Vitamin Trader - Healthy Discounts on Quality Vitamins

This month co-owner Bryan Flamm, D.O.M. reviews material that describes new research that helps us to understand obesity in a new way that may help you to achieve your optimal healthy weight. Special nutrients can assist this process.

 Do you struggle with fatigue, body weight, food cravings or yo-yo dieting? Do you have family history of thyroid problems, obesity, diabetes or heart disease? If so, Byron Richards C.N believes you have a leptin balance problem. Leptin controls appetite, energy, and metabolic rate. Leptin out of balance is a primary reason for food cravings, overeating, obsessions with food, and heart disease. Other problems may occur: depression, fatigue, irritability, poor metabolism, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, sexual problems etc.

The powerful hormone leptin was discovered in 1994. Since then over 10,000 research papers on leptin have been published. Leptin is the primary force directing our metabolism, hormone balance and weight loss. Mastering Leptin published in 2002 by author Byron Richards explains how leptin communicates directly to your brain how much fat is in storage.

How Leptin Works

Leptin is produced by fat cells. It travels via the blood to the brain telling it how much fuel we have in storage (fat in the form of triglycerides). When leptin levels are low it means the fuel reserves are running low and that it is time to eat. Leptin levels rise during a meal sending a full signal to the brain that we should stop eating. When the full signal is not sent, received or interpreted correctly it means we are out of leptin balance.

The Pleasure Problem

Throughout human evolution food was scarce. The human brain learned to associate food intake with pleasure (a response mediated by the hormone dopamine). Mice that have no dopamine and thus derive no pleasure from eating, rapidly starve for lack of desire to expend the necessary energy to acquire food. In modern life the association of pleasure with eating often becomes food addiction- similar to other forms of addiction such as alcohol, drugs, cigarettes etc. Eating releases a surge in dopamine which feels good. But food used as a solution for stress or a source of comfort may lead to excess consumption and eventual obesity.

Leptin Out of Balance-The Broken Gas Gauge

The leptin feedback loop may function incorrectly for many persons. It’s like having a broken gas gauge in the car stuck close to empty; metabolism runs slowly even though there is already an abundance of fat in storage. This problem is known as leptin resistance. A cardinal sign of leptin resistance is increased abdominal fat.

The Anatomy of the Yo-Yo Diet

A woman has 20 additional pounds and embarks on a calorie-restricted diet. She will lose weight because her metabolism is set for a high calorie intake. However, after a week or two the drop in body fat results in lower leptin levels - the brain begins to sense potential starvation. Her metabolism resets to a lower level to match the current calorie intake and weight loss slows or stops. She is 10 pounds short of her goal of 20 pounds and is now feeling lousy because the lower metabolic level makes her irritable and fatigued and her immune system is weaker making her more susceptible to colds and flu. If she eats less, she feels even worse. Frustrated she ends the diet and starts eating more calories. Leptin levels begin to rise. Now her genetic programming tells her body to replenish the lost fat. She may gain back her original weight and possibly even more, in what Byron Richards calls the famine recovery mode.

Insulin, Leptin, and How to Burn Fat

A meal triggers release of the hormone insulin by the pancreas. Insulin’s job is to manage the sugar and send it where needed. The larger the meal and the higher it is in refined sugar and/or the lower it is in fiber, the greater the rise of insulin. Extra calories eaten – especially calories of refined carbohydrates like sugars and flours promote greater storage of calories by insulin (the opposite of fat burning)

Calories are also transported to the muscles. Muscles only need this energy when you have been active and have already used some of the stored muscle energy. This is why a consistent exercise program is important.

It is not possible to lose weight during an insulin dominant time - the first few hours after eating. We enter fat burning time 3-4 hours after our last meal and stay in this mode until our next meal. Snacking will stop this process. In fact, advice to eat many small and frequent meals throughout the day is not beneficial for losing weight as frequent meals inhibit normal fat burning. Likewise, unusually large meals will extend the insulin (fat storage) time and eating after dinner and before bedtime will derail the best fat burning time we have which is while sleeping.

Ideally, when hungry, our leptin levels are low and rise as we eat. As the leptin levels rise a full signal is sent to the brain. Leptin resistance mean that the hormones don’t communicate properly in response to food and the person has to overeat in order to get enough leptin into the brain to generate the full signal.

Rules for Simple Weight Loss

Richards created simple rules to help his patients keep the lost weight from returning or lose that extra 10 or 20 pounds around their waistline. These rules keep leptin at the ideal level so that the “starvation mode” is never in play:

1. Never eat after dinner. This first simple step will allow leptin to do its work of burning fat while you sleep. Allow 11-12 hours between dinner and breakfast. Finish dinner 3-4 hours before bedtime. Never go to bed on a full stomach.

2. Allow five to six hours between meals and eat three meals a day. Do not snack.

3. Do not eat large meals. If overweight, always try to finish a meal when slightly less than full. The full signal will usually catch up to you in ten to twenty minutes. Eat slowly

4. Eat a breakfast containing protein. A high protein meal increases metabolism by as much as thirty percent, something a high carbohydrate breakfast simply will not do. Try a whey protein smoothie, eggs, cottage cheese, or any lean meats. The sure sign of an inadequate breakfast is being unable to make it five hours until lunch without food cravings or a crash in energy.

5. Reduce the amount of carbohydrates you eat. Cutting back on carbohydrates is well advised for those with leptin resistance. Most overweight people are probably eating twice the carbohydrates they are able to metabolize.