The American Journal of Public Health reports that the difference between actual and desired body weight may be a greater indicator of overall health than body mass index (BMI). Researchers looked at sample data of 150,577 participants to see the impact of desired body weight (independent of actual BMI) on the number of physically and mentally unhealthy days that subjects reported over one month. They found that men who wished to lose 1%, 10% and 20% of their body weight, respectively, reported 0.1, 0.9, and 2.7 more unhealthy days per month than those who were happy with their weight. Among women, the corresponding increase in numbers of reported unhealthy days was 0.1, 1.6, and 4.3.

Source:
Medical News Today (February 12, 2008)

Source:
Medical News Today
(January 9, 2008)

A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (February 2008) suggests that the availability of more fast-food restaurants as compared with full-service restaurants contributes to higher levels of obesity. People living in an area with a higher relative number of fast-food restaurants vs. full-service restaurants were noted to have higher body weight. Data were pulled from five years of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), including over 700,000 BRFSS respondents, which was deemed representative of approximately 75% of the 2002 U.S. population. Researchers from University of Pennsylvania state that, “Results from this study support the notion that fast-food restaurants are a contributor to obesegenic environments.”