Meal macronutrient content, gender and eating disorder risk associations with post‐meal leptin and ghrelin responses

Meal macronutrient content affects hunger, satiety and metabolic alterations through neural and hormonal pathways that may be altered with disordered eating. We stratified 7 female (BMI 23±1; % body fat 26±2 and RMR 1475±45 kcal/d) and 13 male (BMI 25±1; % body fat 19±2 and RMR 1935±49 kcal/d) subjects according to eating disorder risk (EDR‐lowest vs highest risk) scores and measured appetite‐regulating hormone levels and metabolic responses to higher carbohydrate vs protein fluid meals. Plasma leptin and ghrelin were measured after a 10 hr fast and 60 min after meal ingestion. Indirect calorimetry was performed prior to and for 60 min after meal ingestion. Overall, fasting leptin was directly correlated with % body fat, inversely correlated with RMR, and decreased following the protein meal (7.9±1.8 to 6.9±1.6 ng/ml, p<0.001) but did not change significantly with the carbohydrate meal (7.2±1.7 to 7.7±1.9 ng/ml, p=0.48). This protein meal response was indirectly correlated with % body fat. Ghrelin was decreased with both meals (protein 852.3±50.7 to 793.7±56.8 pg/ml, p<0.01 and carbohydrate (854.3±54.8 to 803.±56.8 pg/ml, p<0.0016 meal). Multivariate analysis revealed higher leptin and ghrelin levels in females vs males, greater increase in leptin with the protein meal in females, greater decrease in ghrelin with both meals in males and gender by EDR risk interactions. Funded by UWL internal research grants.