Browse the evidence

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the current treatment of choice for Binge Eating Disorder and is effective in reducing binge frequency and achieving remission, though it may not significantly reduce weight.

If you have Binge Eating Disorder, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most effective treatment available. It typically involves weekly sessions for 12-16 weeks and helps you identify triggers and change thought patterns. While it may not lead to significant weight loss, it is highly effective at stopping binge episodes and achieving remission. If traditional CBT is not accessible, ask about guided self-help options.

Termination of long-term intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) counseling in adults with type 2 diabetes does not trigger rapid, significant weight regain; instead, participants maintain weight loss for at least 2 years post-termination, with ILI participants retaining significantly greater use of weight-control behaviors than controls.

If you have type 2 diabetes and are overweight, sticking to the healthy habits you learned during a weight loss program (like counting calories, exercising, and weighing yourself) can help you keep the weight off for years, even after you stop seeing a counselor regularly. You don't necessarily need to pay for ongoing sessions to maintain your progress, as long as you keep practicing the behaviors.

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) significantly overestimate patient fear of injectable weight loss medications, leading to under-prescription of these effective treatments.

Doctors often assume patients hate needles, but many don't. If you are open to injections, tell your doctor. They may not be offering them because they think you'll refuse, not because you actually will.

Patients prioritize minimizing gastrointestinal side effects (nausea, diarrhea) over maximum percentage of body weight loss, whereas HCPs prioritize maximum weight loss.

When choosing a weight loss medication, patients care more about avoiding stomach issues than getting the absolute lowest number on the scale, while doctors care more about the scale number. Discuss your tolerance for side effects with your doctor to find the right balance.

Childhood obesity is a strong predictor of adult obesity, with obese children being approximately five times more likely to remain obese in adulthood compared to normal-weight peers.

If your child is obese, do not wait for them to 'grow out of it.' The risk of them remaining obese into adulthood is 80%. Address dietary habits and physical activity early to prevent long-term metabolic health issues.

When combined with comprehensive behavioral treatment, low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets produce equivalent long-term weight loss (approx. 7% at 2 years), refuting the claim that low-carb diets are superior for long-term weight loss.

If you are struggling to lose weight long-term, the specific type of diet (low-carb vs. low-fat) matters less than your ability to stick to it. This study shows that with proper behavioral support (tracking, counseling, exercise), both diets lead to similar, significant weight loss (around 7% of body weight) over two years. Focus on building sustainable habits rather than searching for a 'magic' macronutrient ratio.

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation reduces hospital admissions in the short term (less than 12 months) but does not significantly reduce them in the medium to long term (12+ months).

Participating in cardiac rehab reduces your chances of being hospitalized in the first year after your heart event. However, this specific benefit may not persist beyond 12 months, so focus on the long-term mortality benefits which do continue.

Management of osteoporosis should be guided by absolute fracture risk assessment rather than bone mineral density (BMD) alone, utilizing tools like CAROC or FRAX to stratify patients into low, moderate, or high risk categories.

Stop obsessing over your T-score alone. Ask your doctor for a 10-year fracture risk assessment (using tools like FRAX or CAROC). This calculation combines your age, sex, BMD, and lifestyle factors (like smoking or steroid use) to give you a real-world probability of breaking a bone, which determines if you need treatment.

Television viewing time has a stronger association with mortality and type 2 diabetes risk than total sedentary time, with specific thresholds identified for increased risk.

Watching TV is particularly risky for your health. Try to limit TV time to under 3.5 hours a day, as this specific activity carries a higher risk of mortality and diabetes than other forms of sitting.

Healthier diets cost more per calorie than unhealthy diets, creating a financial barrier that explains socioeconomic disparities in diet quality and health outcomes.

For individuals with limited budgets, prioritizing nutrient density per calorie is crucial. Focus on affordable nutrient-dense foods like beans, lentils, and seasonal vegetables, which may offer better nutritional value per dollar than processed alternatives, despite potentially higher upfront costs per unit weight.

Behavioral treatments for chronic diseases must undergo a structured, iterative pre-efficacy development process (ORBIT model) involving Phase I (Design) and Phase II (Preliminary Testing) to ensure clinical significance before large-scale efficacy trials.

If you are developing a health behavior intervention, do not skip to large-scale testing. Use the ORBIT model: Start with Phase I (Design) to define the problem and basic elements, then Phase Ib (Refine) to optimize components and delivery. Only move to Phase II (Preliminary Testing) when you have a fixed protocol that shows clinically significant change in a small sample. This iterative process ensures your final large-scale trial has a real chance of success.

Longitudinal assessment of modifiable health behaviors (smoking, alcohol, diet, physical activity) explains a substantially larger proportion of the mortality risk associated with low socioeconomic position than single baseline assessments.

If you are assessing long-term health risk, do not rely on a single snapshot of your lifestyle. Behaviors like diet, activity, and smoking change over time, and these changes significantly impact mortality risk, especially for those with lower socioeconomic resources. To accurately gauge risk, one must track how these behaviors evolve, as static assessments miss critical shifts that drive health outcomes.

