When people who are overweight go on a diet and start exercising to lose weight, sometimes the weight comes back; however, could this be because there is a change in the area of the brain that controls appetite and weight gain?
New research has shown that there could be a connection in between gaining weight and the brain. According to NPR:
And those changes might start within a day of eating a high-fat meal, according to scientists who are trying to figure out why it's so hard to lose weight. They report seeing changes in the brain after just one day on a fatty diet.
Michael Schwartz, a professor and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence at the University of Washington, has done research on rats and mice. He fed both the rats and mice a high-fat diet, and found there was an inflammation of the hypothalamus after just one day on a high-fat diet. He was researching the hypothalamus because it regulates hunger and body weight. In earlier studies, in obese lab animals has shown that they have an inflammed hypothalamus.
Yes, this research was done on rodents but Mr. Schwartz also looked at MRI scans from people who are overweight and the brain showed similar activity to the rats and mice. The results of the study was posted in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
This research might help researchers understand why some people have a hard time losing weight; however, for the time being there is help for obesity. Surgery to aid in weight loss has become very popular and New Orleans has a Bariatric Surgery Center at Ochsner. There is the LapBand, gastric bypass, and several other procedures that have provided positive outcomes for people who have a hard time losing weight.
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