberry, and palmetto until they reached her grandfathers house.

Dardars grandfather raised chickens and pigs. Next door, her uncle raised cattle. Even at 62, Dardar carries a vivid memory of her grandfather dipping a cup into the blood of a freshly slaughtered pig and drinking it. He would send some of the pork home with Dardars mother, who would make it into boudin sausages. She would also bring home some of the redfish he caught in the waters near his home.

This story is a collaboration between the Food & Environment Reporting Network, which focuses on investigative and explanatory reporting about food, agriculture and environmental health; Gravy, which explores stories of the changing American South through the foods we eat; and The Lens, which covers public-policy issues facing New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

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Back then, tribal members fed themselves wellwith seafood, of course, but also with the livestock they raised, the fruits and vegetables they planted, and the marsh hens they extricated from their fur traps. They hunted for turtle and alligator, too, and gathered medicinal plants from the land.

Thats because there was land. Viewed from above in the early 20th century, Pointe-au-Chien was surrounded by a dense thicket of green, broken up by splashes of blue. Those proportions flipped over Dardars lifetime. The land vanished until the community became a narrow neck of high ground surrounded almost entirely by open water. The area immediately around Terrebonne Bay, which includes Pointe-au-Chien, went from 10 percent water in 1916 to 90 percent in 2016, according to geographer Rebekah Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at Florida State University. The U.S. Geological Survey said the larger Terrebonne Basin lost almost 30 percent of its land from 1932 to 2010.

Today, the property surrounding Dardars grandfathers home bears little resemblance to the place she visited as a child. Theres no more trees, she said. Theres a little strip of land where he and my uncle lived. The piece of land is so small now that I dont think anyone would be able to live there.

This is the dilemma Dardar spends much of her time agonizing over. She has lived in Pointe-au-Chien for more than 40 years, in a house overlooking a bayou lined with shrimp boats. (Pointe-au-Chien means Dog Point; the larger rural community is often called Pointe-aux-Chenes, or Oak Point.) She has served as a deckhand on her husband Donalds shrimping boat and has skinned the nutria he once trapped in the winters. Shes watched that shrimping business dwindle, and the trapping business disappear altogether. And shes seen neighbors give up on their gardens and animals.

Dardar isnt sitting back, though. She and her tribe are trying out new ways to grow vegetables and medicinal plants even as the land around them vanishes. She heads an intertribal effort to restore food sovereigntythe sustainable production of healthy and culturally appropriate foodto a half-dozen of Louisianas Native American communities. That effort might inform all of us about how to feed ourselves during these times of environmental stress.

Edmund Fountain / Food & Environment Reporting Network

Island Road connects Pointe-au-Chien with Isle de Jean Charles, which has lost 98 percent of its island home since 1955. At high tide, the road is sometimes covered with water, making it impassable for school buses.

The land loss faced by the 680-member Pointe-au-Chien tribe is one of the central facts of life south of New Orleans. Each year, about 16 square miles vanish from the Louisiana coast. The levees along the Mississippi River have starved the area of the sediment needed to replenish a sinking delta. The dredging of 10,000 miles of canals by the oil and gas industry has sucked saltwater inland, killing the vegetation that holds the mud together. And climate change is accelerating global sea-level rise, which promises to overtake subsidence as a key factor in land loss during the next century.

Edmund Fountain / Food & Environment Reporting Network

A boater passes a floodgate under construction in Bayou Pointe-aux-Chenes.

Whats more, as the barrier islands to the south have disappeared, Pointe-au-Chien has become more open to storm damage. In 1985, Hurricane Juan flooded the Dardars mobile home; the couple, along with Donalds grandmother, took shelter in a small boat. The couple built an elevated house after thatits now common to see houses built up on stiltsand a small levee went up in their backyard. But they remain vulnerable: 2008s Hurricane Gustav blew off part of the Dardars porch, tore a hole in their roof, and destroyed other houses. Less than two weeks later, the community was flooded by storm surge from Hurricane Ike.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is trying to protect communities like Pointe-au-Chien with a controversial $13 billion project called Morganza to the Gulf98 miles of earthen levees punctuated by floodgates. A levee is going up immediately behind the tribal headquarters, at the edge of open water that used to be cattle pasture. Dardar believes the levee will buy us a few years, but only if the community doesnt suffer a direct hit by a fearsome storm. Its in Gods hands; lets put it that way, she said. Some scientists agree the project will have limited benefit, particularly considering the price tag.

