Research
Hormonal
The hormone ghrelin activates AMPK in the hypothalamus to increase appetite and food intake, whereas leptin and insulin inhibit AMPK to decrease appetite.
Hunger hormones like ghrelin turn on your brain's energy sensor (AMPK) to make you eat, while satiety hormones like leptin turn it off. This balance controls your appetite.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Ghrelin activates AMPK in the hypothalamus... and there is evidence that this is required for ghrelin to increase food intake... Leptin... has the opposite effect in the arcuate nucleus... where it has been reported to inhibit AMPK.
Why this rating
The paper reviews multiple studies and models, though some molecular details are noted as 'less certain'.
Source
AMPK: Regulating Energy Balance at the Cellular and Whole Body Levels
D. Grahame Hardie et al. · Physiology · 2014
DOI 10.1152/physiol.00050.2013
narrative_reviewCited 278×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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