Dietary restriction reduces luteinizing hormone (LH) pulse frequency during waking hours and increases LH pulse amplitude during sleep in young menstruating women
Abstract
To determine the effect of dietary energy restriction on gonadotropins, we assayed LH and FSH in samples drawn at 10- and 60-min intervals, respectively, over 24 h from seven young women (mean +/- SE gynecological age, 7.7 +/- 1.2 yr) on day 9, 10, or 11 of two menstrual cycles. Cortisol was measured in samples collected at 30-min intervals. During the 4 previous days and the day of sampling, dietary energy intake was set at either 45 or 10 Cal/kg lean body mass.day in random order. Beginning 2 days before treatment, blood was sampled daily at 0800 h and assayed for T3, insulin-like growth factor-I, and insulin. Estradiol was measured in samples collected daily and at 6-h intervals on the day of frequent sampling. By the day of frequent sampling, dietary restriction had reduced T3 20% (P < 0.01), insulin-like growth factor-I 58% (P < 0.001), and insulin 54% (P < 0.001). Twenty-four-hour transverse means for LH (P = 0.3), FSH (P = 0.2), estradiol (P = 0.3), and cortisol (P = 0.13) were unaffected, but LH pulse frequency was reduced 23% (P < 0.01), especially during waking hours, whereas LH pulse amplitude was increased 40% (P = 0.05), especially during sleep. These results support the hypothesis that LH pulsatility depends upon energy availability in women, as it does in other mammalian species.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
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?
The concept of the LEA threshold (30 kcal/kg FFM/day), below which health problems occurred, was based on short-term laboratory studies in a small sample of sedentary females.
“The concept of the LEA threshold (30 kcal/kg FFM/day), below which health problems occurred, was based on elegant but short-term laboratory studies that investigated stepwise changes in EA, perturbations of sex hormones 45 127 128 and changes in markers of bone turnover 125 in a small sample of sedentary females.”
From 2023 international olympic committee's (IOC) consensus statement on relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs) (2023) · cites this paper as [128]
Cites
Metabolic fuels and reproduction in female mammals
Wade, G. N., & Schneider, J. E. (1992) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/s0149-7634(05)80183-6 · Cited by 686 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Loucks, A. B., & Thuma, J. R. (2003) · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · doi:10.1210/jc.2002-020369 · Cited by 760 · see citing works
Self-citationMountjoy, M., Ackerman, K. E., Bailey, D. M., Burke, L. M., Constantini, N., Hackney, A. C., Heikura, I. A., Melin, A., Pensgaard, A. M., Stellingwerff, T., et al. (2023) · British Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1136/bjsports-2023-106994 · Cited by 724 · see citing works
Heikura, I. A., Uusitalo, A. L. T., Stellingwerff, T., Bergland, D., Mero, A. A., & Burke, L. M. (2018) · International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism · doi:10.1123/ijsnem.2017-0313 · Cited by 318 · see citing works
De Souza, M. J., Miller, B. E., Loucks, A. B., Luciano, A. A., Pescatello, L. S., Campbell, C. G., & Lasley, B. L. (1998) · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · doi:10.1210/jcem.83.12.5334 · Cited by 315 · see citing works
Self-citationBUFFENSTEIN, R. (1995) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/0031-9384(95)02003-9 · Cited by 252 · see citing works
Differential regulation of metabolic, neuroendocrine, and immune function by leptin in humans.
Chan, J. L., Matarese, G., Shetty, G. K., Raciti, P., Kelesidis, I., Aufiero, D., De Rosa, V., Perna, F., Fontana, S., & Mantzoros, C. S. (2006) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0505429103 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Areta, J. L., Taylor, H. L., & Koehler, K. (2021) · European Journal of Applied Physiology · doi:10.1007/s00421-020-04516-0 · Cited by 214 · see citing works
Ovarian hormones and binge eating: exploring associations in community samples
Klump, K. L., Keel, P. K., Culbert, K. M., & Edler, C. (2008) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291708002997 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
Within‐day energy deficiency and reproductive function in female endurance athletes
Fahrenholtz, I. L., Sjödin, A., Benardot, D., Tornberg, Å. B., Skouby, S., Faber, J., Sundgot‐Borgen, J. K., & Melin, A. K. (2018) · Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports · doi:10.1111/sms.13030 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Allaway, H. C. M., Southmayd, E. A., & De Souza, M. J. (2016) · Hormone Molecular Biology and Clinical Investigation · doi:10.1515/hmbci-2015-0053 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Medical Concerns in the Female Athlete
Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness (2000) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.106.3.610 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Low energy availability in female athletes: from the lab to the field
Heikura, I. A., Stellingwerff, T., & Areta, J. L. (2022) · European Journal of Sport Science · doi:10.1080/17461391.2021.1915391 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Low Energy Availability in Exercising Women: Historical Perspectives and Future Directions
Slater, J., Brown, R., McLay-Cooke, R., & Black, K. (2017) · Sports Medicine · doi:10.1007/s40279-016-0583-0 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
- Authors
- Loucks, A. B.
- Affiliations
- Ohio University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
- Publisher
- The Endocrine Society
- Published
- 1994-04-01
- Volume
- 78
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 910-915
- ISSN
- 0021-972X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1970379934
- Cited by
- 174
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 7.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (1r55hd029547-01)
- National Center for Research Resources (MO1 RR 00034, M01RR000034)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1R55-HD-29547-01)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Ovarian function and disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Keywords
- hypocaloric diet, luteinizing hormone, LH pulsatility, LH pulse frequency, LH pulse amplitude, gonadotropins, follicle-stimulating hormone, estradiol, cortisol, thyroid-stimulating hormone, insulin-like growth factor I, insulin, energy availability, sleep, menstrual cycle, young women
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Circadian Rhythm, Estradiol, Female, Food Deprivation, Food, Formulated, Follicle Stimulating Hormone, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Insulin, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Luteinizing Hormone, Menstruation, Sleep, Triiodothyronine
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
