Have you tried several diets and still cannot lose weight? Your probably also going to the gym or working out several days a week and still nothing or have only lost a few pounds. So frustrating! You may be micromanaging your calories counting every last one you put into your mouth and yet still despite that cannot lose weight. Even more you are counting calories in and calories out and determine that you have burned more calories than not and yet still cannot shed a pound. If this is you, read on! That is why I want to share with you what your underlying problem most likely is.
It's called Leptin Resistance. What is that? You probably never heard of it. Has your doctor even mentioned that to you? Most likely not. Most doctors have never even heard of leptin or if they have they do not even know what it is. In fact, most doctors just tell their patients to eat less and work out more. Well, you most likely already tried that and NO RESULTS! If it was that simple then every person that ate less and burned more calories would lose weight no problem.
Leptin is the main hormone that is involved in losing weight. It is one of the most important regulators of our metabolism and body weight. It is released from the adipocytes (fat cells) that travels to the brain and tells your brain how to regulate the size of the fat cell, whether to store more fat (weight gain) or lose fat (weight loss). It also plays a role in the hunger mechanism, causing a person to be more hungry or less hungry thus regulating appetite.
It tells the body how much energy to burn.
When this hormone gets disrupted, it now causes your brain to no longer recognize the leptin hormone that is released from the fat cell. This is Leptin Resistance. It makes your brain immune to this hormone. Therefore, the fat cell pumps out leptin which travels to the brain but the brain does not respond so the fat cell just keeps pumping out the hormone more and more to try to get the brain to respond but the brain will not respond. This causes the fat cells to increase in size causing weight gain. It may also cause your appetite to increase and never be satisfied. So you are hungry all the time and never feel full. Your body's burning of energy slows down too. So until this hormone goes back down to normal, no matter which diet or exercise program that is tried, very little weight loss or no weight loss at all is the result.
Ever lost weight then gained it all back and then some? Well guess what?? It's all related to this same hormone, leptin. When weight loss occurs, especially rapid weight loss such as with bariatric surgery (ever seen someone that has had bariatric surgery and gained weight back? I see those patients often) or severe starvation diet plans, it doesn't allow the brain to readjust. The brain has not had enough time to adjust to those leptin levels that get lowered from the weight loss so when the weight loss program is stopped, the person gains all their weight back and then some. The leptin resistance takes time to fix and depending on the severity of the leptin resistance can take a long time to fix.
So how does this hormone get disrupted and not function correctly? Check out my next blog, called Leptin, how does it get disrupted?
