Are You Leptin Resistant? Here’s How To Know +
What To Do About It by Dr. Will Cole
You don’t have to look very far to find some “guaranteed” way to lose weight, get fit, or sport six-pack abs, yet despite all the information, not to mention the ubiquitous fitness centers and personal coaches, somehow we are the heaviest, sickest generation in human history. When it comes to weight loss, it seems we’ve got it all wrong. In functional medicine we know the truth: weight gain is a symptom, not the cause of health problems. We have to get healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to get healthy.
If you can’t seem to lose weight despite exercising and eating a diverse diet of good food, you probably have weight loss resistance, which is a sign that something more is going on than a simple lack of willpower or the occasional indulgence. Bodies are designed to maintain a steady, healthful weight, so if yours isn’t, chances are the problem won’t be solved by the next fad diet. Instead, I suggest making health a priority. Only then will you be able to lose weight and look and feel great, without all the effort and deprivation. I’ve seen it thousands of times in my practice: weight loss is a natural by-product of radiant health.
Allow me to introduce you to leptin resistance.
One of the most common reasons my patients have a difficult time losing weight is because of something called leptin resistance. Leptin resistance is a type of hormonal imbalance, and it makes losing weight a serious struggle. Here’s how it works. Leptin is a hormone produced in the fat cells, which are not just inactive tissue but an active part of your hormonal system.
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One of leptin’s jobs is to tell your brain to use the body’s fat stores for energy. Leptin resistance occurs when the hypothalamic cells in the brain stop recognizing leptin’s signals. The brain doesn’t perceive that enough food has come in, and reads that as starvation. If this happens to you, your brain will turn on all the hunger signals it can, to make up for the falsely perceived food deficit. Everything you eat goes straight into fat storage, without being used for energy, making the problem even worse. Your brain is saving up for the coming famine, even though there isn’t any famine. This, my friends, is weight-loss resistance. You could look at food and gain weight, if you are experiencing leptin resistance.
This hormone imbalance is one of the most common hidden drivers of weight gain that I find in patients. It’s near impossible to turn this condition around, yourself. You could live in the gym and eat like a rabbit and still have trouble losing weight.
Here’s how you become leptin resistant.
The short answer: inflammation. Chronic inflammation causes all kinds of problems in the human body, and leptin resistance is one of them. Inflammation dulls the brain’s leptin receptor sites and it is this impaired signaling that triggers the problem. The body doesn’t perceive the leptin that is already there, so it produces more and more in an attempt to get the message through to the brain. As if trouble losing and keeping weight off wasn’t enough, high leptin levels are also associated with fatigue and histamine intolerance.
Do you have leptin resistance?
If you answer “yes” to more than one of these, I suggest asking your functional medicine doctor to test you for leptin resistance:
Is it difficult for you to lose weight?
When you go on a diet, can you drop some pounds but still look flabby?
Do you hold onto weight in your midsection, no matter how much you try to lose it?
Do you have trouble keeping weight off?
Are you constantly hungry?
Do you crave sugary foods and get “hangry” if you don’t get your fix?
Are you stressed out a lot?
Do you have high triglycerides?
Do you have high blood pressure?
Your leptin resistance reversal guide:
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1. Find out for sure.
I run a simple blood test to measure leptin levels. Optimal fasting leptin levels should be 4 to 6 ng/dL. The reason why this lab is not commonly run in mainstream medicine? There’s no medication for it. If there was – believe me – everyone would be tested for high leptin.
2. Clean up your sleep habits.
DVR Jimmy Fallon, turn off your smartphone, and get yourself to bed! People with poor sleep habits and altered circadian rhythms are more likely to be leptin resistant.
3. Don’t eat too late.
For better leptin balance, avoid the late-night snacks. Eating after 8 p.m. has been associated with higher leptin levels and more weight gain in various research studies.
4. Calm down your life.
Stress is no bueno for your health in so many ways, and a high stress level with its associated high cortisol can definitely increase inflammation and subsequently, trigger leptin receptor failure and increased production of leptin – just one more reason to bring some mindfulness and self-care into your life.
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5. Get your omega-3s.
A healthy intake of omega-3 fatty acids from wild-caught fish is one of the best ways to bring down inflammation and balance leptin levels. Plant-based omega-3 precursor fats such as flax oil can also be useful, but fish-based omega-3 has a much higher bioavailability, especially for people already struggling with leptin resistance.
6. Eat to subdue inflammation.
Since inflammation is one of the main causative factors in leptin resistance, eat more anti-inflammatory foods whenever you can.
Reference: https://drwillcole.com/leptin-resistance-making-exhausted-causing-weight-gain-heres/
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