Metabolic analyses can now be used to determine which diet composition is best suited to losing weight on a calorie-reduced diet. Different genotype patterns should be able to change the effects of the diet, with carbohydrate-sensitive genotypes losing more weight on a high-carbohydrate diet and, conversely, fat-sensitive genotypes losing more weight on a high-fat diet.
Dr. Christoph Höchsmann, Research Associate at the Assistant Professorship of Exercise, Nutrition and Health (Head: Prof. Dr. Karsten Köhler), was involved in a project investigating whether weight loss over twelve weeks differs between genotype-compliant and genotype-discordant diets. The results of the study were published under the title "The Personalized Nutrition Study (POINTS): evaluation of a genetically informed weight loss approach, a Randomized Clinical Trial" in the journal "Nature Communications". The journal has an impact factor of 16.6 and the manuscript was also selected as one of the Editors' Highlights, which recognizes the 50 best publications in the journal.
For the study, 145 participants with overweight or obesity were identified as "fat responders" or "carbohydrate responders" using their combined genotypes based on ten genetic variants. Half were then randomly assigned to a high-fat or high-carbohydrate diet according to their genotype and the other half as a control. This resulted in a total of four groups: "fat responders" with a high-fat diet, "fat responders" with a high-carbohydrate diet (control), "carbohydrate responders" with a high-fat diet (control) and "carbohydrate responders" with a high-carbohydrate diet.
"In contrast to previous studies, we worked with a total of ten SNPs to determine fat- or carbohydrate-dependent genotypes. We developed an algorithm specifically for this purpose," explains Dr. Christoph Höchsmann, first author of the publication. In genetics, single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP for short, refers to different variations of individual base pairs at a specific location in the genome.
At the end of the twelve weeks, no difference in weight loss was found between the different genotypes. Test subjects who followed a genotype-compliant diet lost an average of 5.3 kilograms, while participants on the genotype-discordant diet lost an average of 4.8 kilograms of body weight.
"We found that the test subjects definitely lost a significant amount of weight," says Dr. Höchsmann. "However, there were no significant differences between the groups. In this respect, there is currently no scientific evidence that there is a difference between the genotypes in terms of weight loss."
For future studies, Dr. Höchsmann's research team recommends assigning participants genotype-compliant diets without specific energy intake targets. It would also be possible to investigate not only the effects on weight loss, but also on cardiovascular risk factors. This would make it possible to analyze whether the genotype plays a role in reducing cardiovascular risk after a low-carbohydrate diet compared to a low-fat diet without calorie restriction.
To the publication „The Personalized Nutrition Study (POINTS): evaluation of a genetically informed weight loss approach, a Randomized Clinical Trial” in the journal “Nature Communications”
To the homepage of the Assistant Professorship of Exercise, Nutrition and Health
Contact:
Dr. Christoph Höchsmann
Assistant Professorship of Exercise, Nutrition and Health
Connollystraße 32
80809 München
phone: 089 289 24492
e-mail: christoph.hoechsmann(at)tum.de
Text: Romy Schwaiger
Photos: „Nature Communications”/private