Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition

Talk about a weighty vote of confidence: The second season of ABC's summer series Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition doesn't launch until June 3, but ABC has already given the show a third-season pickup (15 two-hour episodes) to air in summer 2013.

The early order comes out of production necessity. Each episode chronicles one person's journey over an entire year, which means the show needed to start shooting Season 3 this spring to meet next year's airdate. "In my mind, this is a huge franchise that has been on the air for a while, but in reality, only eight episodes have aired so far," says executive producer JD Roth.

Roth is proud of Season 2 and says the strength of the stories convinced ABC to pick up Season 3. Motivational trainer Chris Powell is back as host, and Walmart has joined as a sponsor. In expanding the show to two hours, Roth says, "we can let the story breathe. There's much more storytelling now."

A handful of people featured in Season 2 have signed on to appear as weight-loss "ambassadors" next year, including Tony, a man who ballooned to 400 pounds while working in a fast-food restaurant and who disappeared for a time during taping because he became homeless. "He was worried that we'd kick him off the show if we knew," Roth says.

Another participant who's back as an adviser on Season 3 is Jacqui, who came to the show at 360 pounds. Roth, a veteran of The Biggest Loser, says, "She's the greatest transformation I've ever seen for any show I've done." That's totally Extreme.

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Exclusive: ABC Orders Third Season of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition

Youve heard it before. Eat right, exercise, and BAM! Youre healthy. Right?

Not so fast.

According to a 2003 Baylor University study, more than 90 percent of Americans will be overweight by 2032 if we continue with our current trend.

The truth is far more complicated. Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is difficult because we live in a society centered on food often fast food and high fructose corn syrup, to name a few culprits.

That makes staying at an ideal weight a not so easy task.

Instead, here are a few tools you may not have read on those headlines in the magazines at the grocery store checkout aisle. These tools helped the author drop more 80 pounds in six months, so stick them in your tool belt and try them out.

1. Choose your words mindfully

When you lose something, what do you want to do?

Thats right. You want to find it.

Loss connotes regret. We lose our keys, our car in the parking lot and our cell phones in the unlikeliest of spots. When getting rid of extra weight, think about shedding, releasing or dismissing the pounds.

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Weight-loss tips not often brought up

PHARMACEUTICALS FDA panel endorses weight-loss drug

Arena Pharmaceuticals jumped the most ever Friday after the company's weight-loss pill gained the backing of an advisory panel, putting two obesity drugs in line for U.S. approval almost two years after regulators rejected them as too risky.

Arena rose 74 percent to $6.36 at 4 p.m. New York time, the biggest increase since the company's shares began trading publicly in July 2000.

Food and Drug Administration advisers voted 18-4 Thursday that the benefits of Arena's pill, known as lorcaserin, outweigh the risks. The FDA is scheduled to decide by June 27 on lorcaserin, and doesn't have to follow the panel's advice.

Arena, based in San Diego, is competing with Mountain View's Vivus Inc. and Orexigen Therapeutics, based in La Jolla, to introduce the first weight-loss drug since Roche Holding AG's Xenical in 1999. The FDA previously turned down all three drugs. Panel members raised concerns that lorcaserin provides a modest benefit while potentially raising heart risks.

A federal appeals court has turned down a Freedom of Information Act request to disclose National Security Agency records about the 2010 cyberattack on Google users in China.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, which focuses on privacy and civil liberties, sought communications between Google and the NSA, which conducts worldwide electronic surveillance and protects the U.S. government from such spying. But the NSA refused to confirm or deny whether it had any relationship with Google. The NSA argued that doing so could make U.S. government information systems vulnerable to attack.

A federal district court judge sided with the NSA last year, and on Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the ruling.

Nordstrom on Friday dropped the most in more than eight months after the department-store chain posted quarterly profit that trailed analysts' estimates, hurt by expenses for e-commerce investments.

Nordstrom fell 4.8 percent to $50.96 in New York, the most since Aug. 18. The shares have gained 2.5 percent this year.

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FDA panel backs Arena weight-loss pill lorcaserin

Got a success story of your own? Send it to us at success.stories@huffingtonpost.com and you could be featured on the site!

Name: Ellen Olstein Age: 33 Height: 5'6" Before Weight: 247 pounds

How I Gained It: I was never a "skinny" person. As a child, I always carried a bit of extra weight on my frame compared to the other children in my neighborhood and at the small, Catholic school that I attended. I was always very conscious of the fact that I was "heavier" than the other girls, and this realization bothered me a great deal until I went to college.

During my college years, I lost a bit of weight, but not through healthy means. I ate sporadically, never got enough sleep and generally kept very odd hours. I also worked, attended classes as a full-time student and was a tireless social butterfly. Thanks to this busy lifestyle, combined with still having the metabolism of a young adult, I was able to maintain a fairly healthy weight of approximately 150 pounds throughout my college career. It wasn't until I graduated with my bachelor's degree in May 2000 and began working at my first full-time desk job that I began to pack on the pounds.

After college, I continued to eat like a college student. I never cooked or prepared homemade meals. I ate out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I watched my waistline quickly expand past the "regular" women's clothing section and into the plus-sizes. As I continued to gain weight, I repeatedly asked myself how I could've let myself go in such a way. I would regularly beat myself up about the excessive amount of weight that I gained, but would never take the necessary steps to improve my situation and try to lose it. I continued to eat my favorite foods, which included gyros, French fries and pizza. I joined a gym located only one block away from my apartment, but I rarely went. When I would go, I would quickly become frustrated and would end my workout prematurely.

