FIGURE 1.

(A) Schematic illustration of the experimental design where young (4–5 month old) female sheep were ovariectomized (OVX) in the month of July, which was 30 days prior to week 0, when they were placed into either a fed to maintain pre‐study body weight group (FM; n = 7) or a feed‐restricted to lose 20% of their pre‐study body weight (FR; n = 8) by week 13 group (November). (B) Mean ± SEM weekly total body weights were recorded throughout the study and feed intake was adjusted weekly to achieve the desired weight change in each group. A repeated‐measures two‐way ANOVA found a significant interaction between the effects of treatment and time, and fed and feed‐restricted groups were compared weekly via F tests for simple effects. From week 6 to week 13, average body weights were lower (*p <  0.05) in FR animals compared to FM animals