Intermittent energy restriction for weight loss leads to coordinated changes across the brain, gut, and microbiome axis.
Obesity now affects more than one billion people worldwide, and it is linked to higher risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers. Yet keeping weight off is notoriously difficult because the body’s internal systems, including gut physiology, hormones, and the brain, can work together to resist long-term change.
One popular approach, called intermittent energy restriction (IER), alternates days of relative fasting with days of eating as usual.
“Here we show that an IER diet changes the human brain-gut-microbiome axis. The observed changes in the gut microbiome and in the activity in addition-related brain regions during and after weight loss are highly dynamic and coupled over time,” said last author Dr. Qiang Zeng, a researcher at the Health Management Institute of the PLA General Hospital in Beijing.
The fast track to weight loss
To examine what shifts during IER, the researchers analyzed stool samples using metagenomics, took blood measurements, and used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They tracked changes in gut microbiome composition, physiological markers, serum composition, and brain activity in 25 obese Chinese women and men following an IER plan. Participants were about 27 years old on average, with a BMI ranging from 28 to 45.
