OnFitness Magazine - November/December 2021 - 36

Clean Nutrition Report, how to lose the fat
more fat you carry in your body, the more
leptin you have constantly circulated
through your system.
With all this additional leptin
circulating, your body produces an effect
similar to insulin resistance, constantly
sending out excessive levels of leptin in
response to overeating, which dulls the
various receptors in your body, particularly
in your brain, and these receptors stop
recognizing the hormone.
This allows neuropeptideY to remain
turned on, along with the sensations of
hunger and a much slower metabolism.
Along with obesity, this leads to high
blood pressure, high cholesterol, increased
inflammation in the body, and a possible
chance for diabetes.
Though it seems as if leptin can
CONTROLLING
HUNGERWITH
HORMONES
Mickie Cambridge
The complex
processes of our body,
including eating,
sleeping, warding off
disease, growth, and
repair, all get
regulated by
hormones. What we
don't tend to associate hormones with is
the ability to control hunger or satiety, and
therefore weight gain.
The hormone leptin made its debut in
1994 by geneticist Jeffrey Friedman and
completely changed the understanding of
our body's appetite regulation system.
This hormone also made clear the
distinction between hunger as an emotion
and a physiological reaction, lending to
countless studies on weight gain and
obesity.
Leptin contains one hundred and
sixty-seven amino acids and gets
manufactured in adipose tissue; therefore
the amount of body fat an individual has
becomes directly proportional to the
amount of circulating leptin in their
system.
Signaling energy deficiency in the
brain encompasses leptin's primary role.
Leptin receptors are spread throughout
your body but remain most active in the
brain.
Appetite regulation takes place in the
hypothalamus, which is why leptin
receptors remain plentiful here. The fat
cells in your body send signals to the
hypothalamus once you have eaten to
release leptin, which bonds with these
various receptors in the brain.
Once the leptin bonds with receptors
in the brain, it begins shutting down the
release of a powerful neuropeptide, also
known as neuropeptide Y.
This neuropeptide turns the appetite
on while turning the metabolic rate down.
Leptin sends messages to the body
signaling to block the neuropeptide and
begin burning calories.
If not functioning optimally, your
body's leptin levels become disturbed, this
neuropeptide production never gets shut
down, the metabolism comes to a grinding
halt and the brain continues to send
messages that the body remains hungry.
So what conditions disturb this
internal checks and balances system that
your body maintains? One of the primary
causes seems to point toward obesity. The
produce catastrophic events in your body
including, but not limited to, weight gain
and heart disease, leptin, when kept in
check, can produce many positive effects.
When produced in the right amounts,
leptin can tap into your body's deep,
visceral fat stores and help reduce them.
Your body also experiences a surge of
leptin levels while sleeping, which helps
keep the metabolism elevated during its
longest phase of rest.
Because of the positive effects that
some hormones can elicit such as leptin,
some people have begun to inject
themselves with the desired hormone to
create an internal super-environment of
sorts, with the hopes that the positive
effects that these hormones can have will
remain in abundance.
Human growth hormone gets produced
in the brain as well and helps keep body
fat levels low, provides increases in lean
muscle tissue and bone density, and even
provides stamina for exercise.
This hormone naturally declines with
age, so many have tried to inject it to
continue to reap its effects. Just as excess
body fat interferes with leptin, artificially
injecting HGH can produce negative side
effects.
These side effects include carpal tunnel
syndrome, muscle and joint pain, swelling
in the legs and arms, and gynecomastia in
men.
Do your hormonal homework. Making
sure to get enough REM sleep, avoiding
diets rich in simple carbohydrates and
trans-fat foods, and keeping your immune
system healthy will all help keep leptin
levels balanced and help reap some of the
rewards from this hormone.
Ultimately, eating nutritiously and
including regular exercise into your
routine will keep your body healthy, able
to fight off diseases, and also help keep
your body fat levels low.
Living a healthier lifestyle will also
keep your internal environment
functioning optimally keeping hormones
in line. Z
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OnFitness Magazine - November/December 2021

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