What a break through in science! They figured out that if you eat less you will be hungrier. If you starve yourself you will be very hungry.

As a scientist in the area of research, I'm amazed out how poorly written this is. This sends entirely the wrong message and lacks so much information. I find it disappointing that anyone would let this be published as it is an insult to the scientific community and misleads the public.

What an insult to science!

As a scientist in this field I'm amazed that anyone would publish such a poorly written article. For one, there are many many other signals involved in this process, not just AgRP (which by the way, has been known about for quite some years/decades now). Also, there are different signals for hunger and satiation, not just one. And finally, how exactly does the author think that a method for knocking out genes can be used on humans? Do they even understand what that means? Doubtful.

This is an insult to the scientific field and horrifyingly irresponsible journalism to the public. You should be ashamed.

I do not agree with the author. Two weeks ago I started with the traditional diet. I use the diet plan on the website <a href="" target=_blank> . Already show the first successes. Both remain in the traditional method - eat less and you lose weight.

Don't Diet!! Change your eating habits instead. Keep eating some of the things you love and can't live without but eat LESS!! DON'T SUPER-SIZE! Eat 5 or 6 small meals and snacks a day (not the high fat kind). You really can live without soft drinks. Even "diet" soft-drinks are worthless and inhibit weight loss. I am 60ish, 5'7" and 120 lbs. I know what I'm talking about. I drink wine and other alcoholic beverages (but not to excess). I eat desert regularly, peanut butter almost every day, love salads, fish, yogurt, protein bars, 100% juices and coffee.

So now people have another excuse for giving up when trying to change their lifestyle toward a healthier life.

"Doctors said my brain makes me do it, I can't help myself!" *stuffs cookies into mouth*

Yes, your brain tells you you're hungry. Drink some water. Go for a brisk walk. Eat reasonably. There is no excuse for not being "fit." You don't have to be any particular weight or shape, just be healthy.

I've had this problem for many years now, only eat 1 meal a day, it's the way your brain is wired, I believe, ever since brain surgery, I have very little interest in eating, which is fine by me, cheap way of living.

After spinal surgery in December, I found that my back acts like a scale. If I'm over 170 lbs, lots of pain. I still have 20-30% numbness in a leg and took a drug to give me back that sensation. Within 3 days my weight jumped 20 lbs. After almost a month, I am about to see the 160's again. 2 weeks before the surgery I was close to 190 lbs and got it below 170 in time for it knowing that the less I weighed, the better I would recover, which it was. I had a turkey sandwich Sunday, and almost 50 hrs of just fluids, I had a bowl of chicken soup. I may have had feelings of hunger, but the pain was much more intense and not eating was the only choice I had. It was not will power. I'm trying to get to 155 in the hope that I'll get my feeling back. In any case I feel a hellava lot better than at 184. I am 5'6". I'll wait the 2 years for my feeling to come back rather than 6 months with that medication (gabapentin). Besides, I get a handicap placard till it comes back. Love them parking spots.

 WTF? Anyone understand this part of the article??:

When the researchers created mice whose brain cells couldn't send out the signals, or appetite-increasing proteins, and these mice were leaner and ate less than normal after being starved.

As a young teen in the 60's I read a doctor's column in some magazine about fat people and dieting. He swore that someday soon nutritionists and diet experts would finally have to face reality and admit that some people's bodies cannot be tricked into losing weight simply by dieting. He believed the brain in some overweight people kicked into high gear and began releasing the "feed me" hormones the article talks about with the mice and many people can't overcome it. When they manage to endure it for several days their metabolism slumps to save the fat and they are miserable. He saw this in many of his patients and the reason I remember it is I knew a young woman, an aquaintance of my brother, who couldn't lose even two pounds if she starved herself for a week. I'm convinced she was a victim of the "feed me" syndrome. The doctor couldn't prove many of his theories back then but turns out he was on target. Point: Not all overweight people are big eaters, their brain won't let them diet.

Just eat ice cream all day long....

IT is not your brain's fault. It is the product of rich visuals at the store and on television. Then when you buy the product touted as refreshing, such as Coke, you become thirsty again because it is full of sugar and gum arabic and yellow esther and resins, These things coat your tongue and make your mouth feel sticky whereas water and genuine fruit juice such as watermelon and grapefruit satisfies you immediately and provides salts and vitamins that you lose or you crave because of a poor diet.

The sugar rush and the feeling of sleepiness afterwards is what makes you crave donuts and rich foods like alfredo, pizza, and spaghetti, burritos. The hidden salt in the bread is dangerous and makes you tired also, so this breaded food is a never ending routine.

Try eating almonds in between meals and fresh roasted peanuts in the shell, no salt. And avoid hamburger places with a high percentage of hamburger bun. Fries will only make you thirsty so that means you crave a Coke. This is an unhealthy circular routine.

