Natalie Strawn, the 20-year-old from Nebraska who appeared on GMA yesterday to discuss her 282-pound weight loss, has become something of a celebrity overnight. People all over the U.S. are fascinated by her battle with the scale and also what she stands for: an "in-your-face!" to the obesity epidemic the country has been grappling with. And sure, we always love a heartwarming, uplifting success story. But I'm positive there's more to it than that.

We think, "Well, whatever she did to lose almost 300 pounds can, without a doubt, help me lose 10, 40, or 100, right?" But what she's doing isn't exactly what many of us want to hear.

Like many Americans, 20-year-old Nebraskan Natalie Strawn has struggled with her weight all her life, but her story is definitely an extraordinary one. Three years ago, she had dropped out of high school and reached a point where she could barely move, topping the scale at 552 pounds. But from that point on, she made up her mind to turn her life around, joined Weight Watchers, and hasn't looked back. She appeared on Good Morning America today with her mom, Rita, to talk to Lara Spencer about her 282-pound weight loss. Her journey is incredible, to say the least!

You've got to wonder what motivates and keeps someone like Natalie motivated, when the challenge that lies ahead seems crazy uphill. Although she told Lara that she has her faith and is determined, she also has one specific trick up her sleeve that seems to be making her fight to the finish breezier all the time.

The winter holidays mean different things to different people -- and one of those things is parties. Lots of them. Even if you feel joy as you gaze at a calendar filled with office parties, neighborhood gatherings, and intimate get-togethers with family and friends, you may also feel a little bit of dread. The kind of dread that goes right to your stomach: just like those cookies and cocktails and appetizers will if you're not careful. Diet dread.

It's easy to pack on the pounds during the holidays. Too easy. But here are a few tips to keep your midsection from looking like Santa's by the time New Year's rolls around:

Certain scenes from Disney flicks you see as a kid can end up haunting you forever. But as scared as I was by Ursula when I saw The Little Mermaid at 6 years old, I saw one of the most terrifying scenes only a couple of years ago, as an adult ... in WALL-E. Pixar's illustration of humanity's future -- basically, we become obese slobs who float around all day sipping Big Gulps and communicating via screens -- terrified me, because sometimes, I feel like there's lots o' proof that we're headed in that direction.

Researchers tend to be on the same page as Pixar. Just in time for World Diabetes Day, they're reporting that less than 20 years from now, 552 million people could have diabetes. Already, 366 million people suffer from either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, but because more people are aging and gorging themselves on high-cal foods and sitting around like couch potatoes, 10 percent of people worldwide could soon be diagnosed with the disease.

Scary?

Every year, Breast Cancer Awareness Month brings us newsflash after newsflash on how our lifestyle and genetics influence our risk of the disease. But what about the things that are actually guarding us from it? We all know eating healthy, being active, not smoking, etc. helps. Turns out, research has shown various random or counterintuitive things protect us from breast cancer, too.

Consider a new study from France, which involved nearly 100,000 French women between the ages of 40 and 65. It found that the women who happened to be chubby pre-teens were actually 26 percent less likely to develop breast cancer after menopause! Specifically, it was the women who had the largest bodies at age 8 and when they started their periods who were less likely to have the disease later in life, compared to women with the smallest bodies at those points in their lives. Weird! And whoa -- would you ever think they'd be grateful for having been a chubby tween?!

It's not like we can count on a site that capitalizes on infidelity to do the right thing, but that doesn't make it any less galling when they do something totally WRONG. AshleyMadison.com, the famous "cheating" website that allows people to seek affairs outside their marriage or relationship, is running new ads, featuring a size 32 woman who goes by the name Jacqueline and is the owner and model for BBW (Big, Beautiful Women) website JuicyJackie.com.

The first ad shows Jackie scantily clad and posing seductively with the tag line, "Did your wife SCARE you last night?" The second gives a slender seductress a green "check of approval," while Jackie gets a big red X, and the text reads: "We call it as we see it."

Talk about tasteless!

Some people literally lose the genetic lottery when it comes to their weight. Turns out, there's a gene associated with fat mass and obesity, known as the FTO gene or obesity gene. And if you're born with it, you automatically have a higher risk of being overweight or obese, as well as having a higher body mass index, a larger waist circumference, and higher body fat percentage. Totally unfair and annoying as hell, but true.

Thank goodness researchers have established this, because it's ridiculous to point the finger exclusively at the usual suspects (soda, junk food, laziness), when there are people out there who are doing everything they can to steer clear of those things and still struggle to lose weight! But now, a new analysis of 45 studies published in PLoS Medicine is turning this FTO gene theory on its head. Turns out, being physically active can sort of kick the FTO gene's butt.

Who among us doesn't know how hard it is to lose weight and keep it off? (If you're not shaking your head slowly and sadly in answer, you must be one of the few lucky ones.)

We blame ourselves for our lack of willpower. We blame our spouses for buying our favorite ice cream. (We know, they were just trying to make us happy.) We blame our kids for not finishing their pasta, so we have to. (Can't let good food go to waste!)

But the next time we painstakingly lose a few pounds only to see them inevitably (oh so inevitably) boomerang back a few weeks later, we can go ahead and forgive all those people. Instead, we can start blaming our hormones.