Weight Loss & Obesity News

May 24, 2023 — Experts consider claims that new weight loss medications cause hair loss. They find that hair loss is unlikely and actually more common with bariatric surgery.

May 23, 2023 — In a trial of 667 people who were overweight or obese, those who took the daily semaglutide pill lost 17% of their body weight after 68 weeks.

May 19, 2023 — A new study says the fat that infiltrates your muscles appears to dramatically increase your risk of death.

May 19, 2023 — Semaglutide represents an effective treatment option for teens with obesity, with the potential to reduce BMI below the obesity threshold.

May 16, 2023 — One-tenth of parents have children who were overweight or obese, and over a quarter worry about their child’s weight, a new survey found.

May 12, 2023 — Adding obesity drugs to weight loss surgery helped patients lose more weight than using either option alone.

May 10, 2023 — A statement from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology addresses weight bias and stigma from health care professionals as well as patients themselves.

May 5, 2023 — Novo Nordisk’s problems keeping up US supply of Wegovy for weight-loss is back after a brief hiatus, as the company says starter doses will again be in short supply through September.

May 5, 2023 — A growing number of people are turning to anti-obesity injections. According to a new survey from the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) and telehealth company Ro, interest in these treatments is soaring among people living with obesity, despite the lack of public awareness just a handful of months ago.

May 3, 2023 — With the blockbuster type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic popular as ever with those just seeking to lose weight, we speak to pharmacists about the drug cost, potential coupons and prescription discounts, and other ways to save money.

May 1, 2023 — Investigators compared almost 56,000 people with obesity who had bariatric surgery to the same number who did not. They tracked how many people developed cancer over the next 10 years. The surgery group had less than half as many cases of cancer.

April 27, 2023 — The drug, tirzepatide, helped patients in the study lose up to 15.7% of their body weight in a phase III trial.

April 26, 2023 — Heavily used “forever chemicals” found in food packaging and other consumer goods are contributing to weight gain, a new study has found.

April 21, 2023 — Some commercial weight loss programs that have long advocated a laser focus on diet, exercise, and behavior change are adding prescription weight loss drugs approved to treat obesity such as Wegovy. And that’s triggering a healthy debate.

April 17, 2023 — Since one of the side effects of type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic is weight loss, people without diabetes have flocked to purchase the drug for a quicker way to shed pounds. To prevent widespread shortages, Canadian province British Columbia is banning Americans from purchasing the drug.

April 13, 2023 — New research refutes prior studies that have linked low cognitive scores in teens to higher risk of obesity in later life.

April 12, 2023 — Two years after weight loss surgery, researches found patients had improvements in peripheral neuropathy as well as high blood sugar (glucose) levels and levels of certain lipids (fats).

April 7, 2023 — A new study of overweight and obese people’s brains using MRIs suggests that future weight loss treatments should take into account whether someone is male or female. MRIs revealed gender-based differences in both the structure and function of the brain.

March 31, 2023 — For the first time, the World Health Organization may add weight loss drugs to the list of essential medicines that it suggests countries worldwide purchase.

March 30, 2023 — Within 5 years of stopping the weight loss drug Wegovy, most people will regain all the weight they lost, and some people may add even more pounds, a senior official from drugmaker Novo Nordisk said at a conference Wednesday.

March 28, 2023 — A new analysis gives a promising answer to the weight loss question: Is it better to have lost and gained, than never to have lost at all?

March 3, 2023 — More than half the world’s population will be overweight or have obesity by 2035 if current trends continue, with obesity rising at alarming rates among children and adolescents, a new report from the World Obesity Federation says.

February 4, 2023 — Drug maker Novo Nordisk says it is increasing production of Wegovy, a weight loss drug, which has been hard to find in stores.

February 1, 2023 — Side effects from the drug semaglutide can range from nausea and vomiting to premature aging of the face, as well as heart problems.

January 31, 2023 — The brains of obese people go through changes like those of Alzheimer’s patients, a new study shows. This is the first study that directly compared patterns of brain shrinkage in the two groups.

January 9, 2023 — The American Academy of Pediatrics said physicians should no longer wait to see if children with obesity outgrow the condition.

December 6, 2022 — A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine says offering obese people cash may help them lose weight more than other incentives.

December 1, 2022 — A new study in Pediatrics shows that youths have strong opinions about the language their parents use to discuss body weight issues.

November 29, 2022 — Ozempic, a weekly injection that helps boost insulin sensitivity in people with type 2 diabetes, also suppresses appetite, which leads to weight loss. Stories of celebrities using the drug off-label to lose a few pounds have led to an explosion of interest.

November 16, 2022 — The study participants were also affected by what's known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is often linked with obesity.

November 14, 2022 — The number of adolescents being treated surgically for obesity doubled between 2010 and 2017, according to new research. But minority adolescents – who have a higher rate of obesity – are less likely to get weight loss surgery.

November 10, 2022 — The FDA last year approved semaglutide, which was developed initially as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, for weight loss in adults. But researchers wanted to know if the drug, which targets areas of the brain that regulate appetite, also could help adolescents lose weight.

October 5, 2022 — Genetics and lifestyle aside, researchers are investigating whether environmental influences – such as nutrition and stress – on the developing brain of the young set the lifetime risk.

August 19, 2022 — Instagram users can now filter out advertisements on an expanded number of topics, including weight loss programs.

August 9, 2022 — People who have bariatric surgery double their chances of marriage or divorce. The study looked at data from 1,441 bariatric surgery patients and found that never-married patients were over 50% more likely to get married, and married patients were more than twice as likely to get divorced.

August 2, 2022 — The effectiveness of the free behavioral weight management intervention will be tracked up to a year.

June 6, 2022 — Virginia Tech scientists are taking a deep dive into the brain chemistry that drives cravings for unhealthy fatty foods. Their goal: To find out if the nation’s ever-expanding waistline has as much to do with that’s in our heads as what we put into our bellies.

May 5, 2010 — Gastric balloons offer a reversible, incision-free approach to weight loss in overweight and obese people, according to two separate reports from Brazil.