Skip to main content
Logo for WebMD
Logo for WebMD
  • Coronavirus Update
  • Check Your Symptoms
  • Find A Doctor
  • Find A Dentist
  • Connect to Care
  • Find Lowest Drug Prices
  • Health
    A-Z
    Health A-Z
    Health A-Z
    Common Conditions
    • ADD/ADHD
    • Allergies
    • Arthritis
    • Cancer
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Depression
    • Diabetes
    • Eye Health
    • Heart Disease
    • Lung Disease
    • Orthopedics
    • Pain Management
    • Sexual Conditions
    • Skin Problems
    • Sleep Disorders
    • View All
    Resources
    • Symptom Checker
    • WebMD Blogs
    • Podcasts
    • Newsletters
    • Questions & Answers
    • Insurance Guide
    • Find a Doctor
    • Children's Conditions A-Z
    • Surgeries and Procedures A-Z
    • Featured Topics
    • woman experiencing chest discomfort Symptom Checker COVID-19: Check Your Symptoms Now
    • photo of migraine Slideshow Get Help for Migraine Relief
  • Drugs &
    Supplements
    Drugs & Supplements
    Drugs & Supplements
    Find & Review
    • Drugs
    • Supplements
    Drug Basics & Safety
    • Commonly Abused Drugs
    • Taking Meds When Pregnant
    Tools
    • Manage Your Medications
    • Pill Identifier
    • Check for Interactions
    • Drug Comparison Tool
    • Featured Topics
    • assorted vitamins Slideshow Vitamins You Need as You Age
    • photo of vaccine Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccines
  • Living
    Healthy
    Living Healthy
    Living Healthy
    Diet, Food & Fitness
    • Diet & Weight Management
    • Weight Loss & Obesity
    • Food & Recipes
    • Fitness & Exercise
    Beauty & Balance
    • Healthy Beauty
    • Health & Balance
    • Sex & Relationships
    • Oral Care
    Living Well
    • Women's Health
    • Men's Health
    • Aging Well
    • Healthy Sleep
    • Healthy Teens
    • Featured Topics
    • grocery cart Article Smart Grocery Shopping When You Have Diabetes
    • walking sneakers Quiz Do You Know the Benefits of Walking?
  • Family &
    Pregnancy
    Family & Pregnancy
    Family & Pregnancy
    All About Pregnancy
    • Getting Pregnant
    • First Trimester
    • Second Trimester
    • Third Trimester
    • View All
    Parenting Guide
    • Newborn & Baby
    • Children's Health
    • Children's Vaccines
    • Raising Fit Kids
    • View All
    Pet Care Essentials
    • Healthy Cats
    • Healthy Dogs
    • View All
    • Featured Topics
    • apple slices and peanut butter Slideshow Smart Snacks When You're Pregnant
    • photo of dogs kissing Slideshow Surprising Things You Didn't Know About Dogs and Cats
  • News &
    Experts
    News & Experts
    News & Experts
    Health News
    • Coronavirus News
    • COVID-19 Vaccines -- Latest Updates
    • Coronavirus in Context: Interviews With Experts
    • COVID-19 Symptoms
    • Coronavirus Variants
    Experts & Community
    • WebMD Blogs
    • News Center
    • Featured Topics
    • photo of coronavirus cell WebMD News Get the Latest COVID-19 News Here
    • photo of person typing Get Our Newsletters Health News and Information, Delivered to Your Inbox
  • Mobile Apps
  • Subscriptions
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
  • My Profile
    • My Tools
    • My WebMD Pages
    • My Account
    • Sign Out

    Diet Pills Home

    • Medical Reference
    • Features
    • Video
    • News Archive

    Diet & Weight Management

    • Home
    • News
    • Reference
    • Slideshows
    • Quizzes
    • Videos
    • Questions & Answers
    • Diet Plans A-Z

    Health & Diet Guide

    • Popular Diet Plans
    • Healthy Weight
    • Tools and Calculators
    • Healthy Eating & Nutrition
    • Best & Worst Choices
    • All Guide Topics

    Related Topics

    • Weight Loss & Obesity
    • Fitness & Exercise
    • Food & Recipes
    • Food Calculator
    • BMI Calculator
    • Diabetes
    • Cholesterol Management
    • More Related Topics
    • Diet & Weight Management
    • Videos
    Managing High Potassium While on Dialysis

    Managing High Potassium While on Dialysis

    What’s New in Weight Loss

    Video Transcript

    Kenneth Fujioka, MD: We used to have just diet and exercise and then surgery, but nothing in between. Now, we have medications. So there’s two that have recently been approved and there’s probably two more that will get approved within three to six months. So things are really moving rapidly in a very good way. So the biggest difference is how they were studied. So the old medications, if you look at say something, phentermine, which is still a very commonly used weight loss medication. This was studied in the ‘50s. So long ago that it was just studied for a very short period of time, they didn’t look at cardiovascular parameters. A lot of things are very important to look at in the overweight patient. These newer ones are studied for years, thousands of patients looking at every potential problem that come up and study to the N’th degree. So any medication that gets out right now is going to be pretty darn safe.

    Kenneth Fujioka, MD (Continued): When I started back in the early ‘90s on what is the cause of obesity, why do people struggle with weight? Is it just calories in and calories out? And that’s what we thought it was. That’s what we are all taught as docs in the ‘90s. Well, in the last 10 years, we’ve learned a lot. It’s not. It’s not simple math. It’s actually rocket science. In that, as someone gets heavier, the body knows how many fat cells are around and it does everything it can to keep those fat cells big and healthy, it thinks healthy. So in other words, if you go from 150 to 200 pounds, the body now thinks, “That’s the normal weight.” It wants to weigh that forever and it will defend against weight loss. So in other words, let’s say you’re 200 pounds, you lose just 20 pounds, 10% of your weight. The body makes adjustments to fight the weight loss by one, lowering the metabolism more than 10%. Should just be loss 10% of your weight, it should go down 10%. No, it goes down more than that. Two, the hormones will tell you, “You’re full,” that you should stop eating. Don’t go up to where they’re supposed to.

