I fed rats a healthy control (CON) diet or a refined, purified (REF) diet. Diet affected changes in food intake, energy consumption, body weight, and adiposity during the first 6-weeks. Chronic consumption of the REF diet led to impairments in motivation and attention. There were interesting of diet quality on body weight and food consumption in response to discontinuation of behavioral testing. I discuss the effects of switching from a REF to a CON diet on the amount of time spent running when given voluntary access to a running wheel. Finally, I show how switching from a REF to a CON diet for 5 weeks rescued motivational deficits. Together, the results suggest that highly processed diets dysregulate energy homeostasis, and that switching from a REF to a CON diet results in selective recovery of motivation for a food reward, but no effect on exercise or exercise-induced benefits.