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Metabolic Adaptations in Meal-fed Rats: Effects of Increased Meal Frequency or Ad Libitum Feeding in Rats Previously Adapted to a Single Daily Meal¹

Division of Nutritional Biochemistry, Department of Animal Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801

The reversal of adaptive changes induced in rats by meal-feeding (the ingestion of a single daily meal) was investigated. Rats were fed a single daily 2-hour meal for 3 weeks, then were changed to ad libitum feeding (nibbling) or to two 1-hour meals per day for an additional 3 weeks. In the group returned to nibbling, the in vitro rate of glucose-U-¹⁴C incorporation into fatty acids by adipose tissue and the activities of malic enzyme, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase remained significantly higher after 3 weeks than in control ad libitumfed rats. The composition of the weight gained after resumption of ad libitum feeding was similar to that gained by the controls. Rats changed to two meals per day and control nibbling rats consumed similar amounts of food during the 3-week experimental period, but the nibbling animals gained less weight. The in vitro rate of lipogenesis by adipose tissue and the activities of the dehydrogenase enzymes were higher in the rats fed two daily meals. An estimation of the composition of the weight gained by this group indicated that it was 38% fat as compared with 20% in the weight gained by ad libitum-fed controls. The results of these experiments are discussed in relation to the association of food intake patterns and the development of obesity.

Manuscript received 23 October 1969.