The Hypothalamus and the caloric thermostat

[mccoy]

I came across quite a few people unable to loose significant weight even though drastically decreasing their caloric intake. The so called weight thermostat is believed to be the mechanism which regulates bodyweight homeostasis and defends fatloss. Supposedly, it may work the other way around. The article may have been already cited by AlPater.

The application to human beings is unclear, although many people are anecdotally suggesting not to decrease calories too much in weightloss diets and to 'cheat' regularly, to deceive the homeostatc mechanisms of AGRP neurons.

Application to CR is evident, some people may find unsourmontable difficulties to hit the target threshold weight linked to onset of CR.

 

Luke K Burke, Tamana Darwish, Althea R Cavanaugh, Sam Virtue, Emma Roth, Joanna Morro, Shun-Mei Liu, Jing Xia, Jeffrey W Dalley, Keith Burling, Streamson Chua, Toni Vidal-Puig, Gary J Schwartz, Clémence Blouet.

 

mTORC1 in AGRP neurons integrates exteroceptive and interoceptive food-related cues in the modulation of adaptive energy expenditure in mice. eLife, 2017; 6 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.22848

 

 

 

mTORC1 signaling in AGRP neurons responds to acute and chronic signals of energy abundance and environmental cues of food availability

AGRP neurons are essential to the control of energy balance and ideally positioned within and around the median eminence to detect circulating signals of energy availability. However, little is known about the intracellular energy-sensing signaling pathways coupling energy availability to neuronal activity in AGRP neurons. The energy-sensing mTORC1 pathway is an evolutionary-conserved neuronal nutritional and hormonal sensor that regulates hunger-driven eating and foraging (Cota et al., 2006; Blouet and Schwartz, 2012), two behaviors regulated by AGRP neurons (Aponte et al., 2011; Krashes et al., 2011; Teubner et al., 2012). We hypothesized that energy sensing through mTORC1 in AGRP neurons monitors internal energy availability to coordinate adaptive energy expenditure.