Weight Management News

A USC-led international team of scientists has found the precise shape of a key player in human metabolism, which could lead the way to better treatments for obesity and other metabolic disease. For the study, the scientists focused on a protein in the brain, the melanocortin 4 receptor (or MC4R). This receptor helps with regulating the body's energy balance by controlling … [Read more...]

A little extra sugar can make us crave just about anything, from cookies to condiments to coffee smothered in whipped cream. But its sweetness doesn't fully explain our desire. Instead, new research shows this magic molecule has a back channel to the brain. Like other sweet-tasting things, sugar triggers specialized taste buds on the tongue. But it also switches on an … [Read more...]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drug liraglutide has been shown to help obese patients lose weight by suppressing their appetite. However, where and how the drug acts in the brain was not fully understood, until now. A new preclinical study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published in Science Translational Medicine today, … [Read more...]

Ever eaten something, gotten sick and then didn't want to eat that food again because of how it made you feel? That's because a signal from the gut to the brain produced that sickness, creating a taste aversion. Conventional wisdom renders there's one circuit in the brain that suppresses eating -- it comes from the stomach and makes you feel sick if you activate it too hard. … [Read more...]

For many people, the New Year is a time to adopt new habits as a renewed commitment to personal health. Newly enthusiastic fitness buffs pack into gyms and grocery stores are filled with shoppers eager to try out new diets. But, does scientific evidence support the claims made for these diets? In a review article published in the Dec. 26 issue of The New England Journal … [Read more...]

If you want to get in better shape in 2020 you don't necessarily have to achieve it through long, arduous workouts according to researchers at the University of B.C. This past year, Jonathan Little, who teaches at the school of health and exercise science at UBC Okanagan, published two studies that showed the benefit of what he calls "exercise snacks." They are 20-second … [Read more...]

People who achieve weight loss of 10% or more in the first five years following diagnosis with type 2 diabetes have the greatest chance of seeing their disease go into remission, according to a study led by the University of Cambridge. The findings suggest that it is possible to recover from the disease without intensive lifestyle interventions or extreme calorie … [Read more...]

ORLANDO (Ivanhoe Newswire) --It’s easy to gain weight during the holidays, especially with all the dinners and parties and mindless eating they bring. In fact, half the weight we gain all year comes during the weeks leading up to the new year. We have the skinny on what to eat and how to keep the pounds away this holiday season. We all have our holiday favorites, but … [Read more...]

Many people might not realize that they have different types of body fat. Most of it is white fat that sits on your stomach, hips and thighs, for example. White fat is an energy storage that our body can use when food is scarce. White fat also produces and receives signals from a variety of different hormones, such as adrenalin and insulin. Brown fat is very different. It … [Read more...]

According to Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers the chronic cyclic pattern of overeating followed by undereating, reduces the brain's ability to feel reward and may drive compulsive eating. This finding suggests that future research into treatment of compulsive eating behavior should focus on rebalancing the mesolimbic dopamine system -- the part of the … [Read more...]

UT Southwestern researchers have found a key driver of the crosstalk that helps synchronize the absorption of nutrients in the gut with the rhythms of the Earth's day-night light cycle. Their findings could have far-ranging implications for obesity in affluent countries and malnutrition in impoverished countries. In the study, published this week by Science, Dr. Lora Hooper … [Read more...]

New figures from Cancer Research UK show that people who are obese now outnumber people who smoke two to one in the UK*, and excess weight causes more cases of certain cancers than smoking, as the charity urges Government action to tackle obesity. Almost a third of UK adults are obese** and, while smoking is still the nation's biggest preventable cause of cancer and carries … [Read more...]

Intermittent fasting is known to improve sensitivity to the blood glucose-lowering hormone insulin and to protect against fatty liver. DZD scientists from DIfE have now discovered that mice on an intermittent fasting regimen also exhibited lower pancreatic fat. In their current study published in the journal Metabolism, the researchers showed the mechanism by which pancreatic … [Read more...]

Even with a good diet and workout routine, some men and women have trouble getting the toned abdominal appearance they want. For these patients, a technique called abdominal etching can help in creating the classic "six-pack abs" physique in men or three-vertical-line abdomen in women, reports a study in the April issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official … [Read more...]

Exposure to air pollution, particularly at school, could be associated with a higher risk of overweight and obesity during childhood. This is the conclusion of a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by "la Caixa," performed with 2,660 children between 7 and 10 years of age from 39 schools in Barcelona. A few studies have … [Read more...]

Obesity -- as research in the past decade has shown -- is first and foremost a brain disease. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München, partners in the German Center for Diabetes Research, have now discovered a molecular switch that controls the function of satiety neurons and therefore body weight. The findings were published in the journal Nature Metabolism. The worldwide … [Read more...]

Some of you may have made a New Year's resolution to hit the gym to tackle that annoying belly fat. But have you ever wondered how physical activity produces this desired effect? A signaling molecule called interleukin-6 plays a critical role in this process, researchers report December 27 in the journal Cell Metabolism. As expected, a 12-week intervention consisting of … [Read more...]

Girls who gain weight more rapidly between the ages of 5 and 15 are more likely to be obese at age 24, according to researchers. "This highlights the importance of prevention efforts in childhood and adolescence," said Emily Hohman, assistant research professor of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research. The center is a college-wide collaboration of researchers from … [Read more...]

Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis (SCFE) is a disease that occurs amongst teenagers, affecting 1 in 2,000 children. The hip deforms, and sometimes completely collapses, causing pain and life-long disability. Early recognition and treatment of the disease is important to minimise the severity. Nevertheless, SCFE is one of the most common reasons for a hip replacement in young … [Read more...]

Couples who are trying to lose weight could be putting their relationship under strain by using unsuitable strategies to achieve their weight loss goals, a new study suggests. Interpersonal communication expert, Dr René Dailey, investigated how individuals interpret their partner's approaches to help weight loss, aiming to provide more tailored recommendations for couples … [Read more...]

New research published in The Journal of Physiologyindicates that an obese pregnant mother and exposure to a high fat, high sugar diet during pregnancy produces a "fatty liver" in the fetus, potentially predisposing children to obesity, metabolic and cardiovascular disorders later in life. The research aims to understand the cellular mechanisms involved in laying down fat in … [Read more...]

Teenagers who watch more than three hours of commercial TV a day are more likely to eat hundreds of extra junk food snacks, according to a report by Cancer Research UK. Being bombarded by TV ads for unhealthy, high calorie food could lead teens to eat more than 500 extra snacks like crisps, biscuits and fizzy drinks throughout the course of a single year compared to those … [Read more...]

Researchers found an inverse correlation between waist circumference and fitness, regardless of BMI Low fitness is associated with a larger waist size and a higher degree of inflammation, according to a study published January 17, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Anne-Sophie Wedell-Neergaard from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and … [Read more...]

A study published online in The FASEB Journal, involving mice, suggests that EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate), the most abundant catechin and biologically active component in green tea, could alleviate high-fat and high-fructose (HFFD)-induced insulin resistance and cognitive impairment. Previous research pointed to the potential of EGCG to treat a variety of human diseases, … [Read more...]