Research
Hormonal
Low leptin levels after weight loss act as a biological risk factor that increases hunger and reduces satiety signaling, promoting weight regain.
Expect increased hunger after losing weight; it is a biological signal of low leptin, not a personal failure. Plan for this by focusing on high-satiety foods and understanding that this drive is a temporary physiological state, not a permanent character trait.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
In a weight-loss study using a very-low-calorie diet, subjects who dropped out had higher hunger trait scores... following gastrointestinal surgery, high hunger scores were associated with less weight reduction... low leptin was associated with low feelings of fullness.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple cited studies showing correlation between low leptin, high hunger, and weight regain.
Source
Control of Food Intake in the Obese
John E. Blundell et al. · Obesity Research · 2001
DOI 10.1038/oby.2001.129
narrative_reviewCited 249×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Human body weight regulation is asymmetrical: the system strongly defends against weight loss (negative energy balance) but tolerates positive energy balance, leading to obesity in obesogenic environments.Good
- High-fat diets contribute to positive energy balance by increasing hunger levels and reducing 24-hour plasma leptin concentrations, unlike high-carbohydrate meals.Good
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