if a dog is a man’s best friend, then this hormone is your BESTEST friend when it comes to burning body fat stop binge eating !
I reckon that my dog has got this hormone well under control!
LEPTIN- YOUR BEST FRIEND IN THE HORMONE WIDE WORLD
Hormones control pretty much every physiological event that occurs in our body. We don’t consciously control our hormones but the things we do defiantly have an impact.
The food we eat, the training we do, the sleep we attempt and the stresses we place ourselves under.
Leptin is a cracking hormone that basically is a sniper. It controls the energy input we consume. It also tells our body when we are hungry.
It is released by the fat cells and the hypothalamus picks up these signals.
If we don’t have any leptin we go on an eating marathon!
Or if we eat foods that affect our relationship with this hormone then we get similar symptoms…”once you pop you can’t stop” and they aren’t wrong!
When we are healthy leptin works beautifully
A) It is present
B) The receptors at the hypothalamus are geared up to receive it
C) It works in that it stops us from over eating
The body actually has circulating levels that are parallel with fat tissue levels.
If you have too much fat…leptin is higher- to stop you gaining more.
Ever wondered why calorie counting and restrictive diets have a rebound affect?
Well leptin levels will plummet when you starve yourself……it will basically try to get you to eat!
It is the hunger hormone.
Leptin also responds to short-term energy balance.
SIMPLES: chronically, leptin signals that the body has enough adipose tissue (energy) ; stopping you from eating more.
SIMPLES: acutely, leptin signals that the body has had enough to eat. Both are supposed to result in the reduction in appetite.
So how do people manage to get over weight?
Basically there is something blocking leptins’ path to the brain.
A bit like when we eat to much sugar the insulin receptors on the cell wall actually switch off and leave excess sugar levels in the blood, which as you know is the start of pre diabetes!
I look at my dog, he seems to have got good control of this, he eats, runs around, sleeps and eats again and the dude is ripped!
haha…take a look at us out for a walk the other day….resisted band running a bit like one of my clients except he had four legs so was very hard to hold on to!!!
Animals seem to adapt to their environment, so what’s happened to us?
A) We are way off track with our exercise levels. We try to undo a contemporary lifestyle of sitting in cars, chairs, sofa’s and offices by hammering ourselves at weekends! Never saw a supple leopard do that…by the way that is actually an excellent book that I have used to help people to improve their mobility.
B) We eat some random stuff… you can’t call it food…. It doesn’t even come from food-derived sources.
C) We stay up way too late and have too many electronic devices near us.
This short blog is not meant to be the BIBLE of leptin or hormones.
BUT just to give you an insight. It should also be noted that leptin does some other cool stuff too.
If you imagine that leptin is the fuse in your factory, if that blows the whole system gets put on shut down.
If you want to reproduce, if you want to have a better sex drive, if you want to have better immunity….you can’t if you fuse has blown!
Matt ☺
p.s. If you want a really accurate measure of your muscle mass, body fat and where you are at right now take a look HERE…. Its been proven to be within 1% accuracy of a CT scan.
p.p.s if you need a bit of a kick up the bum let me know I’ve got some awesome new shoes that work a treat!
