The role of drinking in the suppression of food intake by recent activity

The standard activity-based anorexia procedure provides rats with access to a running wheel while restricting their access to dry food. This can produ ce reduced food intake and progressive weight loss. Using this procedure, i n the present study (Experiment 1) the authors found changes in drinking pa tterns both in the period of high activity preceding food access and during the feeding period, Varying the procedure by providing wet mash (Experimen t 2) or by prior adaptation to a drinking schedule (Experiment 3) prevented the self-starvation effect. These results indicate the importance of drink ing when analyzing the effect of recent activity on food intake.