Your Body's Internal Scale May Sense (and Fight) Weight Gain

The body may have an internal scale that senses how much a person weighs, so the body can regulate fat mass in response, a new study in rodents suggests.

If the findings hold up in humans, the research could pave the way to novel treatments for obesity, researchers said in the new study. The results may also provide an explanation for why sitting leads to weight gain, the researchers said.

"The weight of the body is registered in the lower extremities. If the body weight tends to increase, a signal is sent to the brain to decrease food intake and keep the body weight constant," study co-author John-Olov Jansson, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said in a statement.