Sitting on the back porch of her tribes headquarters, Dardar looked over a small, scrubby yard with a row of small trees at the back. Beyond that, a dump truck revved and beeped as it poured dirt for the levee. Dardar recalled wondering why the project was called Morganza to the Gulf, because the levee doesnt go to the Gulf. Then she realized: The Gulf of Mexico will come to us.

Not only do land loss and flooding make it harder to raise livestock, planting fruits and vegetables also gets tricky. When I grew up, everybody had a garden, said tribal council member Christine Verdin, who is 57. My grandma had probably five different species of figs. She had orange trees, satsumas, navels. She had lemon trees. She had her own peaches. And because of the water coming in, it just ruined all her plants and all her trees.

Edmund Fountain / Food & Environment Reporting Network

Christine Verdin stands in front of her wrecked childhood home next to the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribes community center. The home was damaged by Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Theresa Dardars 83-year-old mother-in-law, Nazia Dardar, maintains a large garden in a backyard filled with fruit trees, Muscovy ducks, and roosters. She sells her surplus produce to neighbors. But shes one of the few holdouts who arent discouraged by repeated flooding.

Imports of cheap shrimp have driven prices so low at the dock that commercial shrimpers like Donald Dardar can hardly justify the cost of fuel and ice.That leaves the tribes traditional mainstay, seafood. But even that is becoming a luxury. Imports of cheap shrimp have driven prices so low at the dock that commercial shrimpers like Donald Dardar can hardly justify the cost of fuel and ice. Local crabbers report significant drops in their yields since the 2010 BP oil spill. (It is one of several possible causes.) And the federal government warns that accelerating wetlands loss in Louisiana endangers the nurseries for many species of fish and shellfish.

With residents replacing seafood with store-bought chicken, pork, and beef, the tribal culture is suffering, too. We dont see each other as much, Dardar said. Before the spill, Donalds brother used to do a crab boil at least three, four times a week on the side of the bayou. No invitation was needed: The community would pass by, and they would stop and wed visit. Theyd eat. That tradition ended after the crab haul became sporadic. It all fell apart, she said.

Edmund Fountain / Food & Environment Reporting Network

Nazia Dardar handles bags of beans and okra seeds from her freezer in Pointe-au-Chien.

Its not just Pointe-au-Chien. Across southeastern Louisiana, tribes are grappling with what land loss means for their dinner plates, their traditions, and their health.

We are stewards of the environment: protect first, use second, said Shirell Parfait-Dardar, traditional chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe. (Dardar is a common name across tribes.) The 450-member tribe, which has fanned north from its original home at the edge of the Gulf, used to raise dairy cattle and poultry, she said. But flooding has ruled out ethical husbandry.

We will not suffer any animal, said Parfait-Dardar, who lives in Chauvin, southeast of Houma. A south wind comes through here, and thats ityouve got yards covered. We can get out of the way of the waters. Animals dont have that benefit. Theyre stuck where you put them. And we will not subject them to that.

As the tribe has moved away from self-reliance, family diets have shifted toward processed food. The boxed dinners, they are very convenient, Parfait-Dardar said. You can get a ton of them, 10 for $10. And for a family as big as mineI have four children [and] my husband doesnt make all that much moneyweve got to stretch that dollar to feed our kids. The health consequences, though, have been predictable. We have a very high rate of high cholesterol, she said of the tribe. Diabetes is rampant. And its all got to do with our diet.

Before the spill, Donalds brother used to do a crab boil at least three, four times a week on the side of the bayou. The community would pass by, and they would stop and wed visit. Theyd eat.Theresa DardarThese are issues that Native Americans deal with nationally. If you take the food desert map and overlay it with where tribal lands are, there is pretty much a direct correlation, said Lea Zeise, a New Orleans-based staffer for the Intertribal Agriculture Council. Its no coincidence, experts say, that Native Americans are twice as likely as whites to be diagnosed with diabetes and are at high risk for heart disease and stroke. The disruption of traditional agriculture and hunting has resulted in increased consumption of fattypical of the contemporary western diet, writes physician Dorothy Gohdes in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases reference book Diabetes in America.

