{"doi":"10.3390/nu13113943","title":"One Year Follow-Up of Taste-Related Reward Associations with Weight Loss Suggests a Critical Time to Mitigate Weight Regain Following Bariatric Surgery","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Weight regain is a concerning issue in bariatric patients. We previously demonstrated that taste-related reward processing was associated with six-month weight loss outcomes following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) but not vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG). Here, we assessed whether these taste factors persisted in predicting weight loss, and weight regain, at one year post-surgery. METHODS: Adult women enrolled in a longitudinal study of taste preferences following bariatric surgery completed behavioral and neuroimaging assessments at one year post-surgery. RESULTS: RYGB produced better weight loss relative to VSG, with weight regain and greater weight loss variability observed from six months to one year post-VSG. Changes in liking for high fat at 2 weeks post-surgery from baseline remained a predictor of weight loss in RYGB, but other predictors did not persist. Average liking ratings rebounded to baseline and higher self-reported food cravings and dietary disinhibition correlated with poorer weight loss at one year post-surgery. CONCLUSION: Initial anatomical and metabolic changes resulting from RYGB that reset neural processing of reward stimuli in the mesolimbic pathway appear to be temporary and may be contingent upon post-operative eating behaviors returning to preoperative obesogenic tendencies. Six months post-surgery may be a critical window for implementing interventions to mitigate weight gain.","journal":"Nutrients","year":2021,"id":187527,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":18,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9565,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":626987,"name":"Anahys Aghababian","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295700,"name":"Afroditi Papantoni","orcid":"0000-0001-6539-095X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250102,"name":"Maria G. Veldhuizen","orcid":"0000-0001-8375-7719","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295701,"name":"Vidyulata Kamath","orcid":"0000-0001-7711-3597","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":296939,"name":"Civonnia Harris","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295702,"name":"Timothy H. Moran","orcid":"0000-0001-9877-8723","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295703,"name":"Susan Carnell","orcid":"0000-0001-6200-3635","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250104,"name":"Kimberley E. Steele","orcid":"0000-0001-5096-6549","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295699,"name":"Kimberly Smith","orcid":"0000-0001-7414-9164","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":37,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:48:55.420619Z","pmid":"34836201","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}