The Thyroid Hormone Axis: Its Roles in Body Weight Regulation, Obesity, and Weight Loss

Abstract BACKGROUND Overweight and obesity are significant public health concerns that are linked to numerous negative health consequences. Physical activity is an important lifestyle behavior that contributes to body weight regulation. CONTENT Physical activity is inversely associated with weight gain and the incidence of obesity. Physical activity also contributes to additional weight loss when coupled with dietary modification, and it can result in modest weight loss when not coupled with dietary modification. Moreover, physical activity is associated with improved long-term weight loss and prevention of weight gain following initial weight loss. Current evidence supports that physical activity should be moderate to vigorous in intensity to influence body weight regulation. There is also a growing body of evidence that physical activity can be accumulated throughout the day in shorter periods of time rather than being performed during a structured and longer period, and that physical activity performed in this manner can be important for body weight regulation. SUMMARY The literature supports the inclusion of physical activity as an important lifestyle behavior for regulating body weight. There are multiple intervention approaches that may be effective for enhancing physical activity engagement within the context of weight control.

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Cholecystokinin and leptin act synergistically to reduce body weight

AJP Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology ◽

10.1152/ajpregu.2000.278.4.r882 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 278 (4) ◽

pp. R882-R890 ◽

Cited By ~ 101

Author(s):

Claire A. Matson ◽

Dana F. Reid ◽

Todd A. Cannon ◽

Robert C. Ritter

Keyword(s):

Weight Loss ◽

Body Weight ◽

Body Weight Loss ◽

Central Action ◽

Weight Regulation ◽

Body Weight Regulation ◽

Obese Gene ◽

Reduce Body Weight ◽

Rats And Mice ◽

Peripheral Action

Leptin, the product of the obese gene, reduces food intake and body weight in rats and mice, whereas administration of the gut-peptide CCK reduces meal size but not body weight. In the current experiments, we report that repeated daily combination of intracerebroventricular leptin and intraperitoneal CCK results in significantly greater loss of body weight than does leptin alone. However, leptin plus CCK treatment does not synergistically reduce the size of individual 30-min sucrose meals during this period, and the effect of leptin-CCK combination on daily chow intake, while significant, is small compared with the robust effects on body weight loss. This synergistic effect on body weight loss depends on a peripheral action of CCK and a central action of leptin. These data suggest a previously unsuspected role for CCK in body weight regulation that may not depend entirely on reduction of feeding behavior and suggest a strategy for enhancing the effects of leptin in leptin-resistant obese individuals.

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