Your bathroom scale can be friend or foe. When the pounds are coming off, you’re likely to feel excited and motivated to continue with your weight loss efforts. However, noticing an increase of a few pounds can be upsetting and discouraging for many. Don’t fret—overnight bodyweight fluctuations are normal and are not necessarily an indicator […]
The human body is incredibly complex, and doctors are constantly discovering new ways that different organs and body systems and genetic differences are connected and interdependent. Weight gain, for instance, is a function of metabolism and how the food we eat is either converted to energy or stored as fat. Yet the story is clearly […]
We tend to think of gaining weight as primarily an issue related to diet and exercise, and for the most part that is true; if you eat more calories than you burn through normal bodily functions and physical activity, you’ll gain weight. Yet there are other factors that are often at work that can affect […]
Constipation is a common gastrointestinal problem that affects virtually every person at some point in their life. While not typically a very serious condition, there’s no doubt that constipation can be unpleasant and cause disruptions to a person’s normal quality of life. What many people don’t realize is that constipation by its very nature can […]
Unexplained weight gain is an unwelcome development for almost anyone; indeed, apart from body builders and certain other types of athletes, few people actually want to gain weight. Yet, to medical professionals, true unexplained weight gain is not the same thing as weight gained because a person is unexpectedly in a calorie surplus. As much […]
When you think of the human body, you think of solid material like bones, skin, and muscle. Surprisingly, though, the body is composed mostly of water. In fact, when we’re infants, our bodies are around 75% water; by the time we become adults, that equalizes out to around 50-60% water. And because of this high […]
Even though there has been some evidence of decline in recent years, sales in the weight loss industry are still estimated to be around $50 billion a year. Decades of specialty food products and exercise equipment promised that dieting and exercise alone would lead to weight loss. Research in recent years, however, has shown that […]
Over the last few decades, ongoing research has helped doctors more fully understand the complex relationship between obesity and a number of negative health outcomes. One of the ways the international medical community has tried to clarify this link is by establishing the criteria for diagnosing metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by having several […]
With obesity still on the rise in the United States, traditional methods of losing weight have begun to be supplemented with weight loss medication. To date, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only approved five drugs for long-term use and the treatment of obesity. One of the more recent examples is liraglutide, an injectable […]
