Not Having a Sense of Smell Helps Mice Lose Weight

Researchers discovered an interesting way to lose weight – at least for mice. Those animals with an impaired sense of smell lost more weight than the other mice present in the trial, and it had no connection to how much they ate. The results were gathered and published in a study in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Is smell related to weight gain?

For this study, researchers genetically modified some mice and made them lack a sense of smell. Then, they put both them and a non-genetically engineered control group on a high fat diet. Afterwards, they observed how the mice which couldn’t smell lost around 16 percent of their weight, while the others gained weight.

Therefore, it seems that sensing how good food smells contributes to weight gain. Researchers explained this process is not merely acquiring extra calories. The way you perceive these calories is also important in weight gain.

Weight gain is also related to how you perceive calories

The study was performed by researchers from the University of California at Berkeley. They knew the sense of smell contributes to weight loss, and wanted to prove it. As part of the experiment, they took two mice without any genetic enhancements and put them on a diet high in fats.

After some time, these mice became obese, and researchers decided to take away the sense of smell of one of them. The first, non-engineered, mice maintained a weight of 49 grams. Meanwhile, the mice which lost the ability to smell dropped around a third of its weight, until it reached 33 grams.

Researchers noticed that most of the lost weight disappeared after fat was burned, so they decided to look at these deposits of fat. They made one of the most interesting discoveries ever, as they observed how a disabled sense of smell started a fat burning process in mice. Unfortunately, they don’t have any evidence that the same process is happening for humans as well.
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