Obesity News

February 4, 2026

Top Headlines

The Fat You Can’t See Could Be Shrinking Your Brain

Jan. 28, 2026 Where your body stores fat may matter just as much as how much you carry—especially for your brain. Using advanced MRI scans and data from nearly 26,000 people, researchers identified two surprising fat patterns tied to faster brain aging, ...

Keto Diet Weight Loss May Come with a Hidden Cost

Jan. 27, 2026 A long-term study found that while a ketogenic diet prevented weight gain, it also triggered major metabolic problems. Mice developed fatty liver disease, abnormal blood fats, and an impaired ability to control blood sugar—especially after ...

The Type of Carbs You Eat May Affect Dementia Risk

Jan. 27, 2026 Carbohydrates don’t just fuel the body—they may also influence how the brain ages. A large long-term study found that diets high in fast-acting carbs that rapidly raise blood sugar were linked to a higher risk of dementia. People who ate more ...

This Weight Loss Option Beats Ozempic by 5 Times

Jan. 7, 2026 Bariatric surgery far outperformed GLP-1 weight loss drugs in a new real-world comparison of more than 50,000 patients. Two years after treatment, surgery patients lost about 58 pounds on average, while those using semaglutide or tirzepatide lost ...

Scientists Tested Intermittent Fasting Without Eating Less and Found No Metabolic Benefit

Jan. 3, 2026 Time-restricted eating has been widely promoted as a simple way to boost metabolic health, but new research paints a more complicated picture. When calorie intake stayed the same, an eight-hour ...

Nearly 70% of U.S. Adults Could Now Be Classified as Obese

Dec. 31, 2025 A major update to how obesity is defined could push U.S. obesity rates to nearly 70%, according to a large new study. The change comes from adding waist and body fat measurements to BMI, capturing people who were previously considered healthy. Many ...

This Tiny Protein Helps Control How Hungry You Feel

Dec. 17, 2025 Researchers have identified a previously overlooked protein that helps regulate appetite and energy use in the body. This “helper” protein supports a key system that decides whether the body burns energy or stores it, and when it does not ...

Why Ultra-processed Foods Make Teens Eat More When They Aren’t Hungry

Dec. 10, 2025 A Virginia Tech study shows that ultra-processed foods may influence adolescents differently from slightly older young adults. Participants aged 18 to 21 ate more at a buffet and snacked even when not hungry after two weeks on an ultra-processed ...

Her Food Cravings Vanished on Mounjaro Then Roared Back

Dec. 8, 2025 Deep-brain recordings showed that Mounjaro and Zepbound briefly shut down the craving circuits linked to food noise in a patient with severe obesity. Her obsessive thoughts about food disappeared as the medication quieted the nucleus accumbens, the ...

Natural Hormone Unlocks a Hidden Fat Burning Switch

Dec. 6, 2025 FGF19 triggers the brain to burn more energy and activate fat-burning cells, offering a potential new path for obesity treatments. The hormone enhances thermogenesis and reduces inflammation, but only when the sympathetic nervous system is active. ...

The Body Trait That Helps Keep Your Brain Young

Nov. 25, 2025 Scientists discovered that more muscle and less hidden abdominal fat are linked to a younger biological brain age. Deep visceral fat appeared to accelerate brain aging, while muscle mass offered a protective ...

What 96,000 Adults Taught Scientists About Preventing Constipation

Nov. 24, 2025 A massive long-term study shows that Mediterranean and plant-based diets can help prevent chronic constipation in aging adults. Surprisingly, the benefits weren’t explained by fiber alone. Western and inflammatory diets raised constipation risk, ...

Latest Headlines

updated 7:55am EST

Is a Vegan Diet Safe for Kids? A Huge Study Has Answers

Dec. 21, 2025 A major new meta-analysis finds that vegetarian and vegan diets can support healthy growth in children when properly planned. Kids on plant-based diets often had better heart health markers, ...

