How Overweight Pregnant Women Can Limit Weight Gain (LiveScience.com)

Overweight pregnant women who weighed themselves weekly and received text-message reminders about weight early in their pregnancy gained less weight than women who didn't, a new study shows.

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy can bring on diabetes and may pose risks for babies.

"There is not a lot being done in early pregnancy to avoid weight gain and the complications," said study author Catherine Lombard, of the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Melbourne, Australia.

The preliminary results from the ongoing study will be presented Sunday (June 12) at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Boston.

The women in the study were overweight, not obese, but were considered at high risk for gestational diabetes due to their weight, age and ethnic background. Further results from the study will determine whether the healthy lifestyle program in which the women participated also reduced gestational diabetes, a serious condition that can cause complications for both the mother and child during the pregnancy.

Overweight and pregnant

Among pregnant women in the United States, about half are overweight or obese, said Dr. Raul Artal, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Women's Health at Saint Louis University. Artal conducts research on weight gain during pregnancy but was not involved in the study.

“I and many of my colleagues believe excessive weight gain in pregnancy is a major reason for the obesity epidemic in our country,” Artal said.

The Institute of Medicine guidelines on pregnancy weight gain, which were released in 2009, suggest a gain of 25 to 35 pounds for women of normal weight, 15 to 25 pounds for women who are overweight and 11 to 20 pounds for women who are obese.

Artal said the recommendations "have done a disservice to women." "It is allowing too much weight gain" for women who are already obese or overweight, he said.

Complications from being overweight or obese during pregnancy include higher rates of birth defects and higher risk of gestational diabetes. Women with gestational diabetes are at seven times the risk of getting diabetes later in life than women who do not have the condition, Artal said.

Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes have their own complications. “These babies have a tendency to be very large and therefore have traumatic deliveries, and more complications in delivery and in the first few days of life,” Artal said. These infants are at higher risk for obesity as children and adults.

Text messages and weekly weigh-in

Lombard’s study included 200 pregnant women who were at risk for gestational diabetes. The participants were divided into two groups, one that underwent the educational program and a control group.

At 14 weeks of pregnancy, researchers gave both groups information that emphasized making small, healthy changes to eating and physical activity, such as walking and eating more fruits and vegetables. One group also received information about how much weight they should gain during pregnancy, an instruction to weigh themselves and frequent reminders by text messaging.

At 28 weeks, the women who had received the extra information had gained, on average, about two pounds less than those in the control group.

This difference might seem small, but it is important at that stage of pregnancy, Lombard said.

Further results will measure weight gain during the entire pregnancy, as well as the rates of gestational diabetes in the two groups. The study is following patients through delivery and the first six weeks of each baby’s life.

Pass it on: A healthy lifestyle program conducted early in a pregnancy can help overweight women avoid excessive weight gain.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, sister site to LiveScience.

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Virtual Weight Loss: Online Meetings Yield Healthy Results (LiveScience.com)

Karen Rowan, MyHealthNewsDaily Managing Editor
LiveScience.com Karen Rowan, Myhealthnewsdaily Managing Editor
livescience.com – Wed?Jun?8, 5:14?pm?ET

Online weight-loss support programs have been gaining in popularity, and a new study suggests that for some, they work better than their real-world counterparts in building a person's confidence.

The results showed that participants in a weight-loss support group that "met" in a virtual world were more likely to report eating healthier and being more physically active after 12 weeks than those who participated in a support group that met in real life.

"They were more confident in their ability to exercise," and more confident that they would maintain their real-life exercise regime in the face of detractors, such as bad weather or going on vacation, said study researcher Jeanne Johnston, assistant professor of kinesiology at Indiana University.

There was no difference between the online group and the real-life group in terms of how much weight they lost. Johnston said the difference in confidence levels between the groups may mean a difference in their ability maintain their weight loss over time; however, longer-term studies are needed to investigate this.

The online support group met in the Web-based world known as Second Life, in which people create avatars to represent themselves in their interactions with others. The virtual "room" where the meetings took place included treadmills and exercise bikes that the avatars could use in their workouts, Johnston said.

Of course, these virtual workouts didn't burn any real-life calories, but they built participants' confidence in their ability to exercise, Johnston said.

