Food Liking but Not Wanting Decreases after Controlled Intermittent or Continuous Energy Restriction to ≥5% Weight Loss in Women with Overweight/Obesity

Food reward (i.e., liking and wanting) has been shown to decrease after different types of weight management interventions. However, it is unknown whether specific dietary modalities (continuous (CER) vs. intermittent (IER) energy restriction) have differing effects on liking and implicit wanting after weight loss (WL) and whether these changes are sustained after 1-year of no-contact. Women with overweight or obesity (age 18–55 years) were randomly allocated to controlled-feeding CER (25% daily energy restriction) or IER (alternating ad libitum and 75% energy restriction days). Study visits were conducted at baseline, post-WL (to ≥5% WL within 12 weeks) and 1-year post-WL. The main outcomes were liking and implicit wanting for 4 categories of common food varying in fat and taste assessed by the Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire. Linear mixed models were conducted on the 30 participants achieving ≥5% WL and 15 returners. After an initial WL of −5.1 ± 0.2 kg, after 1-year 2.6 ± 0.5 kg were regained. Liking but not wanting decreased after WL. Food reward after 1-year did not differ from baseline, but the high loss to follow-up prevents generalization. IER and CER did not differ in their effects on food reward during WL or at 1-year follow-up.