Health
New Weighted Hula Hoop Trend Is Helping Women Over 50 Lose 100+ lbs
Do you remember hula hooping when you were a kid? It was so much fun it never seemed like ‘exercise.’ But to do it now? Really? Yes — really — hula hooping with a heavier version of the classic hula hoop is all the rage on TikTok, with posts on ‘weighted hula hoops’ garnering over 2.4 billion views. One reason that it’s so popular is that it actually takes less coordination to spin a weighted hoop than a lightweight version. Another reason weighted hoops are all the rage: the activity is study-proven to burn 442% more belly fat in minutes than a whole lot of walking (more about that below). What cinched our interest in the new trend: One hula-hooper, retiree Mollie Kamm, shrunk her waist by 19 inches at age 59. Keep reading to learn more about using hula hoops for weight loss, what the different hoop options are, how real women have made it work for them to figure out if hooping might be right for you.
Where did hula hoops come from?
Brand-name Hula-Hoops were hollow plastic rings first released by the Wham-O toy company in 1958. They sold 25 million hoops in just two months and made the company $45 million in a year — equivalent to about $470 million today. Fun fact: Wham-O didn’t make the original hoop. The company was inspired by bamboo hoops used in kids’ gym classes in Australia. There’s also evidence that hoops made from materials like willow and grapevines have been used for dance and play since 500 BC. (Click through to read more about nostalgic workouts like hula hooping and trampolines.)
One thing all the old-timey hoops have in common: They’re lightweight. Spinning them hula-style gets heart rates up, so the activity is a form of low-impact aerobics. In the late 1990s, however, people using traditional hoops to help achieve health and fitness goals began adding weight to hoops to make them better at toning muscles in the midsection. Bonus: Added weight slows the motion of the hoop, so it also becomes easier to control.
Do weighted hula hoops really work?
Over the years, a number of studies have been done on weighted hula hoops. One of the most recent compared using a weighted hoop for about 13 minutes a day to walking 9,800 steps a day (which is roughly five miles and takes most folks about 50 minutes). The result? Both forms of activity had benefits, but hooping proved better at lowering bad cholesterol and it helped women shrink their waists 442% faster, says researcher Mari Lahelma, MD, PhD, and her University of Helskini team.
The best hoops for weight loss
There are two types of weighted hula hoops that can help boost results:
1. Traditional weighted hula hoops
These look like beefy versions of toy hoops and are a great choice for anyone fairly coordinated who wants to recreate Hula-Hoop magic from childhood. “They’re simply made of heavier materials so your body work harder to move the hoop,” explains fitness expert Tosca Reno, 64, author of Your Best Body Now. Hoop weights vary, but most are two or three pounds. Reno, a fan of hooping, recommends versions like the Better Sense Hoola Hoop ($26 on Amazon) and the ACU Hoop 5L ($60 on Amazon). If you pick one up and have trouble keeping it spinning, you can find lots of great tutorials on YouTube to get you started.
2. Infinity-style hoops
This new twist on the hula hoop has become a TikTok darling and is the reason hooping is suddenly getting so much attention. An infinity-style hoop is a belt that fits snug to your waist. It has removable links, so you customize it to your exact size. “As you move, a weight swings around your body,” Reno explains. “The motion is similar to a hula hoop but requires less precision timing.” (If you need help getting the hang of it, you can find tutorials on YouTube.)
Also cool: It’s simple to tell if they hoop is working because it starts to get loose. You then remove a link from the belt to adjust to your new size. The Infinity Hoop brand sells for about $60. Plus it comes with some nice perks (see below). You can also find less expensive versions on Amazon like the Dumoyi Smart Weighted Fit Belt for $27.
Whether you choose a traditional weighted hoop or a weighted infinity-style hoop, Reno says both choices are great exercise “and a lot of fun!”
How long to use a weighted hula hoop to see results
The Infinity Hoop team challenges you to hoop for 30 minutes a day. They says that if you don’t need to make your hoop one link smaller — equal to two inches or 1-2 waistband sizes — after 30 days, you get your money back and you can still keep the hoop.
Want to see it in action? Check out this TikTok:
Hula hoop success story: Mollie Kamm, 59
Walking into her bathroom on a brisk Ontario morning, Mollie Kamm weighed herself on a whim and found she’d hit 352.1 pounds. It was her all-time high. She considered cutting herself some slack, since it was smack in the middle of the holiday season. But then she started thinking about how hard it had become for her to get around, how tired she was all the time. “I asked myself, ‘How bad will you let it get?’” Mollie recalls. “Are you going to go until you’re 400 pounds?” She vowed to make changes.
