Back
Fichier principal
Journal article

How dieting makes some fatter: from a perspective of human body composition autoregulation

  • Dulloo, Abdul G. Department of Medicine/Physiology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Jacquet, Jean Department of Medicine/Physiology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Montani, Jean-Pierre Department of Medicine/Physiology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
    05.04.2012
Published in:
  • Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. - 2012, vol. 71, no. 3, p. 379-389
Obesity
Weight cycling
Weight fluctuation
Adaptive thermogenesis
English Dieting makes you fat – the title of a book published in 1983 – embodies the notion that dieting to control body weight predisposes the individual to acquire even more body fat. While this notion is controversial, its debate underscores the large gap that exists in our understanding of basic physiological laws that govern the regulation of human body composition. A striking example is the key role attributed to adipokines as feedback signals between adipose tissue depletion and compensatory increases in food intake. Yet, the relative importance of fat depletion per se as a determinant of post-dieting hyperphagia is unknown. On the other hand, the question of whether the depletion of lean tissues can provide feedback signals on the hunger–appetite drive is rarely invoked, despite evidence that food intake during growth is dominated by the impetus for lean tissue deposition, amidst proposals for the existence of protein–static mechanisms for the regulation of growth and maintenance of lean body mass. In fact, a feedback loop between fat depletion and food intake cannot explain why human subjects recovering from starvation continue to overeat well after body fat has been restored to pre-starvation values, thereby contributing to ‘fat overshooting’. In addressing the plausibility and mechanistic basis by which dieting may predispose to increased fatness, this paper integrates the results derived from re-analysis of classic longitudinal studies of human starvation and refeeding. These suggest that feedback signals from both fat and lean tissues contribute to recovering body weight through effects on energy intake and thermogenesis, and that a faster rate of fat recovery relative to lean tissue recovery is a central outcome of body composition autoregulation that drives fat overshooting. A main implication of these findings is that the risk of becoming fatter in response to dieting is greater in lean than in obese individuals.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Médecine 3ème année, Département de Médecine
Language
  • English
Classification
Dietetics, nutrition
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/302432
Statistics
Document views: 61 File downloads:
  • Proceedings_of_the_Nutrition_Society_2012_.pdf: 96