Struggling to lose weight? Your brain structure could be to blame

Can’t stick to a diet? Your brain structure could be to blame: MRI scans reveal some people have stronger ‘self-control’ regions – but there ARE ways to strengthen yours

• Researchers looked at two areas of the brain, one linked to behavioral control and the other linked to desire
• Participants that had the strongest signals coming from the region that plays a role in self-control were the most successful in losing weight 
• Unlike previous studies, they found that changing levels of hormones linked to appetite had no effect on weight loss  
• The researchers say cognitive behavioral therapy could help people with weaker control become successful dieters

If you’re struggling to lose weight, your brain structure might be to blame, a new study has found.

Brain scans showed that some people have stronger signals coming from the region of the brain that plays a role in self-control, which in turn makes them the most successful at sticking to a diet.

Until now, most evidence has suggested that an imbalance in hormones increasing desire to eat deserves most of the blame for people falling off the weight-loss wagon.

But the team from McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, says their findings add another layer: that activity in the brain’s ‘control’ region overrides these hormones – but they insist there are therapeutic techniques to help people with weaker control become successful dieters.

A new study has found that those who have stronger signals coming from the region of the brain that plays a role in self-control are the most successful at losing weight (file image) 

For the study, the researchers recruited 24 participants and studied them at a weight-loss clinic for three months.

The adults underwent a functional MRI (fMRI) of regions of their brain including the lateral prefrontal cortex, which is involved in behavioral control, and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, which is linked to decision-making and desire.

Next, the participants were all put on a weight-loss diet where they were restricted to 1,200 calories per day.

They were shown pictures of both appetizing foods and scenery while researchers studied the brain activity as they looked at the pictures.

When the subjects looked particularly at pictures of high-calorie food, the region of the brain linked to desire became more active on the fMRI.

Researchers also looked at scans of the participants’ brains one month later and three months later.

Throughout the course of the study, signals from the regions associated with desire went down overall, but they declined the most in people who were the most successful at losing weight.

Inversely, signals from the portion of the brain linked to self-control increased over the same time period.

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‘What we found is that, in humans, the control of body weight is dependent largely on the areas of the brain involved in self-control and self-regulation,’ said Dr Alain Dagher, a professor of psychology at McGill University.

‘That area of the brain has the ability to take into account long-term information, such as the desire to be healthy, in order to control immediate desires.’

The researchers also looked at levels of two hormones that are linked to appetite, leptin and ghrelin. Ghrelin increases appetite while leptin, sometimes called the satiety hormone, suppresses appetite.  

They found that levels of ghrelin increased while levels of leptin decreased for the entire three-month period, but that these changes had no effect on how much weight participants lost.

Dr Dagher says this shows that it is brain activity in regions associated with control and desire – not hormones – that plays a critical role in weight loss.

But he adds there are ways to change brain structure to become better at exercising self-control.

One way is through cognitive behavioral therapy, which works on changing unhelpful beliefs, attitudes and behavior, improving self-regulation and devising new coping strategies. 

‘Cognitive behavioral therapy may be helpful, particularly when stress is involved in leading to overeating,’ Dr Dagher said,

‘Stress disrupts the lateral prefrontal cortex control mechanism, but you may be able train people to seek a different strategy.’

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