Tag Archives: BMI

Weight Loss May Be Treatment for Hot Flashes

There’s a new reason why women with menopause should consider losing weight: it may help reduce hot flashes. It has been observed that a higher BMI is associated with more severe hot flash symptoms, but new research, reported on WebMD, suggests that weight loss can actually ameliorate the condition.

Alison J. Huang, MD lead the study at the University of California at San Francisco, which set out to study urinary incontinence. Of the 338 obese and overweight women participating, 154 reported that they suffered from hot flashes. The subjects took part in either an intensive behavioral weight loss program or a health education program.

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Posted on July 13, 2025 by Margaret

Just Baby Fat or Looming Obesity?

Pinching a baby’s cheeks. Enjoying chubby thighs. Tickling under multiple chins and blowing raspberries on a pudgy tummy. Taking delight in your baby’s pudge is harmless, right? Well, maybe not.

Is that just baby fat, or a sign of oncoming obesity issues? How can you tell? The answer may be clear to doctors, but parents have a much harder time making the determination.

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Posted on April 29, 2026 by Carmen

Apple’s iPad bodyCal2 Provides a BMR and BMI Calculator

bodyCal2 1.0 is a new application that is being released for the Apple iPad, which for any of you that jumped on board to pre-order should have any day now. bodyCal2 is a fitness calculator and health tracker for the iPad that allows you to calculate your body mass index (BMI) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) while tracking changes to these over time. Both BMI and BMR are important as they help provide a base for where your health currently stands.

What are BMI and BMR?

1) BMI is a common measurement that helps provide an analysis of your health. Depending on where you fall within the BMI range for your size/height you may experience an increased risk of developing certain conditions or diseases. For example, diabetes, cancer and heart disease can have increased chances if your body mass index is too high. (more…)

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Amy

Therapy Shown to Help Teen Girls Reduce BMI

teensResearch published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders has shown that therapy may be more beneficial in preventing young girls from becoming overweight than traditional health education classes for teenagers. The study followed 38 girls who had an above average weight, some of whom also reported episodes of loss of control eating or binge eating.

Both above average weight and episodes of loss of control eating are considered characteristics that make someone high-risk for developing obesity. The girls were randomly distributed into two groups, either attending Interpersonal Psychotherapy sessions or standard health education classes. All of the research participants completed the courses to which they had been assigned and received follow-up visits for a year. The girls who participated in Interpersonal Psychotherapy were more likely to stabilize or even decrease their BMI than the girls who participated in the health education courses that are traditionally offered to teenagers. (more…)

Posted on December 24, 2025 by Brooke Randolph

Tracking Progress Essential for Weight Loss and Depression

food journalRecent research suggests that those dealing with depression also have difficulty distinguishing fine detail visually, although they are able to make interpretations on a larger scale. This may be linked to a shortage of the neurotransmitter GABA, which has been linked to one’s ability to suppress part of a visual field and focus on a single part. It is unclear if this correlation is another symptom of depression or a genetic trait that contributes to depression.

It is common for depression to accompany the need to lose weight. Thus you may be less likely to notice the improvements that you are making day by day on your journey to weight loss and/or health. If you are working towards a goal and not noticing progress, it can get pretty frustrating, which can make depression worse.

Another danger is that depression often includes apathy and low energy, all factors that could lead someone to give up, so it is important to find a way to notice the results of your hard work. (more…)

Posted on December 12, 2025 by Brooke Randolph

Why is Fat the New Norm?

overweight menA report released jointly by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that the percentage of obese or overweight children is at or above 30 percent in 30 states, and adult obesity rates increased in 23 states and did not decrease in a single state in the past year. The study, titled F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2026, reports that in 1980, only fifteen percent of Americans were classified as obese, but that percentage has more than doubled, with more than two-thirds of Americans officially classified as overweight or obese. Let’s look at these numbers for a minute. What does it mean to be “overweight or obese”? (more…)

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Carmen

Overweight People May Live Longest

Once in a while there emerges health news that makes everyone scratch their heads. Here comes one of those moments…couple silhouette

If you are overweight – but only a little bit – congratulations, you are probably going to live the longest of any of us. That’s right, according to a new study people who were overweight, but not obese, were in prime position to outlive everyone else.

In the study, published in the journal Obesity, experts followed people 25 and older for 12 years. What they found was that people in the body mass index range of 25-29.9 were 17 percent less likely to die than those who were normal weight (a BMI of 18.5-24.9). Those who were underweight, a BMI less than 18.5, were 73 percent more likely to die than those who were normal weight. (more…)

Posted on July 2, 2025 by Jason

New Guidelines for Weight Gain During Pregnancy Released by Institute of Medicine

pregnant-womanA new report was published today by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) regarding weight gain of pregnant women. Not since 1990 have the guidelines regarding weight gain during pregnancy been reviewed. In the past 20 years, the demographics of pregnancy have evolved and as such, it is clearly time to rethink the information being provided to pregnant women and their caregivers.

There is now more diversity amongst pregnant women than there was in 1990, as well as more multiple births and pregnant women tend to be older than they used to be. The most daunting statistic is that more women today become pregnant while overweight or obese, and continue to gain weight, putting themselves at risk for chronic disease and increasing health risks for the baby. (more…)

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Natalie K

Understanding Body Mass Index

There has been a lot of confusion about BMI over the years. BMI stands for Body Mass Index and is a statistical measure of the weight of a person scaled according to their height. Body Mass Index is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters.

Example for a 132 pound, 5’4″ female:
59.87 kg / 2.640625 m = BMI 22.7

bmi

According to the BMI chart, 18.5 or less is considered underweight, 18.5 to 24.9 is normal weight, 25.0 to 29.9 is overweight, and 30.0 and greater is considered obese. (more…)

Posted on April 17, 2026 by Matt

Fat Report Cards Issued to Massachusetts School Children

school-girlMassachusetts took a major step forward today in the fight against childhood obesity by unanimously voting to screen children in the state’s public schools for obesity. A record of a child’s BMI will be sent home to parents, nicknamed the “fat report card.”

In Fall 2026 the screenings will begin, and students in grades 1, 4, 7 and 10 will be tested. Parents will have the option to opt-out. In addition to the BMI (Body Mass Index), which is a standardized method of determining how under or over weight a person is, the report card will also share ways in which parents can help their child’s weight and encourage parents to meet with a pediatrician. (more…)

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Natalie K

Obesity Can Shorten Your Life By a Decade!

So, do you need anymore incentive not to be obese? How about if you’re obese, you may just lop off an entire decade of your life!measure woman's waist

According to a new analysis of 57 studies that included nearly a million people, average obesity can shorten your life between 2-4 years. Being very obese pushes it to 8-10 years!

In the study, men and women who had BMIs between 30 and 35 took 2-4 years off their lives. Having a BMI between 40 and 45 is the range that can take a decade off your life. Every 5 BMI points that you add to your total boosts mortality risk by 30 percent!

“This is scary and something that we should pay close attention to,” says Ali Mokdad, Ph.D., a professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. (more…)

Posted on March 21, 2026 by Jason