Research

Hormonal

Diet-induced weight loss reduces postprandial levels of anorexigenic gut hormones (GLP-1, PYY, CCK), which increases appetite and promotes weight regain, whereas exercise training tends to increase or maintain these hormones, supporting satiety and weight maintenance.

If you lose weight through dieting, expect your hunger hormones (GLP-1, PYY) to drop, making you hungrier and increasing the risk of regaining weight. To counter this, incorporate regular exercise, which appears to help maintain or increase these satiety hormones, thereby supporting weight maintenance.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Diet-induced weight loss results in long-term changes in appetite gut hormones, postulated to favour increased appetite and weight regain while exercise programmes modify responses in a direction expected to enhance satiety and permit weight loss and/or maintenance.
MEJ Lean et al. · International Journal of Obesity · 2015

Why this rating

The paper is a review of multiple RCTs and observational studies, synthesizing evidence on hormonal responses.

Source

Altered gut and adipose tissue hormones in overweight and obese individuals: cause or consequence?

MEJ Lean et al. · International Journal of Obesity · 2015

DOI 10.1038/ijo.2015.220

narrative_reviewCited 246×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →