The stomach energy content governs meal patterning in the rat

Sitiety is a strong influence on the meal pattern under ad lib conditions and that satiety is governed by a factor associated with the energy content of the stomach, according to a mathematical model of stomach emptying.

Abstract

The feeding behavior of 38 male rats was continuously monitored for 14 days. The meal sizes and intermeal intervals were then used in conjunction with a mathematical model of stomach emptying to predict the energy content of the stomach at the times of meal initiation and termination. A correlational analysis was then performed to determine what if any role the stomach energy content played in the determination of the size of meals or the intermeal interval (IMI). Significant correlations between the meal size and the following IMI (postprandial correlation) were obtained. The energy content of the stomach before the meal was found to be as good a predictor of the following IMI as the meal size and the energy content of the stomach after the meal was found to be even a better predictor, equalling the variance accounted for by the combined influence of the premeal stomach energy content and the meal size. Additionally, the postprandial correlation was found to be negatively correlated to the variance of the premeal stomach energy content, suggesting that the weakness of the postprandial correlation in the past was due to a lack of consideration of the energy present in the stomach at the time of meal initiation. The results indicate that satiety is a strong influence on the meal pattern under ad lib conditions and that satiety is governed by a factor associated with the energy content of the stomach.