Research

Hormonal

High baseline insulin response (insulin-30) after weight loss predicts greater fat mass retention and lower resting energy expenditure (REE) during maintenance, identifying a phenotype at risk for weight regain.

If you have struggled to keep weight off despite losing it, your body may be secreting too much insulin in response to carbs, which stores fat and slows your metabolism. This is a specific biological phenotype, not a failure of willpower. The key lever is diet composition: starting your maintenance phase with a low-carbohydrate diet can 'reset' your insulin response and protect against this metabolic slowdown.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Insulin-30, but not maximal insulin secretion, hepatic IS, or HOMA, predicted changes in fat mass... Insulin-30... predicted change in REE during weight loss maintenance, independent of changes in body composition.
Bridget M. Hron et al. · Obesity · 2015

Why this rating

Randomized crossover trial with rigorous metabolic ward conditions, though small sample size (N=21).

Source

Relationship of insulin dynamics to body composition and resting energy expenditure following weight loss

Bridget M. Hron et al. · Obesity · 2015

DOI 10.1002/oby.21213

crossover · n=21Cited 43×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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