"I think it has something to do with the visualization," of seeing your avatar go through a workout, she said. "Being able to go to virtual world — you don’t have to drive there, you can hide any gained weight — it makes you less self-conscious."

"Online management of weight problems, through a variety of different tools, is going to become increasingly popular," said Dr. Louis Aronne, clinical professor and director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at Cornell University, who was not involved in the study.

Aronne created an online weight-loss program called BMIQ, and said that research has shown that a key component of making these programs work is capturing the spirit of a real-life meeting.

"When dietitians provide support in online setting, online groups have good results. They're very similar to going to a group, going to a physical meeting," he told MyHealthNewsDaily.

Both Aronne and Johnston said that online programs won't work for everyone. "For certain people, these tools will be as good [as real-life support]. For others, they won't be," he said. Some people just need to meet face-to-face with other people, he said.

Another drawback is that for participants in online programs, it may be easier to become distracted, Aronne said. And those who are not tech-savvy are unlikely to benefit from such programs.

Johnston's study was done in collaboration with a fitness club, but she received no funding from that company for her research, she said. She presented her work on Friday (June 3) at American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting in Denver.

Pass it on: Online weight-loss support programs may raise participants' confidence more than in-person meetings.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily managing editor KarenRowan on Twitter @karenjrowan.

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Nicotine's Appetite-Suppressing Power Could Be Used for Weight Loss (LiveScience.com)

Joseph Brownstein, MyHealthNewsDaily Contributor
LiveScience.com Joseph Brownstein, Myhealthnewsdaily Contributor
livescience.com – Thu?Jun?9, 3:50?pm?ET

Smokers tend to be thinner than nonsmokers, and new research reveals the exact spot in the brain where nicotine's appetite-suppressing effects take hold. The findings could be harnessed and used as a weight-loss treatment, researchers say.

The researchers found a receptor on the surface of some brain cells that nicotine binds to, the study said. When they activated this receptor in mice, the mice ate less. The researchers hope the findings will carry over to humans.

A treatment based on these findings could allay smokers' common fear that quitting will bring weight gain, and could potentially augment the weight-loss efforts of non-smokers.

"What we've been able to find out is where in the brain [appetite suppression] happens, and find the receptors for nicotine in the brain that are responsible," said study author Marina Picciotto, a professor of psychiatry at Yale. "I'm hopeful that we'll be able to make medications based on these nicotine receptors that could be helpful in controlling appetite."

In the study, researchers manipulated genes for nicotine receptors in mouse brains. By altering the genes to turn off different receptors in different mice, they were able to pinpoint the group of nicotine receptors responsible for appetite suppression —a group known as [alpha]3[beta]4.

The researchers' mouse model drew praise for the precision it achieved.

"What I was most impressed at here is the exactness with which they were able to find the nicotine receptor subunits that mattered," said Elissa Chesler, a neurogeneticist at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, who was not involved with the study. "If we can target that pathway...perhaps we can give people something that can control appetite that isn't associated with addiction to a harmful substance."

She said the results would likely carry over to people because in our cells, the processes at work are very similar to those in mice.

Picciotto said that future research in the area could help develop a better understanding of how the receptors work to harness appetite suppression.

As to the drug development possibilities, ?some potential treatments may already be around, Picciotto told MyHealthNewsDaily.

"It may be that things already being used for smoking cessation in humans could be repurposed," she said.

For example, she pointed to Tabex, a plant-based supplement used in Eastern Europe for smoking cessation, but is not available in the United States.

However, she noted human research on these receptors may prove tricky, as they are involved in the fight-or-flight response, and so activating them can raise heart rate and blood pressure.

"It may not be an easy receptor to target," she said.

Picciotto said she is optimistic that research in this area may ultimately help some people, but will not be a solution for all who seek a drug to help them lose weight. Smokers tend to gain an average of about five and a half pounds when they quit, she said, and the benefit from a drug would likely be in that range.

"It's not going to solve obesity by any means," she said.

"It could be helpful for people who are trying to quit smoking but are worried about weight gain but it may also help people who need another tool to try to help control appetite," Picciotto said.

The study was published today in the journal Science.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND.

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