Step 1 ✅Leptin Resistance: Everything You Need to Know
The hormone leptin helps control how much energy you have. Your brain gets a message when you need food or when you're full. But leptin resistance can make the brain miss this message, which may play a role in fat.
Leptin is a hormone that is made by fat cells in your body. People sometimes call it the "satiety hormone" or the "starvation hormone" because it controls hunger and burns calories.
The hormone may also be involved in other bodily processes, including
metabolism
endocrine regulation
immune function
energy homeostasis
reproductive function
Leptin's main job is to keep your central nervous system (CNS) from getting too much energy. What you eat, how many calories you burn, and how much fat your body stores are all part of this.
But there are people who are resistant to leptin. This might make some health problems, like fat, more likely.
Read on to find out more about how leptin changes your body and food and what makes your body not respond to it.
How does leptin affect your brain?
Leptin is made by fat cells in your body. The hormone gets into the brain through the bloodstream, mostly to a place called the hypothalamus. You decide when and how much to eat with this part of your brain.
The fat cells use leptin to tell your brain how much body fat they carry.
Your leptin levels rise at the same rate that your body fat does when you eat. But when you fast and your leptin levels drop, your brain tells your body that it needs to eat because it has lost fat.
There is a name for this type of system: a negative feedback loop. The ways it works are like the ways other bodily processes are controlled, like
breathing
body temperature
blood pressure
Leptin has to get through your blood-brain barrier in order to tell your brain that your body has enough energy. You might have leptin resistance if this isn't right.
What is leptin resistance?
Leptin resistance is a disease that changes the way your brain and fat cells talk to each other. Health problems like the ones below have been linked to it:
higher risk of infections
autoimmune diseases
malnutrition
inflammation
In particular, leptin resistance is known to play a big role in the development of fat.
A lot of fat cells are found in obese people. People who are overweight also have very high amounts of leptin because fat cells make it in proportion to their size.
In a healthy body, these high amounts of leptin tell your brain that you've stored enough energy and should stop eating. But when someone has leptin resistance, their brain is less sensitive to or doesn't pick up on the communication process.
The authors of a 2019 review suggest there may be four factors responsible for this:
the brain has fewer leptin receptors
leptin receptors aren’t working properly
less leptin is crossing the brain-blood barrier
leptin gene mutations
So, despite high leptin levels being present in the body, the brain may not see it.
Your brain thinks you are hungry even though your body has more than enough energy saved when it doesn't get the leptin signal. This can make your brain change the way you act so you gain back body fat. For example, it might tell you to eat more or have less energy so you burn fewer calories even when you're not doing anything.
So, the main reason people gain weight isn't always that they eat more and exercise less. If you have leptin resistance, an endocrine problem, this could happen.
What causes leptin resistance?
Several potential mechanisms behind leptin resistance have been identified.
These may include
The hypothalamus sends out signals that cause inflammation, which is likely a major cause of leptin resistance in both people and animals.
Free fatty acids: High levels of free fatty acids in the blood may make your brain make more fat products and mess up the way leptin signals.
Having high leptin: If you already have high amounts of leptin, it may make it harder for leptin to cross the blood-brain barrier.
Most of these things are made worse by being overweight. This means that you might get stuck in a loop where you gain weight and over time become less sensitive to leptin.
What is the impact of leptin resistance on dieting?
Leptin resistance may be one reason that many diets fail to promote long-term weight loss.
Even if you're not sensitive to leptin, losing weight will still lower your fat mass, which will lower your leptin levels by a lot. But your brain might not always be able to fix its leptin resistance.
When leptin goes down, you may experience:
hunger
increased appetite
reduced motivation to exercise
decreased number of calories burned at rest
Then, your brain believes you're hungry and starts a series of powerful processes to get back the fat you lost. This could be a reason why you yo-yo, which means you lose weight and then quickly gain it back.
Can leptin resistance be reversed?
It's not fully clear how to turn off leptin resistance. But study has come up with some possible solutions:
Stay away from processed foods. A study from 2021 found that eating a lot of highly processed foods may make inflammation worse and raise leptin levels.
Eat soluble fiber. A review from 2021 found that obese people may lower their leptin levels over time by eating soluble fiber.
Exercise: A study from 2023 says that high intensity exercise might help reverse leptin resistance. The writers also say that working out might help keep your hunger and leptin levels stable.
Sleep: A review from 2021 says that getting less sleep may make your body make more leptin. They also say that this could cause other health problems, like diabetes.
Bring down your triglycerides:A study from 2017 found that high cholesterol can stop leptin from getting to your brain from your blood. Cutting back on carbs is the best way to lower fats.
Protein is important because a review from 2021 shows that low-protein diets raised leptin levels in some animal studies. But the writers say that more studies with real people are needed to find out how protein affects leptin resistance.
There isn't an easy way to get rid of leptin resistance, but making some long-term changes to your food and way of life may help.
Frequently asked questions
Can you take leptin to lose weight?
Taking supplements with leptin might help you get higher amounts. When your leptin levels are high, your brain usually knows that your body has enough energy. At first glance, it may seem like taking leptin pills will help you lose weight by making you feel less hungry. Having leptin resistance, on the other hand, can make this not always the case.
If you want to lose weight, you should talk to a doctor or nurse before taking any vitamins. They are going to make a plan just for you.
What triggers the release of leptin?
Your fat stores get bigger when you eat. This causes the body to make and release leptin.