Try salmon for a filling meal, add macaroni and cheese and steam some spinach on top of the boiling water for the macaroni for a healthy side item

It looks like we have a new crop of developing congressmen!

Ok, I have read so many of the "studies" on weight gain, eating habits, Fast Food calories etc...I cannot believe the rudeness and ignorance that people have against those that are not in pristine condition. It is so disheartening to hear people tell the "fatso's" (as I have seen many times) to stop eating junk food, and excersize. I do believe there is a chemical imbalance in the brain of over-weight and obese people. Do you think they really want to be like that? My husband struggles everyday with being over-weight. He has tried everything. I have encouraged him, gotten angry with him and bribed him to lose weight. When people say eat right and quit jamming your face with food is like telling a depressed person to snap out of it, a smoker to just quit, gambler to stop betting and a bulimic person to eat. These are all powerful addictions that you don't just quit. Telling someone to eat walnuts in between meals and drink water and walk 42 miles a night does not do anything for the over weight. It is a disease people!! Most obese people need counseling to lose weight and keep it off. Stop with the hurtful comments and needless advice. If you can't, then the next time you come across an obese person face to face, tell them what you think right to them. Go ahead and see how ugly a person you are when you see the look in their eyes and the shame and deep pain you have just administered. For some reason the callous people against the over-weight don't think the obese have feelings about their condition. I just don't get it!!!

I talked to a man today who had lost 60 lbs. on a liiquid diet augmented with non-starchy green veggies. He paid $200/week to a diet group. Losing the weight cost him over $4000, while the protein drinks could've be bought for about $700. When I told my doctor that I wanted to lose weight on a similar diet, he said that the caloric intake was too low and that I would have to be monitored; he referred me to a diet group similar to the one the man had attended. I do not understand why my doctor can't monitor me and let me buy the protein drinks at Costco. I don't have $4000 to lose weight! I am struggling with Type II diabetes and no one is monitoring, on a weekly basis, the dozen pills a day that are prescribed for that and other health challenges. It is left up to me. But drink protein drinks to lose weight? I have to pay $200/week for THAT?

There are two aspects to this article and research.

First, for "Modern Medicine" to address the problem of over eating and obesity, they need to understand the causes and triggers associated with this condition. This research addresses that issue. For people that are actually medically sick, this could be very important.

Unfortunately, most people aren't really, truly, honestly, medically sick, they just eat too much of the wrong foods. Many have poor will power and most are poorly educated by traditional nutritional channels as to what is truly healthy for our body. Our modern society (primarily in the USA) thinks it is acceptable to eat all of the grains and processed foods we find on store shelves.

I would assert that our body is designed to be healthy if given the proper nourishment.

For example, if I eat too many grains and processed foods I have symptoms of diabetes, fibromyalgia, poor brain function, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel, bronchitis, enteric and peripheral neuropathy and a host of other debilitating and painful illnesses. Per the doctors I should be on over 10 medications. By correcting my FDA approved "good balanced recommended diet" to one that is a nutritionally appropriate diet for humans, I am off all medications and can function normally with very few symptoms.

I will repeat. Our body is designed to be healthy if we eat and drink a proper nutritionally functional diet.

Pills and surgery aren't the answer for a poor diet. We are learning, we just aren't there yet

I’m 53 & have dieted since age 13 when I lost 50 lbs. on a weight watchers diet. In the early 70’s weight watchers tended to be a moderately low carbohydrate & moderately low calorie diet. Similar to how I eat as a 53 year old. It is difficult to pinpoint why I was overweight at such a young age. I was constantly hungry. But my hunger became out of control in a dangerous way. Within weeks of reaching my goal weight of 130 lbs; 5 pounds above the recommended ideal weight for my 5’3’ height, I began a pattern of binge eating. Within one year I had gained all the weight back plus 10 lbs which put me at 190 lbs. At age16, I tried again. I went back on the weight watchers diet.

This was in the mid to late 70’s and exercise, particularly jogging, began to be recommended with dieting. I was too heavy to jog so I walked. Within the first 20 pounds of weight loss, I found myself unable to bear the hunger and constant desire to eat. I became preoccupied with food. Unfortunately, I began secretly purging. I lost the weight getting back to my goal weight of 130lbs, but now I was using induced vomiting along with my dieting and exercise to maintain my ideal weight.

I have been in a battle of recovery ever since. My current eating disorders counselor has recommended a higher protein and higher fat diet which I have followed for the last 13 years. She recommended this life style of eating because of the satiety produced from protein and fats. It has been helpful in reducing my binge purge patterns. I have gone for long periods of abstinence from purging, sometimes several years. Slow predictable weight gain is usually what lures me back into the binge purge cycle.

