Research

Hormonal

In obese individuals, lower resting energy expenditure (REE) relative to predicted levels is associated with significantly lower circulating active ghrelin levels and reduced ghrelin activity.

If you are obese and struggling with weight loss, your body's hormonal response (ghrelin) may be suppressed more severely if your resting energy expenditure is low. This suggests that metabolic rate is a key factor in hunger regulation, and treatments or strategies that address metabolic efficiency might be more effective than those focusing solely on caloric intake.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Significantly higher active ghrelin levels (214 (cid:1) 22 vs. 159 (cid:1) 30 pg/ml; P < 0.05) and ghrelin activity (8 (cid:1) 1.7% vs. 4.9 (cid:1) 0.9%; P < 0.05) were observed in patients with positive compared with negative measured/predicted REE ratio values.
Paolo Marzullo et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2004

Why this rating

The study uses specific immunoassays and a controlled cohort, but the cross-sectional design limits causal inference.

Source

The Relationship between Active Ghrelin Levels and Human Obesity Involves Alterations in Resting Energy Expenditure

Paolo Marzullo et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2004

DOI 10.1210/jc.2003-031328

cross_sectional · n=40Cited 190×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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