Research

Hormonal

Plasma ghrelin concentrations increase significantly during negative energy balance (weight loss) and decrease during overfeeding, indicating that ghrelin acts as a homeostatic signal to defend body weight rather than simply reflecting current energy intake.

Your body uses ghrelin to signal hunger when you are in a calorie deficit and satiety when you are overfed. This is a natural defense mechanism to maintain body weight. Understanding this can help you anticipate hunger cues during weight loss and recognize that these changes are physiological, not a failure of willpower.

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Plasma ghrelin concentrations increased significantly during the negative energy balance period and decreased significantly during the overfeeding period.
Éric Ravussin et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2001

Why this rating

Study uses a rigorous design with twins, controlled environments, and direct measurement of hormonal changes in response to specific energy balance interventions.

Source

Plasma Ghrelin Concentration and Energy Balance: Overfeeding and Negative Energy Balance Studies in Twins

Éric Ravussin et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2001

DOI 10.1210/jcem.86.9.8003

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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