Research

Hormonal

Calorie restriction-induced weight loss does not restore or alter the secretion of appetite-inhibiting gut hormones (GLP-1, PYY, CCK, GIP, NT, SST) or their gene expression in the small intestine of obese subjects.

If you have lost weight, do not expect your hunger hormones to normalize. Your body may still signal hunger as strongly as it did when you were heavier. This biological persistence is a key reason for weight regain, so you must rely on external strategies (dietary structure, behavioral habits) to manage appetite, as your internal hormonal signals will not naturally support maintenance.

ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
These data suggest that the attenuated postprandial responses of GLP- 1, as well as reduced responses of other appetite- inhibiting gut hormones, in people living with obesity may persist after weight loss and may contribute to their susceptibility for weight regain.
Marina Kjærgaard Gerstenberg et al. · Acta Physiologica · 2023

Why this rating

High-quality mechanistic data in a controlled animal model (perfused rat intestine), but extrapolation to humans is speculative.

Source

Weight loss by calorie restriction does not alter appetite‐regulating gut hormone responses from perfused rat small intestine

Marina Kjærgaard Gerstenberg et al. · Acta Physiologica · 2023

DOI 10.1111/apha.13947

mechanism_only · n=14Cited 4×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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