Woman shares small changes that helped her lose over 200 pounds
(NEW YORK) — A woman who lost over 200 pounds said she accomplished it by focusing not on the weight she was losing, but the life she was gaining.
“I wanted to gain life more than I wanted to lose weight,” Leah Hope told ABC News’ Good Morning America of her motivation, adding, “There’s a much bigger picture that this is not about wanting a smaller body, but it is about chasing a bigger life.”
Hope, 35, said she hit a “rock bottom” moment in 2022 when she visited Disneyland in California with family members.
Weighing almost 400 pounds at the time, Hope said she remembers being in pain after just a few hours of walking at the theme park.
“I just had to end up spending most of the day by myself while my sister’s family was out enjoying the park,” Hope recalled. “I just left that day saying, ‘This is not the life that I want to be living, and if I continue on the path that I’m on, this is what my life is going to continue to look like.'”
After being overweight most of her life, Hope said she realized she had “become comfortable in my discomfort” and was motivated to change things.
She said she started small and focused on making one change at a time and then layering on more changes.
“Once that thing didn’t feel overwhelming anymore, then I added another thing,” Hope said.
For example, Hope said she started her weight loss journey by just adding one nutritious food to her diet each day.
Once she was comfortable with that change, she added one nutritious meal, and then began walking 10 minutes per day and later began writing what she was eating in a food journal.
“What prompted me to try to lose weight naturally was my focus on wanting to get healthy from the inside out, both internally, hormones, organs, all that, and mentally, emotionally, just holistic health, changing my lifestyle overall,” Hope said. “And so it seemed like it would make most sense to approach this naturally for myself.”
Hope added that while small changes and a natural approach to weight loss worked for her, everyone is different. People should consult with their health care provider before starting any weight loss routine.
“I strongly believe everyone has to decide what the best route is for them,” Hope said.
As she started to change her lifestyle, Hope began sharing her journey on social media. A TikTok video she posted last year, one year into her weight loss effort, now has over 14 million views.
When she faced obstacles on her two-year weight loss journey, Hope said she reminded herself of her focus on “gaining life” versus losing weight.
“As long as I continued to tell myself that, I could look at the scale and say, ‘You know what? Maybe the scale didn’t go down this week, but I did 2,000 more steps this day,’ or, ‘I actually enjoyed this healthy meal that I prepared,” Hope said. “Shifting my mindset to focus on building healthy habits, rather than just seeing a smaller number on the scale, is really what helped me continue through the road bumps, through not seeing the results that I wanted, and just continuing to remind myself that there’s a much bigger picture to this.”
The Walt Disney Co., is the parent company of ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) When Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, there was a key provision that the Biden administration fought hard for. For years, private insurance companies negotiated with drug makers over prescription prices.
However, Medicare, representing 50 million seniors, did not have the same right to negotiate prices for its Part D coverage. This meant that Medicare basically had to accept the prices offered to them.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra joined “Start Here,” ABC News’ flagship daily news podcast, earlier this year to announce that negotiations were starting. They had selected 10 medications to prioritize and attempt to bargain down prices.
On Thursday, during the first public event held by President Biden and Vice President Harris since the Biden dropped out of the presidential race, they revealed that they had agreed on all issues. This is being described as a significant development for anyone on Medicare, and for anyone who pays taxes to fund the expenses of Medicare.
Secretary Becerra joined “Start Here” on Friday to discuss this further.
START HERE: Mr. Secretary, last time we spoke you had just identified the drugs…they included some diabetes drugs, some arthritis medications, treatments for blood clots and blood cancer. Where are we now?
BECERRA: We are done with the negotiation, Brad. We have completed 10 drugs. Every company joined in the negotiations. We had offers, counter offers, and we hit a sweet spot with all ten. And that sweet spot will save Americans on Medicare who need these drugs lots of money. And it will save taxpayers who help fund the Medicare program lots of money, in the billions.
START HERE: Yeah. How much of a discount are we talking about here?
BECERRA: So in some cases, the discount from the list price is up to 79%. I think the lowest discount is about 38%. And I do want to caveat that a bit. Very rarely does anybody pay list price for anything. And if you do, take it back and bargain a bit. Whether it’s that car at the dealership where you look at list price, you don’t pay that. When you go to the department store, you try to find everything you can on sale or, you know at some point it’s going to go on sale.
And so everybody makes the effort to try to get the best price for whatever the product is. In this case, it’s a very important product, it’s your prescription medication. But you should still be able to get a good price, and that’s what we did. We negotiated and got a much better price than what Medicare was getting.
START HERE: But just so we can we can be clear about that caveat. You’re saying it’s 68%, say it’s like 79% less than the list price. But you guys weren’t paying the list price earlier. Can you tell us how much you were paying on these drugs beforehand, and how much the new discount you’ve gotten is?
