Woman with 93-Pound Tumor

Young Kayla Hilton is morbidly obese. For years (apparently since she was only 16, according to her current gynecological oncologist), a cyst had been growing on her ovary. Eventually, she began missing her periods. Missed periods can be caused by obesity.

Doctors kept telling her to lose weight, go on a diet, etc. Nobody considered the possibility that an ovarian cyst was at play. Ovarian cysts do not cause obesity, though polycystic ovarian syndrome can cause women to gain weight-perhaps 20-40 pounds. Kayla was on a news show to discuss her condition, and she appeared to be in excess of 400 pounds-after the benign tumor had been removed.

Morbid obesity has been a problem with Kayla-who appeared to be in her 20s-for years, and the obesity masked the growing tumor. When she was a teenager, her stomach continued to expand and expand, and this was partially caused by the growing cyst. But based on Kayla's overall appearance, it's a safe bet that she has been morbidly obese-independent of the huge cyst. Even her face has a lot of excess fat.

She is now working on losing weight, and made a comment about how the doctors have given her "one or two years" to lose weight, before more drastic measures might be considered. The implication here is that if this young woman does not lose a significant amount of weight within two years, she might consider gastric bypass surgery.

What kind of exercise history does Kayla have? Did you know that when a sedentary body begins exercising, the resting metabolic rate increases? So even if Kayla isn't eating as much as she looks like she eats, she can still lose a considerable amount of weight by committing herself to 90 minutes of cardio exercise every other day.

At her size, and given her sedentary past, that 90 minutes would be best carried out in two or three segments per day. Every other day should be devoted entirely to cardio-which means walking on a track, pedaling a stationary bike, using a treadmill, and taking aerobics classes. The alternating days should be weight workouts.