Leptin and Weight Loss
Leptin is a hormone that tells your brain how much body fat there is; people with excess body fat tend to have high leptin levels.
As you lose weight, leptin levels tend to decline and may make you hungry. To combat this situation, it is crucial that you maintain a nutritious diet and get sufficient restful sleep so as to prevent hunger pangs from setting in.
Low Levels
Leptin serves as an important signal to many systems in the body, including the immune system. It sends messages instructing cells to release proinflammatory chemicals that fight infections while maintaining cell membrane health; additionally, Leptin boosts natural killer (NK) cell activity as well as production of IL-2, IL-12 and perforin; improves insulin sensitivity while simultaneously decreasing levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.
However, several things can impede leptin signaling in the body. Overeating and weight issues are chief among them – people with low leptin levels don’t feel satisfied after meals and don’t burn calories as quickly, thus leading them to store the extra energy as fat reserves.
Stress, sleep issues and diet can also have an effect on leptin levels. Sleep loss disrupts hormone production and may make you hungrier while also altering ghrelin levels – the primary “hunger hormone” responsible for appetite regulation.
Eating a high-fat diet can lower levels of leptin and ghrelin and your metabolism, as well as lead to an decrease in leptin levels by skipping meals or taking medications that suppress hunger.
When trying to lose weight, leptin levels during calorie restriction may drop too slowly for you to maintain your target weight. This could be because its lack signals the brain to increase feeding and decrease energy expenditure, thus making weight loss harder than planned.
A study published this month in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition revealed that using r-metHuLeptin to replace lost leptin can revert changes to regional neural activity responses during time-restricted feeding, restore levels back to their pre-weight loss values, as well as improving thyroid-stimulating hormone, serum leptin, triglyceride and cholesterol levels.
Leptin is an important hormone to manage fat storage and metabolic function. Produced by your fat cells and released upon an increased consumption of calories or weight gain, its primary purpose is telling your brain you have enough stored up, so eating won’t be necessary and caloric burning can occur naturally at an appropriate pace. Leptin also plays important roles in fertility, immunity and brain functioning – just some examples!
High Levels
Leptin is a hormone released by your fat cells to signal when you’re full, helping coordinate multiple body parts; for example, leptin facilitates communication between brain and stomach.
Humans produce leptin on a circadian cycle and its concentration varies during the day and night (higher at night). Leptin stimulates brain activity linked to satiety and slows eating, but when blood levels of leptin decrease you become hungrier and start eating more.
Leptin levels indicate when your fat cells are full, making you less hungry and encouraging you to consume fewer calories. This can be invaluable when trying to lose weight as it helps you stick to your diet plan without succumbing to temptation and eating extra.
But some individuals don’t respond properly when their fat cells signal them that they have enough storage, continuing to consume despite having adequate or excess reserves – this condition is known as leptin resistance and it’s common among obese individuals. Furthermore, leptin resistance may contribute to chronic inflammation, heart disease, insulin resistance and cancer in addition to being the cause of obesity itself.
Some factors that influence leptin levels include sleep, exercise and emotional stress. Too little restful sleep may lower leptin levels while prolonged bouts of intense exercise may further decrease them. Emotional distress may increase cortisol levels which impede leptin production and secretion.
Diets that contain many processed food items, especially those high in sugar and low in soluble fiber, may impede leptin signals to your brain, making you feel full after meals more quickly. Also, high triglyceride levels in your bloodstream may prevent leptin from reaching its intended destination in your brain – so decreasing them may improve leptin sensitivity and help you feel full more quickly after eating (24). Eating a nutritious diet rich in proteins could also help signal that signal to your brain that it’s full (24).
Resistance
Leptin sends signals to the brain telling it to reduce food intake, increase satiety and fat burning, and help people lose weight. But when someone is leptin resistant, its messages don’t reach the brain, leading them to overeat and gain fat – often leading to obesity and lack of energy in general. If this sounds familiar to you, discuss obtaining a blood test from your physician as soon as possible, along with setting up a personal health plan tailored just for yourself.
As soon as you become overweight, fat cells produce plenty of leptin but are unable to reach the brain – leading to hyperleptinemia (high levels of leptin). Over time, your body begins ignoring this message, leading to excess fat accumulation and low energy. People with high leptin resistance often have abdominal or visceral fat that increases risk factors for diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Researchers believe that excessive consumption of processed carbohydrates and sugars may contribute to leptin resistance by increasing inflammation and interfering with production of triglycerides needed to transport leptin signals to the brain. Studies have also indicated that cutting back on fructose consumption (found in table sugar and high fructose corn syrup) may help ameliorate leptin resistance while diets rich in fiber could prevent further leptin resistance.
Leptin resistance may also be the result of chronic low-grade inflammation in the hypothalamus, elevated free fatty acids in the bloodstream or hormonal imbalances. Hypothalamic inflammation has been linked to weight gain and resistance to leptin by altering how the brain responds to other hormones that control appetite; such as GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1); CCK (cholecystokinin); GRP (gastrin-releasing peptide); OXY (oxyntomodulin); PAI-1 pancreatic polypeptide-1; NMB (Neuromedin B); RBP4 (retinol-binding protein-4).
Experts often suggest eating a diet high in nutrients, low in sugar, high in fiber, with plenty of vegetables and fruits, to reduce leptin resistance. Exercise may also aid weight loss; just be wary not to overtrain as this could raise cortisol levels which interfere with leptin.
Treatment
Leptin is a hormone released by your fat cells to control hunger and maintain energy balance, working via the brainstem and hypothalamus to regulate food consumption and calorie expenditure. Leptin also plays an important role in controlling fat cell growth: when your body has sufficient amounts of fatty tissue cells they release leptin to signal your brain that you’ve had enough food; otherwise they release too much leptin which eventually creates leptin resistance which leads to overeating and makes you resistant to its effects; with too many extra fat cells surrounding you developing leptin resistance that makes eating impossible!
People suffering from obesity are characterized by higher levels of leptin production in fat cells while their brain becomes less responsive to it, leading to an imbalance between energy entering and leaving their bodies (energy balance) and what comes out (calorie intake minus expenditure) (also called energy balance). Therefore, they eat more than necessary without expending enough calories through burning to avoid weight gain.
Good news is that leptin sensitivity can be enhanced. Your doctor can conduct blood leptin testing to measure how high or low it is; alternatively you can work to modify lifestyle and eating habits to enhance sensitivity by decreasing fatty foods while increasing protein and fiber intake and limiting sugar consumption.
Leptin resistance may make it challenging to reach their desired weight due to changes in appetite and a tendency towards conserving energy. Studies in rodents demonstrate this when leptin levels decline during weight loss; when leptin signals decrease further during energy expenditure reduction (see the article “Reversing Weight Loss-Induced Decreases in Brain Leptin Signaling,” beginning on page 2583). Maintaining normal leptin levels may help override such homeostatic adaptations by keeping levels consistent throughout their daily cycles of weight gain/loss.
Intermittent fasting strategies such as alternate day cycling and time-restricted eating have been shown to increase leptin sensitivity, leading to weight loss. Other strategies may help too – these may include stress reduction, sleep improvement, adequate hydration and regular exercise as well as medication such as sex hormones or glucocorticoids that increase leptin production within your body. Speak to your physician today about these potential solutions!