Persistence of body weight cycles in dormice maintained with a limited food supply.

Dormice kept under food restriction for several months continued to exhibit body weight cycles with characteristic periods of about 2 months, despite an impaired ability to attain the high body weight levels observed in ad libitum conditions. These results imply that the cycle is controlled by a mechanism whose properties are more consistent with asn endogenous oscillator than with a sequence of stages, in which the relevant stages are defined by upper and lower body weight limits.