Food Intake Response to Short-Term Modifications of Metabolism in Humans

Energy Intake Response to Short-Term Alterations of Energy Expenditure in Humans

One reason people gain weight is eating more calories from food than what they need for energy over 24 hours. Metabolism is the amount of energy a person uses over 24 hours. Researchers want to study the relationship between changes in metabolism and how much a person eats.

Objectives:

To see how much food a person eats when the body's temperature is cooled. To study how changes in metabolism may alter the amount of food a person eats.

Eligibility:

Healthy people ages 18-55.

Design:

Participants will stay at NIH for 20 days.

During the first 4 days, participants will have:

• Medical exam
• Electrocardiogram
• Blood and urine tests. One blood test includes drinking a sugar solution.
• DXA body composition scan
• Questions about foods they like, physical activity, and personal behavior
• Exercise test on a stationary bicycle

Participants will spend 24-hour periods in a metabolic chamber. The chamber will be at normal room temperature or cooler.

Some times, participants will eat a diet that matches their daily needs (fixed or eucaloric). Other times, they can eat as much as they wish from a vending machine (ad libitum).

Participants will have blood and urine collected.

Participants will swallow an ingestible wireless sensor and wear a small data recorder device.

On the second to last day, participants will stay in the metabolic chamber but only consume water and non-caffeinated sugar-free beverages.

Participants will come back for 1-day visits at six months and one year from the first admission. They will have blood and urine tests, and a DXA scan. They will answer questions on physical activity and food habits.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Healthy Volunteers
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Normal temperature; Other: Fixed diet; Other: Ad libitum diet; Other: Cold exposure; Other: Fasting

Detailed Description

More than 30% of adults are considered overweight. In general, lifestyle changes (diet and exercise) or current weight loss drugs only lead to about 5 to 10% weight loss. This may be because a person's energy expenditure, aka the number of calories the body uses, leads to hunger and may increase the amount of food a person eats. Cold exposure is known to increase metabolism but it may not lead to weight loss if appetite and the desire for food are also increased. The primary goal of this study is to evaluate whether changing energy expenditure by cool temperature exposure results in changes in food intake. This study will involve a stay on our clinical research unit where we will determine the energy requirements (at 24 degree C) of 68 healthy, adult volunteers without evidence of diabetes. Exposure to cool temperatures (19 degree C) will be used to increase the number of calories a person's body uses in a day. Participants will spend 24 hours in a room that measures energy expenditure while the temperature in the room is turned down, once with a fixed diet (eucaloric) and once with a buffet of food choices (ad libitum). After the fixed diet, volunteers will self-select how much food they wish to eat for one day from a vending machine. Volunteers will also spend one day fasting followed by a day self-selecting their food from the vending machine. Findings from this study will provide knowledge about a possible causal link between energy expenditure and eating behavior. This information may shed light on why many weight loss interventions that increase energy expenditure do not work as well as expected, and may eventually lead to new weight loss approaches and therapies.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 54
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Arizona
    • Phoenix, Arizona, United States, 85014
      • NIDDK, Phoenix

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 55 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Study Population

Residents of the metropolitan Phoenix area

Description

• INCLUSION CRITERIA:
• Premenopausal women and men <55 years of age
• Body weight <204 kg (<450 pounds) and >= 36 kg (>= 80 pounds)
• Stable weight (+/-5% within past 6 months) as determined by volunteer report
• Healthy, as determined by medical history, physical examination, and laboratory tests

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

• Age <18 years
• Weight greater than or equal to 204 kg (greater than or equal to 450 pounds, maximum weight of the iDXA machine as per manufacturer s manual), or weight <36 kg (<80 pounds, minimum weight allowed based on the NIH guidelines of blood drawing for research purposes)
• Use of medications affecting metabolism and appetite in the last three months
• Expresses unwillingness to consume all food given during the weight maintaining diet portions of the study (e.g., due to strict dietary restrictions including allergies or vegetarian or kosher diet)
• Current use of tobacco products, marijuana, amphetamines, cocaine, or intravenous drug use
• Current pregnancy, pregnancy within the past 6 months or lactation

• History or clinical manifestation of:

  • Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mellitus
  • History of surgery for the treatment of obesity
  • Endocrine disorders, such as Cushing s disease, pituitary disorders, and hypo and hyperthyroidism
  • Pulmonary disorders, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
  • Cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, arrhythmias, and peripheral artery disease
  • High blood pressure by sitting blood pressure measurement using an appropriate cuff higher than 140/90 mmHg on two or more occasions, or current antihypertensive therapy
  • Liver disease, including cirrhosis, active hepatitis B or C, and AST or ALT greater than or equal to 2x normal
  • Gastrointestinal disease including Crohn s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease or other malabsorptive disorders
  • Abnormal kidney function (eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73m(2))
  • Central nervous system disease, including previous history of cerebrovascular accidents, dementia, neurodegenerative disorders or history of severe head trauma
  • Cancer requiring treatment in the past five years, except for nonmelanoma skin cancers or cancers that have clearly been cured
  • Infectious disease such as active tuberculosis, HIV (by self report), chronic coccidiomycoses or other chronic infections that might influence EE and weight
  • Diagnosis of binge eating disorder, anorexia and major psychiatric disorders based upon the DSM-IV including depression, schizophrenia and psychosis, which may impact the ability of the participant to be in the respiratory chamber for 24 hour time periods
• Chronic ethanol use (more than 3 drinks/day)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

