Research
Hormonal
Weight regain after initial loss is driven by a persistent reduction in total energy expenditure and an increase in hunger/satiety signals (hormonal changes).
Understand that your body fights weight loss. After losing weight, your metabolism slows and hunger hormones change permanently. This is why maintaining weight is harder than losing it. You must account for this biological shift in your long-term plan.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Most importantly, total energy expenditure drops after weight loss and this reduction persists... In addition to the decrease in energy expenditure, the drive for energy intake increases compared to the situation before diet initiation.
Why this rating
Synthesizes multiple human and animal studies cited in the review.
Source
The long‐term effect of energy restricted diets for treating obesity
Mirjam Langeveld et al. · Obesity · 2015
DOI 10.1002/oby.21146
Meta-analysis · 14 studiesCited 74×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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