jenk

DeVita and Timor Hortobágyi found that a person who weighs twice as much as another experiences no greater torque in the knees when both walk at the same, reasonable speed. When the obese volunteers were allowed to walk at a slower speed, which they found more comfortable, they exerted even less force on their knees than people in the other group did at the faster pace. Greater force on the knee had previously been presumed to explain why obese people are susceptible to osteoarthritis in that joint.

Furthermore, DeVita and Hortobágyi reported in 2003, obese volunteers walked with shorter strides and straighter knees than did other people. Those behaviors reduce certain stresses on the joint, DeVita says. - Science News

Article abstract here

"Diabulimia" came up in conversation - Insulin-dependent diabetics skipping insulin to lose weight. (I was tired enough I wasn't making too much sense, but hey, I found the article I mentioned ;)

And if you've heard the one about how "The average person walking half an hour a day would lose about 13 pounds a year", a study had sedentary folks start exercising an HOUR a day, 6 days a week for a year. So they'd lose, what, more than 13 pounds on average, right? Nope. The women lost an average of 3 pounds and the men an average of 4 pounds. Both groups appear to have gained muscle, since they lost a bit more in total fat than in overall weight. The average fat loss was 4lb for women, 6.6lb for men ... which is still less than the 13 pounds they're "supposed" to lose if they'd walked 30 minutes a day. So, er, how's that again?