Posts Tagged ‘body composition’

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 […]

A Spark of New Life for Bimagrumab in Obesity

September 27, 2021 — It was an exciting possibility. At ObesityWeek 2019, Novartis scientist Laura Coleman presented fascinating results for an experimental drug, bimagumide, in obesity. In a phase 2 study, it yielded impressive improvements in body composition for people with obesity. It wasn’t just making people lose body fat. It helped them also gain muscle mass. Then, it […]

Intermittent Fasting: An RCT Says ‘Meh’

July 29, 2021 — Two years ago, intermittent fasting was a hot concept. The idea was that periods of fasting could have metabolic benefits and help with weight loss – better than simply restricting calories. Popular interest peaked in early 2020 and has since been declining. Now, a new RCT of intermittent fasting – small, but well controlled – […]

“Life Is a Game of Turning Energy into Kids”

June 11, 2021 — One of the simplistic models of obesity relies on the notion of a balance between calories a person consumes in foods and drinks and those burned in physical activity. Some people even go so far as suggesting food labels should tell us how much we’ll have to exercise to burn off the calories in that […]

Normal Weight Obesity: Unhealthy at Any Size

May 19, 2021 — It’s tough to get people to let go of weight and body size as the defining feature of obesity. But indeed, weight does not define obesity. Nor does BMI. What defines obesity is abnormal or excess fat (adipose) tissue that harms health. Most often, this occurs when someone’s weight is high. Not always, though. In […]

Alexa, Am I Too Fat? Amazon Wants to Help

August 28, 2020 — Are we ready for our Alexa smart speaker to tell us exactly how much body fat we have? Just in case we are, Amazon has some new technology to take us in that direction. It’s called Halo. Now for only $65 (discounted from a list price $99.99) we can get a smart band, an app, […]

Tantalizing: Bimagrumab, Obesity, and Body Composition

January 6, 2020 — It was a stunning and unique result that seemed to come out of nowhere at ObesityWeek late last year. A new drug, bimagrumab, yielded a 21 percent reduction in fat mass after 48 weeks. But lean body mass went up by 3.6 percent. This result is distinctly different from what usually happens in obesity treatment. […]

Military Appearance, Function, and Health

May 8, 2018 — How much does physical appearance matter in the military? After all, national security relies more and more on technology. This question jumps out from a full day workshop on obesity in the armed forces at the National Academies. The answer depends in part on the branch of service. Physical functioning and health are certainly important […]