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Obesity can alter energetic responses to food restriction

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Abstract

Background

Reduction in energy expenditure during fasting and chronic food restriction is well known and represents a mechanism of energy conservation, sparing energy, and preventing excessive weight and energy loss. The present study aimed to investigate if obesity can alter the reduction in energy expenditure that occurs in response to chronic food restriction, using two different experimental models that promote distinct types of obesity.

Methods

Female Wistar rats were submitted to two models of obesity: hypercaloric diet ingestion (HD) and bilateral lesion of ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHL). Thirty days after the beginning of each treatment (HD and VMHL), the control and obese animals were subdivided in two groups that ingested for 30 days ad libitum diet or 50% of food ingested by the respective ad libitum group (control or obese). At the end of this period, the animals were euthanized, and the energy balance and body composition were determined.

Results

Obese animals (HD and VMHL) showed increase on their body fat, confirming the effectiveness of the models in obesity development. When submitted to food restriction, control and obese animals showed a significant reduction in body weight and energy, metabolizable energy intake, energy expenditure, gross food efficiency, and body fat content, when compared with their respective ad libitum groups. Energy expenditure reduction shown by obese food-restricted animals for both models was significantly lower than the one shown by non-obese food-restricted groups.

Conclusion

Obesity reduces the “sparing of energy” in food-restricted animals, suggesting that fat availability is one of the modulators of this mechanism; moreover, this physiologic adaptation should be considered in clinical nutrition protocols.

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Abbreviations

HD:

Hypercaloric diet ingestion

VMHL:

Bilateral lesion of ventromedial hypothalamus

MSG:

Monosodium glutamate

VMH:

Ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus

UNIFESP:

Universidade Federal de São Paulo

CEDEME:

Center for Development of Experimental Models

NORMO:

Normocaloric group

HYPER:

Hypercaloric group

RES:

Food restriction

CON:

Control

OB:

Obese

CAPES:

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Daniele de Sá Vido for technical assistance, and Patricia Cassiolato Tufanetto for English review.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

Vanessa Reis had a graduate student scholarship from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Fisiologia, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Botucatu, 862 -5. Andar, São Paulo, 04023-900, Brazil

    Vanessa Aparecida Brito Reis, Neila Ribeiro Silva, Sylvia Maria Affonso Silva, Sergio Luiz Cravo & Jacqueline Luz

Authors
  1. Vanessa Aparecida Brito Reis
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  2. Neila Ribeiro Silva
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  3. Sylvia Maria Affonso Silva
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  4. Sergio Luiz Cravo
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  5. Jacqueline Luz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neila Ribeiro Silva.

Ethics declarations

The experimental protocol was approved by the Ethical Research Committee of the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP; n° 1505/10) and followed the Guidelines of the Brazilian National Council for Control of Animal Experimentation, based on the Federal Law 11.794.

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Reis, V.A.B., Silva, N.R., Silva, S.M.A. et al. Obesity can alter energetic responses to food restriction. Nutrire 45, 7 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41110-019-0110-9

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