Ever wonder how some people can work at sinful bakeries AND stay thin? Rebecca at Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat? finds out how two cupcake store owners do it… too funny! Now I know the trick.

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Remember the book, French Women Don’t Get Fat? Sadly, things have changed. A new report shows 15.1 percent of France’s women are obese and another 26 percent are overweight. Researchers say the average French person has gained almost 7 pounds over the past 12 years, and part of the reason is a change in eating habits and more fast food restaurants in the country.

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Over at Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat?, they are traveling into the future and playing mind games. It’s all about pretending to be at your weight/fitness goal. Why on earth would you do that? Find out here!

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The answer, from a new study – it depends. Researchers stress not all weight-loss podcasts are equal, and caution that the programs should be engaging and offer sound diet and exercise advice or they won’t have much benefit. More on the most effective types of podcasts for weight loss here.

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Pregnant women may want to get moving. New research finds regular exercise during pregnancy can lower a first time mom’s chances of having an overweight baby. The report shows working out at least three times a week cuts the odds of delivering a newborn that weighs too much (more than 8 pounds, 13 ounces), by about one-fourth.

Other pregnancy studies have linked a mom’s weight to an increased risk of birth defects.

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In June, it was all about athletic seals helping to get kids moving. Now, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services hopes characters from the classic “Where the Wild Things Are” can help fight childhood overweight and obesity. You’ll soon see and hear new ads with characters and scenes from the movie, which comes out next month. The campaign promotes the benefits of exercise and encourages children to move and play every day.

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We’ve talked about how easy it is to put on “recession pounds” during this tough economy. Now, a new report finds people who are badly in debt are more likely to be overweight or obese. Researchers say “overindebted” people – those who can’t pay off debts in a reasonable amount of time – are about twice as likely to be overweight as the general population and they are more than 2.5 times as likely to be obese.

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Just a few months after a report showed obesity may speed up dementia, a new study finds obese people have eight percent less brain tissue and their brains look 16 years older than those of people who are lean. Researchers say those who are classified as overweight have four percent less brain tissue and their brains seem to have aged prematurely by eight years, which puts them at a much greater risk of Alzheimer’s. The report adds you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s if you eat a healthy diet and keep your weight under control.

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Just a couple of weeks after we get some encouraging news about obesity rates in preschool kids, a new report shows the rate of severe obesity among children and teenagers has more than tripled over the past three decades. The study finds as of 2004, nearly four percent of 2- to 19-year-olds in the U.S. were severely obese. That’s up more than three-fold from 1976, and more than 70 percent from 1994.

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As a longtime health journalist, I was invited to go to the CDC’s conference on obesity prevention and control, The Weight of the Nation, this week in DC. I couldn’t make it, but will, of course, bring you some of the highlights.

At the conference today, the CDC released a study that estimates the medical cost of obesity may be as high as $147 billion a year – about double what it was in 1998. Results show overall, obese people spent $1,429 (42 percent) more for medical care in 2006 than did those at a healthy weight. You can see a list of diseases linked to obesity here.

Researchers also talked about how it’s going to take a community effort to reverse the obesity epidemic rather than an individual one.

What do you think? Is going to “take a village” to change things?

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