Weexamined the causal role of decreased food intake in the body weight pattern observed after exposure to intermittent footshock. In Experiment 1, relative to controls, shocked animals decreased food intake and lost weight in the 24-h test. An unshocked group whose food intake was yoked to the shocked group (food-yoked group) for the poststress period revealed that food intake was a sufficient cause of the body weight loss. In Experiment 2, after the first 24 h, the shock group recovered food intake and body weight gain but did not compensate for the initial losses. Body weights of food-yoked animals again indicated that food intake was a sufficient cause of these effects. The lowered body weight of shocked animals at the end of testing was due to a transient hypoingestion and a failure to subsequently show a compensatory hyperingestion. Dess's (1991) regulatory shift hypothesis is refined in the light of these findings, .Stressors, such as electric shock, immobilization, noise, and crowding, that decrease body weight or body weight gain in rats are also capable of inducing anorexia (Alario,