The Study
The role of appetite-related hormones, adaptive thermogenesis, perceived hunger and stress in long-term weight-loss maintenance: a mixed-methods study
This study looked at what happened to 15 women after they lost weight and found that some of their body chemicals changed at the same time as they gained some weight back. But it didn't prove that those chemicals made them gain weight — they might have changed for other reasons, like stress or eating habits.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
After losing weight by eating very little, the body tries to get back to its old size by slowing metabolism and changing hunger hormones — but people don’t feel hungrier. Instead, stress and emotional eating make them eat more.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 538 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — even though the body pushes to regain weight, the biggest reason people do is not hunger, but stress and emotional eating, which are harder to fix with diet alone.
- 2Women lost 13.8 kg on average.
- 3Their metabolism dropped by 291 kcal/day.
- 4GLP-1 hormone levels were lower in those who regained more weight.
- 5Ghrelin went up, leptin went down, but hunger didn’t increase.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Year
2020
Authors
G. Thom, S. Dombrowski, Naomi Brosnahan, Y. Y. Algindan, M. Rosario Lopez-Gonzalez, G. Roditi, M. Lean, D. Malkova
Related Content
Claims (6)
When a person consistently eats fewer calories than needed, their metabolic rate decreases, leptin levels drop, hunger hormones rise, and spontaneous physical movement declines.
In obese women who lost weight by eating very few calories, those with lower levels of the hormone GLP-1 before and after weight loss tend to regain more weight over 18 months.
After losing a large amount of weight, obese adult women experience a persistent drop in resting energy expenditure that is greater than expected based on their new body size, making it harder to keep the weight off.
After losing weight, obese adult women who regain weight report perceived stress and emotional eating as the main reasons, not increased hunger.
After losing weight, obese adult women experience a rise in ghrelin and a drop in leptin, but these changes do not match their reported feelings of hunger.
In women who were obese and lost weight, the levels of two hormones called peptide YY and GDF-15 in the blood after fasting are the same as they were before weight loss.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.