Relationship between activity, rest, and free feeding in rats

General activity and food intake were recorded concurrently in free-feeding rats. Correlations of meal size with associated postmeal interval, activity, and rest were determined. Meal size was significantly positively correlated with both the length of the postmeal interval and the amount of rest in the postmeal interval, but not with the amount of activity in the postmeal interval. This suggests that the amount of energy expended following a meal is not related to the initiation of the subsequent meal and that some alternate mechanism underlies meal-to-meal regulation.