In mice fed a high-fat diet, those that experienced repeated cycles of weight loss and regain consumed less food overall than mice that maintained a stable weight, and as a result, they had lower...
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
When male C57BL/6J mice on a high-fat diet keep losing and regaining weight, they eat less food overall than mice that stay the same weight — even though they eat normally after each diet break. This means they burn more fat than they store over time, so they end up thinner with less fat tissue,...
Most probable mechanism
When male C57BL/6J mice on a high-fat diet go through repeated cycles of eating less and then eating normally again, they end up eating less food overall than mice that eat the same amount all the time. This lower total food intake means their bodies burn more fat than they store, so they stay thinner and have less fat tissue — even though their metabolism doesn’t slow down. This happens because after each period of eating less, they don’t fully make up for the lost calories during the eating periods, so the fat loss adds up over time (10.3390/nu9101149).
Repeated cycles of calorie restriction followed by ad libitum re-feeding reduce daily energy intake below maintenance levels during restriction phases, leading to cumulative suppression of total food consumption over the study period (10.3390/nu9101149)
Reduced cumulative energy intake creates a sustained negative energy balance, triggering mobilization of stored lipids from white adipose tissue without compensatory reductions in energy expenditure (10.3390/nu9101149)
During re-feeding periods, energy intake returns to baseline levels but fails to fully compensate for deficits incurred during restriction, preventing restoration of adipose tissue mass and resulting in smaller adipocytes (10.3390/nu9101149)
Chronic reduction in lipid storage leads to decreased epididymal and perirenal white adipose tissue mass and reduced adipocyte size, with no significant change in lean mass or food efficiency (10.3390/nu9101149)
Lower adipose tissue mass results in reduced leptin secretion, reflecting diminished fat stores without evidence of metabolic adaptation (10.3390/nu9101149)
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Community contributions welcome
Contradicting (0)
Community contributions welcome
Gold Standard Evidence Needed
According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.