BECERRA: Yeah. And that’s where it gets a little dicey because there are lots of nooks and crannies in the health care system. Some of them include what are, what is considered proprietary information of the companies, the drug companies, that they don’t want disclosed. And so the net price that Medicare pays is lower than the list price, but still high.
START HERE: So there’s some contract somewhere being like “You guys, no one can disclose what you guys had originally been paying.”
BECERRA: Yeah. We can’t, we can’t take you behind the curtain unless the drug companies tell us it’s okay to do so.
START HERE: Were you able to actually push back against these drug companies, or was it kind of like “We’ll ask once and then we’ll have to take what we get. We’re not going to risk not giving Americans these, these drugs.”
BECERRA: Well, let’s just say that when they came in with their offer or counteroffer, the final price was neither our initial offer nor their official offer. But here’s what I will tell you. The Congressional Budget Office, which is Congress’ budget estimator, they’re the ones that keep tabs of what legislation will cost — will it save money or will it cost taxpayers money? And they are very stingy when it comes to saying “Oh, taxpayers will save money.” Right?
Well, the Congressional Budget Office said with regard to the Inflation Reduction Act and prescription drug negotiation, they said, we believe in the first year of negotiation — which we just finished — in that first year, and they’re projecting because they didn’t know which drugs it would be, etc.. They said, we believe the Department of Health Human Services will save $3.7 billion. Well, we’ve saved $6 billion.
And on top of that, we’re saving people out of pocket another billion and a half. But here’s the kicker. They said over 10 years, they assume that this new law, over 10 years of negotiating, will save $100 billion. So if we’re already almost double their first estimate for their first year, I guarantee you we’re going to do better than the 100 billion, over 10 years.
START HERE: Okay. When do the new prices go into effect, then I guess?
BECERRA: Jan. 1, 2026.
START HERE: Okay, so when that kicks in, how much of a discount will average Medicare patients actually see? Because, like, if you guys scored a 68% discount on Farxiga, like the diabetes kidney medication, does that mean that the person using that drug is going to pay, it doesn’t mean they’re going to pay 68% less. I mean, how much less would it be?
BECERRA: Yeah. So remember, and that’s also a difficult question because seniors don’t typically pay very much for their prescription medication. Medicare the program, that’s the beauty of Medicare, it covers the lion’s share of the cost of those drugs. Some Americans still have to pay some out-of-pocket costs for their drugs, especially the higher cost drugs. So we’re going to save folks quite a bit of money.
Let’s put it this way: I can talk to you in total aggregate terms. We can now look at the price that we negotiated and say “Okay, if we had this price back in 2023, what would our cost have been?” And the result is we would have saved $6 billion to the health care program, and Americans will be able to save about a billion and a half dollars collectively in their out-of-pocket costs.
START HERE: The trade group that represents companies like Pfizer, Lilly, Merck, they’ve said we might not see as much innovation because we’re not getting as much money. That’s, that’s constantly been sort of a critique of this. They also say that your math makes assumptions about how many people truly save money on this. They say a very small amount of people actually get this Part D plan in the way that would actually save the money here. What is your response to to to these pharmaceutical groups?
BECERRA: Well, remember, they’re more than 50 million Americans who have prescription coverage under Medicare, the Part D program. There are about 9 million people in the Medicare program who use one of these 10 drugs. It’s not a small universe of people. And these are very expensive drugs. When you can bring the price down of a drug that’s listed for, say, $10,000, $12,000 to $3,000. That’s a pretty good deal. It’s still $3,000, but it sure saved you a ton of money. If you were paid $12,000 or 13,000 before that.
And so this will save not just the Medicare program money, but it will save Medicare beneficiaries money. And it certainly will pay taxpayers who today, when they work, have some of their money from their paycheck taken out so they could cover their Medicare investment into the future so that when they get turned 65, they can qualify. They will get to benefit from a strengthened Medicare program that will have those new resources available, because we didn’t have to spend it at, for overcharging us for the prescription medication.
START HERE: Well, so now, I mean, the idea is that you’ll negotiate more drug prices, right? So you got these 10 out of the way. What are the next 10 or the next 20, or do you guys have a sense of what types of drugs you’re looking to target?
BECERRA: Yeah. And here I have to be careful, because everything we say about a drug can move the price on the market. Right? And I don’t want to be accused of trying to influence the price up or down. And so what I can tell you is the statute, the new law, the Inflation Reduction Act, gave a pretty clear prescription of how to select these, set of drugs that will be negotiated. That’s a, it’s a good thing in the way, in a sense that it doesn’t let politics enter into this. It was pretty clear which drugs count. In this case, the first 10, they had to be the most expensive drugs in the Medicare system.
START HERE: All right. So then we’ll see what happens next. All right. Secretary Xavier Becerra, thank you so much.
