Dear Dr. Roach: A friend was given a test to see how long food stayed in her stomach after eating. She was told that it stayed only a short time before continuing its journey, a much shorter time than the average person. This was given as a reason for her obesity, that she experienced hunger sooner than most people.
Does this really happen, and is there a way for her to manage it so that she can lose weight? G.J.
Answer: A gastric emptying study is usually used to look for delayed gastric emptying, also called gastroparesis. It can be the result of several different types of nerve diseases, but especially diabetes. An abnormally rapid gastric emptying is also called dumping syndrome, and is often a problem after some types of gastric bypass surgeries.
I did find a paper from the 1980s suggesting that obese people have shorter gastric emptying times. This was confirmed in a trial from 2015 looking at the diabetes drug exenatide (Byetta), which is sometimes used to help people lose weight, even if they do not have diabetes. Interestingly, exenatide was more likely to cause people to lose weight if they had faster gastric emptying times.
I do not mean to suggest that fast gastric emptying is the only reason for your friends (or anyone elses) weight problems. Obesity is a complex problem with no single cause or solution in most people. I am glad you wrote. I did not know about this research before, and it may be worth it for your friend to discuss a trial of exenatide with her doctor.
