Bitter Taste and Weight Loss in Women

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey

Status: Completed

Conditions: Weight Loss; Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Low-fat Diet; Behavioral: Low-Carbohydrate Diet

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01856660

AHA12060259

Details and patient eligibility

About

Individual food preferences are not considered in designing weight-loss therapies. This project will determine if short-term weight-loss is improved by matching participants with diets that reflect their genetically-determined food preferences.

Full description

Dislike of the diet is a common complaint in weight loss therapy that contributes to poor outcomes. Ironically, individual food preferences are rarely taken into account in designing weight-loss interventions. In the proposed research, we will utilize genetically-determined differences in food preferences, indexed by PROP bitter taste phenotype to develop a novel approach to weight loss therapy. The overall goal of this project is to determine if weight loss following a 6 month intervention can be substantially improved by matching participants with diets that reflect their genetically-determined food preferences. The study is designed as a randomized clinical weight-loss intervention trial in women in which PROP non-tasters and super-tasters. will be randomized to either the low-carbohydrate or the low-fat diet condition

Enrollment: 107 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Body mass index (BMI) between 27 and 40 kg/m squared No weight loss for 3 months prior to the study Stable hypertension, dyslipemia or Type 2 diabetes - with permission from primary care provider Oral therapy to treat Type 2 diabetes - with permission from primary care provider.

Able to walk 2 block without stopping

Exclusion criteria

Pregnant, lactating or planning to become pregnant during the trial History of cardiovascular disease (infarct, angina, arrhythmia or stroke) Recent chemotherapy or radiation therapy Liver, renal or thyroid disease Concurrent or recent (last 6 months) participation in any other weight loss intervention Insulin injection Medications to control appetite or weight Major psychiatric illnesses

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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107 participants in 2 patient groups

Low-Fat Diet

Experimental group

Description:

Participants are provided with a 6-month standard lifestyle intervention. They will follow an energy restricted, low-fat diet where the daily energy consumption target is 1,200- 1,500 kilocalories/d. The fat intake target is 28% or less of daily kilocalories. Gradual increase in physical activity until participants are active at least 40 min per day, 5 times/week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Low-fat Diet

Low-Carbohydrate Diet

Experimental group

Description:

Participants are provided with a 6-month standard lifestyle intervention. They will follow a low-carbohydrate diet where the daily carbohydrate target is 50g/d. There is no energy restriction. Gradual increase in physical activity until participants are active at least 40 min per day, 5 times/week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Low-Carbohydrate Diet