Leptin: The Missing Link in Weight Loss

Leptin is a hormone in your body made from protein. This is a very special hormone because it regulates energy use, energy intake, metabolism and appetite.

This hormone is produced by your fat cells. As your fat cells get full, leptin is produced. The leptin enters your circulatory system, gets pumped around in your blood until it reaches it's destination. Your brain. Or more specifically, your hypothalamus.

When leptin binds to the receptors of the hypothalamus, your brain gets the message that you've had enough to eat and you're satisfied.

But what if something goes wrong with this process? What if the communication between the leptin and the receptors gets blocked? The receptors of your hypothalamus are going to keep telling your body to eat, that you're still hungry.

Now you can see why this hormone is so important. Leptin was only discovered in 1996, so its quite new in scientific terms.

Before you can understand leptin resistance, you have to understand how leptin was discovered.

It all started in 1994 at Rockefeller University, New York. A research team run by Dr. Jeffrey Friedman found the fat cells of genetically obese mice couldn't make leptin.

Leptin was the first hormone researchers had found that was produced by fat cells. When the obese mice were injected with leptin, they stopped eating so much and lost weight. They were restored to a normal mouse size.

Leptin works in a 'negative feedback loop'. That is, when an animal or person eats too much and begins to get fatter, the increase in body fat leads to an increase in production of leptin.

High levels of leptin suppress appetite and stimulate fat burning and this restors the animal/person to a normal size. In fact, most of our biological functions use these negative feedback loops to keep the body in a constant state. Also known as 'homeostasis'.

So if you're overweight you need a leptin injection? No. That's not how it works. Those mice were genetically engineered not to produce ANY leptin at all. People who are overweight are not leptin deficient. In fact, they have the complete OPPOSITE problem.

Their bodies produce TOO MUCH leptin but it doesnt do it's job of telling the brain to stop eating and start burning fat. This is LEPTIN RESISTANCE and it makes losing weight painfully difficult.

This is the best analogy I can use to describe leptin resistance.

Leptin and your brain are in a very popular restaraunt. They arrived early in the evening and there aren't any other leptins there yet. So leptin can talk to the brain really easily and the brain can hear leptin loud and clear. As more leptins come to the restaraunt, it starts to get so noisy that the brain just can't hear what leptin is saying even though leptin is just across the other side of the table.

If you struggle to lose weight you are LEPTIN RESISTANT.

People are strange animals. We OVER-EAT for a lot of reasons. You could be stressed, upset, bored, lonely or maybe you just like food.

Over eating is the cause of leptin resistance. In fact, the beginnings of leptin resistance can be seen after just 3 DAYS of overeating and this starts the vicious cycle of leptin resistance.

Now, the REASON no one has told you this before.

General practice doctors are not HEALTH, NUTRITION, or ENDOCRINE specialists. These guys & gals deal with band-aiding general complaints and refer you to specialists if they can't work out your problem.

GPs are also largely 'educated' regularly by PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY REPRESENTATIVES (The door to door sales men for drug companies).

Pharmacists say they know when the drug reps have been to visit local GPs because all the doctors start to prescribe the latest products on offer from the pharmaceutical companies. This has nothing to do with making you healthy, and everything to do with fixing a SYMPTOM of your illness, oh yes - and making a profit of course.

Ok, I'm getting a little off track here, but you can get the gist of where the health care system starts to go wrong. And why chronic disease such as OBESITY is still on the rise.

Increasing your leptin sensitivity means that leptin released from your fat cells will be able to communicate properly with your brain. When leptin gets to the brain it will be able to say "HEY! The body is full. Turn off the 'hungry switch!'" And the brain will hear it loud and clear.

The first step is to decrease the amount of INSULIN that gets pumped around your body.

Why? Insulin and Leptin use many of the SAME PATHWAYS in the body. In particular they both use the same neurons and the second messenger 'IRS2'.

So if you lower your insulin levels and make room for the leptin to be 'heard' by the brain, you are going to increase your leptin sensitivity.

This ALONE is going to make a difference to your weight in as little as a week.

Before you can lower your insulin level you have to know what insulin is.

Insulin is an INFLAMMATORY HORMONE that is released when you eat high GI and high GL foods.

That is, when you eat something glucose (sugar) in it, insulin gets released and takes the sugar out of your blood and into your cells.

Having lots of glucose in your blood is very bad for you. It causes damage to your blood vessels and nerves, increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and eye problems. So your body wants to get the glucose out of the blood ASAP and into the cells using insulin.

But insulin is the lesser of two evils. If you eat high GI and high GL foods your body has no choice but to release insulin. And consistant high insulin levels cause-

Leptin resistance
Osteoporosis
Cardiovascular disease
Cancer
Increased blood clotting
Calcium & Magnesium deficiencey
Causes plaque build up on artery walls
Constricts blood vessels - helps to cause ANGINA
Low T3 (tri-iodothyronine a thyroid hormone)
Lowers DHEA

Lowering your insulin level by changing your diet is going to help with more than your leptin resistance. It might just save your life too.

Your aim is to increase leptin sensitivity by reducing your insulin levels. To do this you have to REDUCE your CARBOHYDRATE intake.

So all those 'healthy' fat free foods? Don't touch them! Next time you go to the supermarket you will notice that the fat free version almost ALWAYS has more carbohydrate. When the food manufacturers take the fat out, it has to get replaced with something else - SUGAR!

Here is a sample list of the foods you should be eating:

Stay away from -

-Bread
-Breakfast cereal
-Biscuits
-Fries
-Soft drinks
-Lollies
-Anything thats mainly carbohydrate!

Eat food like this instead -

-Vegetables
-Fruits (except banana & mango)
-Meats (especially fish)
-Dairy foods
-Nuts
-Eggs

In 2008, The University of Connecticut found a way to increase leptin sensitivity and weight loss to 90% more than with diet and exercise alone.

2 groups of women went on the same diet and exercise regimn and one group lost a staggering 90% more weight.

What was the difference between these two groups?

The group that lost 90% more weight was taking a combination of modified cellulose and cetylated fatty acids twice a day. A supplement.

Keep in mind this is in combination with diet and exercise. So if you're willing to eat the correct food and do some exercise, taking this supplement will help you lose weight faster through increased leptin sensitivity.

So far only one company produces this supplement. Its called Max WLX and it's available online in most countries.

MaxWLX Online Shop

Click here to read the abstract from the University of Connecticut study