Browse the evidence

High consumption of 'savory-fatty' tasting foods is associated with increased total energy intake and overweight status, whereas 'neutral' tasting foods are consumed in lower proportions by high-energy consumers.

Focus on the taste profile of your diet, not just processing levels. High intake of 'savory-fatty' foods (common in many processed dishes) is strongly linked to higher energy consumption and overweight status in this population. To manage weight, consider reducing the proportion of energy derived from savory-fatty clusters and increasing neutral-tasting foods, which were consumed in higher proportions by those with lower energy intake.

The association between sweet taste and sugar content is weaker in ultra-processed foods compared to unprocessed foods, potentially due to the use of non-saccharide sweeteners.

Be aware that sweet taste in ultra-processed foods does not always correlate with high sugar content. Manufacturers may use non-saccharide sweeteners to maintain sweetness while reducing sugar, which can disrupt your body's ability to predict energy intake based on taste alone.

Mandatory menu calorie labeling in US chain restaurants reduces cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes incidence, generating net healthcare and societal cost savings.

Support and comply with menu calorie labeling laws. While individual behavior change is modest, the population-level effect prevents thousands of heart attacks and diabetes cases, saving billions in healthcare costs.

A behavioral weight loss maintenance intervention involving monthly brief contacts provides a modest but statistically significant long-term advantage in weight loss retention compared to a self-directed approach, even if the benefit of extending the intervention itself is null.

If you are trying to maintain weight loss, engaging in a structured maintenance program (like monthly check-ins with a coach or a structured app) for the first 2-3 years can help you retain more weight than trying to do it entirely on your own. However, you do not necessarily need to stay in that program forever.

Overreliance on BMI as the sole metric for obesity management hinders clinical implementation and confuses clinicians, leading to suboptimal care; waist circumference is a more useful tool for assessing health risk.

Ask your clinician to measure your waist circumference, not just your BMI. This provides better insight into your cardiovascular risk and helps prioritize obesity management interventions.

Exercise (particularly weight-bearing and muscle-loading) and higher protein intake can attenuate, but not prevent, the decline in bone mass associated with caloric restriction.

To protect your bones while dieting, prioritize resistance training and ensure you are eating enough protein. These strategies have been shown to reduce bone loss during weight loss, even if they don't stop it completely.

Pregnant women with obesity exhibit significantly lower physical activity levels compared to general population guidelines, contributing to lower total daily energy expenditure.

Obese pregnant women tend to be significantly less active than recommended, with the vast majority classified as sedentary. Increasing physical activity could be a key intervention to improve energy balance and prevent excessive weight gain.

Physical inactivity and hospitalization-induced bed rest accelerate muscle mass and function loss in older adults at a rate 3-6 times faster than in younger adults, with incomplete recovery.

If you are older, avoid unnecessary bed rest. If hospitalization is unavoidable, ask for early mobilization and physical therapy to mitigate the rapid 3-6x accelerated muscle loss that occurs during inactivity.

Adherence to sulfonylurea (SU) therapy is associated with greater weight gain in patients with type 2 diabetes compared to poor adherence.

If you are prescribed a sulfonylurea for type 2 diabetes, be aware that taking it consistently may lead to weight gain. If weight management is a priority, discuss alternative medications with your healthcare provider that have a weight-neutral or weight-loss effect.

Wrist-worn actigraphy is a valid and recommended objective method for assessing sleep duration and timing, as well as physical activity and sedentary behavior, in obesity research.

For accurate tracking of sleep and activity, use a wrist-worn actigraphy device. It objectively measures your sleep duration and timing, which are linked to energy balance and weight regulation, offering more precise data than self-reports.

Intensive lifestyle intervention in type 2 diabetes leads to significant weight loss and improved glycaemic control, but does not reduce cardiovascular morbidity or mortality over 10 years.

Intensive lifestyle changes help you lose weight and lower blood sugar, but they do not guarantee protection against heart attacks or death in type 2 diabetes. You may need additional medications, especially those that protect the heart and help with weight, to fully manage your cardiovascular risk.

Completeness of pre-treatment self-monitoring (specifically the number of words and numbers recorded in food logs during a screening run-in period) positively predicts greater 1-year weight loss in individuals undergoing intensive lifestyle intervention for type 2 diabetes.

If you are starting a weight loss program, pay close attention to how thoroughly you record your food and activity during the initial screening or trial period. The effort you put into these records (specifically the detail, measured by words and numbers written) is a strong predictor of how much weight you will lose after one year. Treat this screening task as a practice run for the self-monitoring skills you will need during the actual program.

Standardized resistance training protocols produce wide, idiosyncratic variation in clinical outcomes (glucose metabolism, strength, body composition) among adherent prediabetic adults, necessitating personalized adaptive interventions rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.

