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TOPLINE:

Continued weight loss at 1 year after bariatric surgery is paralleled by favourable changes in eating behaviour and food reward, whereas weight loss induced by a very low-calorie diet alone is followed by weight regain and no changes in eating behaviour at 1 year.

METHODOLOGY: 

• Study participants were 19 scheduled for sleeve gastrectomy (SG), 19 for Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), and 16 control participants on very low-energy diets for 10 weeks.
• Body weight/composition, hedonic hunger (Power of Food Scale), eating behaviour traits (Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire and Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire), and food reward and preferences (computerised behavioural task) were measured at baseline, 11 weeks, and 1 year.
• At 11 weeks, those assessments were completed by 15, 15, and 14 participants, respectively, and at 1 year, 12, 11, and 12 participants, respectively.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall, average weight was 117.8 kg at baseline and was reduced by 18.3 kg by week 11, with no significant differences between groups.
• However, between week 11 and 1 year, the control group regained weight, whereas the SG and RYBG groups continued to lose weight (+6.3 kg vs −19.4 kg and −18.7 kg, respectively).
• Control participants had an average weight of 104.4 kg at 1 year, significantly more than both the SG (79.3 kg) and RYBG (82.9 kg) groups.
• Decreases in emotional eating, hunger, disinhibition, and food reward, and increases in dietary restraint were seen at 1 year only in the bariatric surgery groups.

IN PRACTICE:

The authors concluded that, "In the present obesogenic environment, these striking differences are likely to be markedly important in the long-term [weight loss] management of individuals with severe obesity."

"Hedonic appetite and eating behaviour traits seem to be important in long-term weight management success after bariatric surgery. There is an urgent need for effective long-term strategies in conservative treatment and prevention of obesity, aiming at cognitive control of energy intake," they added.

SOURCE:

The study was conducted by Marthe Isaksen Aukan, PhD, of the Obesity Research Group, Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, and colleagues and published online on April 23, 2024 in Obesity.

LIMITATIONS:

No accounting for menstrual cycle phase. Small group of sample sizes. Self-reported data. No information on dietary intake between week 11 and 1 year. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have caused stress.

DISCLOSURE:

The study was funded by the Liaison Committee between the Central Norway Regional Health Authority and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.