Both load and duration of small intestinal lipid infusion affect antropyloroduodenal motility and CCK and peptide YY (PYY) release at loads comparable to and higher than the normal gastric emptying rate. We determined 1) the effects of intraduodenal lipid loads well below the mean rate of gastric emptying on, and 2) the relationships between antropyloroduodenal motility, CCK, PYY, appetite, and energy intake. Sixteen healthy males were studied on four occasions in double-blind, randomized fashion. Antropyloroduodenal motility, plasma CCK and PYY, and appetite perceptions were measured during 50-min IL (Intralipid) infusions at: 0.25 (IL0.25), 1.5 (IL1.5), and 4 (IL4) kcal/min or saline (control), after which energy intake at a buffet meal was quantified. IL0.25 stimulated isolated pyloric pressure waves (PWs) and CCK release, albeit transiently, and suppressed antral PWs, PW sequences, and hunger (P < 0.05) but had no effect on basal pyloric pressure or PYY when compared with control. Loads >/= 1.5 kcal/min were required for the stimulation of basal pyloric pressures and PYY and suppression of duodenal PWs (P < 0.05). All of these effects were related to the lipid load (R > 0.5 or < -0.5, P < 0.05). Only IL4 reduced energy intake (in kcal: control, 1,289 +/- 62; IL0.25, 1,282 +/- 44; IL1.5, 1,235 +/- 71; and IL4, 1,139 +/- 65 compared with control and IL0.25, P < 0.05). In conclusion, in healthy males the effects of intraduodenal lipid on antropyloroduodenal motility, plasma CCK and PYY, appetite, and energy intake are load dependent, and the threshold loads required to elicit responses vary for these parameters.