SEMINAR: Why most diets fail and what to do about it

Non-surgical obesity treatments are frequently ineffective, in part due to adaptive responses to energy restriction that increase the drive to eat and reduce metabolic rate. These adaptions oppose ongoing weight loss, and may also promote disordered eating and adversely affect body composition via hormonal changes that favour abdominal fat accumulation with loss of muscle and bone. Thus, current obesity treatments may inadvertently increase the risk of eating disorders, metabolic complications such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well structural diseases such as sarcopenia and osteoporosis. This talk examines strategies aimed at reducing the adaptive responses to energy restriction so that more people can safely attain and maintain a healthy body weight and composition. Strategies under investigation include intermittent energy restriction involving true relief from negative energy balance (different from popular 'intermittent fasting' diets), as well as - paradoxically - ketogenic very low energy diets that result in rapid weight loss.

With a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Western Australia and a PhD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, A/Professor Amanda Salis in an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney's Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise & Eating Disorders at the Charles Perkins Centre (The University of Sydney). Her research into hypothalamic control of appetite, body weight and body composition aims to help more people to safely attain and maintain optimum body composition and metabolic health throughout life. Her translational research spans studies with transgenic mice to randomized controlled trials in humans. A/Professor Salis' current research is funded by NHMRC project grants totaling over $2.4 million.