Belly Fat and How to Lose it

During three weeks of hiking and running at the spa she lost12 pounds. And for the first time in her life, Oprah had found a teacher who would challenge her mentally as well as physically. Months later she persuaded Greene to become her personal trainer and move toChicago–where they began a regimen based largely on walking. Then she started jogging three miles a day and worked up to eight within six months. Soon after, the girl who had always tried to avoid gym class finished a 13.1-mile half-marathon inSan Diego.

One day when they were on a walk, Greene asked, “How often do you experience real joy?”

Oprah was startled. It was an intimate question from someone she’d known only a few months. But she answered honestly. The last time she remembered true happiness was in 1985 during filming of The Color Purple, in which she starred with Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover.

“The Color Purple,” she says now, “was the first time I ever remember being in a family of people where truly felt loved. I kept a journal about it, and now when I read it, I realize I was in awe of that feeling: when people genuinely see your soul and love your soul, when they love you for who you are and what you have to give. And I actually was at one of my heaviest points then. I wasn’t slim. But I was happy.”

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Oprah’s weight problem was bigger than loving potato chips.In a deeply personal new booke, she and her trainer tell how she learned to face her painful past, discovered what love really means–and stopped being a food junkie.

Oprah Winfrey is antsy and starting to pace. Though it’s only X: 15 on a June morning, the sun is hot and the talks how dynamo is growing bored with the reporters and cameras clustered around her.

Never mind that this is her party–complete with white tents, linen tablecloths, and a jazz band in tuxedos–the grand preview for her new book, written with personal trainer Bob Greene. Never mind that half of the 1,000 booksellers and other guests expected here atChicago’s Soldier Field haven’t arrived yet. Oprah feels things slowing down–and it’s making her crazy.

“Momentum!” she says, rubbing her hands together. “We’re losing momentum. When you lose momentum, you’ve lost everything!”

Oprah leaps over a fence and bounds to the stage. Athletically, she snatches the microphone away from the band leader in the middle of a song and, as the horns fade, begins to work the crowd like a stand-up comic.

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Maybe you can’t exercise to lose fat, but anyone can Oxycise! Developed by infomercial personality Jill Johnson, the Oxycise! program ($29.95 for the video) purports to boost metabolism, increase fat burning, and lop off inches without dieting, pills, sweat, or gadgets. It’s little wonder the drills are so popular; the workout is hardly more rigorous than, well, breathing.

Then there’s the curiously named Fat Burners, “a diet, exercise, and supplement system.” One package, featuring a svelte bathing-suit-clad model, also includes the statement that the “dietary supplement in this system does not contribute to… loss of body fat.” Could have fooled us.

With Snooze & Looze, you can let your body do the “workout” while you sleep, claims one marketer. All you need to do is “take one table spoon with a glass of water on an empty stomach just before you go to sleep and… WAKE UP THINNER!” Dream on.

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Most fast weight loss diet potions won’t help you lose anything but your сash. Others may be risky. Do any actually live up to their promise? The surprising answer. Lose weight fast! And how to quickly lose belly fat?  No dieting–no exercise”… “Increase fat loss by an astounding seventeen times more than diet and exercise alone.”… “Finally! The Lasagna, tier Fudge Sundae, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Diet!”

If only.

At any given time, an estimated 60 million Americans are trying to lose weight-and not enjoying one minute of their low-cal diets and workout programs. Which is why an astonishing number are tempted by promises such as the ones above or by products with names like Cheat & Eat, Carb Stopper, Thin-Thin, BeTrimToo, and Fat Zapper. A few such potions do have real, if flimsy, science behind them. And some acknowledge that the losing belly fat dieter is going to have to cut calories and increase exercise. Some products, however, are risky. And too many are the proverbial snake oil. Marketed through perky infomercials, newspaper ads and, increasingly, slick Web sites, the flashiest products make that age-old promise: Lose weight fast, with no sacrifice or effort. Like candy, the notion is hard to resist.

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