The Brain's Role in Diet Outcomes and Weight Regain

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research and Harvard Medical School have found that communication in the brain changes during a diet, leading to stronger signals in the nerve cells that mediate the feeling of hunger. This may explain why people tend to eat more after a diet and regain the weight they have lost. The researchers were able to selectively inhibit the neural pathways in mice that activate AgRP neurons, leading to significantly less weight gain after the diet. The findings could help develop drugs to prevent this amplification and help maintain a reduced body weight after dieting.