Weight Control at WeightControl.com
Weight Control and Diet Tips
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Reed Thomas BS and
Dr. Kong Y. Chen PhD
Director, Human Energy & Body Weight Regulation Core
NIH
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Over the last century, many studies have looked at the thermoregulation of both arctic and tropical animals; however, far fewer have rigorously measured variations in human thermal physiology, and even less have compared women and men. This study is a part of our ongoing efforts to fill that gap.
These patterns such as the Mediterranean diet, DASH diet, vegetarian diet, or other versions of healthy diets can be adapted to meet individual health needs, food preferences, and cultural traditions.
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Nutrition
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) recommend multiple healthy eating patterns. However, few studies have evaluated whether greater adherence to the DGAs-recommended dietary patterns is associated with long-term risk of total and cause-specific mortality. The researchers used health data collected over 36 years from 75,230 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study and 44,085 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. All participants were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer at the beginning of the study and completed dietary questionnaires every four years.
Their information was scored based on each of the four dietary pattern indexes (Healthy Eating Index 2015, Alternate Mediterranean Diet, Healthful Plant-based Diet Index, and Alternate Healthy Eating Index). All share key components including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, although other components differ across different eating patterns.
Older individuals with a weight loss of 5-10% had a higher risk of all-cause mortality: 33% for men and 26% for women.
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Dr Monira Hussain MBBS, MPH, PhD
Senior Research Fellow &
ECF Clinical Research Australian Fellow
Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Monash University
Melbourne Australia
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The impact of weight changes on healthy older adults is not fully understood, and the association between weight loss and cause-specific mortality needs to be explored using more reliable methods.
The data from this preliminary study represents a healthy pattern of weight loss in support of bariatric embolization as a valid therapeutic for obesity.
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Daniel Giraldo-Herrera, MD,
Postdoctoral research fellow
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and
Clifford R. Weiss, MD, PI of the study
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and
Whiting School of Engineering.
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study? Would you describe the procedure and how it works to reduce obesity?
Response: Bariatric Embolization is a minimally invasive image-guided medical procedure for patients with morbid obesity who seek weight loss. The procedure is performed with tiny catheters through small nicks in the skin, deploying precisely engineered microscopic beads. These are deposited to block blood flow in the upper part of the stomach to reduce appetite by suppressing the release of the hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin. With less hunger, patients can then more easily restrict excess calories from food intake. Weight loss results as they tap their own caloric energy reserves, ideally from subcutaneous fat (the deposits between the skin and deep muscle tissues) and visceral fat (the deposits surrounding abdominal organs). Protein stored in muscle can also be turned to calories for energy.
The purpose of this study was to understand if weight loss resulting from Bariatric Embolization comes from fat, muscle, or a mix of both. In a pilot trial, we used AMRA Medical’s advanced body composition measurement techniques with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine body composition changes in the abdomen and thighs, where the most significant fat deposits and muscle groups are located. MRI is the reference standard for body composition measurement since it allows for rapid, detailed analysis of anatomic distributions and accurate measurement of fat and muscle tissue volumes.
Fatty liver disease puts people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Krista Varady, PhD
Professor of Nutrition
Dept Kinesiology and Nutrition
University of Illinois Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, 60612
Instagram: @DrKristaVarady
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We noticed that the main lifestyle therapy for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was combining daily calorie restriction with aerobic exercise. We were curious if intermittent fasting combined with aerobic exercise would produce the same reductions in liver fat.
So we designed a randomized controlled trial in 80 adults with obesity and NAFLD, with four intervention groups:
1) An alternate day fasting group that consumed 500 calories on the “fast day”, alternated with a free eating “feast day”;
2) Exercise group that participated in five supervised 60 min sessions per week, using elliptical machines and treadmills;
3) Combination of the fasting and exercise interventions;
4) No intervention control group. We measured liver fat using MRI before and after the 3-month intervention.
females lost more weight than males with similar exposures to liraglutide, suggesting that body size may not be the only factor.
WeightControl.com Interview with:
A/Prof Samantha L Hocking | Associate Professor Diabetes NSW & ACT
Sydney School of Medicine (Central Clinical School)
Charles Perkins Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health
President National Association of Clinical Obesity Services
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Numerous studies have shown that the mean response to a weight loss intervention hides significant individual variation. There are biological and physiological differences between males and females so gender is a potential predictor of weight loss outcomes.
Exercise is optimal for long-term weight control and prevention of type 2 diabetes when compared with low-calorie diet, low-calorie diet & exercise, fasting, commercial weight loss program, and diet pills.
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Dr. Keyi Si, PhD
Department of Nutrition
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Weight control is one of the primary and effective strategies for the prevention and management of obesity and related chronic diseases. However, long-term weight change and risks of developing type 2 diabetes following various weight loss strategies are understudied, especially among originally lean individuals.
However, people who ate their largest meal in the morning did report feeling less hungry later in the day, which could foster easier weight loss in the real world.
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Prof Alexandra Johnstone
Rowett Institute
University of Aberdeen
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: There are a lot of myths surrounding the timing of eating and how it might influence either body weight or health. When dieting, many people follow the old saying “breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dine like a pauper,” based on the belief that consuming the bulk of daily calories in the morning optimizes weight loss by burning calories more efficiently.
We know that many people living with obesity do not want to attend health care appointments after a perceived “failure” of a weight loss intervention
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Prof Jennifer Logue
Associate Dean (Research) Faculty of Health and Medicine
Lancaster University
Deputy Clinical Director | NIHR CRN North West Coast
Professor of Metabolic Medicine | Lancaster University
Hon Consultant in Metabolic Medicine
Blackpool Victoria Hospital
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Currently, many providers may offer more intensive therapies to every patient as they don’t believe behavioural programmes are effective, when they are for many people. Other providers leave patients struggling in a behavioural programme and they will disengage, reinforcing self-stigma.
The main messages are that the liver can directly control the most complex part of the brain.
WeightControl.com Interview with:
Tamas L. Horvath, DVM, PhD
Jean and David W. Wallace Professor of Comparative Medicine
Chair, Department of Comparative Medicine
Founding Director, Yale Program in Integrative Cell Signaling
& Neurobiology of Metabolism
Professor of Neuroscience and Ob/Gyn & Reproductive Sciences
Yale University School of Medicine
WeightControl.com What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We knew from earlier work that this very specific lipid species we studied (lysophospholipids) have an impact on how the most complex part of our brain, the cerebral cortex, functions. What is knew here is that we show that the level of these lipids fluctuate in association with the level of hunger of animals and that this fluctuation of these liver-derived lipid molecules are governed by neurons that control hunger and are in an ancient part of the brain (hypothalamus).