Circadian rhythms of appetite at different stages of a weight loss programme.

A group of 28 healthy obese people (16 women, 12 men) rated their appetite each whole hour of the day during nine separate days at three different stages of a dietary intervention study of 24 weeks. The first stage was an introduction period of eight weeks in which subjects were weight stable. The second stage was a weight reduction period of 13 weeks in which subjects lost about 0.85 kg/week of body weight. In the third stage of three weeks subjects were weight stable again. The slimming diet, which contained predominantly sweet items, had an energy content which was 1000 kcal (4.2 MJ) below the individually estimated daily energy expenditure. The results showed that appetite for a meal increased in the first week of the weight reduction period of 13 weeks but returned to the baseline level within 4-8 weeks. Appetite for something savoury remained elevated during the entire weight reduction period, and returned to the baseline level in the stabilization period. Appetite for something sweet did not change. The circadian rhythms of the different types of appetite remained unchanged at all stages during the diet intervention programme. Different types of appetite (e.g. sweet, savoury) had different patterns over the day.