An RCT finds a culturally tailored South Asian calorie-restriction diet produces modest short-term weight loss in young adults. PICO summary and expert commentary.
Browsing: Obesity & Weight Management
A small crossover trial finds whole-body photobiomodulation acutely raises resting energy expenditure in women with obesity, but measures no durable outcomes. PICO summary and commentary.
The Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study demonstrated that bariatric surgery is associated with a 29% reduction in adjusted all-cause mortality compared with conventional obesity treatment over an average 10.9 years of follow-up, with reductions in both cardiovascular and cancer deaths, providing the first prospective controlled evidence for the long-term survival benefit of surgical weight loss.
The Look AHEAD trial demonstrated that intensive lifestyle intervention targeting weight loss in overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes did not reduce cardiovascular events over 9.6 years despite clear differences in weight, fitness, and glycaemic control, establishing a critical negative result that informed the rationale for pharmacological obesity treatment with greater weight loss efficacy.
The SCALE trial established liraglutide 3.0 mg as the first GLP-1 receptor agonist approved for chronic weight management, demonstrating a mean weight reduction of 8.0% versus 2.6% with placebo and a 79% reduction in progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes in a 160-week extension analysis, setting the clinical and regulatory template for GLP-1 receptor agonist obesity pharmacotherapy.
The SELECT trial demonstrated that semaglutide 2.4 mg reduces 3-point MACE by 20% in overweight or obese adults with pre-existing cardiovascular disease and no diabetes, becoming the first obesity pharmacotherapy trial to demonstrate a hard cardiovascular endpoint benefit and establishing GLP-1 receptor agonism as a cardiovascular intervention in non-diabetic obesity.
SURMOUNT-1 demonstrated that tirzepatide, a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist, produces dose-dependent mean weight reductions of 15.0–20.9% in adults with obesity without type 2 diabetes, with 57% of participants at the 15 mg dose losing 20% or more of body weight, setting a new pharmacological efficacy benchmark comparable in magnitude to bariatric surgery outcomes.
STEP 1 demonstrated that once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg produced a mean weight reduction of 14.9% compared with 2.4% with placebo in adults with obesity without type 2 diabetes, with a third of participants losing more than 20% of body weight, setting a new benchmark for pharmacological weight management and preceding the cardiovascular outcomes evidence from SELECT.
An RCT finds driving pressure-guided ventilation improves oxygenation and cuts intraoperative hypoxia in bariatric surgery, on physiological endpoints. PICO summary and commentary.
An RCT finds exogenous ketone salts produce no body-composition advantage over placebo on a hypocaloric diet. PICO summary and expert commentary.