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

Introduction: Obesity is linked to altered activation in reward and control brain circuitry; however, the associated brain activity related to successful or unsuccessful weight loss (WL) is unclear.

Methods: Adults with obesity (N = 75) completed a baseline functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan before entering a WL intervention (ie,3-month diet and physical activity [PA] program). We conducted an exploratory analysis to identify the contributions of baseline brain activation, adherence behavior patterns, and the associated connections to WL at the conclusion of a 3-month WL intervention.

Obesity is associated with altered mid-insula functional connectivity to limbic regions underlying appetitive responses to foods.

Obesity is fundamentally a disorder of energy balance. In obese individuals, more energy is consumed than is expended, leading to excessive weight gain through the accumulation of adipose tissue. Complications arising from obesity, including cardiovascular disease, elevated peripheral inflammation, and the development of Type II diabetes, make obesity one of the leading preventable causes of morbidity and mortality.

Resting-state brain connectivity after surgical and behavioral weight loss.

Objective: Changes in food-cue neural reactivity associated with behavioral and surgical weight loss interventions have been reported. Resting functional connectivity represents tonic neural activity that may contribute to weight loss success. This study explores whether intervention type is associated with differences in functional connectivity after weight loss.

Brain function predictors and outcome of weight loss and weight loss maintenance.

Obesity rates are associated with public health consequences and rising health care costs. Weight loss interventions, while effective, do not work for everyone, and weight regain is a significant problem. Eating behavior is influenced by a convergence of processes in the brain, including homeostatic factors and motivational processing that are important contributors to overeating.

Evening hyperphagia and food motivation: a preliminary study of neural mechanisms.

Evening hyperphagia (EH; consumption of ≥25% of total daily calories after the evening meal) is a circadian delay in the pattern of daily food intake and is a core criterion of night eating syndrome (Allison et al., 2010). This preliminary study examined the brain response to food cues using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in seven obese adults with EH compared to seven obese adults without EH.

A comparison of functional brain changes associated with surgical versus behavioral weight loss.

Objective: Few studies have examined brain changes in response to effective weight loss; none have compared different methods of weight-loss intervention. Functional brain changes associated with a behavioral weight loss intervention to those associated with bariatric surgery were compared.

Design And Methods: Fifteen obese participants were recruited prior to adjustable gastric banding surgery and 16 obese participants were recruited prior to a behavioral diet intervention.