2023-04-26 18:00:00
On 26.04.2023 at 08:00
Modified on 04.26.2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Researchers have succeeded in limiting the yoyo effect, or regaining the weight lost during a diet, in mice. Because it all happens in the brain. Explanations.
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L’yo-yo effect, it is the fact of automatically regaining weight following having done a low-calorie diet during which one is deprived. Researchers believe they have found the cause of this curious phenomenon, and it lies in our brain.
The body in “survival” mode during a diet
Because it is not because you ingest too many calories at the end of your diet that you regain weight. This is because your body, surprised by this sudden decrease in nutrients, has started in survival mode. Physiological changes take place during this period of restriction, but once it is over, the body will restock to prepare for any further shortages.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany and Harvard Medical School in the United States wanted to know precisely what was going on in our brains to trigger this yoyo effect. According to their results published in the journal Cell Metabolism and relayed by a communiqué, all this is the work of a group of neurons that push us to regain the lost weight.
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The specialists observed the changes in the brain circuits of the mice put on a diet. It turns out that their AgPR neurons, located in thehypothalamus, region of the brain that plays a role in controlling the feeling of hunger, are activated by other neighboring neurons, which wake up during weight loss caused by calorie restriction. In short, this situation creates a stimulation of our appetite, and induces weight gain.
Towards a miracle solution? Maybe not
What’s worse is that this altered brain communication that makes us hungrier doesn’t stop with diet, but can be installed over time. But these discoveries may well allow scientists to develop a solution to this phenomenon. They actually succeeded in inhibit the neural pathways responsible for this feeling of hunger in mice, which made it possible to limit post-diet weight gain. “In the long term, our goal is to find therapies that would help maintain the body weight achieved while dieting.” assures Henning Fenselau, researcher at the Max Planck Institute and author of the study. “To achieve this, we will continue to explore ways to block the mechanisms that reinforce this neural pathway in humans.. ” We still have to make sure that this solution brought to light in mice can be the same for us. In the meantime, there is no no quick fix : avoid diets, prefer a balanced diet, and physical activity.
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