Research paper
Dulloo AG, Jacquet J, Montani JP, Schutz Y. How dieting makes the lean fatter: from a perspective of body composition autoregulation through adipostats and proteinstats awaiting discovery. Obesity Reviews. 2015 Feb;16 Suppl 1:25-35. doi:10.1111/obr.12253. PMID: 25614201.
Why we cite it
Review in Obesity Reviews (published as part of the Fribourg Obesity Research Conference proceedings) proposing a body composition autoregulation framework that explains why dieting — particularly in lean individuals — leads to progressive increases in body fat with each weight cycle. The proposed mechanism, in the authors’ own register: human studies of experimental energy restriction and refeeding ”suggest that feedback signals from the depletion of both fat mass (i.e. adipostats) and FFM (i.e. proteinstats) contribute to” weight regain, via increased appetite and suppressed thermogenesis. Fat mass recovers faster than lean mass (preferential catch-up fat), and the framework proposes that fat overshooting therefore precedes full lean recovery, so each cycle may deposit additional fat. *The authors’ own closing position on the whole idea is that it ”deserves greater scientific scrutiny”, not that it is settled.* The proposed cycle runs: dieting → lean deficit → hyperphagia to rebuild lean tissue → faster fat recovery → fat overshooting → net gain in body fat. Builds on Dulloo’s 1996 re-analysis of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Referenced in companion 411 (the-bodys-memory) as evidence that weight cycling compounds metabolic defences against weight loss.