Abstract
Psychological well-being and hunger and food control are two relevant factors involved in the success of weight-loss therapy in treating obesity. Thus, this study aims to evaluate food and alcohol cravings, physical and sexual activity, sleep, and life quality (QoL) in obese patients following a very low-calorie ketogenic (VLCK) diet, as well as the role of weight lost and ketosis on these parameters. A battery of psychological test was performed in twenty obese patients (12 females, 47.2 ± 10.2 year and BMI of 35.5 ± 4.4) through the course of a 4-month VLCK diet on four subsequent visits: baseline, maximum ketosis, reduced ketosis, and endpoint. Each subject acted as their own control. Relevantly, the dietary-induced changes in body composition (7.7 units of BMI lost, 18 kg of fat mass (1.2 kg of visceral fat mass)) were associated with a statistically significant improvement in food craving scores, physical activity, sleepiness, and female sexual function. Overall, these results also translated in a notable enhancement in QoL of the treated obese patients. Therefore, the rapid and sustained weight and fat mass (FM) loss induced by the VLCK diet is associated with good food control and improvements in the psychological well-being parameters in obese subjects, which could contribute to the long-term success of this therapy.
Highlights
Obesity is a preventable disease that plagues all the countries of the world, affecting 650 million of its habitants [1,2,3]
This work demonstrates that a very low-calorie ketogenic (VLCK) diet following the PNK method induces a severe body weight reduction concomitantly with a decrease in food craving and improvements in psychological well-being measured by physical activity, sleep quality, female sexual function, and quality of life scores
The effect in food craving and psychological well-being could be relevant factors to guarantee the success of this kind of nutritional treatment
Summary
Obesity is a preventable disease that plagues all the countries of the world, affecting 650 million of its habitants [1,2,3]. Obesity is more than an excess body-weight problem [8] This metabolic disorder is associated with several co-diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular and neurological disorders, and cancer [9,10,11]. Overweight/obese subjects usually experience a strong desire to eat coupled with a lack of control over eating [12] and suffer from emotional distress and a decrease in quality of life (QoL) and sleep and sexual function [11]. In this regard, few studies have evaluated the effect of weight-loss therapy on the food craving and well-being parameters in overweight/obese subjects
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