SFEBES2013 Poster Presentations Obesity, diabetes, metabolism and cardiovascular (67 abstracts)
Appetite regulation during a 6-month military tour to Afghanistan
N E Hill 1, , J L Fallowfield 2 , S K Delves 2 , S J Brett 1 , D R Wilson 3 , G Frost 1 , W Dhillo 1 , S R Bloom 1 & K G Murphy 1
1Imperial College London, London, UK; 2Institute of Naval Medicine, Alverstoke, UK; 3Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham, UK.
Background: Military personnel on operational deployment commonly lose weight despite the adequate supply of rations. Moderate weight loss (~5% body mass) occurred during the initial phase of a 6-month deployment to Afghanistan without affecting physical fitness. Reasons for this weight loss are presently unknown. We sought to establish whether changes in appetite regulatory hormones contribute to the observed weight loss.
Methods: Body mass and body composition were measured in a cohort of Royal Marines twice before (January and March) and during a 6-month summer (March–October) deployment to Afghanistan (Afgh) in 2010. Circulating total and active ghrelin, peptide YY, pancreatic polypeptide, glucagon-like peptide-one, insulin and leptin were measured in samples drawn at the same time points. Data were analysed by repeated measures ANOVA.
Results: Percentage body fat increased between the January and March time-points taken in the UK, but was reduced after (mean) 3 months in Afgh (17.5 ±0.5% (Jan) vs 18.0 ±0.5% (Mar) vs 16.5 ±0.5% (Afgh); n=105; P<0.0001); changes in serum leptin concentrations in this lean population mirrored those observed in percentage body fat (2.15 ±0.20 ng/ml (Jan) vs 2.76 ±0.20 ng/ml (Mar) vs 1.44 ±0.12 ng/ml (Afgh); n=51; P<0.0001). Only leptin was significantly correlated with percentage body fat (and body mass) at each time-point (r=0.59; n=122 (Jan), r=0.58, n=137 (Mar), r=0.51, n=98 (Afgh); all P<0.0001). There were no changes in the concentrations of the other hormones measured in response to alterations in body mass or body fat.
Discussion: Leptin has previously been shown to be reduced after weight loss in obese populations also after short-term (72 h) starvation in lean volunteers. The current study suggests that fasting leptin concentration also reflects small changes in percentage body fat in a lean population of military personnel. Future work will investigate whether post-prandial changes in gut hormones may drive the alterations in energy homeostasis observed on deployment.
Declaration of funding: This work was funded by the Ministry of Defence.
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