UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., July 6 (UPI) -- Penn State University researchers have found the stomach hormone ghrelin may help re-establish a set body weight after dieting and exercise.
Researchers examined the hormone in healthy, normal-weight women, discovering changes in ghrelin levels after alterations in the subjects' body weight, composition and resting metabolic rate.
Previous studies had shown injections of ghrelin significantly increase both hunger and food consumption, but this study is the first to show weight loss from exercise and dieting leads to increased levels of ghrelin.
"The stimulatory effect on food intake attributed to ghrelin suggests a potential role for ghrelin in returning the body to a prior set-point for body weight after weight loss," the researchers said. "The absence of changes in ghrelin in our weight stable group demonstrates that exercise training itself has little impact on at least one powerful modulator of food intake."
Ghrelin can also affect the body's energy balance, they said, and women in the study who experienced weight loss saw increased ghrelin levels in response to an energy deficit created by reduced food intake and exercise.
