2023-04-19 15:35:00
Maintaining weight loss over the long term is an uphill battle. And the hormonal, metabolic and neurological factors that regulate body weight mean it might be more a matter of biology than just willpower.
One of the most frustrating aspects for many is calorie restriction, with dieters regaining half of all lost pounds within two years, and regarding 80% following five years. Some may perceive it as a personal failure and can have long-term physical, emotional and psychological effects, according to what was published by New Atlas, quoting the Cell Metabolism journal.
good news
In this regard, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolic Research MPIMR and Harvard Medical School succeeded in identifying an important change in the neural pathways in the brain that occur when dieting, with much stronger signals transmitted to the nerves that mediate the feeling of hunger.
The ability to block these signals might help scientists develop treatments that better help people maintain their weight.
Weight loss – expressive
changes in the brain
“Research mainly focuses on the short-term effects following dieting,” said Henning Fencelo, MPIMR researcher who led the study. But what the latest study was keen to focus on was monitoring changes in the brain in the long term.
Previous studies showed how stimulating neurons leads to a sharp increase in food consumption. They discovered that neural pathways leading to AgRP neurons were amplified when lab rats were on a diet and remained at those amplified levels, with the result that signals of extreme hunger caused increased food intake and faster weight gain.
Expression of hunger
hunger neurons
“This work increases understanding of how neural wiring controls hunger,” said co-author Bradford Lowell of Harvard Medical School.
He continued, “We previously discovered a major group of primary neurons that synapse physically with and excite AgRP hunger neurons.
In our current study, we found that physical neurotransmitter connectivity between these two neurons, in a process called synaptic plasticity, increases dramatically with diet and weight loss, resulting in prolonged excessive hunger.
Diet healthy diet
Less increase in body weight
When the researchers blocked the communication between those neurons, AgRP activity decreased and the lab rats’ response to food intake was more regulated. Not surprisingly, this leads to significantly less weight gain.
Vincillo explained that the results of the study provide an explanation and provide an opportunity to reduce the impact of the oscillating effect of caloric restriction. In the long term, the goal is to develop therapies in humans that can help maintain body weight following dieting.
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