A Little Known Hormone That Sabotaging Your Weight Loss and How To Fix It
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What is Leptin?
Leptin is a protein produced in the fatty tissues of the body, and they help regulate the way the body stores fat. It plays a vital role in weight. Leptin targets the hypothalamus in the brain, and helps to tell us whether we are full or hungry. Sometimes, this signal does not do the job is was created to do, and therefore, overeating occurs when it should not. After finishing a meal, our brain is supposed to tell the body it is full. But when leptin does not rise properly, hunger continues, leading to excessive calorie intake and obesity.
Leptin and Weight Loss
When leptin levels are low, the body does not recognize it does not need food, and will enter starvation mode, holding onto fat to protect itself (such as in times of actual lack of food), thus making weight loss difficult. Many people have never heard of leptin, and are frustrated by the lack of progress in their weight loss efforts. Restoring proper leptin levels can often contribute greatly to successful weight management efforts.
To find out if you have a leptin imbalance, consider a few questions. Have you failed to lose weight, despite various attempts, and changes in diet and exercise? Do you gain weight even though you are eating healthy and working out? Is your energy low? Are you still craving food after eating a large size meal? If you answered yes, you quite possibly have a leptin imbalance. Blood work can diagnose this for certain, and leptin levels should be less than 12. If they are not, your weight loss efforts are being sabotaged by leptin.
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How to Fix Leptin Imbalance Naturally
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Now that you know what a leptin imbalance does, next learn how to correct one. First, high intensity interval workouts help by reducing insulin levels in the body. Next, stay away from overly processed, preserved and otherwise artificial food. They cause inflammation within the body and affect the proper function of the thyroid, also key to healthy weight loss. Ensure you are getting enough sleep. Those who are sleep deprived often have extremely low levels of leptin in their body. Reduce your intake of fructose and sugar, even the natural sugar in fruit, for the same reason. Finally, no more up and down dieting, and starting and stopping of weight loss programs. They confuse your system and can force the body into starvation mode. The purpose of leptin is to tell the body when to store fat for protection. At one time or another in history, human kind experienced times of lack, and it is in times of starvation and turmoil that leptin signaled the body to hang tight to resources for survival, including body fat. In times of plenty, like our modern world, however, having a multitude of food choices, easy options, fast food, convenience food, and overall abundance, it is not hard to understand how hormones often get out of whack.
Science Backs up the Leptin/Weight Connection
Leptin Receptor Deficiency can often begin several months after being born at a healthy weight. The failure of leptin to work properly leads quickly to hyperphasia, which is chronically eating food to excess. Naturally, this hyperphasia rapidly leads the individual to dangerous obesity. At this time, it is unclear how prevalent the condition is, yet as many as 3% of obese adults have suffered from Leptin Receptor Deficiency since childhood.
It is believed that leptin imbalance can have a genetic tendency and knowing you have it can make it easier if your children later show symptoms. Levels of leptin and the resistance to leptin appear to run in families, and can be concluded to be an inheritable trait. Understanding this fact can help researchers figure out why it happens in the first place. Also noted, leptin levels appear lower in women, and indeed, more women than men suffer extreme morbid obesity. Of note, there was no statistical difference in leptin levels between Caucasian and African-American subjects.
Last Word on Leptin
If you have tried and failed to lose weight and feel hopeless, perhaps leptin imbalance is finally the answer you have been seeking. Hopefully, learning more and changing certain habits can get you on the right track for success. It is not impossible to correct leptin levels, and it may give you just what you need to get rid of the extra pounds for good.
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