Research
Hormonal
Ghrelin is the only known hormone that powerfully increases food intake, with levels surging before meals and suppressing after eating, playing a key role in meal initiation and hunger.
Ghrelin is your body's 'hunger hormone.' It rises before meals to prepare you for eating and falls after. Understanding this can help normalize the experience of hunger as a natural biological signal rather than a personal failing.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Ghrelin... powerfully increases food intake in diverse species, including humans, the only known hormone to do so.
Why this rating
Supported by numerous studies, but clinical efficacy as a target is unproven.
Source
Gastrointestinal regulation of food intake
David E. Cummings et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 2007
DOI 10.1172/jci30227
narrative_reviewCited 1,196×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Gastrointestinal satiation signals, specifically cholecystokinin (CCK), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and peptide YY (PYY), regulate meal termination and size through neural and hormonal pathways to the hindbrain, acting synergistically with gastric distention.Strong
- Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, such as exenatide, promote progressive weight loss in humans over up to two years while improving glycemic control, distinguishing them from other diabetes treatments that often cause weight gain.Strong
- Pharmacological administration of cholecystokinin (CCK) reduces meal size acutely in humans and animals, but chronic administration fails to produce sustained weight loss due to compensatory increases in meal frequency.Good
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