Low energy intake plus low energy expenditure (low energy flux), not energy surfeit, predicts future body fat gain.

Background: There is a paucity of studies that have prospectively tested the energy surfeit theory of obesity with the use of objectively estimated energy intake and energy expenditure in humans. An alternative theory is that homeostatic regulation of body weight is more effective when energy intake and expenditure are both high (high energy flux), implying that low energy flux should predict weight gain.

Objective: We aimed to examine the predictive relations of energy balance and energy flux to future weight gain and tested whether results were replicable in 2 independent samples.

Cognitive control over visual food cue saliency is greater in reduced-overweight/obese but not in weight relapsed women: An EEG study.

Objective: Poor weight management may relate to a reduction in neurobehavioural control over food intake and heightened reactivity of the brain's neural reward pathways. Here we explore the neurophysiology of food-related visual cue processing in weight reduced and weight relapsed women by assessing differences in cortical arousal and attentional processing using a food-Stroop paradigm.

Methods: 51 women were recruited into 4 groups: reduced-weight participants (RED, n=14) compared to BMI matched low-weight controls (LW-CTL, n=18); and weight relapsed participants (REL, n=10) compared to BMI matched high-weight controls (HW-CTL, n=9).

Electrophysiological indices of visual food cue-reactivity. Differences in obese, overweight and normal weight women.

Heightened food cue-reactivity in overweight and obese individuals has been related to aberrant functioning of neural circuitry implicated in motivational behaviours and reward-seeking. Here we explore the neurophysiology of visual food cue-reactivity in overweight and obese women, as compared with normal weight women, by assessing differences in cortical arousal and attentional processing elicited by food and neutral image inserts in a Stroop task with record of EEG spectral band power and ERP responses. Results show excess right frontal (F8) and left central (C3) relative beta band activity in overweight women during food task performance (indicative of pronounced early visual cue-reactivity) and blunted prefrontal (Fp1 and Fp2) theta band activity in obese women during office task performance (suggestive of executive dysfunction).

Socio-cultural, environmental and behavioural determinants of obesity in black South African women.

South Africa (SA) is undergoing a rapid epidemiological transition and has the highest prevalence of obesity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with black women being the most affected (obesity prevalence 31.8%). Although genetic factors are important, socio-cultural, environmental and behavioural factors, as well as the influence of socio-economic status, more likely explain the high prevalence of obesity in black SA women.

The role of adipose tissue in insulin resistance in women of African ancestry.

Women of African ancestry, particularly those living in industrialized countries, experience a disproportionately higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) compared to their white counterparts. Similarly, obesity and insulin resistance, which are major risk factors for T2D, are greater in black compared to white women. The exact mechanisms underlying these phenomena are not known.