What is the Leptin Diet?
by Sanket Dave
There has been a huge phenomenon on this hormone; learning and wondering what this hormone can do.
Yes, Leptin is a hormone, more specific, it is a fat hormone, although this is good thing.
The Leptin hormone turns the weight loss industry upside down.
What is Leptin?
Fat cells produce the powerful hormone leptin, a primary force instructing thyroid, adrenals, and hunger, metabolism..Leptin communicates directly to your brain, telling the brain how much fat is in storage. Leptin controls appetite, energy, and metabolic rate.
Leptin problems are the primary reason for food cravings, overeating, faulty metabolism, and the obsession with food.
Learn how to eat in harmony with leptin and take charge of your weight and your health -- once and for all!
Following a meal, this fat-hormone is released from your fat, enters your blood, and travels up to your brain delivering a message that you are full and letting your subconscious brain know how much fuel you have on hand.
Leptin controls appetite, energy, and metabolic rate. Leptin problems are the primary reason for:
- food cravings,
- overeating,
- faulty metabolism,
- the obsession with food.
Leptin is the single most important hormone that regulates your body weight, and is the BOSS of (thyroid hormone, insulin, growth hormone, and cortisol).
Lets learn about “The Leptin Diet”.
What is the “The Leptin Diet”
The Leptin diet unleashes the power of hormones to rid of fatigue, food cravings, thyroid problems, and body weight issues.
There are only five (5) crucial rules (see below)to follow.
The Leptin diet advocates eating 3 meals a day with 5 hour between eating. It also suggests not to eat large meals or before bed. Breakfast should especially be high-protein to adjust the blood sugar for the day. Also low glycemic index foods should be eaten. The Leptin Diet seeks for the dieter to begin to understand good fats vs bad fats.
Good Thing about the Leptin Diet
The rules of the Leptin Diet are fairly easy to follow, and there does seem to be some good recent science behind these principles.
Many people compare the Leptin diet to the Rosedale diet, which is another low-carbohydrate focused diet that seeks to manage leptin. Only consuming good fats rather than bad fats (like partially hydrogenated soybean oil) is always a good idea. To learn the five rules of the leptin diet lifestyle, read more.
The Five Basic Rules of the Leptin Diet
1. Never eat late a night. Eat Dinner and Stop. You need to have at least 11-12 hours between dinner and breakfast. This allows enough time for optimum fat burning.
2. Eat three (3) meals per day with 5 hour between. Other programs eating small meals every 2-3 hours, but The Leptin diet calls for a 5-hour gap between eating. Reason: The first 3 hours after eating, the hormone insulin actually store energy from the food, so you are not in the fat-burning mode yet.
3. Do not eat large meals. Eating too much will be strain on your insulin and it will tend to resist causing blood sugar level to drop.
4. Eat a high-protein breakfast. Eating a high protein food, such as eggs, cheese, yogurt, fish, seeds, nuts, and oatmeal. Your blood sugar levels will not drop and make you tried in the afternoon. A high-carb breakfast can lead to overeating later in the day.
5. Reduce the amount of carbohydrates consumed especially with a high GI (Glycemic Index). The glycemic index ranks carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. Choosing low GI carbs - the ones that produce only small fluctuations in our blood glucose and insulin levels - is the secret to long-term health.
I certainly agree with rule 4. This has been a key for me - particularly in managing sluggish symptoms. However, when it comes to any diet I strongly advocate learning as much possible before applying any major changes into your lifestyle.
The Leptin Diet was only discovered in 1994 – therefore research is only very recent.
Remember, Leptin is a hormone that assists in regulating both appetite and metabolism, so do there is no leptin supplement or leptin powder or pill that will do the trick.
Only consuming good fats rather than bad fats (like partially hydrogenated soybean oil) is always a good idea.
Dr. Richard Byrons explains that our leptin hormones are very confused because of our terrible eating habits. Actually the leptin hormones will work against us if we don’t treat it right.
There are five modes of leptin operation:
- balanced-leptin mode,
- leptin-resistance mode,
- starvation mode,
- famine-recovery mode and
- fat-burning mode.
Today more and more people are caught in a cycle involving the middle three modes that is caused by overeating, poor quality of food, weight problems, and yo-yo dieting.
Dr. Byrons strongly disagrees with the popular advice these days to eat many small meals a day and/or to snack. This only destroy leptin efficiency and traps people in the cycle mentioned above. It has perpetuated the epidemic of obesity, but it’s very important for everyone, not just dieters, to be in balance-leptin mode.
If you have any of these symptoms:
- abnormal fatigue,
- depression,
- irritability,
- the inability to focus,
- poor metabolism,
- flawed immune function,
- problems extracting energy from a normal amount of food,
- high cholesterol,
- high blood pressure,
- diabetes,
- obesity,
- anorexia,
- reproductive-function problems
You may have a slow-moving leptin hormone.
Leptin levels are generally proportional to body fat, as leptin is released by fat cells. It is thought that many obese people may have developed leptin resistance – whereby the body fails to respond to leptin signals. This begins a cycle where more leptin is produced.
Laymen terms: In normal weight people, leptin tells them when to "stop eating". As people gain more fat, their body may stop listening to the leptin signal, and even more leptin is produced, and an imbalance is created. A diet rich in fish may also help to lower leptin levels.
There are no recipes and just a few suggestions for breakfast. You choose wise food choices like fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes, lean grass-fed meats, organic dairy products, eggs.
The Leptin Diet contains easy lifestyle guidelines to get the hormone leptin into balance for permanent weight loss, increased energy, and optimum health.
How to Increase Your Production of Leptin
-> Foods high in protein
-> Foods high in zinc
-> Foods high in omega 3s
-> Omega 3 supplement
-> Zinc supplement
Consume 30 percent of your daily calories in Protein.
According to the Jillian Michaels, protein improves leptin sensitivity, allowing the person to feel fuller more quickly. Good sources of protein include meat, dairy, legumes and nuts.
- Consider taking an omega-3 supplement such as fish or flaxeed oil. Omega-3 fatty acids increases leptin by increasing the processing of glucose.
- Add more zinc to your diet. Zinc raises leptin. While zinc is found in many vitamins, natural sources of zinc are oysters, red meat and whole grains.
- Avoid fasting, people who fasted for 36 hours experienced a 77% decrease in leptin.
- Begin an exercise program, people who exercised regularly has a higher levels of leptin sensitivity.
Understands that overweight people need a new eating lifestyle they can apply themselves, rather than a fad diet or a starvation diet.
