Here's an article I co-authored with Emily Hemendinger for The Conversation. You can find the original version at the link at the bottom of the article.
weight loss
Just as the sun rises and sets, it's inevitable that the New Year comes with resolutions to be more active and to finally lose those pounds, holiday or otherwise. This year, social media is talking about "sequential meals" – the “natural” form of semaglutide (i.e., Wegovy).
Wegovy and Ozempic, both GLP-1 agonists, have taken the world by storm, providing a simple way to lose weight without changing our lifestyle. A new report in Science helps us understand what we do not know: the known unknowns of obesity. Let me summarize.
If you're one of the 100% of viewers who want to put a brick through your TV when one of the ceaseless, nauseating Ozempic ads comes on there's hope on the horizon. Pfizer has a pill that seems to work as well as the O-O-O-Ozempic injections. Perhaps this will shut up those wretched ads. A look at Pfizer's clinical trial data.
The two long-term drivers for weight loss and control are your basal metabolic rate, the number of calories you burn while your carcass is at rest, and your muscle tissue’s ability to perform and sustain physical activity for extended periods moving your carcass. Both are dependent on the amount of muscle tissue you have developed through conditioning or granted through genetics. So, before you decide to withdraw from your 401K to pay for your hit of Wegovy or Ozempic or any other miraculously pitched expensive weight loss drug, you need to consider some basic physiology.
A recent study found that marijuana smoke may cause emphysema. The problem? The study was complete garbage. Celebrities and social-media "influencers" are hyping the weight-loss benefits of repurposed diabetes drugs. Should these medicines really be used to slim down? It's complicated.
Continuing its trend of unjustified censorship, Twitter put a "warning" on one of our recent tweets "so people who don’t want to see sensitive content can avoid it." This protects nobody, but it denies the public access to credible health information.
The Conversation returns with another awful story about the dangers of "ultra-processed" food. Here's a look at the science they ignored—again.
Comedian Bill Maher is in trouble after attacking the fat-acceptance movement on his show last week. Not only was the segment hilarious, but it highlighted an important fact many people would rather not discuss: social-justice activists are rewriting science to protect their ideological commitments.
Dr. Chuck Dinerstein and Cameron English recently joined Dr. Jay Lehr and Tom Harris on The Other Side of the Story radio show to discuss the controversial claim that "obesity acceptance is ruining our health." Is that true, or has the public health establishment actually exaggerated the dangers of being overweight?
Is type 2 diabetes due largely to genetics? Does veganism lead to more weight loss than other common diets? On episode 9 of the Science Dispatch Podcast, we take a critical look at two studies, each tackling one of these intriguing questions.
Fox News claims Americans are obese primarily because they eat too many carbs. The science behind this idea is still not compelling.