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Response to comments on “The role of appetite-related hormones, adaptive thermogenesis, perceived hunger and stress in long-term weight-loss maintenance: a mixed methods study”

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 74, pages 1115–1116 (2020)Cite this article

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We thank Prof. Martins for comments on our paper [1]. Prof. Martins is entirely correct concerning the description of Fig. 4c: this oversight in the original manuscript was missed by all co-authors. To clarify, following diet-induced weight loss, a smaller reduction in plasma GLP-1 concentration was weakly correlated with greater weight regain at 2 years. This should be reflected in the “Abstract”, “Discussion” and “Conclusion” sections.

We agree with Prof. Martins that most studies of appetite and GLP-1 have primarily been concerned with postprandial values and meal-induced satiety. It is a novel feature of our study to observe that baseline (and post weight loss) fasting GLP-1 concentrations were associated with weight regain at 2 years. These findings may be valuable but require further investigation within larger, well-controlled trials. Studies in other contexts would suggest that fasting gut appetite hormones may also have relevance for energy homoeostasis. For example, studies using functional MRI have indicated that activation of key reward-related areas of the brain is reduced in response to images of highly palatable foods, which seem to occur more so in the fasted than the fed state, and likely mediated by satiety hormones [2]. Whether this is restricted to weight loss achieved by bariatric surgery is unclear, but it is plausible that higher (rather than lower) concentrations of GLP-1 after diet-induced weight loss could reduce the desire to eat during weight-loss maintenance. Higher fasting GLP-1 concentrations have also been associated with higher resting metabolic rate and fat oxidation [3], so mechanisms attenuating weight regain may act on both sides of the energy balance equation.

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Fig. 1

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Nutrition, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    George Thom, Naomi Brosnahan, Michael E. J. Lean & Dalia Malkova

  2. Faculty of Kinesiology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada

    Stephan U. Dombrowski

  3. Department of Clinical Nutrition, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

    Yasmin Y. Algindan

  4. Department of Radiology, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, UK

    M. Rosario Lopez-Gonzalez & Giles Roditi

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  1. George Thom
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Thom, G., Dombrowski, S.U., Brosnahan, N. et al. Response to comments on “The role of appetite-related hormones, adaptive thermogenesis, perceived hunger and stress in long-term weight-loss maintenance: a mixed methods study”. Eur J Clin Nutr 74, 1115–1116 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-0651-2

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