Research
Hormonal
Leptin acts as a critical afferent signal in a negative feedback loop that maintains homeostatic control of adipose tissue mass, protecting against both starvation and obesity.
Your body uses leptin, a hormone from fat cells, to tell your brain how much energy you have stored. This is a biological safety system, not a choice. Understanding this helps explain why weight loss is difficult and why the body fights back against weight loss—it is trying to maintain homeostasis.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
Leptin is an adipose tissue hormone that functions as an afferent signal in a negative feedback loop that maintains homeostatic control of adipose tissue mass.
Why this rating
Foundational discovery supported by genetic mutations (ob/ob mice) and clinical outcomes.
Source
The long road to leptin
Jeffrey Friedman · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 2016
DOI 10.1172/jci91578
narrative_reviewCited 265×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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