Lower your triglycerides: Having high triglycerides can prevent the transport of leptin from your blood to your brain.Sleep: Poor sleep is implicated in problems with leptin ( 26).Exercise: Physical activity may help reverse leptin resistance ( 25).
Eat soluble fiber: Eating soluble fiber can help improve your gut health and may protect against obesity ( 24).Avoid processed food: Highly processed foods may compromise the integrity of your gut and drive inflammation ( 23).Focusing on an overall healthy lifestyle is also likely to be an effective strategy. Some researchers believe that reducing diet-induced inflammation may help reverse leptin resistance. It is not entirely clear how leptin resistance can be reversed, though theories abound. If you have a lot of body fat, especially in the belly area, then you are almost certainly leptin resistant. The best way to know if you are leptin resistant is to look in the mirror. Leptin resistance can cause hunger and reduced the number of calories you burn. People who have obesity have high levels of leptin, but the leptin signal isn’t working due to a condition known as leptin resistance. Thus, eating more and exercising less is not the underlying cause of weight gain but rather a possible consequence of leptin resistance, a hormonal defect ( 16).įor most people who struggle with leptin resistance, willing yourself to overcome the leptin-driven starvation signal is next to impossible. Reduced energy expenditure: In an effort to conserve energy, your brain decreases you energy levels and makes you burn fewer calories at rest.Eating more: Your brain thinks that you must eat in order to prevent starvation.This makes your brain change its behavior in order to regain body fat ( 13, 14, 15). When your brain doesn’t receive the leptin signal, it erroneously thinks that your body is starving - even though it has more than enough energy stored. This condition - known as leptin resistance - is now believed to be one of the main biological contributors to obesity ( 12). While copious leptin may be present, the brain doesn’t see it ( 11). However, their leptin signaling may not work. In other words, their brains should know that they have plenty of energy stored. Given the way leptin is supposed to work, many people with obesity should naturally limit their food intake. People with obesity have a lot of body fat in their fat cells.īecause fat cells produce leptin in proportion to their size, people with obesity also have very high levels of leptin ( 10). The main function of leptin is to send a signal telling your brain how much fat is stored in your body’s fat cells. This kind of system is known as a negative feedback loop and similar to the control mechanisms for many different physiological functions, such as breathing, body temperature and blood pressure. At that point, you eat more and burn less. Thus, you eat less and burn more.Ĭonversely, when you don’t eat, your body fat goes down, leading your leptin levels to drop.
When you eat, your body fat goes up, leading your leptin levels to go up. High levels of leptin tell your brain that you have plenty of fat stored, while low levels tell your brain that fat stores are low and that you need to eat ( 9). The fat cells use leptin to tell your brain how much body fat they carry. Leptin is carried by the bloodstream into your brain, where it sends a signal to the hypothalamus - the part that controls when and how much you eat ( 8). The more body fat they carry, the more leptin they produce ( 7). Leptin is produced by your body’s fat cells. Its main role is to regulate fat storage and how many calories you eat and burn. Leptin is a hormone produced by the fat cells in your body. But something is broken in the mechanism that is supposed to prevent us from overeating. Today, leptin is very effective at keeping us from starving. The leptin system evolved to keep humans from starving or overeating, both of which would have made you less likely to survive in the natural environment. However, leptin’s main role is long-term regulation of energy, including the number of calories you eat and expend, as well as how much fat you store in your body ( 6). It also has many other functions related to fertility, immunity and brain function ( 5). Leptin is supposed to tell your brain that - when you have enough fat stored - you don’t need to eat and can burn calories at a normal rate ( 4). Leptin’s primary target is in the brain - particularly an area called the hypothalamus. It is often referred to as the “satiety hormone” or the “starvation hormone.” Leptin is a hormone that is produced by your body’s fat cells ( 3). Meet Leptin - A Hormone That Regulates Body Weight
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