Want to lose weight, but always hungry? Research suggests a way to help obese people feel full while eating less

The most effective way to lose weight is to eat less, but obese people often have trouble regulating their diets as they lose their sense of fullness

A study led by Hong Kong researchers found an enzyme that plays a big role in making us feel full, which could be the target of a drug for managing obesity

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An enzyme that makes people feel full could be key to treating obese people who are unable to lose weight, a study led by Hong Kong researchers shows. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:15am, 12 Jul 2022

Researchers have identified a mechanism that could unlock the treatment of obesity by making overweight people feel full.

Led by a team at Hong Kong Baptist University, they discovered an enzyme that plays an important role in the process of sating appetite and said drugs could be developed that target it to manage obesity.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Metabolism, have significant implications for China, which has caught up with the US on rates of obesity.

More than half a billion people in China are overweight, 50 per cent of the population, of whom 16.4 per cent are obese. The rates are similar in Hong Kong, and the number of overweight or obese children aged between nine and 13 has risen from seven per cent to 24 per cent during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Xavier Wong (left) and Professor Bian Zhaoxiang identified the MT1-MMP protein. Photo: Hong Kong Baptist University

Being overweight exposes people to a higher risk of life-threatening diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. According to the Population Health Survey conducted in 2015 by Hong Kong’s health department, about 30 per cent of people in Hong Kong aged 15 to 84 were obese, and another 20 per cent were overweight.