Some Louisiana tribes have decided they cant tackle the problems alone. Six have joined together to discuss innovative ways to reclaim their food sovereignty. Calling themselves the First Peoples Conservation Council, they meet every three months, along with representatives from nonprofits and the U.S. Department of Agricultures Natural Resources Conservation Service. Theresa Dardar serves as president.

Five of the tribes are coastal. None of them is recognized by the U.S. government, though most are recognized by the state of Louisiana, which has less restrictive standards. Besides Pointe-au-Chien and Grand Caillou/Dulac, they include the 600-member Isle de Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, which has lost 98 percent of its island home since 1955 and last year received a $48 million federal grant to relocate inland. (Isle de Jean Charles is three miles from Pointe-au-Chien but considerably more exposed. Most of the members, including the chief, have already left the island.)

Rounding out the councils coastal members are the Bayou Lafourche Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha, whose 600 members have been forced inland by devastating hurricanes, and the Grand Bayou Village Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha tribe, whose 14 homes in Plaquemines Parish are accessible only by boat. Grand Bayous tribe has 400 members, but most live away from the village, in part because of the challenges of living with land loss.

These meetings are hours-long brainstorming sessions that draw from the collective wisdom of the tribes and the technical expertise of the government and nonprofit groups. Some of the discussions center around programs the Agriculture Department funds, like plastic-covered hoop houses to protect vegetable gardens. (The U-shaped metal structures extend growing seasons, minimize soil erosion, and protect against pests and wind.) They talk about lobbying for federal recognition of soft-shell crab as a farm commodity, which could make producers eligible for crop insurance, disaster loans, and federal subsidies. And they discuss 21st-century ways to share traditional knowledge, like an Excel spreadsheet to record changes in growing seasons.

Edmund Fountain / Food & Environment Reporting Network

Nazia Dardar (left) and her daughter-in-law Theresa Dardar walk through their garden in Pointe-au-Chien.

On a December morning at the Agriculture Departments office in the St. Charles Parish town of Luling, representatives from four tribes got together for the final First Peoples Conservation Council meeting of 2016. There were greetings in French, a prayer in English, and a business agenda that extended well beyond lunchtime.

Zeise of the Intertribal Agriculture Council reported on a federal grant her organization had received to develop marketing cooperatives, which the tribes could use to sell products like dried shrimp. Wed have to start small, said Rosina Philippe, an elder from Grand Bayou Village. We know the process of drying shrimp. But as far as the business side of it, thats something that wed have to learn.

Edmund Fountain / Food & Environment Reporting Network

Just beyond Theresa Dardars backyard in Pointe-au-Chien is a levee, built after Hurricane Juan. On the other side, you can see where water has replaced land.

But is there interest in learning that kind of stuff? Zeise asked.

Yes, Philippe said. We talk about it all the time. We just dont know how to put the next foot forward.

Philippe also talked about a project her tribe, which is not protected by levees, is working on: gardens in boxes that can be lifted with pulleys. Grand Bayou Village has tried traditional raised-bed gardens, but they have proven impractical. Tides have been higher, she explained to me afterward. In storm events, we get more water, so they get inundated with saltwater. That kills the plants. Hence the idea of gardens that can be raised and lowered mechanically. They could grow typical vegetables like tomatoes, along with traditional medicines and indigenous plants like wild celery and parsley. Philippe also described plans to create a floating garden by mounting a container on top of a 4-foot-by-8-foot section of plastic dock.

Like their ancestors did, the tribes are thinking about their childrens childrenseven generations down the line. The councils conversations are starting to bear fruit now, albeit on a modest scale. Down in Chauvin, Shirell Parfait-Dardarinspired by discussions of raised-bed gardenshas built one of her own using recycled materials, including old trampoline parts that serve as a trellis for green beans. In Pointe-au-Chien, Theresa Dardars husband Donald has started growing vegetables under a federally subsidized hoop house behind the couples home. The couple was spurred to act after Theresa talked with a Department of Agriculture staffer who attends council meetings.

