This blog post´s topic is about an important hormone called Leptin.
What is it?
Leptin is a protein hormone produced in adipose tissue. Leptin is a satiety hormone and it plays a role in regulating appetite and metabolism. Leptin´s role is to give information to your brains how much fat you have in your body. Leptin was found in 1954. Back in the days few scientists conducted a mouse experiment in which the scientists were investigating a few mice which were eating all the time and because of that they gained a lot of weight. The reason behind this overeating was the fat tissue and it´s problems of not producing enough leptin. If there is no leptin production, brains don´t have any signals about how much fat tissue the body has.
One of leptin´s role is to decrease our appetite. For example if you have over eaten during Christmas time, you will gain weight. As a result of this Leptin levels will increase in your body and inform your brains to increase your resting metabolism so you would get rid of the extra weight. This is a marvelous system! As I have said, when you have a healthy diet it is OK to sometimes to treat yourself and not feel guilty about it. Your body will take care of itself.
Why do people become overweight?
If your body works like this then WHY DO PEOPLE BECOME OVERWEIGHT? Let me explain this to you.
If you have a lot of fat, you will have a lot of leptin. Which will ultimately lead to leptin resistance. In this state your brains won´t react to leptin levels anymore although there is a lot of leptin in your body. In your brain, Hypothalamus won´t accept any messages coming from leptin. Without these messages fat will be restored, your calorie expenditure will be diminished and your body sends messages that it is starving.
Moreover, if you have too little fat tissue in your body, you will have small leptin levels. That is a dangerous situation because leptin will send an emergency message to your brain: increase appetite and slow down resting metabolism. Your body needs enough fat so it will work properly. Don´t forget that!
How to lower leptin levels?
The key is to exercise and lose the extra weight so that your body can work normally like it is meant to work. If you want help, check out my Personal trainer services. Remember that it takes time to make permanent results but the good thing is that you can start today! Make one small commitment every day to get back on track, such as ditch processed foods, switch sodas to water and chocolate to raw chocolate, go for a walks three times per week etc.
My favourite breakfast: oat porridge, flax seeds and lots of berries.
Until next time,
Jennikatja
Sources used:
http://www.tritolonen.fi/artikkelit/220-leptiini
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