The fat that we have accumulated in the body, whether in the form of unpleasant “tires” or more internally next to the organs, performs important functions. We need fat. What harms us is its excess.
It is fundamental, therefore, to be aware of how leptin works – a hormone released by the fat we have stored in the body.
Leptin is a hormone produced by adipocytes (fat tissue cells) that informs the brain about the amount of energy accumulated – amount of fat mass. It is fundamental in the modulation of appetite and in the body’s ability to store fat.
How does leptin influence us?
– The more accumulated fat we have, the more leptin is released and under normal conditions this is a sign for us to have less appetite. If we have little accumulated fat, the opposite happens.
If you gain a few pounds, it’s natural that you feel a decrease in appetite for a while. That’s natural and it’s a way for your body to understand that you don’t need to keep eating the same way and in the same amount.
But if you don’t just gain “a few pounds”, and you continue to gain more and more weight, your brain stops respecting the information that leptin is transmitting – resistance to leptin appears (as with insulin ).
Leptin starts to lose its ability to reduce your appetite!
Excess leptin can have many other consequences, such as increasing the risk of cancer.
– Leptin also has the physiological rhythm of increasing with dusk, and thus tells the body to eat less, or not at all, during the night.
Ignoring this information from “our internal sensors” and eating large amounts of food at night will disrupt the response of our cells to leptin, which will no longer be able to recognize this very important appetite control signal. to respond properly to leptin levels – leptin resistance People who work shiftsmay be more prone to weight gain and cardiovascular disease because they eat more when they are supposed to be sleeping.
2 mistakes you won’t make from now on
– Crazy diets that make you lose weight very fast
Knowing that leptin is released by fat, if you lose weight too quickly your body will release less leptin and will start to have information to increase your appetite. Therefore, the best idea is to lose weight gradually so that your body and hormones get used to it.
– Decrease calorie intake without worrying about the nutrients (vitamins, minerals, fatty acids,…) you are ingesting. of emergency mechanisms to ensure survival, which consist of a decrease in metabolism and/or an uncontrollable increase in appetite. That is, rationally you know you want to eat little, but your body will always be asking you for more and more food. And so you continually lose and gain weight throughout the year – the yo-yo effect – which harms your health.
See here what functional nutrition is and here how there can be many other factors interfering with your fat.
Someone with an alteration in the function of leptin will therefore have immense difficulties in losing weight, in addition to increasing the likelihood of important psychological and behavioral changes. You often feel trapped in a vicious cycle that you cannot control, leading to an ever-increasing sense of powerlessness to reduce obesity.
Leptin control is done through the study and correction of the individual ‘s eating habits, taking into account their food desires, behavior towards food, the rhythm and time of food intake, the capacity for physical exercise, analytical and anthropometric parameters, in a evolution accompanied and readjusted so that the “food cravings” disappear. functional Nutrition!
EsmeraldAzul – for a healthy, conscious and sustainable life.
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