    Kenneth Fujioka, MD (Continued): In other words, somebody just loss some weight even through it could a year later, when they eat a meal, they’re not as satisfied or not as satiated as a person next to him who’s never been overweight but is the same weight. So in other words, our hormones now adjust to tell you to eat more. That’s you're fighting biology now. It is really tough. I mean, losing weight is by far the most difficult thing, and it makes sense because so many Americans struggle with it. When you have one-third of the U.S. population clinically obese or in other words heavy enough that we know that their lifespan is shortened, and another third that’s overweight, that’s a lot of Americans and it’s not because they want to be there.

    Related Videos

    Editor's Picks

    • woman with cup of coffee

      Video

      The Truth About Coffee
    • tongue scraper and tongue

      Video

      5 Ways to Beat Bad Breath
    • couple having sex in bed

      Video

      Why Orgasms Feel Good

    Latest Videos

    Top Picks

    • 10 Worst Sandwiches and Better Choices
    • Guide to Eating Healthy Carbs
    • Becoming a Vegetarian: Foods to Choose From
    • Why Am I Always Hungry?
    • Surprising Reasons You're Gaining Weight
    • Diet Tips for Knee Osteoarthritis

    further reading

    • 10 Ways to Control Your Eating
    • Bad Foods that Help You Lose Weight
    • Should You Take a Weight Loss Pill?
    • Hoodia: Lots of Hoopla, Little Science
    • The Truth About Weight-Loss Pills
    • Beware Untested Diet Pills
    • Weight Loss With Medication
    • Diet Pills Topics

    Today On WebMD

    Woman running

    Boost Your Metabolism: 10 Ways to Do It

    hands puring beer

    Belly Fat: Best & Worst Foods

    burger king grilled chicken sandwich

    Worst Sandwiches: Avoid These Diet Wreckers

    Healthy salad

    Best Diet Tips Ever: 22 Ways to Stay on Track

    Recommended for You

    pomegranate seeds Slideshow

    9 Seeds You Should Be Eating

    lemon tea Slideshow

    9 Ways to Eat Clean

    woman eating ice cream Slideshow

    Foods You Can't Stop Eating -- But Should

    Woman holding red dress Slideshow

    Lose Weight Without Dieting

    buffalo chicken salad Slideshow

    Worst Restaurant Meals

    overweight Slideshow

    Surprising Reasons You're Gaining Weight

    Rice cake snack Slideshow

    What Is a Gluten-Free Diet?

    brain scan with soda Slideshow

    Truth About Sugar Cravings

    grapefruit Slideshow

    Fat-Fighting Foods

    apple slices with peanut butter Slideshow

    25 Low-Calorie Snacks

    Array of high protein food Slideshow

    High-Protein Diets

    Healthy Snack Slideshow

    Low-Carb Snacks

    Tools & Resources

    • Do High-Protein Diets Work?
    • Weight-Loss Dos and Don'ts
    • Best and Worst Juices
    • 10 Ways to Control Your Eating
    • Guide to Becoming Vegetarian
    • Best and Worst Appetizers

    Health Solutions

    • Penis Curved When Erect
    • Could I have CAD?
    • Treat Bent Fingers
    • Discover hATTR Symptoms
    • Tired of Dandruff?
    • Treat HR+, HER2- MBC
    • Rethink MS Treatment
    • AFib-Related Strokes
    • Risk of a Future DVT/PE
    • Is My Penis Normal?
    • Relapsing MS Options
    • Enlarged Prostate Facts
    • Finance Plastic Surgery
    • Bent Finger Causes
    • Living With Psoriasis?
    • Benefits of CBD

    More from WebMD

    • 5 Tips to Help With Relapsing MS
    • How to Thrive With Narcolepsy
    • Relief for Blocked Hair Follicles
    • Psoriatic Arthritis and Your Sleep
    • What Psoriasis Feels Like
    • First Psoriatic Arthritis Flare
    • Talking to Your Doctor About RA
    • Crohn's: A 'Full-Body' Disease
    • Avoiding Crohn’s Flares
    • Living With Ankylosing Spondylitis
    • Live Better With Psoriatic Disease
    • Types of B-Cell Therapy for MS
    • Living Better With T2 Diabetes
    • Why Prostate Cancer Spreads
    • Getting the Care You Need for MS
    • Where Breast Cancer Spreads
    • Logo for WebMD
      • Visit WebMD on Facebook
      • Visit WebMD on Twitter
      • Visit WebMD on Pinterest
    • Policies

      • Privacy Policy
      • Cookie Policy
      • Editorial Policy
      • Advertising Policy
      • Correction Policy
      • Terms of Use

      About

      • Contact Us
      • About WebMD
      • Careers
      • Newsletter
      • Corporate
      • WebMD Health Services
      • Site Map
      • Accessibility
    • WebMD Network

      • Medscape
      • Medscape Reference
      • MedicineNet
      • eMedicineHealth
      • RxList
      • OnHealth
      • WebMDRx
      • First Aid
      • WebMD Magazine
      • WebMD Health Record
      • Dictionary
      • Physician Directory
    • Our Apps

      • WebMD Mobile
      • WebMD App
      • Pregnancy
      • Baby
      • Allergy
      • Medscape

      For Advertisers

      • Advertise with Us
      • Advertising Policy

    © 2005 - 2019 WebMD LLC. All rights reserved.

    WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

    See additional information.