The regulation of energy balance

✍ Scribed by John C. Stanley

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 151 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0956-666X
• DOI: 10.1002/lite.200900025

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Storage of excess energy as body fat happens when the human body loses its ability to match rates of energy intake to rates of energy expenditure. Studies of genetically obese mice and their human counterparts have revealed the importance of leptin: a hormone secreted by body fat which acts on the hypothalamus to inhibit energy intake and stimulate energy expenditure. Defects in the ability of leptin to inhibit energy intake are responsible for all the human congenital obesity syndromes so far identified. Leptin also shifts energy production away from carbohydrate oxidation and towards fat oxidation. A wide range of hormones secreted by the gastrointestinal system also regulate energy intake including ghrelin which stimulates it and cholecystokinin which inhibits it. The fact that energy intake can be genetically determined means that the drive to eat is not necessarily a voluntary act and this has implications for the success of strategies aimed at managing obesity.