Over the years, hundreds of diet books have claimed to have the perfect recipe for decreasing the national girth. They manipulate quantities of protein, fats or carbohydrates and most work in the short…
A Japanese research team claims to have developed a pocket-sized device that reveals if your body is burning fat in real time by measuring the amount of acetone on the breath. The prototype device is aimed…
New findings have emerged on the impact of weight discrimination on weight gain and loss.
puuikibeach
Research published in PLOS ONE this morning has found that people who experience discrimination based on their weight are likely to gain more of it. Similarly, negative attitudes lead people who are obese…
Participants who did shorter bursts more regularly felt up to 32% fuller between 1pm and 3pm.
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Short bouts of intermittent exercise throughout the day may be better than one vigorous workout in convincing your brain that you are full, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity. The…
People on the diet need to restrict intake of calories on fasting days.
Martin Lee
The “new” weight-loss strategy known as the 5:2 diet has been receiving much attention in the media since the book The Fast Diet: The Secret of Intermittent Fasting - Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, Live Longer…
Weight-loss ads and television shows regularly profile people who have transformed their lives through major losses of 30 kilograms or more. These weight-loss ambassadors try to inspire us to do the same…
Doctors are not morally obliged to ensure patients follow their advice.
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The NSW Supreme Court decision to overturn damages awarded to an obese man whose doctor failed to refer him for specialist care to help him lose weight has been widely welcomed by medical and legal experts…
Some GPs are reluctant to broach the issue of weight for fear of offending their patients; others aren’t convinced by the evidence.
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Almost two-thirds (62%) of Australian adults and one fifth (21%) of children aged five to nine years are either overweight or obese. The prevalence has increased by 5% in the last decade and is strongly…
Excess kilojoules, rather than dietary fat, leads to weight gain.
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If food is labelled low fat, it’s got to be better for weight loss, right? Wrong – it’s the total kilojoules that matter most for weight loss. Looking solely at fat content only gives you part of the picture…
Unrealistic advertising can severely damage individual self-esteem.
Ed Yourdan/Flickr.
Body image may be the western world’s ugliest export. Images of thin, toned women and hyper-muscular men are conveyed via television, magazines, movies and the internet to the global market. The ideal…
Detox diets may do little harm, except to your bank balance, but neither do they do a lot of good.
katstan
Detox diets make amazing promises of dramatic weight loss and more energy – all achieved by flushing toxins from the body. Toxins have very little to do with it; detox diets “work” because of the very…
There’s no good evidence to show cutting carbs works better than just cutting calories.
Skley
There seems to be an endless number of fad diets and “golden rules” for weight loss. One of the most popular of these rules is that cutting carbohydrates (carbs) is the best way to lose weight. The most…
Focusing on weight as the problem and weight loss as the solution makes social and economic inequalities invisible.
Isaac Brown Stocky Bodies
Anti-obesity messages are everywhere – in news, in entertainment, and in public health campaigns. We are constantly being told that fat is bad for us, and that in order to be healthy we need to lose weight…
Two weight-loss drugs are currently available in Australia, with another two recently approved by the American FDA.
HeavyWeightGeek
A new compound that leads to weight loss in obese mice could help in the development of a new class of anti-obesity drugs for humans, scientists say – though this could take many years. The drug works…
Pop a few undoit pills, and the fat in a slice of cake will pass out harmlessly at the other end - or so the company advertising the product claimed.
undoit.com.au
A company advertising a pill that “will ‘undo’ 5g of fat and 210g of carbs” must remove advertisements for the product and publish a retraction on its website, a review panel has ruled. The ruling against…
Labelling a person as “obese” may not always be helpful in prompting positive changes in behaviour.
HighContrast
OBESE NATION: It’s time to admit it - Australia is becoming an obese nation. Today we launch a series looking at how this has happened and, more importantly, what we can do to stop the obesity epidemic…
Psychological influences on weight problems are extremely important, but are often overlooked.
vistavision
Researchers have been telling us for decades that being overweight is not good for our health. Medical journals are full of articles that link overweight and obesity to just about every disease and illness…