GLOSSARY

Orexin-B is the other orexin peptide with distinct binding properties.

For practical use, record meal and training timing, sleep and hunger alongside actual intake and performance trends. When a marker changes, first examine measurement conditions and plausible explanations; food decisions should support adequate supply, tolerance and recovery rather than ending the assessment at one molecular signal or assuming a concentration change automatically establishes a useful intervention.

Hypothalamus and brainstem integrate energy, digestive and environmental information with reward and behavior networks. Nuclei and neuron populations are not simple on–off eating switches. Orexigenic and appetite-reducing pathways interact, and many cellular findings were first studied in animals. A neuropeptide name cannot establish human effect size or an athlete's food requirement; subjective hunger and actual intake must also be assessed alongside physiological mechanisms.

Appetite is desire to eat, distinct from hunger, gastric fullness and actual energy requirements. Satiety concerns suppression between meals, whereas satiation helps end the current meal. A person can feel full while still under-fueled. Recording sensations, actual intake and activity timing together supports planning better than drawing conclusions from one sensation or hormone; subjective scales and food records measure different aspects rather than interchangeable biological quantities.