Millions Are About to Choose the Wrong Medicare Plan

Nov. 29, 2025 Millions face Medicare decisions each year, but many don’t take advantage of tools that can save them money and stress. Insurance marketing often overshadows unbiased options like SHIP, leaving ...

Vegan Diet Beats Mediterranean for Weight Loss Even With Potatoes and Grains

Nov. 24, 2025 Participants lost more weight on a low-fat vegan diet than on the Mediterranean diet, largely due to eliminating animal foods and reducing oils and ...

How to Keep Ozempic/Wegovy Weight Loss Without the Nausea

Nov. 18, 2025 Scientists are uncovering how GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy act on brain regions that control hunger, nausea, pleasure-based eating, and thirst. These discoveries may help create treatments ...

Wegovy in a Pill? Massive Weight Loss Results Revealed

Nov. 6, 2025 Novo Nordisk’s oral semaglutide 25 mg achieved up to 16.6% weight loss in a landmark study, rivaling injectable Wegovy. The pill also improved cardiovascular risk factors and physical activity ...

Ozempic and Wegovy Protect the Heart, Even Without Weight Loss

Oct. 31, 2025 Semaglutide appears to safeguard the heart even when patients lose little weight. In a massive international trial, heart attack and stroke risk dropped by 20% regardless of BMI. The benefit seems ...

Your Gut Microbes Might Be Turning Fiber Into Extra Calories

Oct. 24, 2025 ASU scientists found that people whose gut microbes make more methane extract more calories from fiber-rich foods. Methanogens help the microbiome turn fiber into energy by consuming hydrogen and ...

You Might Look Healthy, but Hidden Fat Could Be Silently Damaging Your Heart

Oct. 23, 2025 McMaster researchers found that deep abdominal and liver fat can quietly damage arteries, even in people who appear fit. Their MRI-based study of ...

This Type of Meat Supercharges Muscle Growth After Workouts

Oct. 15, 2025 Scientists discovered that lean pork builds muscle more effectively post-workout than high-fat pork, even with identical protein levels. Using advanced tracking techniques, they found that fat ...

Scientists Found a Smarter Mediterranean Diet That Cuts Diabetes Risk by 31%

Oct. 12, 2025 Spanish researchers found that combining a calorie-reduced Mediterranean diet with exercise and professional support cut type 2 diabetes risk by 31%. ...

Why Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t the Real Villain Behind Overeating

Oct. 5, 2025 Researchers from Leeds found that overeating is driven more by what people believe about food than by its actual ingredients or level of processing. Foods perceived as fatty, sweet, or highly ...

You Don’t Have to Lose Weight to Lower Your Diabetes Risk, Scientists Say

Oct. 6, 2025 A major study from Tübingen found that prediabetic individuals who normalized their blood sugar through healthy habits — even without shedding pounds — cut their risk of type 2 diabetes by 71%. ...

Why Gen X Women Can’t Stop Eating Ultra-Processed Foods

Sep. 29, 2025 Researchers found that middle-aged adults, especially women, are far more likely to be addicted to ultra-processed foods than older generations. Marketing of diet-focused processed foods in the 1980s ...

A Hidden “backup Heater” That Helps Burn Fat and Boost Metabolism

Oct. 9, 2025 Scientists have uncovered a surprising new way the body can burn energy and stay warm. Deep inside fat tissue, they found a hidden system that helps the body use up calories, even without exercise. ...

Brain Fat, Not Just Plaques, May Be the Hidden Driver of Alzheimer’s

Sep. 24, 2025 For decades, scientists believed Alzheimer’s was driven mainly by sticky protein plaques and tangles in the brain. Now Purdue researchers have revealed a hidden culprit: fat. They found that brain ...

Scientists Uncover Exercise’s Secret Hunger-Busting Molecule

Sep. 20, 2025 Scientists have uncovered how exercise suppresses appetite through a surprising molecular pathway. A compound called Lac-Phe, produced during intense workouts, directly quiets hunger neurons in the ...

Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro Makes Food Taste Sweeter and Saltier, and That May Quiet Cravings

Sep. 16, 2025 Some people taking Ozempic, Wegovy, or Mounjaro notice that food suddenly tastes sweeter or saltier, and this subtle shift in flavor perception appears tied to reduced appetite and stronger feelings ...

Being Too Thin Can Be Deadlier Than Being Overweight, Danish Study Reveals

Sep. 14, 2025 New research from Denmark challenges long-held assumptions about body weight and health, revealing that being overweight—or even moderately obese—does not necessarily increase the risk of death ...

One Number at Age 7 Could Predict How Long You Live

Sep. 7, 2025 Children with higher blood pressure as young as age 7 face a sharply increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by their mid-50s, according to a massive decades-long study. Researchers found ...

Scientists Reveal How Breakfast Timing May Predict How Long You Live

Sep. 4, 2025 Meal timing shifts with age, and researchers found that eating breakfast later is tied to depression, fatigue, sleep problems, and an increased risk of death. Monitoring when meals are eaten could ...

The Fat You Can’t See May Be Damaging Your Heart, Even If You Exercise

Sep. 6, 2025 Hidden fat wrapped around organs, known as visceral fat, has now been linked to faster heart aging. Using AI and imaging from more than 21,000 people in the UK Biobank, scientists found that this ...

Can a Diet Really Ease Lipoedema? Sunniva’s Journey to Pain Relief and Weight Loss

Aug. 10, 2025 Sunniva Kwapeng struggled with lipoedema, a painful condition causing disproportionate fat accumulation, until finally being diagnosed in her 40s. An NTNU study found that a low-carb diet helped ...

Losing Weight but Gaining Weakness? What Ozempic Might Be Doing to Your Muscles

Aug. 10, 2025 Ozempic’s weight loss benefits might come at the cost of muscle strength, even if muscle size remains relatively stable. This raises significant concerns for older adults, who are already at risk ...

This Diet Helped People Lose Twice as Much Weight, Without Eating Less

Aug. 5, 2025 People eating minimally processed foods lost twice as much weight as those on ultra-processed diets, even though both diets were nutritionally balanced and participants could eat freely. This ...

People With Eating Disorders Say Cannabis and Psychedelics Help More Than Antidepressants

July 24, 2025 A massive global survey has revealed that people with eating disorders often turn to cannabis and psychedelics like magic mushrooms and LSD to ease their symptoms, rating them more effective than ...

Fat Melts Away, but So Does Muscle: What Ozempic Users Need to Know

July 30, 2025 GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic are transforming weight loss, but a new UVA study warns they're not improving a critical measure of health: cardiorespiratory fitness. While these medications help ...

Scientists Discover Amino Acid Switch That Turns Fat Into a Calorie-Burning Furnace

Aug. 8, 2025 Cutting calories doesn’t just slim you down—it also reduces cysteine, an amino acid that flips fat cells from storage mode to fat-burning mode. Researchers found that lowering cysteine sparks the ...

Study Finds Tummy-Tuck Patients Still Shedding Pounds Five Years Later

July 7, 2025 Patients who undergo tummy tuck surgery may be in for more than just cosmetic changes — a new study shows they often keep losing weight for years after the procedure. Researchers followed 188 ...

Fitness Trackers Are Failing Millions — This Fix Could Change Everything

June 20, 2025 Fitness trackers often fail people with obesity by underestimating their energy burn, leading to discouraging results and misguided health data. A scientist's frustrating experience in an ...

Self-Esteem Skyrockets 131% After Weight-Loss Surgery, Study Reveals

June 20, 2025 Self-esteem scores jumped a remarkable 131% within just one year of bariatric surgery, according to a large study presented at ASMBS 2025. Tracking nearly 5,800 patients, researchers found a direct ...