Is Leptin Resistance The Reason You Can’t Lose Weight?

Have you heard of the hormone leptin? It has very important functions in your body that regulate appetite and metabolism. In the majority of overweight people, leptin no longer functions properly. Restoring leptin sensitivity can make it easier to achieve your desired body weight.

Leptin is a hormone made by your fat cells that tells your brain when you have enough body fat. This is supposed to prevent overeating and help you maintain a healthy body weight. Leptin resistance is a condition where the brain no longer responds to this signal, which may contribute to obesity. Weight gain and loss is about much more than calories, exercise and willpower. Leptin is a hormone with a powerful effect on appetite and weight loss. In fact, leptin resistance is now believed to be the leading driver of fat gain in humans.

Leptin is often referred to as the satiety hormone. Its primary target is an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. Leptin is supposed to tell your brain that you have enough fat stores on your body and you don’t need to eat any more food.

In some overweight people, leptin has been so high for so long that the brain no longer responds to it. This is a problem because a person with leptin resistance can feel dissatisfied after a meal. They continue to feel hungry and would like to eat more. This can make sticking to a diet impossibly difficult.

Leptin is produced by your fat cells. The more body fat you carry, the more leptin you’ll produce, which you can eventually become resistant to. If copious amounts of leptin are present, the brain no longer notices it. When your brain doesn’t receive the leptin signal, it mistakenly thinks that your body is starving even though it has more than enough energy stored. This can increase hunger and cause a person to burn fewer calories when they exercise.

 Causes of Leptin Resistance

• Eating more carbohydrate than your body can tolerate. Each person has a different carbohydrate tolerance level. It declines as we age, and particularly after menopause in women. People with polycystic ovarian syndrome, high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes usually have a very low tolerance for carbohydrate in their diet.
• Chronic inflammation. This can be caused by autoimmune disease, elevated insulin, food intolerance and chronic infections or injuries.
• Sleep deprivation, either caused by insufficient quantity or poor quality sleep.
• Disturbed circadian rhythm. This can be caused by insufficient time spent outdoors, looking at phone or computer screens late at night, and wearing sunglasses during the day. Eating late at night can also promote leptin resistance. Ideally you would not eat after sunset. This can be impossible in some parts of the world in winter of course. In that case it’s best to make your earlier meals larger and just have a smaller meal in the evening. Shift workers are at higher risk of both leptin and insulin resistance.

How to reverse leptin resistance and lose weight

• Avoid highly processed food as much as possible. These foods may compromise the integrity of your gut by causing leaky gut, dysbiosis and driving up inflammation. If you know you have gut health problems, Glutamine powder is specifically formulated to repair a leaky gut. BactoClear capsules are a herbal anti microbial that kills overgrowth of harmful bacteria and yeast in the gut that usually results from eating too much sugar or processed food.
• We all know we shouldn’t eat too much sugar, but some people find cravings overwhelming and some feel addicted to it. If you struggle with sugar addiction, try to take care of your physical and mental health as well as possible. If you are stressed and exhausted you are far more likely to give in to cravings. Glicemic Balance capsules contain herbs and nutrients that balance blood sugar levels. If you can prevent a spike or crash in your blood sugar, you’ll have far less cravings.
• Exercise: Physical activity has been shown to help reverse leptin and insulin resistance. Increasing the amount of muscle on your body will improve the efficiency of your metabolic rate.
• Try to make sleep a priority. Most people need 7 to 8 hours of good quality, uninterrupted sleep. If your sleep quality is poor, magnesium may help you get to sleep and stay asleep.
• Keep your carbohydrate intake low and make sure you’re consuming adequate protein and fat with each meal. Meat, seafood, poultry, eggs and watery vegetables are all low carb foods.

If you are suffering with a health problem that raises inflammation in your body, try to address that. Inflammation can stand in the way of weight loss because it makes it harder for leptin and insulin to function properly. There is a great deal of helpful information in our book Healing Autoimmune Disease: A plan to help your immune system and reduce inflammation.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.