https://medicalxpress.com/overweight-obesity-news/ en-us Latest health news and information about Weight Management Obesity may change how early-stage breast cancer becomes invasive, according to a study by University of Oklahoma researchers published in The American Journal of Pathology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-obesity-breast-cancer.html Thu, 28 May 2026 13:00:04 EDT news699189662 Women battling breast cancer can benefit from a phone-based weight loss program, according to a new study. The Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) program helped women drop excess pounds, improve their physical function and have a better quality of life overall, researchers are scheduled to report at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-weight-loss-women-breast-cancer.html Wed, 27 May 2026 18:40:03 EDT news699092458 Food labels make calories seem simple. They show the number of calories per serving, which is calculated based on how much fat, carbohydrates and protein the food contains. But inside the body, digestion is far more complicated. Food passes through a living microbial ecosystem that can influence how many of those calories people actually absorb. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-gut-microbes-calories-absorb-food.html Wed, 27 May 2026 18:00:07 EDT news699119881 Tirzepatide is superior to intensified conventional care (ICC) for adults with early type 2 diabetes (T2D) uncontrolled with metformin, according to a study published online May 26 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-tirzepatide-superior-conventional-early-diabetes.html Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:07 EDT news699106094 Adopting low-insulinemic and planetary health diets during menopause is associated with optimized weight management, according to a study published online May 20 in JAMA Network Open. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-insulinemic-planetary-health-diets-optimize.html Wed, 27 May 2026 13:40:07 EDT news699106090 Type 2 diabetes is often associated with excessive sugar intake, but lifestyle factors including body weight, exercise, and smoking habits can also influence risk. A new study published in Diabetology has found that greater adherence to eight habits for cardiovascular health is associated with lower rates of diabetes for postmenopausal women. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-links-heart-healthy-habits-diabetes.html Wed, 27 May 2026 10:40:04 EDT news699093302 For decades, people have been told that their weight problems can be solved by math: Calories in, calories out. If weight were a simple math equation, more people would likely have the weight they desire. But it is much more complicated. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-body-weight-obesity-doctor-size.html Mon, 25 May 2026 19:40:01 EDT news698921379 Substantial and sustained weight loss has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer and cancer-related death, mainly in women. Two new studies now provide clues to why the risk is reduced—and suggest that gender, metabolism and genetics may play a crucial role. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-bariatric-surgery-cancer-insulin-sex.html Mon, 25 May 2026 11:40:06 EDT news698926141 Novo Nordisk has obtained approval for the pill form of its popular Wegovy anti-obesity drug in the European Union, the bloc's medicines regulator said on Friday. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-eu-pill-novo-nordisk-wegovy.html Fri, 22 May 2026 15:20:01 EDT news698680406 The scientific literature already contains robust evidence that obesity, whether maternal or paternal, can lead to metabolic changes in offspring that increase their risk of developing diseases. A new study published in the journal Nature Communications reveals the mechanism by which this "inheritance" is transmitted to the embryo by the father via the sperm. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-father-obesity-affects-children-metabolism.html Fri, 22 May 2026 14:40:01 EDT news698679170 Eating is not only about getting enough calories. Animals also need to choose the right nutrients. When the body lacks protein, it must seek essential amino acids—the protein building blocks that cannot be made internally and must come from food. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-gut-rewires-brain-cravings-essential.html Fri, 22 May 2026 13:40:03 EDT news698675581 Metabolic/bariatric surgery is a highly effective treatment for people living with severe obesity and/or metabolic health conditions, which works through changing the anatomy of the digestive system and thereby changing the way it functions and the hormones it produces. Procedures include the sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-weight-loss-drug-semaglutide-patients.html Fri, 22 May 2026 12:00:06 EDT news698667362 A team of researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have unveiled new details about the events GLP-1 receptor agonists trigger within neurons, which have been largely unexplored until now. A study in mice identified key intracellular signaling processes that are tied to the weight-loss effects of the GLP-1 drug semaglutide. The work has been published in Nature Metabolism https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-avenue-glp-weight-loss.html Fri, 22 May 2026 05:00:06 EDT news698572876 Younger generations appear to be experiencing poorer health earlier in life than previous generations, according to a review of studies comparing national birth cohort datasets involving tens of thousands of people across the UK born since 1946. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-uk-younger-generations-likelier-poor.html Thu, 21 May 2026 19:10:02 EDT news698572141 New research from the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute suggests that an unhealthy diet during adolescence could have long-lasting effects on how the brain makes decisions about food—even after returning to a healthy diet. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-teenager-food-choices-life.html Thu, 21 May 2026 12:20:08 EDT news698577782 For a very long time, bariatric surgery, in which doctors removed a portion of the stomach, was the standard procedure for helping patients lose weight and manage obesity, alongside metabolic disorders such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. However, ever since GLP-1 medications like Ozempic became available on the market, there has been a shift in how people seek to lose weight. