Weight & Cancer Risk
- Erica Lugo, The Biggest Loser trainer who lost 160 pounds and beat thyroid cancer, is not entertaining toxic diet culture in 2022.
- “I hope in 2022 you head to the gym or join a fitness plan because you looking for movement that makes you and your soul happy,” she posted to social media on New Year’s Day.
- If you have belly fat, you may be at an increased risk for cancer. But simple changes can help you trim your belly fat and reduce your cancer risk, even if you are considered a "normal weight."
"My heart is full. Made so many memories the last 2 weeks and I have zero regrets about what I ate or if I skipped a workout to be with those that I love," Lugo writes in an Instagram post on New Year's Day.
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"However in 2022 I hope you learn to eat healthy because you are learning to enjoy it, because you're building a better relationship with food," she adds.
"I hope in 2022 you head to the gym or join a fitness plan because you looking for movement that makes you and your soul happy. I hope you move because you know your body is unique and deserves to explore new movements to see what feels best FOR YOU. Not because you feel it's going to burn the most calories if you're trying to 'shred X lbs' in a small time frame."
Life After 'The Biggest Loser' & Dealing With the Haters
Erica Lugo is speaking from personal experience.
In 2020, she became a trainer on The Biggest Loser after having lost 160 pounds (down from 322 pounds at her heaviest weight) all on her own. Before the show, she became a personal trainer and opened her own gym in Dayton, Ohio.
She even found out she had stage 2 thyroid cancer after a car accident that put her in the hospital. Once in the care of medical professionals, an MRI pointed doctors to a lump deep in the right side of her neck. One month after the lump’s discovery, a biopsy was performed and confirmed that she had stage 2 papillary thyroid cancer. Lugo was told she needed to have her thyroid removed, in addition to 33 lymph nodes. She would also need radiation treatment.
Erica Lugo had her thyroid and 33 lymph nodes removed during surgery in January 2019. Her doctors warned her that most people tend to gain weight after this type of surgery. She had already lost more than 100 pounds at this point, so she was determined not to let that happen to her.
"You no longer have a major organ in your body that controls so much of your hormones and your mood and your metabolism," she says. "It's been a process of finding out what medication works for me, how my body reacts."
Her cancer diagnosis did not stop her from achieving her dream of changing fitness for people like her.
"I've always wanted to change the way people viewed fitness because going into the fitness world, I've always felt very unwelcomed and I'm still struggling with those demons now because I am 5'11". My hands are bigger than my husband's. I'm just built bigger. I've always been a bigger built person," Lugo says during an episode of the "Watch With Us" podcast. "I'm not going to be smaller than a size 8 or 6. It's not my build and I'm from Latin descent. I have curves."
Once The Biggest Loser wrapped its 2020 season, Erica Lugo decided to take a different approach when it came to her new influencer platform. She did not want people at her gym who only wanted to work with her because of the show, so she decided to focus on body positivity rather than taking on new clients to train.
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But she received some backlash from other fitness influencers on social media.
"I got a lot of heat for my body type being a trainer on the show, and I wanted to kind of be like, 'Screw you. I'm very proud of it,'" Lugo says.
"I've got cellulite and stretch marks. I'm strong as hell, but it does not make any impact on how awesome I can work out and how strong I am or how knowledgeable I am about fitness. … I've gotten some DMs (direct messages) from some well-known fitness influencers who are like, 'You should probably tone down the way you preach about fitness,' or 'You're not really that great of a trainer.'"
But Erica Lugo is remaining true to herself and promoting body positivity, even though some do not agree.
Marisa Gholson, a physician assistant, discusses body image after cancer treatment.
Struggling with body image after treatment for cancer, or even during treatment, is not unusual.
Having surgery that leaves a scar might be a necessary course of action. It is also possible that you could gain weight. But it is important to remember that many of the physical changes caused by cancer treatment are only temporary even scars fade over time.
When it comes to managing body image, keeping your emotional health in check whether that means seeing a therapist, visiting support groups or simply learning to accept your situation becomes a crucial part of the cancer journey.
Weight & Cancer Risk
If you are not technically overweight, but you are a woman over 50 with a few extra pounds around your waist, you are at an increased risk for cancer, according to research. It is also a well-known fact that obesity can increase a man's risk of getting prostate cancer. (More on that in a bit.)
But simple changes can help you trim your belly fat and reduce your cancer risk, even if you are considered a "normal weight."
If you are an older woman and have noticed your pants feeling tight, do not stress you are not going to automatically get a cancer diagnosis if you have a few extra inches around your waist.
Dr. Elizabeth Comen talks about how diet and exercise can decrease your cancer risk.
Plus, there are some fairly straightforward changes you can make to trim your waist. Doctors know, for instance, that simple sugars and alcohol are particularly likely to cause belly fat, so you can think about cutting back on those, and perhaps replacing them with nuts, whole grains, fruits and veggies, and low-fat dairy products.
Moderate exercise, including strength training abdominal exercises, can also help something Erica Lugo can attest to.
"Exercise doesn't have to mean all of a sudden you're running a triathlon or you're doing something that you've never done before," Dr. Elizabeth Comen, a breast cancer oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, tells SurvivorNet, adding that she often asks her patients, "What do you like to do?"
"Do you like dancing, but you really don't want to go to that Zumba class because you're afraid of embarrassing yourself? Well, maybe you turn on the music at home and have a dance party."
When it comes to weight and a man’s prostate cancer risk, more research is needed to determine exactly how fat distribution affects cancer risk. But doctors do know for sure that obesity and prostate cancer risk are linked.
Men worried about their weight and their risk should talk to a doctor about making some lifestyle changes to help them maintain a healthier weight. When discussing the obesity-prostate cancer link with SurvivorNet, Dr. Stephen Freedland, director of the Center for Integrative Research in Cancer and Lifestyle at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, says that the lifestyle changes should go beyond just simple weight loss strategies.
"We actually sit down and actually go through some of the ways that men can make relatively small changes in their diet that over-time can lead to weight loss," he says.
Dr. Stephen Freedland discusses the link between obesity and prostate cancer.
Contributing: SurvivorNet staff
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