Top lipids promote weight loss, research shows

The top lipids, which form fat envelopes around a person’s neck and upper back, promote weight loss and reduce levels of triglycerides in the blood, according to a study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Boosting lipids are common in cancer therapy, Dr. Barbara Eichner, an endocrine surgeon and director of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Program at UMKC, and her colleagues studied fatty tissues from obese women undergoing radiation therapy for breast cancer. The researchers found that the highest levels of two lipids – a type of non-lipid called triacylglycerol and a type of LDL-rich lipoprotein – are associated with lower implantation force during short-term weightlessness and weight retention and better insulin absorption. That may help to explain why cancer patients lose weight faster than normal people.

“In obese patients, long-term weight loss and weight stability are both likely due to a phenomenon called transient nonstressed liposity, which basically means you eat food and have something else in your body,” Eichner said. Eichner was not associated with the study.