Colon cancer rates are increasing for younger Americans, along with rates of obesity. Could slimming down reduce young people's risk for malignancy?

A new study suggests that even a small amount of weight loss may cut your odds for benign growths in the colon known as adenomas, or polyps. Left unchecked, these growths can lead to

Is your plastic water bottle widening your waistline?

Could be.

In a new study, Norwegian researchers said that chemicals in common plastic products like water bottles or food packaging may put you at risk of piling on the pounds.

"Our experiments show that ordinary plastic products contain a mix of substances that can be a relevant and underestimated factor behind overweight...

Older adults who maintain a steady weight as they age are less likely to experience rapid cognitive decline, regardless of how much they weigh to start, new research suggests.

"There's something about maintaining weight and BMI that seems to reflect some health resilience," said study author Michal Schnaider Beeri, a professor of psychiatry at Icahn Mount Sinai in New York City. (BMI is an es...

Did you watch your waistline expand during lockdown? You're not alone.

Nearly half of U.S. adults piled on excess pounds during the first year of the pandemic, making a national obesity crisis even worse, a new study shows.

"Obesity was an epidemic before the pandemic, and little was known on body weight changes in...

Giving your baby fruit juice too early in life could lead to greater intake of sugary drinks later in childhood and much higher odds for obesity and tooth decay, a new study of more than 4,000 American mothers has found.

According to a team led by Edwina Yeung, of the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, introducing fruit juice to infants before they were a year ...

Becoming a couch potato as you get older goes against evolution and puts your health at risk, a new study suggests.

Humans have evolved to be active in their later years, and staying active can protect against heart disease and a number of other serious health problems, according to researchers at Harvard.

"It's a widespread idea in Western societies that as we get older, it's norma...

A new study is highlighting yet another consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic: It has likely made it even harder for kids with obesity to manage their weight.

The findings, researchers said, are no surprise. Many adults, faced with normal life being upended during the pandemic, have seen changes on the bath...

Belly fat. No one wants it, but women are much harder on themselves about extra pounds wrapped around their middle than men are, regardless of how much they weigh.

And the more they beat themselves up about their "spare tire," the more likely women are to gain weight in this high-risk area, new research suggests. Visceral (belly) fat wraps around the organs in the abdomen, and is thought ...

You've probably heard that getting better sleep can be good for your waistline. The same appears to be true for your baby.

Newborns who get more sleep and wake up less during the night are less likely to become overweight in infancy, according to a just-published study.

"While an association between insufficient sleep and weight gain is well-established in adults and older children,...

Obese people have a tougher time fighting COVID-19, even if they have a milder form of the virus, a new study finds.

Researchers looked at more than 500 patients who tested positive for COVID but didn't require hospitalization. Teens and adults who were overweight or obese had more symptoms, including cough and shortness of breath, than those of normal weight.

"Even when infected wi...

It's no secret that excess weight is bad for the heart. But a new study suggests that obese people who lose a substantial amount of weight may reverse the related cardiovascular risks.

Researchers found the odds for high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol were similar in formerly obese Americans who were now at a healthy weight and people who had always had a healthy weight.

Di...

Childhood obesity was a worrisome issue before the pandemic, and now it's alarmingly worse, new data shows.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found a "profound increase in weight gain for kids" that is "substantial and alarming," Dr. Alyson Goodman, one of the study's authors, told the Associated Press.

For the study, researchers reviewed the medical r...

America's waistline keeps widening.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 16 states now have at least 35% of their residents who are obese, a number that's nearly doubled since 2018.

The CDC's 2020 Adult Obesity Prevalence Maps now show that Delaware, Iowa, Ohio and Texas have joined Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, ...

College students often put on weight during their freshman year, and a lack of structured exercise may be largely to blame, a new study suggests.

Weight gain is so common among first-year college students that it has spawned the phrase "the freshman 15" -- though that figure is something of a myth.

More often, studies have found, college freshmen gain about 8 pounds over the academi...