I’m currently in a long period of abstinence recovery, but In order to maintain a comfortable weight of 140 to150 lbs., requires me to exercise 2 hours, daily. I walk, as well as do some strength and resistance exercise. I eat no starches or grains. I eat lean meat, dairy, nuts seeds, vegetables that are high color and high water content, healthy fats and fruit. I don’t count calories but when I occasionally journal my food I find I consume an average of 2500 to 3000 calories a day.

After 40 years bondage to diet exercise and counseling, I welcome a safe solution to obesity if mankind is blessed to have science eventually find on. It is not hard to understand that an overweight teen, after the success and approval of obtaining a desirable weight would go to dangerous extremes to , once again have that success after the social shame of failure and regaining weight. Even now, I find myself, just not able to bear seeing myself move towards a body weight over 160 lbs. When my weight rebounds to the 150’s, I endure long periods of walking and weight training above my usual 2 hours, in order to bring my body weight back to the safe mid 140s’. This takes an enormous amount of productive time and energy. I have not worked full time in years. I can only handle part time work in order to have enough time and opportunity to maintain my comfortable weight.

I pray on a regular basis for God to grant man wisdom to discover a safe and manageable way to conquer obesity. Pharmaceuticals always have risks. My mom and sister, though shorter in height than me, have at times, weighed over 200 lbs. My mom passed away on 2009 but both have been on medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. As crazy and overwhelming my diet and exercise prison is, I currently have none of those physical challenges. Until a real breakthrough is discovered that will help we obese people and people with a propensity for obesity to manage our weight safely and sanely, I will work my second part time job of weight management and press on as I try to function and achieve some life goals with the little time and energy I can muster in my daily grind.

I’m 53 & have dieted since age 13 when I lost 50 lbs. on
a weight watchers diet. In the early 70’s weight watchers tended to be a moderately low carbohydrate & moderately low calorie diet. Similar to how I eat as a 53 year old. It is difficult to pinpoint why I was overweight at such a young age. I was constantly hungry. But my hunger became out of control in a dangerous way. Within weeks of reaching my goal weight of 130 lbs; 5 pounds above the recommended ideal weight for my 5’3’ height, I began a pattern of binge eating. Within one year I had gained all the weight back plus 10 lbs which put me at 190 lbs. At age16, I tried again. I went back on the weight watchers diet.

This was in the mid to late 70’s and exercise, particularly jogging, began to be recommended with dieting. I was too heavy to jog so I walked. Within the first 20 pounds of weight loss, I found myself unable to bear the hunger and constant desire to eat. I became preoccupied with food. Unfortunately, I began secretly purging. I lost the weight getting back to my goal weight of 130lbs, but now I was using induced vomiting along with my dieting and exercise to maintain my ideal weight.

I have been in a battle of recovery ever since. My current eating disorders counselor has recommended a higher protein and higher fat diet which I have followed for the last 13 years. She recommended this life style of eating because of the satiety produced from protein and fats. It has been helpful in reducing my binge purge patterns. I have gone for long periods of abstinence from purging, sometimes several years. Slow predictable weight gain is usually what lures me back into the binge purge cycle.

I’m currently in a long period of abstinence recovery, but In order to maintain a comfortable weight of 140 to150 lbs., requires me to exercise 2 hours, daily. I walk, as well as do some strength and resistance exercise. I eat no starches or grains. I eat lean meat, dairy, nuts seeds, vegetables that are high color and high water content, healthy fats and fruit. I don’t count calories but when I occasionally journal my food I find I consume an average of 2500 to 3000 calories a day.

After 40 years bondage to diet exercise and counseling, I welcome a safe solution to obesity if mankind is blessed to have science eventually find on. It is not hard to understand that an overweight teen, after the success and approval of obtaining a desirable weight would go to dangerous extremes to , once again have that success after the social shame of failure and regaining weight. Even now, I find myself, just not able to bear seeing myself move towards a body weight over 160 lbs. When my weight rebounds to the 150’s, I endure long periods of walking and weight training above my usual 2 hours, in order to bring my body weight back to the safe mid 140s’. This takes an enormous amount of productive time and energy. I have not worked full time in years. I can only handle part time work in order to have enough time and opportunity to maintain my comfortable weight.

Ipray on a regular basis for God to grant man wisdom to discover a safe and manageable way to conquer obesity. Pharmaceuticals always have risks. My mom and sister, though shorter in height than me, have at times, weighed over 200 lbs. My mom passed away on 2009 but both have been on medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. As crazy and overwhelming my diet and exercise prison is, I currently have none of those physical challenges. Until a real breakthrough is discovered that will help we obese people and people with a propensity for obesity to manage our weight safely and sanely, I will work my second part time job of weight management and press on as I try to function and achieve some life goals with the little time and energy I can muster in my daily grind.