Years before, Mollie had success with support from her local TOPS weight-loss group. She was soon attending meetings again via Zoom. She continued eating her normal foods, aiming to stay under 1,600 calories a day and using the treadmill in her basement. In a month, she shed 15.2 pounds. As time passed, TOPS got her excited to start taking walks with her husband, Robert, and to try virtual ‘chair dancing’ classes, which she loved. She began sneaking more nutrients into her menus, adding things like fruit, almonds and new salad combos. “The more I did, the more I wanted to do. I wanted to keep seeing the scale go down,” she says.
Weighted hula hoop results
In the midst of it all, Mollie’s TOPS friend Lucy learned about the benefits of hula hooping at a TOPS convention. She started using it to shrink her waist — so Mollie tried too. She got a pink weighted hula hoop; it looked like a toy but was designed to help develop muscles that keep our middles strong and taut. How’d it go? “It’s more of a bend over and scoop it back up exercise for me,” she told Lucy, laughing.
For a while, the hoop was forgotten. But Lucy was obsessed. “Will you give it another try?” she asked Mollie. So Mollie did. She put the hoop around her hips, gave it a spin and tried rhythmically pushing with her belly and then with her back. It spun around. She could do it! Mollie thought it was a lot of fun, so she kept it up. She finally understood why it was earning raves from Lucy — and a whole lot of people on TikTok.
Mollie today: 195 lbs slimmer
Today she’s down 195 pounds, give or take. She’s traded her size 4Xs for 10s. And her weighted hoop is helping her maintain a waist that’s about 19 inches tinier than it used to be.
Because Mollie found the hoop and other activities that literally feel like child’s play, “I know I’ll keep doing them, and hopefully find more fun things along the way,” says the retiree, 59. “I’m going to maintain the same way I lost: focusing on the positive, one day at a time.” Of course, she hasn’t completely blocked out the past: “I’m wearing dresses that haven’t fit me since 2009!”
Foods that boost the waist-shrinking benefits of hula hooping
Once you’re hooping, to shrink your middle even faster, experts suggest following a plan that emphasizes belly-flattening protein and fiber. You’ll find great options to try at TOPS.org (a low-cost organization across the U.S. and Canada) and MyFitnessPal.com (which offers a basic program for free.) Nutrition pro Tosca Reno also suggests limit belly-plumping processed food as you load up on proven belly-fat fighters like these:
1. Green tea
Antioxidants in green tea help burn up to 2,466% more belly fat when we’re active, according to a study in The Journal of Nutrition. Drink it hot or iced, even with fun flavorings. Just skip dairy, which contains compounds that can block green tea’s benefits. (Click through for more on how green tea boosts weight loss.)
2. Yogurt + berries
Dieters who up their dairy intake can double belly fat loss, according to research reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And berry compounds may help block the formation of new ab flab.
3. Beans + sweets
Pair beans and sweet potato to unleash compounds that may lower belly-fattening insulin levels by 73% as the belly-flattening hormone adiponectin spikes 95%.
4. Salmon + broccoli
Omega-3s in salmon help burn belly fat when we’re active; meanwhile a special substance called indole in broccoli fights age-related belly fat in women
Bonus recipe: Belly-flattening pizza hummus dip
Nutrients in beans, cheese, veggies and whole grains all help melt belly fat.
Ingredients:
- ⅓ cup dry-packed sundried tomatoes
- 16 oz. container hummus
- 2 Tbs. parmesan cheese
- 1 Tbs. Italian seasoning
- Veggies and whole-grain bread for dipping
Directions:
- Soak tomatoes in hot water for about 10 minutes to soften. Drain.
- Add to food processor/blender with hummus, cheese and seasoning; blitz. Serves 16
For more “old-school” ways to lose weight that are making a big comeback, click through:
The New Grapefruit Diet: Top Doc’s Easy Twist Is Helping Women Over 50 Lose Weight Fast — Without Feeling Hungry
Cottage Cheese: The Old-Fashioned Diet Food Is the Hot New Way to Melt Fat — Even Doctors Are Using It to Lose Weight!
News: The Top 10 Soup Ingredients To Speed Weight Loss, According To Nutritionists
This article originally appeared in our print magazine, Woman’s World.
This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always consult your physician before pursuing any treatment plan.
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Health
Sick Prisoners in New York Were Granted Parole but Remain Behind Bars
When the letter arrived at Westil Gonzalez’s prison cell saying that he had been granted parole, he couldn’t read it. Over the 33 years he had been locked up for murder, multiple sclerosis had taken much of his vision and left him reliant on a wheelchair.
