The way marmots monitor their fat stores could hold lessons for human dieters. Marmots “are the ultimate yo-yo dieters,” said Greg Florant, a biology professor at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Yellow-bellied marmots may enter their burrows in the fall carrying 30 percent to 40 percent of their body weight in fat. They emerge in the spring svelte with near-zero body fat, he said.

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