America’s best-known personal trainer, Bob Greene, has helped millions improve their overall fitness through everyday healthier eating and increased physical activity. This spring, the expert behind the Best Life Diet(TM) and personal trainer to Oprah Winfrey brings his unparalleled expertise to Discovery Health in two all-new specials aimed at helping viewers reclaim control of their weight and their health.

Since being introduced to the world on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Greene has changed the way people eat, exercise and live. An exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer specializing in weight loss, metabolism and fitness, he has touched countless lives by providing the keys for leading a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. In the upcoming BEST LIFE SPECIALS, WHAT’S MAKING YOU FAT and I’M FAT AGAIN, Greene offers easy-to-implement steps for improving everyday routines that will help audiences shed winter pounds and prepare for warmer weather.

Our world is based upon social stigmas that we must all look thin. This idea of thin begins to hit our children as early as 10 or 11 years of age. Young girls are the ones hit hardest by this social disease and when simple dieting turns into an obsession wit weight, that is when dieting can turn fatal.

Control. Control is at the heart of the reason why many girls choose to try an eating disorder to lose weight. The eating disorders that are most common are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia is the starving of the human body in order to lose weight and bulimia is most commonly a disorder involving eating large amounts of food and then throwing that food back up.

Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric condition – 10% of those diagnosed die due to related factors. This eating disorder primarily affects women, especially adolescent girls, struggling with the pressure of today’s society to be thin. The obsessive fear of gaining weight, combined with body image distortion is a deadly lethal mix. It drives individuals to try to control their body weight by voluntary starvation, binge-eating, purging, vomiting and excessive exercise.

When I hear the word anorexia, I usually think of Nicole Ritchie, Lindsey Lohan and the Olsen Twins. Every gossip rag at the supermarket’s check out counter has always some big bold letters announcing which female celebrity is seeking treatment for it. So I was quite surprised when I picked up our local newspaper last week and read about Dennis Quaid and his battle with “manorexia” – the male version of anorexia. Well, well, well…. What do we have here? It seems that the big Hollywood trend of “skin and bones” is not just limited to its female population.

Eating Disorders are a Coping Mechanism:

Eating disorders develop for a reason. They do not appear out of the blue. The reason may not be apparent initially though as many youth keep their concerns to themselves and don’t share their self-doubt, fears and worries. Eating disorders develop as an attempt to feel better about something. They may be a way to try to feel more confident, decrease anxiety or worry, feel more in control, or be more socially popular with peers. They may be a way to try to feel more in control when there is a lot of change going on in life or may be triggered by upsetting situations. Many individuals with eating disorders are not very flexible or adaptable and lack self-esteem. They then may find it hard to cope with difficult situations such as: transitions or losses (change to high school, loss in the family through separation, death or moving) or teasing and bullying. Many youth facing eating disorders appear to be successful as children with high academic achievement, excelling in sports or other pursuits on the outside. However, on the inside, they may have a lot of self-doubt, may please others rather than know what their own real needs are, and may not have developed the skills to find a voice to speak up about these inner needs.