Leptin: A Hormone That Controls Appetite
Certain Foods Cause Leptin Resistance Leading to Constant Hunger
The hormone leptin is a product of the Ob gene. Mutations in that gene or its receptor cause constant hunger and massive weight gain. Certain foods cause resistance to leptin effects, increase the appetite and make it impossible to lose weight.
In healthy slender people, eating immediately increases leptin levels and that leads to a feeling of fullness—I am satisfied—I have had enough to eat. Since leptin helps you know when you have had enough to eat, proper function of this hormone is essential to weight control. Overweight people have leptin resistance. They have persistently high leptin levels. Abdominal fat makes leptin without regard to food intake. The leptin level is higher as percent body fat becomes higher. If the leptin level is high all the time, it no longer works to supress appetite.
When overweight people eat, they are still hungry. The leptin system is not working. They keep eating and that causes weight gain. Diets high in saturated fat, carbohydrate, fructose, and sucrose or low in protein cause leptin resistance and persistent hunger that drives excess food intake and portion size. Sucrose is table sugar, and that molecule combines glucose and fructose, so it has an effect like high fructose corn syrup. You can be satisfied with less food and lose weight without hunger, but that requires lowering your leptin level. It takes some time. A diet that is low in saturated fat, carbs, fructose, sucrose, and higher in lean protein is the ticket.
Leptin resistance is a vicious cycle. In healthy slender people, leptin increases come from the stomach as you eat telling you that you have had enough. But the foods that dramatically increase your leptin levels like fructose lead to chronically high leptin levels and leptin resistance, so you continue to eat and that increases your abdominal fat deposits. Abdominal fat makes leptin. A higher body fat percentage leads to higher leptin levels. Your abdominal fat increases your appetite because of chronically high leptin levels and leptin resistance.
People with leptin resistance stay hungry all the time and trying to fight that is like holding your head under water. You can do it for a while, but you will come up for air. This is the same thing. It is not a lack of willpower or some other personal defect. It is a primal drive that has been altered by certain kinds of food. The answer is to change what you eat. If you avoid the foods that cause leptin resistance, normal appetite regulation can return. You can eat plenty of good food and not be hungry.
Leptin resistance explains at least in part why portion sizes became larger with fast food and highly processed foods. They combine saturated fats, sucrose, fructose, and processed carbs to produce leptin resistance. Leptin resistance means we can’t tell when we have had enough very tasty food. Fat, salt, sugar, and carbs together make food so appealing that we cannot resist it. If you eat those things regularly you become overweight and your hunger increases. It is a horrible vicious cycle. It explains the reason the average weight Americans has increased so much since 1960.
The more you cut back on carbs, sucrose, fructose and saturated fat, the more quickly your leptin levels will come down. Monounsaturated fats like olive oil and unsaturated fats. don’t increase leptin levels. You can eat lean meat, eggs, low-fat dairy products, fruits, vegetables, beans, peas, and nuts— whole real foods. Your leptin levels will drop, and your appetite will be easier to control. Expect to lose a pound or two a month. That is the path to lasting weight loss and better health.
I am curious about the relationship of the MC4R coded receptor and leptin genetics
Shared to Natural Health group on TS.