He had a clear sense of what he would do once freed. “I want to give my testimony to a couple of young people who are out there, picking up guns,” Mr. Gonzalez, 57, said in a recent interview. “I want to save one person from what I’ve been through.”
But six months have passed, and Mr. Gonzalez is still incarcerated outside Buffalo, because the Department of Corrections has not found a nursing home that will accept him. Another New York inmate has been in the same limbo for 20 months. Others were released only after suing the state.
America’s elderly prison population is rising, partly because of more people serving long sentences for violent crimes. Nearly 16 percent of prisoners were over 55 in 2022, up from 5 percent in 2007. The share of prisoners over 65 quadrupled over the same time period, to about 4 percent.
Complex and costly medical conditions require more nursing care, both in prison and after an inmate’s release. Across the country, prison systems attempting to discharge inmates convicted of serious crimes often find themselves with few options. Nursing home beds can be hard to find even for those without criminal records.
Spending on inmates’ medical care is increasing — in New York, it has grown to just over $7,500 in 2021 from about $6,000 per person in 2012. Even so, those who work with the incarcerated say the money is often not enough to keep up with the growing share of older inmates who have chronic health problems.
“We see a lot of unfortunate gaps in care,” said Dr. William Weber, an emergency physician in Chicago and medical director of the Medical Justice Alliance, a nonprofit that trains doctors to work as expert witnesses in cases involving prison inmates. With inmates often struggling to get specialty care or even copies of their own medical records, “things fall through the cracks,” he said.
Dr. Weber said he was recently involved in two cases of seriously ill prisoners, one in Pennsylvania and the other in Illinois, who could not be released without a nursing home placement. The Pennsylvania inmate died in prison and the Illinois man remains incarcerated, he said.
Almost all states have programs that allow early release for inmates with serious or life-threatening medical conditions. New York’s program is one of the more expansive: While other states often limit the policy to those with less than six months to live, New York’s is open to anyone with a terminal or debilitating illness. Nearly 90 people were granted medical parole in New York between 2020 and 2023.
But the state’s nursing home occupancy rate hovers around 90 percent, one of the highest in the nation, making it especially hard to find spots for prisoners.
The prison system is “competing with hospital patients, rehabilitation patients and the general public that require skilled nursing for the limited number of beds available,” said Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. He declined to comment on Mr. Gonzalez’s case or on any other inmate’s medical conditions.
Parolees remain in the state’s custody until their original imprisonment term has expired. Courts have previously upheld the state’s right to place conditions on prisoner releases to safeguard the public, such as barring paroled sex offenders from living near schools.
But lawyers and medical ethicists contend that paroled patients should be allowed to choose how to get their care. And some noted that these prisoners’ medical needs are not necessarily met in prison. Mr. Gonzalez, for example, said he had not received glasses, despite repeated requests. His disease has made one of his hands curl inward, leaving his unclipped nails to dig into his palm.
“Although I’m sympathetic to the difficulty of finding placements, the default solution cannot be continued incarceration,” said Steven Zeidman, director of the criminal defense clinic at CUNY School of Law. In 2019, one of his clients died in prison weeks after being granted medical parole.
New York does not publish data on how many inmates are waiting for nursing home placements. One 2018 study found that, between 2013 and 2015, six of the 36 inmates granted medical parole died before a placement could be found. The medical parole process moves slowly, the study showed, sometimes taking years for a prisoner to even get an interview about their possible release.
Finding a nursing home can prove difficult even for a patient with no criminal record. Facilities have struggled to recruit staff, especially since the coronavirus pandemic. Nursing homes may also worry about the safety risk of someone with a prior conviction, or about the financial risk of losing residents who do not want to live in a facility that accepts former inmates.
“Nursing homes have concerns and, whether they are rational or not, it’s pretty easy not to pick up or return that phone call,” said Ruth Finkelstein, a professor at Hunter College who specializes in policies for older adults and reviewed legal filings at The Times’s request.
Some people involved in such cases said that New York prisons often perform little more than a cursory search for nursing care.
Jose Saldana, the director of a nonprofit called the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, said that when he was incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility from 2010 through 2016, he worked in a department that helped coordinate parolees’ releases. He said he often reminded his supervisor to call nursing homes that hadn’t picked up the first time.
“They would say they had too many other responsibilities to stay on the phone calling,” Mr. Saldana said.
Mr. Mailey, the spokesman for the New York corrections department, said that the agency had multiple discharge teams seeking placement options.
In 2023, Arthur Green, a 73-year-old patient on kidney dialysis, sued the state for release four months after being granted medical parole. In his lawsuit, Mr. Green’s attorneys said that they had secured a nursing home placement for him, but that it lapsed because the Department of Corrections submitted an incomplete application to a nearby dialysis center.
