A leading cardiologist hopes alarming figures on obesity found in rural South Australia and Victoria will lead to greater efforts to improve diets and lifestyles.

Children who lost weight were able to keep it off more effectively by participating in maintenance treatment programs that emphasized behavioral skills or social facilitation, although the effectiveness lessened over time, according to a study in the October 10 issue of JAMA.

The researches reported that heavy children who had lost weight had kept the kilos off better through weight maintenance follow-up, but even that hadn’t been terribly successful over two years.

Researchers studying obese women can gain little or no weight during pregnancy - and even lose a few pounds - without harming their babies.

The Alternate Healthy Eating Index measures and compares factors in a person’s diet that are strongly linked to reducing risk for cardiovascular disease.

Over the past three decades, the rising obesity epidemic has been accompanied by a proliferation of weight-loss plans. However, as a new study by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) reveals, these weight-loss plans vary significantly in their ability to positively affect heart health.

More than 60 percent of American women are overweight, with nearly a third falling into the category of obese and at greater risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Until now, there has been no safe, long-term medical remedy that tackles unwanted weight gain.

Even a little money can make people lose weight. The research published in the September issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that cash incentives can be a success even when the payout is as little as $7 (5 EUR) for dropping just a few pounds in three months.

Finding a way to motivate the billion people in the world who are overweight to lose excess pounds can be an overwhelming task, but a University of Houston professor is meeting that weighty challenge with a challenge of his own.

A Royal Brisbane Hospital endocrinologist says a new drug developed from the saliva of the venomous Gila Monster, a lizard native to south America, can help people control their type 2 diabetes and lose weight.

After summer holidays, ‘miracle-diet’ adherents stick to these diets to lose the weight gained in the last months in record time. Gyms also become overcrowded with people making a final sprint of sacrifice whose results do not exactly match previous expectations and with few benefits for health. “