Diet & Health News

How Your Brain’s Response To Seeing Food May Effect Weight Loss

September 17, 2009
By J White

Food triggers or cues are not just an excuse to explain away why it is so difficult for some individuals to lose weight and keep it off. This topic has been discussed by many diet experts as a major reason for the difficulty experienced in losing weight. Now, with a report from The Miriam Hospital on brain response and food, there is scientific data to back it up.

In their study, the researchers found that a difference in brain activity patterns may explain why some people are able to maintain a significant weight loss while others regain the weight. During the study, individuals who had kept the weight off for several years were shown pictures of food, as well as obese and normal weight participants.

What happen during the tests was fascinating. Those who had kept the weight off for several years were more likely to engage the areas of the brain associated with behavioral control and visual attention when compared to obese and normal weight participants. This response suggests that successful weight loss maintainers may learn to respond differently to food cues, i.e. food triggers.

The results of these findings are significant in explaining why after losing weight, many dieters, despite their efforts, regain the weight back over the next several years.

Lead author of the study, Jeanne McCaffery, PhD, said that this also provides an intriguing complement to previous behavioral studies that suggest people who have maintained a long-term weight loss monitor their food intake closely and exhibit restraint in their food choices.

As for how the study was conducted, the researchers used functional magnetic resource imaging (fMRI), a non-invasive technique that localizes regions of the brain activated during cognition and experience, to study the brain activity of three groups of participants: 18 individuals of normal weight, 16 obese individuals, and 17 participants who have lost at least 30 lbs and had successfully maintained that weight loss for a minimum of three years.

To ensure that the participants were hungry, the subjects went on a four-hour fast. They were then shown pictures of food items, including low-calorie foods, such as whole grain cereals, salads, and fresh vegetables and fruit; high-calorie foods, such as cheeseburgers, hot dogs, French fries, ice cream, cake and cookies; and nonfood objects with similar visual complexity, texture and color, such as rocks, shrubs, bricks, trees and flowers. The MRI scan documented the participant’s brain responses to each image.

The results of the brain scan showed that those in the successful weight loss maintenance group responded differently to pictures compared to the other groups. More specifically, researchers observed strong signals in the part of the brain that is consistent with greater restraint control in response to food images and greater visual attention to food cues.

Dr. McCaffery said that it is possible that these brain responses may lead to preventive or corrective behaviors – particularly greater regulation of eating – that promote long-term weight control. She also stated that future research is needed to determine whether these responses are inherent within an individual or if they can be changed.

Even though Dr. McCaffery was not able to state scientifically that an individual can change there responses to the foods they see, this principal has been suggested by food psychologist Brian Wansink Ph.D. in his book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, and is also a principal discussed in Weight Watchers, Stop Stuffing Yourself, 7 Steps to Conquer Overeating.

The bottom line is that you can’t change the fact that you love the way certain foods taste, but you do have control over how you respond when you see them. In short, devising a favorable response that helps you restrain eating certain foods may be the final step that you need to take to lose the weight and keep it off.

Source:
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August, 2009
Lifespan (2009, September 16). Brain’s Response To Seeing Food May Be Linked To Weight Loss Maintenance. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 17, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com

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