Weight Management

Parents -- especially those of overweight children -- give schools a failing grade for efforts to encourage healthy habits that combat childhood obesity, according to a new poll from the University of Michigan. According to the latest University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, parents with at least one overweight child (25 percent of … [Read more...]

For otherwise healthy middle-aged women who are overweight or obese, physical activity may be their best option for avoiding heart disease, according to a study that followed nearly 900 women for seven years. These findings were reported in a paper led by authors at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital … [Read more...]

One of the most comprehensive studies of the potential link between reduced sleep and childhood obesity finds compelling evidence that children who consistently received less than the recommended hours of sleep during infancy and early childhood had increases in both obesity and in adiposity or overall body fat at age 7. The study from MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) … [Read more...]

Australian researchers have shed more light on an underexplored aspect of the important brain-signaling system that controls appetite, body composition and energy use. Their findings suggest that a specific gene regulating our body clock may play a central role in determining how fat we become. Evolution has preserved the 'neuropeptide Y (NPY) system', as it is known, in … [Read more...]

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved EnteroMedic's VBLOC® vagal blocking therapy, delivered via the Maestro® System, which is the first medical device approved for obesity treatment that targets the nerve pathway between the brain and the stomach. The device acts by sending an electrical pulse to block vagal nerve signals involved in controlling … [Read more...]

By uncovering the action of two naturally occurring hormones, scientists may have discovered a way to assist in the shedding of excess fat. The findings, published today in the journal Cell, give new insights into how the brain regulates body fat and may lead to more effective ways to lose weight and prevent obesity by promoting the conversion of white fat to brown … [Read more...]

The Endocrine Society has issued a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) on strategies for prescribing drugs to manage obesity and promote weight loss. The CPG, entitled "Pharmacological Management of Obesity: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline," was published online and will appear in the February 2015 print issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and … [Read more...]

Obesity can be described as an excess of fat leading to metabolic diseases and adipose tissue has a pivotal role in obesity and its related complications. Dietary management is the conventional strategy to promote weight loss and improve health, new research suggests the central role of myristoleic acid -- a minor fatty acid not found in food -- could provide the answer to … [Read more...]

The first-ever clinical practice guideline for the drug treatment of obesity offers a new tool for health practitioners looking to the latest pharmacotherapy strategies as a means of treating patients with obesity. The release comes on the heels of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of four new anti-obesity drugs in the past two years -- lorcaserin (Belviq), … [Read more...]

Bariatric surgery -- as a last resort when conservative interventions have failed -- can improve liver disease and other obesity-related health problems in severely obese children and adolescents, according to a position paper in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, official journal of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and … [Read more...]

Researchers from The Miriam Hospital have published one of the first studies of its kind to follow weight loss maintenance for individuals over a 10-year period. The results show that long-term weight loss maintenance is possible if individuals adhere to key health behaviors. The study is published in the January 2014 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. J. … [Read more...]

Studies have shown that obese children tend to have more muscle, but recent University of Georgia research on the muscle and bone relationship shows that excess body fat may compromise other functions in their bodies, such as bone growth. In a literature review, lead author Joseph Kindler studied how muscle can influence different characteristics of bone geometry and … [Read more...]

Preschoolers who entered Head Start overweight or obese had achieved a healthier weight status than children in a comparison groups by the time they entered kindergarten, according to new research from the University of Michigan. The research, published in the journal Pediatrics, found preschool-aged children who entered Head Start with an unhealthy weight status experienced … [Read more...]

Few UK family doctors seem to be treating overweight/obesity appropriately, with some not treating it all, suggests an analysis of patient records published in the online journal BMJ Open. The researchers scrutinised the anonymised health records of more than 90,000 obese and overweight adults, whose data had been entered into the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) … [Read more...]

Like most Americans, you have packed on a few pounds with holiday fêting and feasting. If you're looking to trim down now, one of the best tools may be in the palm of your hand. Cellphone support can help people lose significantly more weight, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical … [Read more...]

