If you keep trying to lose weight, and no change in diet or tough
workout can give visible results, then the hormone leptin may be the
reason behind it all.
This hormone is secreted by your cells and its main role is to balance
your body weight and energy levels. Leptin performs its function In two
ways: the first is by signaling to your brain when it is time to stop
eating, the second is by stimulating fatty tissue to burn energy.
As you grow fatter, your body releases more leptin into the blood stream
so as to create a balance by stimulating fatty tissue to burn excess
fat. Nevertheless, it would seem like the hormone is malfunctioning. To
be more concrete, many overweight people have developed what we call
leptin resistance.
When the body experiences high leptin levels for a longer period of
time, it loses sensitivity to leptin. This comes as a result of the
brain which does not listen when leptin tells it to stop eating or to
hasten metabolism.
This condition in the body causes difficulties in the process of losing
weight and maintaining healthy rate of metabolism. Furthermore, people
with leptin resistance are prone to chronic illnesses by causing for
excess stomach fat and increased inflammation.
Leptin resistance can also occur as a result of crash diets. In order to
quickly lose weight, some people make the mistake of reducing their
calorie intake drastically. However, this causes problems since it makes
leptin respond by telling the brain it needs more food. Therefore, it
is always a good idea to avoid this kind of diets, foe they mostly fail
to deliver the desired results, and cause more harm then benefits.
The regular consumption of processed foods is the third case when one
can cause leptin resistance. These harmful foods include: refined
carbohydrates, foods high in sugar, high fructose corn syrup and foods
high in fat.