Shapeless Body, Clueless Mind

“Obese people are not necessarily lacking will power.”

An international study has discovered the reason why some people who eat a high-fat diet remain slim, yet others pile on weight. A high-fat diet causes brain cells to become insulated from the body, preventing vital signals which tell the body to stop eating and burn energy from reaching the brain efficiently. 

The research, led by Professor Michael Cowley of the Monash Obesity and Diabetes Institute, Australia, showed that support cells in the brain developed overgrowth as a result of a high-fat diet. This prevented regular brain cells (the melanocortin system or POMC neurons) from connecting with other neural mechanisms which determine appetite and energy expenditure. 

According to Cowley, the study finds that, “Obese people are not necessarily lacking will power. Their brains do not know how full [they are] or how much fat they have stored, so the brain does not tell the body to stop refuelling. Subsequently, their body’s ability to lose weight is significantly reduced.”