Tag Archive for: weight

Obesity: A Global Problem

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The overwhelming conclusion by the Global BMI Mortality Collaboration is that the rate of mortality linked with the degree of obesity follows the same pattern in the entire world with one exception: South Asia. If you look at the graphs of the mortality rate per BMI category, they’re virtually identical in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and East Asia. One of the reasons that South Asia might be different was that only three studies were included in the analysis.

We are not alone in our fight to lose weight and get healthier. Actually, that’s a completely different . . .

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Death by Obesity

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The Global BMI Mortality Collaboration examined the mortality of being overweight and obese in most parts of the world. They purposefully did not include people in the meta-analysis who had ever smoked or had a chronic disease when the study began; that makes sense because both can affect mortality within the five-year span they were examining. The range of the subjects was 20 to 89 years old and a BMI greater than 15.0.

They performed a hazard ratio analysis of the combined data, which examines the rate of an event (in this case death) within each weight . . .

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The World’s State of Obesity

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A week ago, I talked to a reader and visitor to my website who continues to check her BMI occasionally to see where she stands; she still hasn’t made it to the normal range but continues to try. I understand—I’m not there yet either. But there’s good reason to keep trying based on a recently published study.

The Global BMI Mortality Collaboration decided to examine the deaths from overweight and obesity in the entire world. Sometimes we think that the U.S. is the only overweight nation in the . . .

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Lessons from “The Biggest Loser”

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The recent study on weight gain by former participants in “The Biggest Loser” reality television show blamed decreases in resting metabolic rate (RMR): the decrease in RMR became worse over time and contributed to most of the participants regaining most of the weight. In other words, they ruined their resting metabolism.

No, they didn’t. In my opinion, there are errors in the measurements for RMR and total energy expenditure (TEE). The errors may be in the equipment, but more than likely, in the assumptions that were made in the calculations.

Here’s where I think researchers went wrong: there . . .

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Rate of Change

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I spent hours looking at the data in “The Biggest Loser” study. I did numerous calculations trying to figure out where the changes in caloric use occurred that could explain the dip in resting metabolic rate that made the headlines. There are several possible explanations.

Today I’ll give you the most probable reason: the subjects lost weight too fast. The average was 4.25 pounds per week and for some, it was double that. While that can win contests, it doesn’t allow the body to adjust to the tremendous changes that should be occurring.

Think about it. There . . .

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Does Weight Loss Ruin Metabolism?

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The health headlines two weeks ago were focused on what we can call “The Biggest Loser Study.” Researchers published the results of a six-year follow-up of contestants in Season 8 of the reality show “The Biggest Loser.” It turns out that most contestants gained back a significant amount of weight. Why? Based on the research, decreased resting metabolism was identified as the most likely suspect. Headlines shouted that weight loss caused metabolic rates to fall more than expected and therefore made it hard, if not impossible, to maintain weight loss.

I believe that all research has merit, even . . .

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Raising HDL: Weight Loss

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Before I finish up this week’s look at HDL cholesterol, I want to wish every mother a Happy Mother’s Day. I hope it’s a great day with your children.

The number one way to increase HDL cholesterol is to lose weight. Losing fat helps increase HDL levels while simultaneously lowering LDL cholesterol. We still don’t know precisely why, but there’s really nothing debatable about it.

I’ll give you my theory of why weight loss helps raise HDL cholesterol. In order to lose weight, you have to eat less and/or move more; more than . . .

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The Bottom Line on High-Fat Dairy

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If you’re a long-time reader, you know that science by headlines makes me crazy because news reports often distort the findings of the research papers to make them seem more important than they are. It doesn’t help that research institutions send out press releases that contribute to the hype of their research findings. Such is the case with the two papers I reviewed this week.

In the first paper, researchers examined blood values of fatty acids found in high-fat dairy products as potentially . . .

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Recent Research: Milk and Obesity

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The second research paper included in many news articles that talked about the potential benefits of full-fat dairy products was a report from the Women’s Health Study (1). Researchers collected dietary data and self-reported body weight and height from over 39,000 women. The analysis included only about 18,000 middle-aged and older women who had a normal BMI when the study began; they analyzed the change in body weight over 11 years of follow up.

All women gained weight over time. Those who had the highest number of high-fat dairy products gained less weight . . .

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Recent Research: Milk and T2D

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Health news headlines got my attention this past week. They announced that full-fat milk products may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and becoming overweight. I don’t know about you, but it’s been decades since I drank whole milk or ate whole-fat yogurt or ice cream. It’s not just about the calories; it just doesn’t seem to taste as good. Have I been missing something? Headlines tend to exaggerate, especially when they’re based on press releases. Let’s take a look at the first study behind the headlines.

In the first paper . . .

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