ReviewDisease models & mechanisms2011
Set points, settling points and some alternative models: theoretical options to understand how genes and environments combine to regulate body adiposity.
Review in Disease models & mechanisms, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 142 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
142 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Comparing body composition between the sweet-liking phenotypes: experimental data, systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2024Pooled it
- Downsizing food: a systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of reducing served food portion sizes on daily energy intake and body weight.The British journal of nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- Population data provide evidence against the presence of a set point for hemoglobin levels or tissue oxygen delivery.Physiological reports · 2019Pooled it
- Long-term weight loss effects of semaglutide in obesity without diabetes in the SELECT trial.Nature medicine · 2024 · on this mapTrial
- Influence of Short-Term Hyperenergetic, High-Fat Feeding on Appetite, Appetite-Related Hormones, and Food Reward in Healthy Men.Nutrients · 2020Trial
- Weight Change 2 Years After Termination of the Intensive Lifestyle Intervention in the Look AHEAD Study.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2020Trial
- Whey protein consumption after resistance exercise reduces energy intake at a post-exercise meal.European journal of nutrition · 2018Trial
- How Strongly Does Appetite Counter Weight Loss? Quantification of the Feedback Control of Human Energy Intake.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2016Trial
- Short-term variability in body weight predicts long-term weight gain.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2015Trial
- International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: diets for body weight reduction.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Review
- Review
- Weight stigma in Latin America and the Caribbean: regional evidence and a call to action by ABESO.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2026Review
- Weight loss by sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor canagliflozin is followed by rebound in db/db mice but maintained in fat-fed mice via circadian rises in body temperature and locomotor activity.The journal of physiological sciences : JPS · 2026Article
- Psychosocial Burden, Multi-System Somatic Symptom Severity, and Weight-Related Stigma in Late Adolescents and Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Survey from Romania.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Hypothalamic obesity.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026Review
- Asymmetric responses to resource overload: a bow-tie perspective on lake eutrophication and human obesity.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2026Review
- The mitigation of activity-based anorexia by obese adipose tissue transplant is abolished by neonatal AgRP neuron ablation.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Modeling Metabolic State Transitions in Obesity Using a Time-Varying Lambda-Omega Framework.ArXiv · 2026Article
- Critical roles of m6A demethylase FTO in ovarian aging.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- From scarcity to ultra-processed foods: a conceptual analysis of how their properties interact with characteristics of food intake regulation mechanism.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
82 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
25 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The close correspondence between energy intake and expenditure over prolonged time periods, coupled with an apparent protection of the level of body adiposity in the face of perturbations of energy balance, has led to the idea that body fatness is regulated via mechanisms that control intake and energy expenditure. Two models have dominated the discussion of how this regulation might take place. The set point model is rooted in physiology, genetics and molecular biology, and suggests that there is an active feedback mechanism linking adipose tissue (stored energy) to intake and expenditure via a set point, presumably encoded in the brain. This model is consistent with many of the biological aspects of energy balance, but struggles to explain the many significant environmental and social influences on obesity, food intake and physical activity. More importantly, the set point model does not effectively explain the 'obesity epidemic'--the large increase in body weight and adiposity of a large proportion of individuals in many countries since the 1980s. An alternative model, called the settling point model, is based on the idea that there is passive feedback between the size of the body stores and aspects of expenditure. This model accommodates many of the social and environmental characteristics of energy balance, but struggles to explain some of the biological and genetic aspects. The shortcomings of these two models reflect their failure to address the gene-by-environment interactions that dominate the regulation of body weight. We discuss two additional models--the general intake model and the dual intervention point model--that address this issue and might offer better ways to understand how body fatness is controlled.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.