The latest weight loss craze involving medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro is based on a hormone that reduces appetite. (GLP 1) Injections of this hormone cost $15,000 a year and when you stop the medication, it no longer reduces your appetite. Your copay may be nowhere near that number, but someone is paying for the drug. Very expensive drugs are a big reason that health insurance is becoming unaffordable, and your deductibles are increasing.
We have been discussing another hormone that reduces appetite. Leptin release increases GLP-1 secretion by up to 250% in healthy animals and humans in a dose-dependent manner. These two hormones are directly related in their effects on appetite and weight loss in healthy people. Animals with leptin resistance also had half as much GLP-1 hormone in the blood when fasting. They also had a reduced GLP 1 output in response to food intake.
In a healthy slender person, eating leads to leptin production in the stomach and that increase in leptin tells us we have had enough to eat. Consuming high levels of fructose, table sugar, carbs, or saturated fat leads to very increased leptin levels and loss of the message that we have had enough to eat. That means we are constantly hungry. Exposure to very tasty food leads to increased belly fat. The higher the percentage of belly fat, the higher the leptin level. That creates a vicious cycle.
Fast food has high levels of fructose, table sugar, carbs, and saturated fat. That leads to leptin resistance and supersized portions. Eating fast and processed foods creates a hormonal imbalance that you cannot overcome with willpower. Long-term weight loss requires a change in what you eat. Avoid fructose, table sugar, carbs, and saturated fat. Eat real whole food. Those foods can be really tasty and satisfying.
I just received this question from a reader. Is there anything besides diet that will increase your leptin level? Here is my answer. This is the funny thing about it. Your have been around skinny young women who eat a saucerful of food and say " I am so full that I can't eat another bite!" Crazy. Right? Their leptin system is working perfectly. It is low when they are fasting. It goes up when they eat something and it tells them they have had enough to eat..Here is the key fact. Leptin levels increase in proportion to the percentage of body fat and then we become resistant to leptin effects. It no longer tells us we are full. In addition, some foods like fructose which is extremely high in in juices and soft drinks make us leptin resistant with minimal body fat. That is why real, whole food is the path to permanent weight loss. It is not a matter of achieving a higher leptin level, it is a matter of restoring leptin sensitivity.
Mmmmm!. Onions, Carrots, Celery, Italian Seasoning, Black Pepper, Olive Oil, Red Pepper Flakes. So delicious!! I can just about smell stir-frying onions (probably not very healthy - but delicious. (I skipped the chickens - I let them live and give me eggs.)