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Stabilization of body weight leads to improved memory
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
Overweight women who successfully got rid of extra pounds also improved their memory - such conclusions were made by specialists after conducting a study, the results of which were discussed at the XCV regular conference of the Endocrinology Society in San Francisco.
"Based on the results of our work, we can see that the memory impairments caused by obesity are reversible," says one of the study's organizers, Andreas Pettersson, a representative of Sweden's Umea University.
The new study follows on from a previous one that found that episodic memory is impaired and gets worse in obese people over time: this refers to remembering individual events and episodic circumstances.
During the study, the scientist and his colleagues wanted to find out whether memory is restored after body weight stabilization, and whether the functionality of the brain improves in general. The specialists used magnetic resonance imaging, with the help of which they were able to track the brain activity of the participants during the testing of memory processes.
The study involved twenty women around 60 years of age who had been diagnosed with varying degrees of obesity. The women were offered two healthy diet plans, each lasting six months. Nine participants chose the so-called “Paleolithic” diet (aka the Caveman diet, which provides for a 30:30:40 ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and fats). The remaining eleven participants followed the Scandinavian diet, which involves consuming 15% proteins, 55% carbohydrates and 30% fats.
At the beginning and end of the study, the participants had their BMI and body fat density measured, and their episodic memory scores recorded. The memory test involved the women matching pictures of people and their names in the correct order.
During the study, the average body mass index in women decreased from 32.1 to 29.2.
The author of the study noted that the quality of memorization processes in all participants significantly improved simultaneously with the loss of extra pounds. In addition, specialists registered positive changes in brain activity.
“The fact that the processes of brain activity changed allowed us to assume that with weight loss, brain structures become more active, which leads to improved memorization of any information,” the researcher concludes.
Of course, it is not entirely correct to draw such conclusions based on the example of two dozen volunteers. Such studies should be conducted on a larger scale – involving several hundred people of different genders and ages. However, such full-fledged experiments are out of the question for now, as they require considerable expenditures, primarily financial ones. Perhaps, if a suitable source of funding is found, scientists will be able to confirm the results obtained.
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