Hormonal

In normal-weight young women, a combined diet and exercise intervention resulting in weight loss causes a significant compensatory increase in circulating ghrelin levels, whereas exercise alone without weight loss does not alter ghrelin levels.

If you are a normal-weight woman losing weight through diet and exercise, your body will naturally increase ghrelin (a hunger hormone) to compensate for the weight loss. This is a normal physiological response to the energy deficit, not necessarily a failure of willpower. However, exercise alone, without creating a weight loss, does not appear to alter these hormone levels in this population.