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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 – […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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. […]
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 […]
December 27, 2017 — Some people still object to the idea that obesity is a chronic disease. They express concerns that body size is a poor marker for health. But that argument confuses obesity with body size. For insight, consider the case of obesity in elephants. These are all large animals. Some have obesity and some do not. A […]
