"...obesity is caused by two distinct processes: energy homeostasis and energy imbalance – specifically, energy intake greater than expenditure."
This is an excerpt from the Endocrine Society's new statement on obesity pathogenesis. I'm relieved to see it. In the past couple of years, as investigators have (rightly) cast light on some of the shortcomings of the calorie as a measure of energy consumption or energy expenditure, the internet has drowned in chatter about how obesity isn't a matter of energy in versus energy out. When of course it is. You simply can't make fat out of air or sunshine. At some level, people who carry more weight than they'd like are eating an excess amount energy or expending an insufficient amount of energy or both. The fact that we don't have a perfect way to measure or quantify it doesn't change that fact. So this nugget from the Endocrine Society's press release is welcome, too:
“Because of the body’s energy balance adjustments, most individuals who successfully lose weight struggle to maintain weight loss over time,” said Michael W. Schwartz, M.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash., and the chair of the task force that authored the Society’s Scientific Statement. “To effectively treat obesity, we need to better understand the mechanisms that cause this phenomenon, and to devise interventions that specifically address them. Our therapeutic focus has traditionally been on achieving weight reduction. Most patients can do this; what they have the most trouble with is keeping the weight off. Healthcare providers and patients need to view this tendency as the body’s expected response to weight loss, rather than as a sign of a failed treatment regimen or noncompliance with treatment,” Schwartz said."
In case you were wondering, the CDC is warning against the consumption of dried placenta capsules because of a risk of group B streptococcal infection.
Why am I so late getting to this news? Anyway: there goes my best baby shower side-hustle idea...