New weight-loss intervention targets instinctive desire to eat

Approximately 74% of adults are living with overweight or obesity. Behavioral weight loss programs, that include calorie counting, have been the go-to treatment these days. However not everyone responds, and most people regain the lost weight.

According to a team led by University of California San Diego experts and published in the JAMA Network Open, people who are highly responsive to food lost more weight and, importantly, were more successful at keeping the pounds off using a new alternative weight-loss intervention that targets improving a person's response to internal hunger cues and their ability to resist food,.

the researchers mentioned that the participants were those who are very food cue responsive. That is, they cannot resist food and/or cannot stop thinking about food. Behavioral weight loss skills are not sufficient for these individuals, hence an alternative approach to address this clinical need was designed.

This food responsiveness is both hereditary and shaped by the environment and individual factors.

this randomized clinical trial compared the interventiongroup called Regulation of Cues, against a behavioral weight loss program, a control group, and a cohort that combined Regulation of Cues with the behavioral program.