Research
Hormonal
In healthy lean men, the metabolic and neuroendocrine adaptations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), renin-aldosterone, and growth hormone-IGF-1 axes during short-term fasting are independent of leptin levels.
Fasting affects different hormonal systems differently. While reproductive hormones drop due to low leptin, stress hormones (cortisol) and growth hormone changes happen regardless of leptin levels. Do not assume fixing leptin will fix all hormonal responses to starvation.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
In contrast to findings in mice, fasting-induced changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, renin-aldosterone, and growth hormone–IGF-1 axes as well as fuel utilization may be independent of leptin in humans.
Why this rating
Same study design as N1; robust negation of effect for specific axes.
Source
The role of falling leptin levels in the neuroendocrine and metabolic adaptation to short-term starvation in healthy men
Jean L. Chan et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 2003
DOI 10.1172/jci17490
crossover · n=8Cited 575×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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