Research
Hormonal
Diet-induced weight loss triggers a significant increase in 24-hour plasma ghrelin levels, acting as a hormonal adaptive response to energy deficit.
When you lose weight through dieting, your body biologically fights back by increasing ghrelin, a hormone that drives hunger. This is a normal adaptive response, not a failure of willpower. Expect increased hunger as a physiological signal of your energy deficit.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
A diet-induced weight loss of 17 percent of initial body weight was associated with a 24 percent increase in the area under the curve for the 24-hour ghrelin profile (P=0.006).
Why this rating
Randomized controlled study with objective biochemical measurements and statistical significance (P=0.006).
Source
Plasma Ghrelin Levels after Diet-Induced Weight Loss or Gastric Bypass Surgery
David E. Cummings et al. · New England Journal of Medicine · 2002
DOI 10.1056/nejmoa012908
cohort · n=28Cited 2,233×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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