The state found a placement for Mr. Green a year after his parole date, according to Martha Rayner, an attorney who specializes in prisoner release cases.
John Teixeira was granted medical parole in 2020, at age 56, but remained incarcerated for two and a half years, as the state searched for a nursing home. He had a history of heart attacks and took daily medications, including one delivered through an intravenous port. But an assessment from an independent cardiologist concluded that Mr. Teixeira did not need nursing care.
Lawyers with the Legal Aid Society in New York sued the state for his release, noting that during his wait, his port repeatedly became infected and his diagnosis progressed from “advanced” to “end-stage” heart failure.
The Department of Corrections responded that 16 nursing homes had declined to accept Mr. Teixeira because they could not manage his medical needs. The case resolved three months after the suit was filed, when “the judge put significant pressure” on the state to find an appropriate placement, according to Stefen Short, one of Mr. Teixeira’s lawyers.
Some sick prisoners awaiting release have found it difficult to get medical care on the inside.
Steve Coleman, 67, has trouble walking and spends most of the day sitting down. After 43 years locked up for murder, he was granted parole in April 2023 and has remained incarcerated, as the state looks for a nursing home that could coordinate with a kidney dialysis center three times each week.
But Mr. Coleman has not had dialysis treatment since March, when the state ended a contract with its provider. The prison has offered to take Mr. Coleman to a nearby clinic for treatment, but he has declined because he finds the transportation protocol — which involves a strip search and shackles — painful and invasive.
“They say you’ve got to go through a strip search,” he said in a recent interview. “If I’m being paroled, I can’t walk and I’m going to a hospital, who could I be hurting?”
Volunteers at the nonprofit Parole Prep Project, which assisted Mr. Coleman with his parole application, obtained a letter from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in June offering to give him medical care and help him transition back into the community.
Still incarcerated two months later, Mr. Coleman sued for his release.
In court filings, the state argued that it would be “unsafe and irresponsible” to release Mr. Coleman without plans to meet his medical needs. The state also said that it had contacted Mount Sinai, as well as hundreds of nursing homes, about Mr. Coleman’s placement and had never heard back.
In October, a court ruled in the prison system’s favor. Describing Mr. Coleman’s situation as “very sad and frustrating,” Justice Debra Givens of New York State Supreme Court concluded that the state had a rational reason to hold Mr. Coleman past his parole date. Ms. Rayner, Mr. Coleman’s lawyer, and the New York Civil Liberties Union appealed the ruling on Wednesday.
Fourteen medical ethicists have sent a letter to the prison supporting Mr. Coleman’s release. “Forcing continued incarceration under the guise of ‘best interests,’ even if doing so is well-intentioned, disregards his autonomy,” they wrote.
Several other states have come up with a different solution for people on medical parole: soliciting the business of nursing homes that specialize in housing patients rejected elsewhere.
A private company called iCare in 2013 opened the first such facility in Connecticut, which now houses 95 residents. The company runs similar nursing homes in Vermont and Massachusetts.
David Skoczulek, iCare’s vice president of business development, said that these facilities tend to save states money because the federal government covers some of the costs through Medicaid.
“It’s more humane, less restrictive and cost-effective,” he said. “There is no reason for these people to remain in a corrections environment.”
Health
Surgeon shares story of insurance provider calling during patient's surgery
A surgeon in Austin, Texas, was in the middle of surgery when she was notified of a phone call from the patient’s insurance provider.
Dr. Elisabeth Potter is a board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in reconstruction for women who have had breast cancer. Last year alone, she did about 520 surgeries for cancer patients.
She recently shared a video of herself talking about the experience.
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“I just performed two bilateral DIEP flap surgeries and two bilateral tissue expander surgeries,” she said in the now-viral video.
(In DIEP flap surgery reconstruction, skin, fat and blood vessels from the patient’s abdominal area are used to rebuild breasts.)
During one of the DIEP cases, while the patient was asleep on the operating table, the doctor was interrupted by a nurse supervisor informing her that a call had come in from UnitedHealthcare, the patient’s insurance company, Potter said.
The nurse who took the call said that Potter was in surgery and not available.
“And they said, I need to get her a message because we need to talk to her about this patient,” Potter told Fox News Digital. “So they wrote a note and brought it into the operating room and I took a picture of it, because I’m like, I can’t believe this is happening.”
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The note indicated the name and number of the person to call at UnitedHealthcare, along with the patient’s name and Dr. Potter’s name. (The note did not state that the caller had requested an immediate response.)