Prevention of obesity starting in childhood is critical and can have lifelong, perhaps multigenerational, impact, as fetal origins of obesity suggest that early life interventions are necessary to break the cycle of obesity and metabolic disease.

Focus on healthy eating and physical activity for children, especially those born small. This is the most effective way to prevent the lifelong health consequences of obesity and break the cycle of metabolic disease for future generations.

High sedentary time is a convincing risk factor for increased Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) incidence.

Reducing your sedentary time is a highly effective strategy to reduce your risk of Type 2 Diabetes. The evidence is very strong: people who spend more time being sedentary have a significantly higher risk of developing the disease. Try to incorporate more movement into your daily routine, even if you already exercise.

The hazardous effects of sedentary behavior on mortality are more pronounced in physically inactive people, and high levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) can attenuate but not fully eliminate the risk associated with high sedentary time.

If you sit a lot, exercise is crucial to mitigate the risk, but it may not fully erase it. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week, but also try to stand up and move frequently during the day.

Self-reported energy intake (EI) is systematically underestimated compared to doubly labelled water (DLW) measured energy expenditure (EE) across diverse populations, including adults, children, and obese individuals.

If you are tracking your food intake for health or fitness, expect that you are likely under-reporting your calories, especially if you are dieting or concerned about body weight. Studies using objective measures like DLW show that self-reported intake is consistently lower than actual expenditure. To get a more accurate picture, consider using objective markers or acknowledging a potential 15-30% gap in your self-reported data.

Individuals with ADHD have a significantly higher prevalence of obesity and overweight compared to those without ADHD, with odds ratios of 1.20 for children and 1.55 for adults.

If you have ADHD, you are statistically more likely to be obese than someone without it, regardless of age. This is not due to medication (which may actually lower risk) but likely due to executive dysfunction affecting eating habits. Screen for obesity as part of ADHD management, and screen for ADHD in obesity cases, especially if weight loss attempts have failed.

Higher degrees of personal clinical support and longer treatment duration in eCBT-I are associated with larger effect sizes, while higher dropout rates are associated with smaller effect sizes.

To get the best results from eCBT-I, choose a program that offers some level of personal support, even if it's just the option to contact staff. Be prepared to commit to the full duration of the program, as longer programs tend to be more effective. Staying engaged and avoiding dropout is crucial for success.

Digital cognitive behavioral therapy (dCBT) for insomnia significantly improves functional health, psychological well-being, and sleep-related quality of life compared to sleep hygiene education, with these improvements mediated by the reduction in insomnia symptoms.

If you suffer from insomnia, digital CBT (like the Sleepio program) is a highly effective, evidence-based treatment. It not only improves your sleep but also significantly boosts your daytime health, mood, and overall quality of life. This treatment is delivered online, making it accessible, and has been shown to be superior to standard sleep hygiene advice in large-scale trials.

Light exposure at specific times (dusk/dawn) resets the central SCN clock by inducing Per1/Per2 gene expression, with the direction of the shift (advance vs. delay) depending on the timing of light exposure.

View bright light in the morning to advance your clock (wake up earlier) and avoid bright light in the evening to prevent delays (stay up later). This leverages your biology to align your sleep with your schedule.

Front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labels significantly improve consumers' ability to identify healthier products, but their ability to nudge actual purchase behavior or consumption toward healthier choices is limited.

Use Front-of-Package labels to quickly scan for healthier options among similar products, as they effectively aid identification. However, do not rely on these labels alone to control portion sizes or total calorie intake, as they often trigger a 'health halo' that may lead to consuming more of unhealthy 'vice' products. For actual dietary changes, cross-reference with the full Nutrition Facts Panel or other nutritional data.

Interpretive nutrient-specific labels (e.g., Traffic Light) improve health perceptions for both 'virtue' (healthy) and 'vice' (unhealthy) products, but only increase purchase intention for virtue products.

When using nutrient-specific labels like Traffic Lights, be aware that they may make you perceive unhealthy ('vice') products as healthier than they are, without necessarily making you buy them. However, they do successfully encourage the purchase of healthy ('virtue') products. Use these labels to reinforce good choices, but do not assume a 'green' label on a junk food item makes it a healthy choice.

A multicomponent workplace wellness program (nutrition, physical activity, stress reduction) significantly increases self-reported healthy behaviors (exercise, weight management) but has no significant effect on clinical health markers, healthcare spending, or employment outcomes after 18 months.

If you are an employer considering a wellness program, expect it to boost employee engagement and self-reported healthy habits (like exercising more), but do not expect it to lower your healthcare bills or improve clinical health metrics (like weight or blood pressure) within 18 months. The program's value lies in behavioral nudges, not immediate clinical or financial ROI.

Real-time cardiac telerehabilitation reduces sedentary time and lowers medication costs compared to center-based cardiac rehabilitation, while center-based rehabilitation results in smaller waist and hip circumferences.

While both programs improve fitness, telerehabilitation helps patients sit less and costs less in medications. However, center-based programs might lead to slightly better reductions in waist and hip size. Choose telerehabilitation if cost and convenience are priorities, or center-based if anthropometric reduction is the primary goal.