Have you been trying to lose weight for months or even years without seeing results? If you’ve been restricting calories, hitting the gym more, and still not seeing results, chances are there might be something in your body that is preventing you from losing weight. Have you ever read about the hormone leptin?
Although it may seem strange to think of a hormone affecting our weight loss, there have been many studies in recent years pointing to exactly that! The hormones in our body regulate many different processes, and leptin is the hormone that regulates weight loss and gains. This can be especially useful for moms trying to lose weight after pregnancy.
Leptin and Weight Loss: What Leptin Is and How It Works
Leptin is a hormone in your body that is connected to your metabolism, your appetite, and therefore, your weight loss. If you’ve been trying to lose weight for ages but still haven’t found success, the problem might not be in your willpower. Instead, the problem may have something to do with the leptin in your body.
When we eat our food, our body releases the hormone leptin. As more and more leptin builds up in our bloodstream, this sends two signals to our brain. The first signal is appetite. When our body releases enough leptin, this tells our brain that we have eaten enough food. In turn, our appetite is suppressed. So, leptin is associated with appetite suppression.
Next, when there is enough leptin in our bloodstream, this also triggers a boost in our metabolism. This boost in our metabolism increases the heat in our muscles and in our bodies, allowing us to burn the calories that we’ve just eaten. Leptin actually tells our bodies to burn more calories.
The role of leptin in our body is to regulate our body weight, keeping us at a happy and healthy weight. If you feel that you eat a normal amount of food, and yet you have an unhealthy body weight, you might be struggling with leptin resistance.
Leptin Resistance: The Problem Behind Your Weight Gain
Many Americans today feel that they eat a normal amount of food and yet they still gain weight and feel that they are living in unhealthy bodies. The culprit behind this weight gain might be leptin resistance.
As I outlined above, when you eat food, your leptin levels increase. As the leptin levels increase, this causes you to feel appetite suppression and to have a boost in your metabolism.
But if you constantly have high levels of leptin in your body, you can slowly develop leptin resistance over time. Unfortunately, people who live a standard American lifestyle and follow the Standard American Diet (SAD) run the risk of encouraging leptin resistance in their bodies.
Leptin resistance can, in turn, lead to many health problems in our bodies. For example, leptin resistance has been shown to connect to heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and more health and heart-related complications.

There are a few different causes of leptin resistance. Let’s go over a few of them and you can see for yourself if any of these criteria line up with your lifestyle. If this sounds like problems you are facing in your daily life, you might want to consider addressing your leptin resistance.
The first cause of leptin resistance comes from diet. A diet that includes sugars, simple starches like white bread, pastries, or any white flour products, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods can lead to leptin resistance.
These foods contain little to no nutritional value and are very easy for the body to process. When they hit your stomach, your liver turns them into sugar immediately for your muscles to use. Unless you go out for some intense physical exercise, these foods are stored as fat, and the leptin levels in your blood stay high.
The next cause is the frequency of your eating. Do you wait until you are very hungry to eat a meal, or do you snack every time you get peckish? If you’re constantly snacking throughout the day, you don’t give your body a chance to recover and repair itself. You also don’t give your leptin levels a chance to go back down. If you constantly have high leptin, you might become resistant.
The last two causes are not related to diet but instead are related to lifestyle: your sleep and stress levels. Are you constantly feeling stressed? Are you getting a full eight hours of sleep each night? If you have high-stress levels and are not getting enough sleep, you might be leptin resistant.
Now that you’ve learned what some of the causes of leptin resistance are, you can actively start to work against them. Don’t worry, a few simple changes in your lifestyle can help reduce your leptin resistance and help you lose weight and keep the weight off: for good!
Leptin and Weight Loss: How to Eat for Optimal Leptin Health
The most important step you can take to reducing your leptin resistance is in your diet. You need to change your diet to incorporate more healthy foods and eliminate the highly processed foods. This will reduce your leptin resistance and will also improve your overall health and vitality.
Eat anti-inflammatory foods. Make sure your diet is rich in vegetables, fruits, and healthy proteins. Try to include as much as ten servings of vegetables in your diet every day. Pair this with heart healthy proteins such as chicken, nuts, or lean meats. Instead of eating that bowl of cereal for breakfast, try eating a vegetable omelet.
Eliminate artificial sweeteners. These might seem to be a good alternative to sugars, but research has shown this is not the case. Artificial sweeteners can still lead to blood sugar spikes, high levels of insulin and leptin, and can even increase inflammation in the body. Better to do away with them altogether.
Limit your snacking! Try not to snack between meals. Give your body a chance to heal itself from the damages of the day and wait until you feel truly hungry to eat your next meal. Fuel yourself with heart healthy vegetables instead of body ruining processed snacks.
Eat plenty of omega-3 rich foods. These include flaxseed, walnuts, beans, and fatty fish such as salmon. Omega-3 improves your brain function, reduces inflammation, and can help to combat insulin resistance.
Lastly, work to reduce your stress and get enough sleep. Turn off all electronics by 9 pm. Take some time to practice yoga, meditate, or just go for a walk outside. Even just 10 minutes every day will make a huge difference.
Pay Attention to Your Leptin and the Weight Loss Will Come
Now that you’re empowered with the knowledge of leptin and its connection to weight loss, you have the tools to make a change in your own life. Fill your pantry with healthy food options, make some relaxation time for yourself, and pay attention to your sleep schedule. If you treat your body with this respect, you’ll soon see the weight loss you’ve been craving.
Serena Morris is the mother of 3 children and founder of KittyMoms.com. She believes in homeschooling her children and focuses on living an active, natural lifestyle. She enjoys traveling, gardening, and spending time with her homestead.
