Research
Hormonal
Exogenous administration of FGF21 induces weight loss and improves glycemia in obese animal models primarily by increasing energy expenditure rather than reducing food intake.
FGF21 is a hormone that helps burn energy and manage blood sugar, but it does not work by making you hungry. In obese individuals, the body becomes resistant to its natural signals, but high-dose treatments can still be effective.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Pharmacological treatment with human FGF21 also led to weight loss in mice with DIO. In contrast, food intake in FGF21-treated animals did not change compared with saline-treated controls. Thus, the FGF21-induced weight loss in DIO mice resulted from increased energy expenditure (8, 9).
Why this rating
Based on multiple murine models (ob/ob, db/db, Zucker diabetic fatty rat) and non-human primates, though human data is limited to observational or early-phase contexts.
Source
Understanding the Physiology of FGF21
Ffolliott M. Fisher et al. · Annual Review of Physiology · 2015
DOI 10.1146/annurev-physiol-021115-105339
narrative_reviewCited 881×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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