What if weight loss results actually have more to do with hormones? That’s what many people claim, and they often start talking about things like “leptin.”
In today’s article, we’re going to examine the role of hormones in weight loss.
Before we can understand how leptin is connected to losing weight, it’s important to understand the role of hormones in our bodies.
You may have heard of hormones in relation to that time of the month women have to face, or during sex-ed classes discussing adolescent hormones, or even through the term ‘pregnancy hormones’. Lots of commercials advertise pills for women when they go through menopause because they experience a fluctuation in hormones that sometimes need adjusting.
But the truth is, hormones go much deeper than that, and they are not only connected to reproductive aspects in women.
Hormones act like little messengers in our bodies. They are released from various places such as our hypothalamus, pituitary gland, thyroid, testes, ovaries, and adrenal glands, just to name a few, and they are sent out into our bloodstream to do their work.
These chemical messengers move through our bloodstream and end up in places like our tissues and organs. Once there, they send out a signal to our bodies letting them know it’s time to perform a certain function.
Leptin is a hormone that plays a key role in regulating body weight.
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According to the Journal of Epidemiology: “Leptin is an important regulator of the mass of adipose tissue and body weight; it operates by inhibiting food intake and stimulating energy expenditure”.
Okay, so that was a bit of a mouthful and may be hard to understand, so let’s break it down into simpler terms.
Leptin is essentially secreted from adipose tissue (also known as fat cells) and helps regulate our body weight. It also helps to control our energy expenditure levels.
Since it’s released from our fat cells, the amount of leptin that is secreted is directly connected to the amount of fat we have stored. Therefore, someone who is overweight is going to have much higher levels of leptin floating around in their bloodstream as compared to a person who is of a healthy body weight.
Leptin Resistance
When you’re overweight for a long time, your fat cells secrete large amounts of leptin. Those high levels of leptin flood your leptin receptors, and over time, they become desensitized to the effects.
Eventually, your cells become less responsive to the effects of leptin, which makes it harder to lose weight.
How to Lose Weight Naturally
To normalize your leptin levels and restablish leptin sensitivity, you need to get back to a healthy body weight. Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Focus on Portion Control
When I mention anything related to portion control, I often hear the inevitable, “Ughhh! Do I really have to?”
Well, yes. You should be focusing your attention on how much you’re eating, aka watching your portions.
You may want to familiarize yourself with some common portion size equivalents. Like, did you know that the serving size of an apple (4 oz) is basically the size of a baseball?
When you go out to eat, take a look at your meal. Without even realizing it, you’re probably sitting in front of a plate that’s got more calories than one person needs.
So if you’re not sharing your plate, use this easy trick: split your meal in half and save the rest for later.
2. Limit Processed Foods
Processed, high fat foods are easy to overeat, so make them a small part of your diet.
3. Watch Your Sugar Intake
High sugar foods are also easy to overeat, so keep an eye on them as well.
What’s your take on leptin’s role in weight loss? Have anything else you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments below!
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Mike Matthews
Mike Matthews is the founder of Legion as well as the author of several award-winning fitness books, including Bigger Leaner Stronger, Muscle for Life, and The Shredded Chef.
His simple and science-based approach to building muscle, losing fat, and getting healthy has sold over a million books and helped thousands of people build their best bodies ever, and his work has been featured in many popular outlets including Esquire, Men’s Health, Elle, Women’s Health, Muscle & Strength, and more, as well as on FOX and ABC.
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Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you live in the UK or Canada, your order ships free when it’s over $99.
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Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you’re outside the USA, your order ships free when it’s over $199.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
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Some popular pre-workouts are all-natural. Some contain the right mix of high-quality ingredients. Some provide clinically effective doses. But only Pulse checks each of these boxes.
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Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
This product doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients”—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. This product contains no artificial or synthetic sweeteners or flavors of any kind.
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