Are You Leptin Resistant?
Leptin is your satiation hormone produced by fat cells. It would seem logical that those who struggle with their weight and have more fat cells would produce more Leptin, which would signal the body to eat less food and weight would normalize. This over-simplified idea is great in theory, but doesn’t always occur, especially in those with damaged metabolisms or endocrine problems (which includes most people struggling with their weight). The problem is not in the production of the hormone leptin, but rather, studies show that the majority of overweight individuals who are having difficulty losing weight have a leptin resistance, where the leptin is unable to produce its normal effects to help weight loss.
This leptin resistance is sensed as starvation, so multiple mechanisms are activated to increase fat stores, rather than burn excess fat stores. Leptin resistance also stimulates the formation of reverse T3, which blocks the effects of your thyroid hormone on metabolism.
In a nutshell, the you are eating excess food but your body thinks it is starving and tells you to eat more. It’s easy to see how this cycle could contribute to frustrating weight gain isn’t it?! Are you curious to learn WHY this happens and what you can do to end this viscous cycle?