{"id":85782,"date":"2023-01-11T09:15:20","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T14:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=85782"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:49:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:49:34","slug":"chee-lab-obesity-and-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/chee-lab-obesity-and-the-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame the Brain: Why Weight Loss is More Complex than We Think"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Blame the Brain: Why Weight Loss is More Complex than We Think\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

At a time when New Year\u2019s resolutions are top of mind, weight loss is a focus for many people. Ads for gym memberships, diet pills, juice cleanses and nutrition coaching flood social media feeds, with the onus to lose weight put on the individual. \u201cMove more,\u201d we\u2019re told, \u201cand eat less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Chee<\/span><\/a>, a researcher in Carleton\u2019s <\/span>Department of Neuroscience<\/span><\/a>, is challenging these messages in her lab, the <\/span>Chee lab<\/span><\/a>. Her research takes the pressure off the individual and shows there are many factors to consider when it comes to weight management, and the brain is at the centre of it all. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWeight gain is extremely stigmatized, and the blame is put on the person\u2019s choices,\u201d says Chee. \u201cThere\u2019s a <\/span>scientific basis for why people gain weight, and it isn\u2019t the willpower to exercise or restrict eating.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\"Melissa
Melissa Chee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chee\u2019s work is prompted by the fact that obesity rates in Canada are alarmingly high, with two thirds of the population classified as obese or overweight. Many conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even some cancers have been linked to obesity. Yet, despite its impact on public health, there are very few medications that address the issue, and the ones that do exist offer a one-size-fits-all solution for an extremely complex problem. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back to the basics, Chee is working to determine the root causes of obesity. She says she hopes her research will eventually help inform the development of pharmaceuticals that are both effective and personalized. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to know what\u2019s causing the problem before we can begin looking at solutions,\u201d Chee explains. \u201cYou can\u2019t understand what\u2019s wrong with a car without inspecting the engine.\u201d <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Complexity of Weight Management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Weight management is often explained by an equation: energy in (the calories we eat and drink) must match energy out (the calories we burn), otherwise there will be weight gain or weight loss. If we burn more than we eat, we will lose weight, and vice versa. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt sounds simple, but it\u2019s really a lot more complicated than that,\u201d Chee says. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at this equation, it\u2019s easy to deduce that if we exercise more, we can lose weight. But according to Chee, exercise only makes up for 10 to 15 per cent of total energy expenditure. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe actually burn energy in many ways \u2014 while we\u2019re sleeping, fidgeting, or even sitting still,\u201d she says. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Given the complexity of energy expenditure, Chee says that the most effective way to create change is to control eating. But what causes us to eat?  <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
The Chee lab is comprised of undergraduate and graduate student researchers. As a woman and a minority, Chee has emphasized supporting students from diverse social or cultural backgrounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Chee, the brain is responsible. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a whole network of brain cell activity that produces the behaviour of feeding,\u201d says Chee. <\/span>\u201cBrain cells communicate with one another, releasing hormones and chemical messengers in the process that trigger thoughts of eating.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Role of the Brain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our brain prompts us to eat for several reasons <\/span>\u2014<\/span> sometimes the triggers come from genuine hunger, and other times they are emotion-based. The problem exists when an individual\u2019s brain constantly sends them messages to eat when they\u2019re not hungry. This can lead to regular overeating and various eating disorders. To better understand these triggers, Chee is determining exactly where they come from in the brain by conducting experiments on rodents. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her research team uses a technique called electrophysiology, which allows them to record the electrical activity of any neuron. By attaching a microscopic tool to the neuron, they can pick up spikes in activity that indicate where messages are coming from and being delivered to. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bianca
Bianca Bono, a graduate student of the Chee lab, watches her first recording of neuron activity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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\u201cThe brain has billions of neurons and with this technique, we can listen to the conversations going on between them,\u201d says Chee. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Using this tool, Chee\u2019s research team has found that neurons containing the compound melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) \u2014 a messenger that has been shown to drive emotional eating \u2014 mainly communicate in a region of the brain called the lateral septum. This discovery has let Chee\u2019s team concentrate their efforts. Using optogenetics, a method allowing them to stimulate and control specific pathways within the brain, researchers in the Chee lab are creating detailed maps of the lateral septum. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A photo of the lateral septum during an electrophysiology recording.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This work is still in the early stages but will eventually provide a fulsome picture of how and why our brains drive problematic eating behaviours. Once complete, Chee plans to pass her research off to clinical scientists in the hopes they\u2019ll use it to create more effective and personalized obesity medications. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really long process but this careful work is essential for us to develop more precise pharmaceuticals.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a time when New Year\u2019s resolutions are top of mind, weight loss is a focus for many people. Ads for gym memberships, diet pills, juice cleanses and nutrition coaching flood social media feeds, with the onus to lose weight put on the individual. \u201cMove more,\u201d we\u2019re told, \u201cand eat less.\u201d Melissa Chee, a researcher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":85785,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13],"cu_story_tag":[1919],"class_list":["post-85782","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/85782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/85782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97352,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/85782\/revisions\/97352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=85782"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=85782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}