Breaking Point: My husband and I moved to Philadelphia in 2005 when I luckily found a new job in the Center City area. We had been trying to move from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia for a two-year period of time, and I decided to use the opportunity as a new beginning not only career-wise, but also health-wise.

How I Lost It: Before making the move to Philly, I immediately got rid of my car. I decided that I would take public transit everywhere that I needed to go in the city. This led to the habit of walking. At first, walking for even 30 minutes was incredibly difficult. My feet would swell, and I hated the feeling of "huffing and puffing" everywhere I had to go. However, after only a few months of walking, I found myself enjoying the act of walking anywhere that was within walking distance. After one year of this newfound habit, I bought a bike and used it as my main form of transportation for one full year. I lost 20 pounds during that year of cycling my way to-and-from work, the grocery store and anywhere else that I needed to or felt like going.

The following year, inspired by my husband, I joined a neighborhood gym and immediately fell in love with it. I discovered that the gym was a place where I could constantly challenge myself, and I continue to view it in this positive way. These days, I am constantly looking for new ways to raise the bar. I have become addicted to Spinning, and take three classes per week. I have also started taking a boot camp class once a week. On Sundays, I take my morning three-mile run into the city. Every single day, I try to do something that gets me up and moving. I still have a desk job, but I am constantly dreaming about exercise. I look forward to my regular gym trips.

Additionally, I have done a great deal of online research about diet and nutrition. I am a pescatarian, and I believe that eating a healthy, balanced diet is best. My favorite foods now include fruit, vegetables, salmon, whole grain breads, Greek yogurt and dark chocolate (in moderation, of course). I have learned that you can still love food while getting and staying healthy. I absolutely love to cook these days, and I look forward to coming home and making a wholesome meal after work. Some regular dinner staples in our house are tofu-and- veggie stir-fry dishes and vegetarian tacos and various other Mexican dishes. For breakfast, I make myself a homemade smoothie or an English muffin with sliced hard-boiled egg or peanut butter. I make sure that lunch is my biggest meal of the day and dinner is my smallest. I also count my calories using the Lose It! app for my IPhone.

Losing weight is one of the most difficult endeavors that I have ever taken on in my life. As a woman, I feel that I am constantly being judged by my weight and my looks. However, it is important to remember that I am the same loving, caring, friendly person that I was when I was 247 pounds. The difference is that I have grown mentally and emotionally throughout this journey. I love the mind/body connection that is associated with weight loss and physical exertion. For years, as far back as my childhood, I was made to feel that I was never "good enough" or worthy of respect and happiness. Pushing myself and dedicating every ounce of my being to my weight loss journey has proven those assumptions and negative thoughts wrong. My goal is to lose 15 more pounds, and I hope to one day become a certified Spin instructor. I want to inspire others to put their health first, and to communicate the message that they are also worthy of self-respect and happiness.

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Weight Loss Success: Ellen Olstein Committed To Change And Lost More Than 80 Pounds

Feeding tube diet: Would you do it?

Lanell Fagan was never someone who could be called fat, but the 46-year-old Singer Island woman wanted to lose about 20 pounds. She said the excess weight was causing health problems.

"After so many failed attempts at dieting and going away to different centers -- 'sprinkle this, eat at this time,' -- I couldn't do it."

That's when a friend told Fagan about a Miami doctor named Oliver DiPietro, who told Fagan he could help her quickly lose the weight with something called the K-E diet. It stands for ketogenic nutrition, and it's simple. It lasts 10 days and for that time, you don't eat. You get everything through a feeding tube.

"You feel nothing," Fagan said. "Honestly."

The feeding tube is hooked up to a bag which supplies a constant drip of protein and fat. It's 800 calories per day with zero carbohydrates.

"Your hunger and appetite go away completely so patients are absolutely not hungry at all for the whole 10 days," DiPietro said.

Fagan said that's the truth.

"On the third day, I woke as if nothing had happened, no tube, no nothing," she said. "And I felt so sharp, so on. My energy was through the roof."

Fagan lost 14 pounds in the 10 days and said she's never felt better. But not everybody is enamored with the K-E diet.

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Feeding-tube diet: 'Quick fix' or legit weight-loss move?

THURSDAY, May 10 (HealthDay News) -- An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended approval of the weight-loss medication lorcaserin, even though concerns remain about cardiovascular side effects.

If the agency were to give the nod to the drug, lorcaserin would become the first new weight-loss pill made available to Americans in a decade. The FDA is not bound to follow the advice of its expert panels, but it typically does.

The panel of experts voted 18 to 4, with one abstention, for approval, saying the drug's benefits "outweigh the potential risks when used long term" for people battling excess weight, the Associated Press reported.

Lorcaserin has not always received such a favorable reception. According to the AP, in 2010 scientists voiced concern that the drug might come with health risks, citing tumors that had developed in animal testing involving the drug.

However, Arena Pharmaceuticals, the San Francisco-based company that makes lorcaserin, has since submitted additional data in hopes the FDA might look more favorably on the drug.

According to a review of the available research posted by FDA staff online on Tuesday, that new data suggests that lorcaserin carries only a "negligible risk" of cancer in humans, the AP said. But concerns over the potential for cardiovascular risks -- hypertension in people with diabetes, for example, or injury to heart valves -- remain.

According to the AP, lorcaserin is one of three experimental weight-loss drugs that the FDA is taking a second look at after first saying no to the medications in 2010 or early 2011 because of concerns about significant side effects.

In February, another new weight-loss drug, Qnexa, was endorsed by an FDA advisory panel. The agency is expected to make a final decision on Qnexa in July.

More information

Find out more about healthy weight loss at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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FDA panel gives blessing to new weight-loss drug