Associations of Brain Reactivity to Food Cues with Weight Loss, Protein Intake and Dietary Restraint during the PREVIEW Intervention

Abstract

The objective was to assess the effects of a weight loss and subsequent weight maintenance period comprising two diets differing in protein intake, on brain reward reactivity to visual food cues. Brain reward reactivity was assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging in 27 overweight/obese individuals with impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance (HOMA-IR: 3.7 ± 1.7; BMI: 31.8 ± 3.2 kg/m2; fasting glucose: 6.4 ± 0.6 mmol/L) before and after an 8-week low energy diet followed by a 2-year weight maintenance period, with either high protein (HP) or medium protein (MP) dietary guidelines. Brain reactivity and possible relationships with protein intake, anthropometrics, insulin resistance and eating behaviour were assessed. Brain reactivity, BMI, HOMA-IR and protein intake did not change differently between the groups during the intervention. In the whole group, protein intake during weight maintenance was negatively related to changes in high calorie images>low calorie images (H > L) brain activation in the superior/middle frontal gyrus and the inferior temporal gyrus (p < 0.005, corrected for multiple comparisons). H > L brain activation was positively associated with changes in body weight and body-fat percentage and inversely associated with changes in dietary restraint in multiple reward, gustatory and processing regions (p < 0.005, corrected for multiple comparisons). In conclusion, changes in food reward-related brain activation were inversely associated with protein intake and dietary restraint during weight maintenance after weight loss and positively associated with changes in body weight and body-fat percentage.

Modeling interactions between brain function, diet adherence behaviors, and weight loss success

“…Results from this study indicate that baseline activation to appetizing food pictures in the left middle frontal gyrus and right middle frontal gyrus predict future weight loss during a weight management intervention. This finding is consistent with previous work implicating the role of the prefrontal cortex in control and self‐control processes needed to regulate eating behavior and to lose weight . This research is, to our knowledge, the first to model connections between brain activation and adherence behaviors leading to weight loss.…”

Nutritional Strategies in Prediabetes: A Scoping Review of Recent Evidence

“…High-protein diets (25–30% of daily energy requirements) were compared with diets of lower protein content (15% of daily energy requirements) in two RCTs [ 93 , 110 ]. Interestingly, Stentz et al [ 93 ] found complete remission of prediabetes in the high-protein group.…”

“…Thirty of 52 studies (57.7%) that investigated changes in weight and/or BMI, reported significant improvement postintervention [ 17 , 22 , 24 , 26 , 27 , 29 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 40 , 43 , 58 , 59 , 61 , 65 , 71 , 74 , 77 , 84 , 87 , 88 , 90 , 93 , 98 , 99 , 101 , 102 , 109 , 110 , 111 ]. Similar proportions of statistically significant findings were observed for the waist and hip circumferences and/or waist-to-hip ratio (17/32 studies, 53.1%) [ 17 , 18 , 24 , 26 , 32 , 33 , 38 , 58 , 61 , 62 , 84 , 87 , 88 , 101 , 102 , 108 , 109 ] as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure (16/31 studies, 51.6%) [ 17 , ...…”

“…Similar proportions of statistically significant findings were observed for the waist and hip circumferences and/or waist-to-hip ratio (17/32 studies, 53.1%) [ 17 , 18 , 24 , 26 , 32 , 33 , 38 , 58 , 61 , 62 , 84 , 87 , 88 , 101 , 102 , 108 , 109 ] as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure (16/31 studies, 51.6%) [ 17 , 31 , 32 , 38 , 40 , 62 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 93 , 98 , 102 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 111 ]. Fat mass, fat-free mass and/or percent body fat were detailed by 22 studies, of which 15 (68.2%) demonstrated positive outcomes [ 17 , 18 , 29 , 67 , 69 , 71 , 74 , 77 , 93 , 98 , 101 , 102 , 109 , 110 , 111 ].…”

“…Of 79 studies investigating plasma glucose levels, 48 (60.8%) found significant improvements in one or more of the following categories: FPG, 2hPG and area under the postprandial curve (AUC) over variable timeframes up to 180 min [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 37 , 38 , 40 , 41 , 44 , 49 , 50 , 52 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 64 , 65 , 74 , 76 , 78 , 79 , 81 , 85 , 88 , 90 , 93 , 98 , 102 , 103 , 105 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 ]. Likewise, serum insulin levels were measured with similar classifications and recorded a comparable number of significant results (42/68 studies, 61.8%) [ …”