Are you fed up with your diet plan too soon and are you craving for food? Now we know the reason! It is a strange behavior of brain cells that regulate appetite. Latest research reveals the secret behind difficulty in sticking to a diet plan.

     "When we don't eat, hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating bits of themselves. This act of self-cannibalism turns up a hunger signal to prompt eating," says research to be published in the August issue of journal Cell Metabolism.

     The process uncovered by scientists in neurons of the brain's hypothalamus region is known as autophagy or self-eating. This new finding may help people to diet as they wish by developing a drug that blocks this process

     Self-eating generates free fatty acids in brain cells called agouti-related peptide.These fatty acids in turn boost levels of these neurons which are a hunger signal themselves, explained Dr Rajat Singh, an India born and educated scientist who led the research team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. When the process of self- eating is blocked in the neurons, their levels fail to rise in response to starvation

     The findings were tested in transgenic mice engineered to lack hypothalamic neurons. "We found that blocking autophagy in agouti- related peptide neurons decreases the amount of food consumed, as well as increases physical activity — all of which contribute to preventing obesity and inappropriate fat accumulation in the body," Singh said.