If you are doing resistance training and not seeing expected improvements in blood sugar or strength despite attending all sessions, do not assume you are failing. Your body may simply be a 'non-responder' to that specific stimulus. Consult a professional to adapt your program (e.g., change exercise type, intensity, or add dietary interventions) rather than just increasing effort.

Higher program website engagement (meeting a login goal of ≥90 logins in 3 months) significantly decreases the odds of early dropout.

Consistently logging into your weight-loss program's website (aiming for daily logins) is one of the best ways to ensure you stay in the program. If you find yourself skipping logins, it is a warning sign that you might drop out soon.

Having one or more chronic medical conditions significantly increases the odds of early dropout from commercial weight-loss programs.

If you have chronic health conditions, be aware that you are at higher risk for dropping out of weight-loss programs. Proactively communicate with your coach and healthcare provider to manage these competing demands.

Adherence behaviors (attendance, meal replacement use, physical activity minutes) do cluster within treatment groups, suggesting that group norms influence adherence more than they influence final weight loss.

You are more likely to adopt the attendance and activity habits of your group than their final weight loss results. If your group is highly adherent, you are likely to be too. If they are not, you may struggle with adherence. Use this to your advantage by choosing a group with high adherence norms.

A national penny-per-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax is highly cost-effective for preventing obesity-associated cancers and reducing health disparities among low-income populations in the United States.

Implementing a one-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks is a highly cost-effective strategy to prevent cancer and save healthcare money, especially for low-income Americans. The policy reduces consumption through price elasticity, leading to lower obesity rates and fewer obesity-related cancers.

Patients treated with SGAs show higher cravings for fat and carbohydrates compared to other food types, and exhibit small increases in dietary disinhibition and restrained eating.

SGA treatment is associated with increased cravings for fats and carbohydrates, as well as higher dietary disinhibition (loss of control over eating) and restrained eating (strict dieting). This combination can make weight management difficult. Focus on managing cravings and avoiding extreme restriction, which may backfire, by working with a dietitian to create a sustainable eating plan.

Higher quality primary care consultation experiences (characterized by empathy, listening, and shared decision-making) are associated with a statistically significant increase in the likelihood of Type 2 diabetes remission over a 5-year period.

If you have Type 2 diabetes, actively seek a doctor who listens to you, explains things clearly, and involves you in decision-making. This 'soft skill' of your care is not just nice-to-have; it is statistically linked to a higher chance of reversing your diabetes over 5 years, likely because it helps you stick to the necessary lifestyle changes.

Weight stigma and internalized bias in healthcare settings negatively impact obesity treatment outcomes by reducing care access, increasing weight gain, and causing exercise avoidance, whereas weight-inclusive, body-positive messaging improves exercise intention and adherence.

Healthcare providers should use weight-inclusive language (e.g., 'movement' instead of 'exercise') and create a stigma-free environment. Patients should seek providers who focus on health behaviors rather than just weight loss, as this improves adherence and reduces the psychological burden of obesity.

Remote behavioral weight loss interventions deliver clinically comparable weight loss to in-person interventions at a significantly lower cost per kilogram lost.

If you are looking for a weight loss program, remote support via phone and web tools can be just as effective as meeting in person, but it costs less. The key is sticking to the weekly check-ins and dietary goals, regardless of whether you see a coach face-to-face or over the phone.

Lifestyle interventions for type 2 diabetes prevention in women with a history of gestational diabetes are only effective if they are underpinned by a behavior change theory.

For women with a history of gestational diabetes, lifestyle interventions are most effective at preventing type 2 diabetes when they are designed using established behavior change theories (like Social Cognitive Theory or Health Belief Model). Simple advice without a structured behavioral framework may not be sufficient.

Telemedical lifestyle intervention (TeLIPro) significantly improves HbA1c, body weight, and BMI in Type 2 Diabetes patients with long-standing disease (≥5 years) compared to routine care, but effects are not sustained after coaching ends.

For long-standing Type 2 Diabetes, structured telemedical coaching with self-monitoring (glucose, weight, steps) significantly lowers HbA1c and weight compared to standard care. However, these benefits disappear if coaching stops, suggesting that ongoing support is necessary to maintain metabolic improvements.

Food vouchers restricted to fruits and vegetables, delivered weekly, increase fruit and vegetable intake specifically in low-income adults with moderate baseline consumption (25th-55th percentile), but not in those with very low or very high baseline intake.

If you are designing a food assistance program, do not assume a flat $20 monthly voucher works for everyone. For people who already eat a moderate amount of produce, weekly $5 vouchers for produce only will likely increase their intake. For those who eat very little produce, money alone isn't enough; you must pair the subsidy with education, transportation, or cooking skills. For those who already eat a lot, the subsidy has diminishing returns.