Edmund Fountain / Food & Environment Reporting Network

Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar, of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians, stands behind the trellis for her green beans, made of old trampoline parts.

Pointe-au-Chiens big project, still in its early phases, is to build a greenhouse for medicinal plants and possibly vegetables. Christine Verdin, the tribal council member, hopes the effort will teach children about gardening and will produce crops that people can transfer to their own yards. If we can get things started here in this greenhouse, she said, Im hoping it will multiply.

More than any individual project, whats instructive about the First Peoples Conservation Council is the pooling of wisdom. Federal staffers provide technical guidance, but dont steer the conversation. This, Zeise said, is refreshing. Its a solutions-based relationshipand not just the solutions that the [Agriculture Department] already has in mind, but the solutions that actually match the cultural and subsistence needs of the community, she said.

One of those staffers, conservationist Randolph Joseph, said thats the principle: People with a wide range of experiences, working in collaboration, stand the best chance of coming up with innovative responses to threats like land loss and saltwater intrusion.

If we can get things started here in this greenhouse, Im hoping it will multiply.Christine VerdinIts going to take their creativity to solve that problem, he said. Once they get it down, then maybe we can help them to perfect it, to expand on it, to make it more efficientand maybe [we can] adopt some of the practices that theyre using, that we may not have knowledge of. We dont have all the answers to their issues. But I think working together, we can find some practices that will work.

Joseph hopes the conservation council can become a model for tribal and non-tribal communities. Louisianas coastal tribes are some of North Americas first responders: Theyre dealing with disaster ahead of most of us. But these environmental problems wont remain isolated: In the Terrebonne Basin alone, the coastline could eventually creep north to the suburbs of Houma, according to state and federal coastal experts.

Indeed, other communities will have to contend with how to feed themselves in the face of climate change and coastal erosion. Were on the front lines and its going to spread, Parfait-Dardar said. By trying solutions and sharing what works, she added, we can help make a difference. We have to consider what were leaving behind for the next seven generations.

This story was reported and written by Barry Yeoman, a freelance journalist based in Durham, North Carolina. Eve Abrams and Thomas Walsh recorded the audio. Edmund Fountain, a photographer based in New Orleans, made the pictures.

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Reclaiming native ground: Can Louisiana's tribes restore their traditional diets as waters rise? - The Lens

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Fran Drescher Stresses the Connections Between Diet, Health and the Environment AlterNet FT: What makes you continue to want to be involved in this kind of work? FD: Because of my celebrity, I have the benefit of people from all over the world who reach out to me through social networks, and in person as well, telling me that my efforts ... and more »

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It was a messy road full of bumps and false starts, but Erica Wall lost almost 200 pounds in a year on My 600-lb Life's Wednesday, February 8, episode despite taking more than six months to pick up steam and weathering feelings of self-sabotage.

The 44-year-old Lompoc, California, woman, who started the show at 661 pounds, was a house-bound pathological eater who had mostly unsuccessful results with stomach stapling surgery as a teen. Now looking at another weight-loss surgery as an adult, and with two grown siblings with busy lives of their own, Erica found herself having trouble summoning personal willpower without a strong support network.

To her credit, Ericas sister Molly joined Erica on the trip to Texas from California several times to see her stomach surgeon, Dr. Nowzaradan, but her brother, Robert, didnt, despite her pleas. Thus, Erica was prone to losing focus and pushing responsibility onto someone else.

Still, Nowzaradan said, Erica needed to take responsibility for her weight loss: Erica is making progress, but her attitude can still be very poor. That just means I need more evidence that shes not going to fall back into bad habits. Near the end of the process, she lamented that "there's really not much for me to eat," and she's "hungry all the time."

Here were five memorable moments from watching Erica go from 661 pounds to 471 a total weight loss of 190 pounds.

