Tirzepatide reduces food intake and appetite, and affects brain functioning, more than placebo and liraglutide: Study

Researchers found that tirzepatide, a medication primarily used for treating type 2 diabetes and weight loss, reduced body weight, food intake and many measures of appetite more than placebo and liraglutide. These results were recently published in Nature Medicine in the study titled “Tirzepatide on ingestive behavior in adults with overweight or obesity: a randomized 6-week phase 1 trial.”

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Owen Carmichael, Director of the Biomedical Imaging Center, and Dr. Corby Martin, Director of the Ingestive Behavior, Weight Management & Health Promotion laboratory, along with collaborators from research institutes across the country, evaluated tirzepatide against liraglutide and a placebo. Significant results started emerging on the third week of the six-week trial, and participants taking tirzepatide ate 72% less calories than they did before taking the medication. Tirzepatide decreased numerous measures of appetite or the drive to eat, including things like hunger and food cravings. Interestingly, tirzepatide did not increase the intent to restrict food intake, which is a novel finding.

“For people to lose weight, they typically spend a great deal of effort trying to limit how much they eat,” said Dr. Martin. “Tirzepatide promotes weight loss and large reductions in food intake, with apparently little volitional effort among participants. This is indeed novel.”

Study participants were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze brain activity while being shown pictures of a variety of foods, including cakes, ice cream, and other foods high in fat and sugar. The brain scans demonstrated that individuals taking tirzepatide exhibited reduced activity in hunger and reward sensitive brain areas while viewing such high-fat, high-sugar foods.