Posts Tagged ‘body composition’

Percent Body Fat Seems to Beat BMI for Predicting Mortality

August 4, 2025 — After the strong and subjective opinions we keep hearing about the uselessness of BMI, it is refreshing to see a careful analysis of objective data. A new study in Annals of Family Medicine suggests measuring percent body fat through bioimpedance is superior for predicting mortality linked to excess adiposity. Bioimpedance is the method seca and […]

New Insight on Muscle Loss with the Potency of Retatrutide

July 18, 2025 — Retatrutide is that impressively potent obesity medicine that teased us with remarkable weight loss outcomes back in 2023. As we wait for pivotal phase three data (now due later this year), we wonder about the risk for muscle loss with a drug that has the potency of retatrutide. A new paper in Lancet Diabetes & […]

A Glimpse of Promise for Losing Fat and Keeping Muscle

June 5, 2025 — Regeneron announced tantalizing results for the combination of trevogrumab with semaglutide for losing fat while preserving muscle. With the combination of these two drugs, it appears that individuals might lose more fat mass and less muscle mass than with semaglutide alone. In short, the promise is for a better quality of weight loss, leaving people […]

Sorting Out the Buzz About Muscle Loss with GLP-1 Medicines

October 12, 2024 — Amid a great deal of excitement about the value of GLP-1 medicines like semaglutide and tirzepatide for obesity, there is also a buzz of concern about muscle loss. Is it a reason to think twice about these new treatments? Or is it merely a reason for caution? Not Unique to GLP-1s Carla Prado, Stuart Phillips, […]

EASO Advances the Long Goodbye for BMI in Obesity

July 6, 2024 — We’ve been hearing quite a lot about this on many levels. For years now, obesity thought leaders and even the public have had an increasingly sour relationship with BMI. It’s been misused, abused, detested, and even accused of racism. Yes, the love is gone. On Friday, the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) […]

The Blinding Distraction of BMI and Weight Loss in Obesity

July 20, 2023 — Obesity care is suffering from a blinding distraction – BMI and weight loss. It’s not hard to find critiques of this. The American Medical Association recently cautioned physicians against the misuse of BMI as a surrogate for health and obesity. PLOS One has a new paper telling us BMI may not necessarily increase mortality independently […]

From Lukewarm to Two Billion Dollars for Bimagrumab

July 15, 2023 — Four years ago, bimagrumab was a castoff from Novartis. That company had originally developed this monoclonal antibody for treating a rare muscle disease. But it failed spectacularly with disappointing results from a phase 2b study in 2016. That was a big disappointment, so it’s little wonder that Novartis walked away. Three years later, a glimmer […]

Protein: Magic Ingredient for Intermittent Fasting?

January 6, 2023 — Intermittent fasting has some enthusiastic fans. While some studies have shown impressive benefits, others have found little benefit. On top of that, virtually all of the research on this type of dietary intervention has been of a short duration. Compliance with intermittent fasting can be a challenge over time. So the fan base will surely […]

Body Image and Health in College Sports

November 11, 2022 — Are college sports having an issue with body image and health? Mental health of elite athletes received a great deal of attention during the Tokyo Olympics. Simone Biles captured public attention as she struggled with the subject. New reporting, though, points to more specific problems with body image and health in college sports, especially among […]

How BMI Can Miss Unhealthy Fat in the Liver

May 18, 2022 — One of the important complications of obesity is NAFLD – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Quite simply, this is a condition where unhealthy fat accumulates in the liver. It leads to inflammation and fibrosis, progressing to cirrhosis, liver cancer, or liver failure in severe cases. Often, it goes undetected until these more severe problems emerge. Because […]