(NEW YORK) — The prevalence of obesity among adults has slightly decreased in the United States but remains higher than 10 years ago, new federal data shows.
Among adults aged 20 and older, about 40.3% were estimated to be obese between August 2021 and August 2023, according to a report released early Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.
This is lower than the 41.9% estimated to be obese between 2017 and 2020 but higher than the 37.7% figure recorded from 2013 to 2014.
Meanwhile, rates of severe obesity increased from 9.2% between 2017 and 2020 to 9.7% between August 2021 and August 2023. Between 2013 and 2014, an estimated 7.7% of adults were severely obese.
This means more than 100 million American adults have obesity, and more than 20 million adults have severe obesity, according to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an ABC News contributor, said that although the data show a short-term slowdown of obesity rates, the prevalence is still quite high and higher than seen 10 years ago.
“The latest data reveals a persistent challenge with obesity rates holding steady at 40.3% among adults,” he said. “While this does not represent an increase, it is important to recognize that these rates are still alarmingly high — higher than they were a decade ago — underscoring the urgent need for targeted public health strategies.”
The prevalence of severe obesity was higher among women at 12.7% compared to 6.7% for men.
Among age groups, the prevalence of obesity was highest among adults between ages 40 and 59 at 46.4%. By comparison, the prevalence in adults between ages 20 and 39 was 35.5% and among those aged 60 and older was 38.9%. This pattern was seen in both men and women, according to the report.
Severe obesity prevalence was also highest among those aged 40 to 59 at 12% compared to 9.5% for those aged 20 to 29 and 6.6% for those aged 60 and older.
When it came to prevalence by education level, those with a bachelor’s degree or more had the lowest prevalence of obesity at 31.6% between August 2021 and August 2023.
There were no significant differences between men and women in obesity prevalence by education level, the report found.
Adults with obesity are at high risk of other chronic diseases. About 58% of obese adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure and about 23% have diabetes, according to the CDC.
Additionally, obesity can put a strain on the health care system. In 2019, the annual medical costs for adults with obesity were $1,861 higher per person than for adults with healthy weight. For those with severe obesity, excess costs were $3,097 per person, the CDC said.
“While there are some differences across demographics, this work really highlights that obesity is a broad health issue in the U.S. and that men, women, young and old are all affected,” Brownstein said. “Comprehensive approaches are essential to support individuals and communities in achieving healthier lifestyles.”
(NEW YORK) — A new study suggests a popular artificial sweetener found in everything from drinks and baked goods to gum and candy could be linked to a higher risk of blood clots, but the researchers themselves say their findings are preliminary and more research is needed to understand any potential health risks.
Erythritol, a zero-calorie sweetener widely used in sugar replacement or reduced-sugar products, was found to increase levels of proteins associated with blood clotting compared to regular sugar, according to a new study published Thursday in the medical journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
“This research raises some concerns that a standard serving of an erythritol-sweetened food or beverage may acutely stimulate a direct clot-forming effect,” the study’s co-author, Dr. W. H. Wilson Tang, research director for Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement announcing the study’s findings. “Erythritol and other sugar alcohols that are commonly used as sugar substitutes should be evaluated for potential long-term health effects especially when such effects are not seen with glucose itself.”
For the study, 10 people were randomly assigned to drink water mixed with 30 grams of erythritol, while another 10 individuals were randomly assigned to drink water mixed with 30 grams of glucose.
The amount of 30 grams was chosen because it is the quantity commonly found in erythritol-containing foods, according to the Cleveland Clinic researchers who led the study.
The people who drank water mixed with erythritol were found 30 minutes later to have a higher level of proteins involved in platelet clumping in their bloodstream compared to those who drank glucose.
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is naturally found in fruits such as watermelons, pears and grapes, but has since been processed as a food additive used to sweeten and enhance the flavor of foods, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
According to Cleveland Clinic researchers, erythritol is produced through fermenting corn.
Consuming high amounts of sugar carries its own risk.
Due to a growing obesity epidemic, artificial sweeteners are becoming increasingly common ingredients found in soft drinks, “diet” foods and other processed products. Although federal regulatory agencies like the FDA have deemed most artificial sweeteners as safe, studies are ongoing about the long-term health effects.
A previous study on erythritol from researchers at Cleveland Clinic found that higher levels of erythritol were found among patients who experienced a major adverse cardiovascular event — which includes stroke, heart attack, blood clots and cardiovascular death — over three years of observation.
Last year, the World Health Organization issued a new recommendation that people who are trying to lose weight should avoid using zero-calorie non-sugar sweeteners.
Zero-calorie non-sugar sweeteners have not been shown to help with weight loss long-term in children or adults, and their use may bring side effects like increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes and death in adults, the WHO said at the time.