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-glp-drugs-surge-popularity-bariatric.html Thu, 21 May 2026 10:10:01 EDT news698576114 Quitting smoking may be associated with a lowered risk of dementia, especially for people who avoid major weight gain after quitting, according to a study published in Neurology. The study does not prove that quitting smoking lowers the risk of dementia and cognitive decline, it only shows an association. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-dementia-weight-gain-benefit.html Wed, 20 May 2026 16:00:05 EDT news698491621 Obesity affects far more than metabolism and fat storage. It alters immune activity, nerve structure, and tissue organization across multiple organ systems, increasing the risk of diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, neuropathy and cancer. Yet despite these systemic effects, researchers have lacked tools capable of studying disease-associated changes across the entire body in intact organisms and at high resolution. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-ai-atlas-reveals-hidden-body.html Wed, 20 May 2026 15:20:06 EDT news698506801 For many women with lipedema, the diagnosis comes after years of being told the same thing: eat less, not more. The problem is that the fat accumulating around their hips and legs isn't responding to diet or exercise, because it was never caused by them in the first place. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-lipedema-painful-condition-dismissed-obesity.html Tue, 19 May 2026 23:20:06 EDT news698413501 A text-messaging intervention can improve patient activation and cardiovascular risk behaviors in adults with psoriasis, according to a study published online May 13 in JAMA Dermatology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-text-messages-aid-cardiovascular-adults.html Tue, 19 May 2026 20:40:02 EDT news698413607 Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a new approach to delivering GLP-1 medications orally that does not require fasting and maintains their efficacy. The technique could also be useful for any pharmaceutical based on peptides such as insulin or treatments for irritable bowel syndrome, HIV and osteoporosis. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-oral-glp-1s-fasting-efficacy.html Tue, 19 May 2026 18:00:05 EDT news698430001 A new study led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests that even people with a high genetic risk for type 2 diabetes can substantially reduce their chances of developing the disease by adopting healthier lifestyles—and that more than half of cases might be preventable. Published in the journal Diabetes, the study analyzed data from more than 332,000 adults in the U.K. and found that lifestyle factors such as body weight, physical activity, smoking and diet play a powerful role in shaping diabetes risk, regardless of genetic predisposition. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-diabetes-cases.html Tue, 19 May 2026 16:00:05 EDT news698422608 Obesity is commonly diagnosed using BMI, but this approach has several limitations. Researchers at Lund University and AstraZeneca show that integrating measurements such as body fat percentage and waist circumference captures disease risks missed by BMI alone. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-bmi-fully-capture-health-linked.html Tue, 19 May 2026 13:20:07 EDT news698411401 Tirzepatide GLP-1 medication is known to improve sleep apnea for people with both obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and obesity, but not all patients benefit equally. Now, new research presented at the 2026 ATS International Conference narrows down which patients are likely to have the best treatment outcomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-patients-benefit-tirzepatide-glp-obesity.html Tue, 19 May 2026 10:30:01 EDT news698309937 In November 2025, the White House announced pricing deals with multiple pharmaceutical manufacturers to lower domestic prices for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist drugs (GLP-1RAs) including Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. Those deals are part of a new "most favored nation" (MFN) policy that ties the cost of GLP-1RAs in the U.S. to the prices paid in other wealthy countries. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-favored-nation-prices-medicare-glp.html Mon, 18 May 2026 17:20:03 EDT news698339916 As every parent knows, an infant's early life is a series of milestones, from logging every development to regular checkups with the pediatrician to monitor body length, head circumference, and weight. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-infant-body-fat-cognitive-motor.html Sun, 17 May 2026 15:30:02 EDT news698037290 Obesity has long been the invisible health crisis looming over humanity, with rates climbing globally. There is some positive news now emerging from a multi-decade study spanning several nations. A recent study published in Nature by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), a global network of health scientists, analyzed obesity-related data from 232 million people aged 5 years or older, spanning 45 years. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-wealth-health-obesity-plateau-rich.html Sun, 17 May 2026 08:40:01 EDT news697987544 A meta-analysis of 32 studies and 43,618 adults presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey (May 12–15) shows that use of new classes of obesity drugs for weight loss is associated with a clinically relevant drop in blood pressure (BP): a 0.34 mmHg reduction in systolic BP per 1% weight loss. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-analysis-obesity-drugs-weight-loss.html Fri, 15 May 2026 21:20:01 EDT news698046135 Obesity and dietitian societies have joined forces to issue a new consensus statement on recommendations surrounding the use of obesity drugs for weight loss treatment. The consensus statement was presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2026) in Istanbul, Turkey, and co-authored by lead author Dr. Laurence Dobbie, Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Life Course & Population Sciences, King's College London, UK as part of an international team of 26 authors. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-obesity-guidance-urges-dietitian-glp.html Fri, 15 May 2026 20:00:01 EDT news698046076 New research presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2026) in Istanbul, Turkey, shows that rapid weight loss (RWL) is much more effective than gradual weight loss (GWL) in both achieving higher weight loss and also sustained weight loss at one year. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-trial-rapid-weight-loss-effective.html Fri, 15 May 2026 18:40:01 EDT news698046089