“The nurse at the front desk of the OR who took the call and wrote this note said that the person on the phone first asked for the patient and then for me,” Potter told Fox News Digital.
“I made that judgment call and I stand by that — I think it was the right thing to do for the patient.”
“He was told I was scrubbed in[to the] OR and he asked the nurse that I be contacted in OR and given the message.”
Added Potter, “The nurse manager said she had never in her career received a call like that before. She thought it must be important and brought the message to the OR.”
It was odd, Potter said, that the insurance company had called the front desk of the hospital, where she is not an employee.
“They didn’t call my office. They didn’t call my cell phone. They didn’t send me an email. This wasn’t the billing department of the hospital.”
Afraid that the insurance company might deny the patient’s service, Potter made the decision to scrub out mid-surgery to return the call to United.
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The surgeon stated to Fox News Digital that UnitedHealthcare did not require her to leave the operating room or threaten to deny coverage.
The patient was safe with another surgeon and the anesthesia team, who were finishing up the procedure.
Potter was “scared” that the patient would wake up and find out that the insurance company said they didn’t have the information they needed and would deny the claim, she said.
“I’ve seen it before, when people get stuck with bills that are $80,000 or $100,000,” she said to Fox News Digital. “And so I said to my partners, ‘I’m going to make this call real quick.’” (See her video here.)
“Dealing with insurance is a really important part of taking care of patients affected by breast cancer, because the diagnosis is financially devastating.”
“If it had been at a critical moment during the surgery, I wouldn’t have,” Potter clarified. “But I made that judgment call and I stand by that — I think it was the right thing to do for the patient.”
On the phone, the insurance company stated that they needed to know the patient’s diagnosis and the justification for the inpatient stay, something Potter had already communicated, she said.
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“And I was like, wait a minute, we got authorization for the surgery. We submitted all of our clinical documentation. We’ve done all the paperwork, the phone calls, all the stuff. You have her diagnosis codes, you have all of it,” she went on.
“And they said, ‘Actually, I don’t, another department has that, but I need this right now,’” Potter said. “There was a sense of entitlement to my time and to the information in that moment,” the surgeon added.
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Potter also noted that the person on the line didn’t have access to the patient’s full medical information, despite the procedure already being pre-approved.
“I’m not sure that person even understood that they had an impact on those patients I was operating on,” Potter told Fox News Digital. “They were just thinking about money and numbers and were not understanding at all.”
“It’s beyond frustrating and, frankly, unacceptable,” she told Fox News Digital. “Patients and providers deserve better than this. We should be focused on care, not bureaucracy.”
Potter noted that she has always been “devoted” to providing care in-network through insurance.
“Dealing with insurance is a really important part of taking care of patients affected by breast cancer, because the diagnosis is financially devastating,” she told Fox News Digital.
“I’ve found that I really have to engage directly and think about insurance and whether they’re covering treatments and what my patients are experiencing.”
Potter emphasized that she doesn’t think insurance is “evil,” noting that there are some “really good things” about businesses that take care of people.
“But this has developed into something that no longer is devoted to patient care. This is just a machine that’s running and making money, and they don’t care about me as a provider,” she said.
Many physicians have given up and refuse to deal with insurance companies, opting to stay out of network and let the patient pay upfront and deal with getting reimbursed, Potter noted.
“Patients and providers deserve better than this.”
“I’ve gone to Washington, D.C., I have fought to protect access to [breast] reconstruction,” she said. “I have testified in the state legislature about these issues.”
She added, “It’s just getting undoable. And this moment, this week, was like, we’ve crossed a line — they’re actually in the operating room.”
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Fox News Digital contacted UnitedHealthcare for comment. The company sent the following statement.
“There are no insurance-related circumstances that would require a physician to step out of surgery and it would create potential safety risks if they were to do so.”
It went on, “We did not ask nor would ever expect a physician to interrupt patient care to answer a call and we will be following up with the provider and hospital to understand why these unorthodox actions were taken.”
Separately, the head of UnitedHealthcare group said on Thursday that the company is confident it will be able to grow its business in fiscal year 2025.
“The people of UnitedHealthcare remain focused on making high-quality, affordable health care more available to more people while making the health system easier to navigate for patients and providers, positioning us well for growth in 2025,” CEO Andrew Witty said in the company’s earnings report on Thursday.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health
His optimism comes shortly after the head of its insurance unit was gunned down in New York City, inciting a heated conversation about the role of the health insurance industry in the United States.
Fox News Digital’s Daniella Genovese contributed reporting.
Health
Elderberry Boosts Weight Loss and Improves Blood Sugar, New Study Shows
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