Post holiday sugar cravings? Maybe your hunger hormone isn’t working.
Did you know that leptin is a hormone made and released by your fat cells in direct proportion to the amount of body fat you are carrying? When leptin is working properly, it signals to your hypothalamus – “Stop eating, you’ve had enough.” The message to your brain is, you’ve stored enough energy, you can stop eating now. So it’s leptin that controls the feelings of hunger and satiety; it also has actions related to fertility, immunity, and brain function.
Overweight people have higher amounts of circulating leptin in their bloodstream than leaner people because they have more fat cells producing leptin. You might conclude that overweight people should therefore have less hunger, eat less, and be able to lose weight more easily. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Hormones do not act alone. Leptin affects all other hormones, which means when we follow a low calorie diet we see a myriad of hormone imbalances causing havoc with fertility, menstruation, sex drive, and immune function.
So why are so many people overweight? Why are heavy people still hungry? Why do we so often gain the weight back after we lose it?
Leptin Insensitivity
Over time, when your system is exposed to too much leptin, it becomes resistant – just as you can become resistant to the hormone insulin.
How do we become leptin resistant?
- Eating a typical North American diet, high in refined foods and junk food, causes insulin levels to ramp up thereby creating more fat cells.
- Our bodies secrete leptin as fat cells increase and signal the hypothalamus that adequate energy (fat) has been stored.
- Hunger and satiety should be relieved and excess fat stored for energy.
- Too much fat storage causes more leptin to circulate in the blood stream.
- The brain then becomes resistant to leptin; similar to insulin resistance, the body stops responding to leptin’s signals.
- When the brain does not receive the leptin signal, it erroneously thinks the body is starving.
- Leptin resistance is experienced as starvation causing a number of mechanisms and hormone pathways to activate, in turn increasing fat stores instead of burning excess fat
- Exerting willpower over the leptin-driven starvation signal is next to impossible.
- Fad diets and quick fixes that severely restrict calories cause leptin levels to drop significantly making overweight individuals hungry all the time.
- Diet measures fail and the person is left feeling tired, hungry, and defeated, feelings that often trigger emotional over-eating.
Symptoms of leptin insensitivity:
- Belly fat
- Feeling unsatisfied and hungry all the time
- Constant sugar cravings
- Night time eating
- Stubborn weight gain
- Elevated evening cortisol – please read my blog on adrenal fatigue
- Thyroid imbalance symptoms despite a normal TSH result
6 fixes right here, right now!
- Eat Protein: many studies indicate that a higher protein intake can reduce weight. This may be linked to reducing leptin insensitivity.
- Add Fat: specifically Omega-3 and healthy saturated fats like coconut oil, or butter from grass-fed cattle.
- Eat Soluble Fibre: for example legumes, wild rice, oat bran, etcetera, will improve your gut health and may protect against obesity.
- Get Physical: activity may help to reverse leptin resistance.
- Sleep: poor sleep has been linked to weight gain and leptin resistance.
- Ask your doctor to check your triglyceride levels: the best way to lower triglycerides is to reduce carbohydrate, sugar, and alcohol intake.
If this all sounds daunting know that you are no alone. This is precisely why I developed my Body Beautiful Workshop – a comprehensive, step-by-step, 12-week method for healthy weight loss and health. The program is designed to balance your hormones, heal your gut, reduce inflammation, and enable you to shed pounds. If you feel like you are up against a wall struggling with your weight you won’t want to miss this workshop.
If you want to make your New Years Resolution stick while getting the support you need this is the program for you.
12 Week Body Beautiful Weight Loss & Nutrition Program for Every Body. Click for more details.
Program Dates:
January 27th (Start Date)
February 3rd, 10th (Two week Practice Break)
March 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th
April 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
References and Further reading:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12439643
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026049514002418
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12439643
http://joe.endocrinology-journals.org/content/223/1/T25.long
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413113002003
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v395/n6704/full/395763a0.html
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v1/n11/full/nm1195-1155.html
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/17490
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8532024/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18031592
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/73/2/240.full
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15531540
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15111494
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/41.long
August 24, 2015 @ 2:34 pm
Excellent post, very informative. I agree that what we eat plays a major role in our body’s chemistry and hormone balance. I also believe that emotional health and stress play a major role in our physical body chemistry. Although this is not always obvious.
August 24, 2015 @ 3:52 pm
Thank you Viny. You’ve hit the nail on the head regarding your comment about stress. Stress is so elusive in our society we often don’t even realize the impact on health. I spend a lot of my time asking clients about their thoughts and how they lead to relentless stress. It’s a huge topic that we as practitioners need to address. Thank you for your comment. In health, Kelly
August 24, 2015 @ 3:58 pm
I get the feeling your a health coach.
I really feel that everything in this physical reality begins on an emotional /mental /spiritual level. I’m sure you’ve seen how clients improve so dramatically when they just have someone like you to talk to.
August 24, 2015 @ 4:26 pm
Absolutely, tho my designation is Registered Dietitian I believe you cannot address the physical without addressing the emotional/mental/spiritual. I consider myself a coach through and through. Thank you again for your thoughtful comments. It sounds like you are on the same path. Kelly
January 16, 2016 @ 1:18 pm
I think it is important for people to know about leptin and leptin sensitivity. However, I worry your title and focus in this piece could lead some to think of leptin as a “magic bullet” in the obesity chain. Yet we know from animal experiments (as well as observational work in humans) that hunger, satiation, fat deposition, etc., is a complicated interaction involving leptin, ghrelin, insulin, and likely many other peptides, hormones, etc. Again, I applaud you for informing folks about the role leptin plays in all of this, but leptin is one of many “stars” in a huge show, and they all interact together such that I think it is risky to talk about what one does while ignoring the others. Hope this doesn’t come across as too grumpy – Your piece is thought provoking!
January 17, 2016 @ 11:07 am
Hi Big Chief. Thank you for your comment. I realize that no hormone works in isolation to others, in fact I often compare these interactions to the complexity of a Rubix cube. Perhaps I could have prefaced the article with this fact. However, if you’ve been reading my blog for some time you would see that this article was just one in a series that focus on the hormonal connection to weight loss. My e-book covers the big five: Insulin, Cortisol,Leptin, Ghrelin and Estrogen. I’m glad you enjoyed the article and no, you’re not grumpy, just bringing up a valid point. 🙂