Abstract
Male C57BL/6 mice fed ad libitum on control diet but allowed access to a palatable high fat diet (HFD) for 2 h a day during the mid-dark phase rapidly adapt their feeding behaviour and can consume nearly 80% of their daily caloric intake during this 2 h-scheduled feed. We assessed food intake microstructure and meal pattern, and locomotor activity and rearing as markers of food anticipatory activity (FAA). Schedule fed mice reduced their caloric intake from control diet during the first hours of the dark phase but not during the 3-h period immediately preceding the scheduled feed. Large meal/binge-like eating behaviour during the 2-h scheduled feed was characterised by increases in both meal number and meal size. Rearing was increased during the 2-h period running up to scheduled feeding while locomotor activity started to increase 1 h before, indicating that schedule-fed mice display FAA. Meal number and physical activity changes were sustained when HFD was withheld during the anticipated scheduled feeding period, and mice immediately binged when HFD was represented after a week of this “withdrawal” period. These findings provide important context to our previous studies suggesting that energy balance systems in the hypothalamus are not responsible for driving these large, binge-type meals. Evidence of FAA in HFD dark phase schedule-fed mice implicates anticipatory processes in binge eating that do not involve immediately preceding hypophagia or regulatory homeostatic signalling.
Highlights
Feeding is driven, in large part, by energy homeostasis - the balance between food intake and energy expenditure
Providing mice with a palatable high fat diet for a 2h-period each day without caloric restriction is very effective in promoting hyperphagia during the access period (Fig. 1A)
Consistent with previous reports, when control diet was replaced during scheduled feeding [11], mice rapidly adapted their feeding behaviour and binged on the palatable high fat diet (Fig. 1C), exhibiting a larger binge than rats under the same dietary regime [11, Bake et al, submitted]
Summary
In large part, by energy homeostasis - the balance between food intake and energy expenditure. A palatable scheduled feeding model, firstly described by Berner et al, [8], based on dietary manipulations by Corwin et al [9, 10], induces substantial food intake over short periods of time in rats [8]. Utilising this model, we provided scheduled access to a solid high fat palatable diet (HFD) for a 2h-period each day, without imposed caloric restriction during the remainder of the day, a manipulation that resulted in consumption of large, binge-type meals in both rats and mice [11]. We extended the model beyond the habituated response to palatable schedule feeding to assess food intake microstructure, meal patterns and activity patterns when the palatable scheduled feeding on HFD was withdrawn and reintroduced
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