1. The sisterly bond of Molly and Erica

Even though the two went back and forth with snipes, Molly, in the end, was there for her sister, joining her on trips to Texas, and waiting in the doctors waiting room as Ericas stomach staples were removed. Molly wasnt always nice about it and neither was Erica but Molly gave of herself when no one else would. Im sorry Im a pain in the ass, Erica told her sister in a bonding moment toward the end of treatment. I will do what I need to do, Molly promise.

2. The backstory of Ericas antagonizing dad who, she said, teased her about her weight mercilessly when she was growing up

As Erica gained pounds as a teenager, he asked her what had happened to his beautiful little girl. She went to sleep one night and woke up Godzilla, Erica recalled tearfully of what her dad said. I just wanted my dad to love and tell me he wasnt disappointed I was his daughter. Dads absence on the show is conspicuous, given that he still seemed to be in this picture Erica mentioned that her dad didnt know her history to this day.

3. The stomach stapling procedure was obsolete, Dr. Nowzaradan said during the show, and potentially a mess for Erica, who underwent it 27 years prior, at age 17.

The stapling surgery did little to help Ericas long-term weight loss. But it did give her both scar tissue and rogue staples, the latter of which Nowzaradan removed before giving Erica the 2017-standard gastric-bypass surgery. Erica has shown me that shes willing to try, the medical professional said. So Im willing to do all I can to give her the tool to keep her on track for the long term.

4. Ericas bittersweet missing of her mom, who died several years previously in a car accident

It was Mom, Erica said, not Dad, who knew of Ericas devastating teenage secret that she was gang raped at age 16, which was also her first intercourse experience. Erica said her mom truly understood Erica's pain and would have done anything for her including helping to facilitate her teenage stomach stapling surgery. She never gave up on me, Erica said in an interview.

5. The battle of the nutritionist vs. food-delivery service

While Erica was still living in California not fully committed to losing weight and with a more hands-off family she was struggling to find the discipline and stamina to lose weight. At the mandate of Dr. Nowzaradan, a nutritionist named Susan Swadener visited Ericas house and essentially raided the abode of junk food as a distressed Erica watched on. I cant believe she just wasted all that food, Erica said in an interview after the nutritionist left. But I can just order more, and theres nothing she can really do to stop me from doing that. So she completely wasted her time.

Tell Us: What did you think of Ericas journey?

My 600-lb Life airs on TLC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.

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'My 600-lb Life': Patient Loses 190 Pounds But Is 'Hungry All the Time' - Us Weekly

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If you are trying to lose weight, finding the right approach is crucial to your long-term success. The following considerations can help you determine whether to take baby steps, dive in head first, get help from a professional or go at it solo.

1. Determine your ability to commit.

Of course you want to succeed, and you will put your best foot forward, but there are likely times you cannot take on a full-force meal-planning approach. Examine your travel schedule, birthdays, social commitments and kids activities over the next month. If your calendar is more than 50 percent full, consider using an approach that involves small steps and goal-setting, instead of a system of meal plans and number-tracking. This baby-step approach is best carried out with the help of a professional, or in a steady support group, as accountability is key to making progressive small changes.

2. Set your goals.

Be honest as to how much you are trying to lose and how much support you will need. If you are looking to lose more than 1 pound a week, or a total of more than 20 pounds, you will likely need direction from a professional, and perhaps a doctors clearance. You may also need a longer, more detailed approach. Remember, removing carbs will also remove nutrients that fuel faster metabolism, and cutting calories can cut the effectiveness of your workouts. Admit it if you need help, and ask before you get started, so you avoid possible feelings of defeat.

3. How is your motivation?

Since only you know what drives you, take a look at when and why you eat, and how much self-control you have. This could vary during different seasons, times of the day and through stressful situations. Some people eat impulsively, mindlessly or to calm emotions. Be mindful of how you are now, and how you might respond to situations you know are in your near future. If you are an emotional or impulsive eater, make sure you are keeping a food journal and have a support system of friends and family.

With any weight-loss approach, exercise will speed your results. It will also help curb emotions that drive many to eat, and ultimately fail at their long-term goals. Instead of jumping right into the next weight-loss plan, take some time to determine what will work best for you in the long run. Dont join the next fad or go with join a friend in their program, unless it is right for you.

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Need to lose weight? Consider these 3 things before you get started - Omaha World-Herald (blog)

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