An adaptive response to uncertainty can lead to weight gain during dieting attempts.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

Peoples' attempts to lose weight by low calorie diets often result in weight gain because of over-compensatory overeating during lapses. Animals usually respond to a change in food availability by adjusting their foraging effort and altering how much energy reserves they store. But in many situations the long-term availability of food is uncertain, so animals may attempt to estimate it to decide the appropriate level of fat storage.

Methodology

We report the results of a conceptual model of feeding in which the animal knows whether food is currently abundant or limited, but does not know the proportion of time, there will be an abundance in the long-term and has to learn it.

Results

If the food supply is limited much of the time, such as duri

SUBMITTER: Higginson AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5139007 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature