Why Diets Don't Work: Starved Brain Cells Eat Themselves, Study Finds

A report in the August issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism might help to explain why it's so frustratingly difficult to stick to a diet. When we don't eat, hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating bits of themselves. That act of self-cannibalism turns up a hunger signal to prompt eating.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110802125546.htm