5

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1. Chamber at 24C, fixed diet; Chamber at room temperature (24C) with a fixed eucaloric diet	Other: Normal temperature; 23.25 hours inside respiratory chamber with the temperature set to 24°C; Other: Fixed diet; A diet that matches the participant's caloric needs; Other Names: Eucaloric diet
Experimental: 2. Chamber at 24C, ad libitum diet; Chamber at room temperature (24C) with an ad libitum diet (self-select how much food they wish to eat)	Other: Normal temperature; 23.25 hours inside respiratory chamber with the temperature set to 24°C; Other: Ad libitum diet; Participants can eat as much as they want
Experimental: 3. Chamber at 19C, fixed diet; Chamber at cold temperature (16C) with a fixed eucaloric diet	Other: Fixed diet; A diet that matches the participant's caloric needs; Other Names: Eucaloric diet; Other: Cold exposure; 23.25 hours inside respiratory chamber with the temperature set to19°C
Experimental: 4. Chamber at 19C, ad libitum diet; Chamber at cold temperature (19C) with an ad libitum diet (self-select how much food they wish to eat)	Other: Ad libitum diet; Participants can eat as much as they want; Other: Cold exposure; 23.25 hours inside respiratory chamber with the temperature set to19°C
Experimental: 5. Chamber at 24C, fasting; Chamber at room temperature (24C) fasting while in chamber and 12 hours before	Other: Normal temperature; 23.25 hours inside respiratory chamber with the temperature set to 24°C; Other: Fasting; Participants do not eat for 12 hours before and 24 hours in chamber

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
24-hour Energy Expenditure (kcal)	Energy expenditure (EE) as measured during 24 hours in a whole-room calorimeter	Days 6 (Chamber at 24°C, fixed diet), 10(Chamber at 24°C, ad libitum diet), 14(Chamber at 19°C, fixed or ad libitum diet), 18(Chamber at 19°C, fixed or ad libitum diet), and 21(Chamber at 24°C, fasting)
24-hour Energy Intake (kcal)	Energy intake as measured during 24 hours in a whole-room calorimeter	Days 6 (Chamber at 24°C, fixed diet), 10(Chamber at 24°C, ad libitum diet), 14(Chamber at 19°C, fixed or ad libitum diet), 18(Chamber at 19°C, fixed or ad libitum diet), and 21(Chamber at 24°C, fasting)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
24- Hour Respiratory Quotient (RQ)	RQ, an approximation for the ratio of carbohydrate-to-fat oxidation rates, is measured while in the chamber	Days 6 (Chamber at 24°C, fixed diet), 10(Chamber at 24°C, ad libitum diet), 14(Chamber at 19°C, fixed or ad libitum diet), 18(Chamber at 19°C, fixed or ad libitum diet), and 21(Chamber at 24°C, fasting)
Leptin	Plasma leptin (ng/ml)	Days 6 (Chamber at 24°C, fixed diet), 14(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet) or 18(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet), and 21(Chamber at 24°C, fasting)
Secretin	Plasma secretin (ng/ml)	Days 6 (Chamber at 24°C, fixed diet), 14(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet) or 18(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet), and 21(Chamber at 24°C, fasting)
Ghrelin	Plasma grehlin (pg/ml)	Days 6 (Chamber at 24°C, fixed diet), 14(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet) or 18(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet), and 21(Chamber at 24°C, fasting)
FGF-21	Plasma FGF-21 (pg/ml)	Days 6 (Chamber at 24°C, fixed diet), 14(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet) or 18(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet), and 21(Chamber at 24°C, fasting)
Core Body Temperature (C)	Core body temperature measured in chamber	Days 6 (Chamber at 24°C, fixed diet), 14(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet) or 18(Chamber at 19°C, fixed diet), and 21(Chamber at 24°C, fasting)
Weight Change at 6 Months	Weight change from baseline to 6 months	6 months
Weight Change at 12 Months	Weight change from baseline to 12 months	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Douglas Chang, M.D., National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Hollstein T, Basolo A, Ando T, Votruba SB, Walter M, Krakoff J, Piaggi P. Recharacterizing the Metabolic State of Energy Balance in Thrifty and Spendthrift Phenotypes. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2020 May 1;105(5):1375-92. doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgaa098.
• Hollstein T, Heinitz S, Ando T, Rodzevik TL, Basolo A, Walter M, Chang DC, Krakoff J, Piaggi P. Metabolic Responses to 24-Hour Fasting and Mild Cold Exposure in Overweight Individuals Are Correlated and Accompanied by Changes in FGF21 Concentration. Diabetes. 2020 Jul;69(7):1382-1388. doi: 10.2337/db20-0153. Epub 2020 Apr 27.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 27, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 24, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): June 24, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 19, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 19, 2016
• First Posted (Estimated): October 20, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 4, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 23, 2025
• Last Verified: July 3, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Natural History; Energy Expenditure; Eating Behavior; Energy Intake; Cold Exposure
• Other Study ID Numbers: 999917004; 17-DK-N004 (Other Identifier: NIDDK)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No