A brisk 20 minute walk each day could be enough to reduce an individual's risk of early death, according to new research published today. The study of over 334,000 European men and women found that twice as many deaths may be attributable to lack of physical activity compared with the number of deaths attributable to obesity, but that just a modest increase in physical activity … [Read more...]

As most people resolve themselves to lose weight this New Year, here's why it seems to get easier and easier to pack on unwanted pounds. As we age, the thermogenic activity of brown fat is reduced. Brown fat is a "good" fat located in the backs of our necks that helps burn "bad" white fat around our bellies. Additionally, the researchers also discovered a possible metabolic … [Read more...]

How should a concerned mother discuss issues of diet and weight with her daughter? Very carefully, according to Erin Hillard, a developmental psychology doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame. In an article recently published in the journal Body Image, Hillard and her colleagues, fellow Notre Dame psychology graduate student Rebecca A. Morrissey, and Notre Dame … [Read more...]

Animals from tiny worms to human beings have a love-hate relationship with fats and lipids. Cholesterol is a famous example of how they are both essential for health and often have a role in death. A new study reveals another way that may be true. Researchers, working in nematodes and mice, found that a naturally occurring protein responsible for transporting fats like … [Read more...]

Low levels of vitamin D have long been identified as an unwanted hallmark of weight loss surgery, but now findings of a new Johns Hopkins study of more than 930,000 patient records add to evidence that seasonal sun exposure -- a key factor in the body's natural ability to make the "sunshine vitamin" -- plays a substantial role in how well people do after such … [Read more...]

Maybe the numbers on the scale aren't alarming, but that doesn't mean that healthy-weight children get a pass on exercising, according to a new University of Illinois study published in Pediatrics. "The FITKids study demonstrates the extent to which physical activity can improve body composition, and that's important because it matters to your health where fat is stored. But … [Read more...]

Overweight political candidates tend to receive fewer votes than their thinner opponents, finds a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University weight bias expert. While past research has found weight discrimination in schools, businesses, entertainment and other facets of American society, this is the first scientific investigation into whether that bias extends to … [Read more...]

Researchers at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre in University College Cork have discovered how gut bacteria communicate with their host to specifically regulate weight gain and serum cholesterol levels. The research, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, has implications for the rational selection and design of probiotics for the control of obesity, high cholesterol and … [Read more...]

A team of Texas A&M University System scientists have investigated how "body clock dysregulation" might affect obesity-related metabolic disorders. The team was led by Dr. Chaodong Wu, associate professor in the department of nutrition and food sciences of Texas A&M's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Dr. David Earnest, professor in the department of … [Read more...]

Overweight young people are more likely to be rejected as friends by peers who are of normal weight, according to new research by Arizona State University social scientists. "Using Social Network Analysis to Clarify the Role of Obesity in Adolescent Friend Selection," published in the American Journal of Public Health by Arizona State University Associate Professors David R. … [Read more...]

The body's ability to harness heat production by converting white fat cells, which store calories, into beige fat cells, which burn energy, could help fight obesity, according to researchers at Georgia State University. Their review paper suggests this natural mechanism in the body, which converts white fat cells into brownish fat cells -- known as "brite" or "beige" fat … [Read more...]

Widespread misconceptions about losing weight led Ruben Meerman and Andrew Brown at the University of New South Wales to calculate how we "lose weight." Human fat cells store triglyceride, which consists of just three kinds of atoms; carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Shedding unwanted fat requires unlocking the atoms in triglyceride molecules by a process known as … [Read more...]

Waiting 30 seconds in between bites of food allows children to realize they're no longer hungry before they overeat--preventing excessive weight gain. That's the conclusion of a study published in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Pediatric Obesity by an international team of researchers, including bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego. "To lose weight, you … [Read more...]

A new study, published today in the Journal of Health Psychology, found that patients who gained weight 18 months after taking Orlistat attributed their weight-loss failure either to the side effects which have prevented them from sticking to the medication or felt that the medication simply had not worked. The team from the University of Surrey also found that participants … [Read more...]