Cited by 1,317Obesity, Physical Activity, DietRegulation of Appetite and ObesityAdipokines, Inflammation, and Metabolic Diseases

Energy balance and obesity

Open access
Hill, James O., Wyatt, Holly R., Peters, John C.·2012·Circulation

Abstract

T his article describes the interplay among energy intake, energy expenditure, and body energy stores and illustrates how an understanding of energy balance can help us develop strategies to reduce obesity.First, reducing obesity requires modifying both energy intake and energy expenditure, not simply focusing on either alone.Food restriction alone will not be effective in reducing obesity if human physiology is biased toward achieving energy balance at a high energy flux (ie, at a high level of energy intake and expenditure).In previous environments, a high energy flux was achieved with a high level of physical activity, but in today's sedentary environment, it is increasingly achieved through weight gain.Matching energy intake to a high level of energy expenditure will likely be more feasible for most people than restricting food intake to meet a low level of energy expenditure.Second, from an energy balance point of view, we are likely to be more successful in preventing excessive weight gain than in treating obesity.The reason is that the energy balance system shows stronger opposition to weight loss than to weight gain.Although large behavior changes are needed to produce and maintain reductions in body weight, small behavior changes may be sufficient to prevent excessive weight gain.The concept of energy balance combined with an understanding of how the body achieves balance may be a useful framework for developing strategies to reduce obesity rates.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1161/circulationaha.111.087213

Cites

47 of 47 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Long-term weight loss requires a sustained calorie deficit, but calorie quality is equally important for adherence, satiety, and metabolic health.

    “Long-term weight loss requires a sustained calorie deficit, but calorie quality is equally important for adherence, satiety, and metabolic health [95].”

    From Obesity: Clinical Impact, Pathophysiology, Complications, and Modern Innovations in Therapeutic Strategies (2025) · cites this paper as [95]

    The “Food Restriction Alone Is Not the Answer” section says restricting intake produces weight loss, while the “Treatment Versus Prevention” section says maintaining that loss requires lasting behavior change as energy needs fall. The paper does not establish that calorie quality is equally important for adherence, satiety, or metabolic health. It also describes maintenance as matching intake to expenditure at a lower body weight, not sustaining a calorie deficit indefinitely. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Obesity results from a prolonged state of positive energy balance.

    “Obesity is caused by prolonged positive energy balance1,2.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [2]2. Hill JO, Commerford R. Exercise, fat balance and energy balance. Int J Sports Nutr. 1996;6:80 -92.
  2. [33]33. Wing RR, Hill JO. Successful weight loss maintenance. Ann Rev Nutr. 2001;21:323-341.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hill, J. O., Wyatt, H. R., & Peters, J. C.
Affiliations
University of Colorado Anschutz (US)
Venue
Circulation
Published
2012-07-03
Volume
126
Issue
1
Pages
126-132
ISSN
  • 0009-7322 (ISSN-L)
  • 1524-4539
OpenAlex
W2118733706
Cited by
1,317
References
47
Citations by year
2026: 59 · 2025: 92 · 2024: 95 · 2023: 121 · 2022: 135 · 2021: 166 · 2020: 135 · 2019: 108 · 2018: 111 · 2017: 77 · 2016: 80 · 2015: 59 · 2014: 46 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 3
FWCI
40.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Circulation (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK48520, R01DK042549, DK-42549, R37DK042549, P30DK048520)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Adipokines, Inflammation, and Metabolic Diseases
Keywords
energy balance, obesity, energy intake, energy expenditure, dietary restriction, physical activity, sedentary lifestyle, weight gain prevention, weight loss, obesity prevention strategies
MeSH terms
Animals, Eating, Energy Metabolism, Humans, Obesity, Caloric Restriction

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review