Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Executive Summary
  • Published:

Executive summary

International Journal of Obesity Supplements volume 2, pages S1–S3 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

On 13 September 2011, a group of Stanford researchers convened an Obesity Summit under the title The Heterogeneity of Obesity: Implications for Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment. The objective was to highlight the breadth and depth of obesity-related research that was being done on the Stanford campus across a broad range of disciplines. The disciplines represented included bariatric surgery, behavioral science, chemical and systems biology, community-based participatory research, epidemiology, endocrinology, health psychology, immunology, microbiology, nutrition, pathology, pediatrics, physical activity and psychiatry. The target audience was primarily the Stanford research community. The timing was scheduled to coincide with the preparation for a campus-wide initiative to apply to become an NIH/NIDDK Nutrition Obesity Research Center; an application that benefited from the discussions held and colleagues assembled at the Summit was successfully submitted in November 2011. Funding for the Summit was generously provided by the Nutrilite Health Institute, including sufficient support to publish the proceedings as a journal supplement. This is the context for the convening of the Summit and the subsequent publication of the individual presentations given.

After recruiting speakers broadly from across the many disciplines represented at Stanford, we deemed it practical to group the speakers into three main domains—a basic science perspective, a prevention/intervention perspective and a clinical perspective. A brief executive summary of these topics within each group follows.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Ogden CL . Prevalence of obesity and trends in the distribution of body mass index among US adults, 1999–2010. JAMA 2012; 307: 491–497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM . Prevalence of obesity and trends in body mass index among US children and adolescents, 1999–2010. JAMA 2012; 307: 483–490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Knowler WC, Barrett-Connor E, Fowler SE, Hamman RF, Lachin JM, Walker EA et al. Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin. N Engl J Med 2002; 346: 393–403.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Douketis JD, Macie C, Thabane L, Williamson DF . Systematic review of long-term weight loss studies in obese adults: clinical significance and applicability to clinical practice. Int J Obes (Lond) 2005; 29: 1153–1167.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kraschnewski JL, Boan J, Esposito J, Sherwood NE, Lehman EB, Kephart DK et al. Long-term weight loss maintenance in the United States. Int J Obes (Lond) 2010; 34: 1644–1654.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wing RR, Phelan S . Long-term weight loss maintenance. Am J Clin Nutr 2005; 82 (1 Suppl): 222S–225S.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bouchard C, Tremblay A, Despres JP, Nadeau A, Lupien PJ, Theriault G et al. The response to long-term overfeeding in identical twins. N Engl J Med 1990; 322: 1477–1482.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Publication of this article was partially sponsored by Nutrilite Health Institute, a worldwide collaboration of experts who are dedicated to helping people achieve optimal health—through research, education and practical, personalized solutions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    C D Gardner

Authors
  1. C D Gardner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C D Gardner.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Dr Gardner recently received research support from the Hass Avocado Board and declares no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gardner, C. Executive summary. Int J Obes Supp 2 (Suppl 1), S1–S3 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijosup.2012.1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijosup.2012.1

Keywords

Search

Advanced search

Quick links