Leptin resistance, one of the causes of obesity and fat accumulation

Many people misunderstand, alleging that obese people must be caused by eating too much and can not control themselves. In fact, the case of obesity is not that simple. Actually there are other things related to obesity, namely the hormone leptin. Resistance to this hormone turns out to be the main cause of accumulation of fat in humans. How could that be? Come on, learn more about leptin resistance in the following review.

What is leptin?

Leptin is a hormone made by fat cells. Its job is to control appetite and hunger. Leptin signals your brain to let you know when your stomach is full.

In a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, there are receptors or special substances that receive signals of the leptin hormone which will activate if the leptin levels in the body are too high.

The leptin hormone will increase when you are full and then will give a signal to the receptors. The special receptors in the hypothalamus will receive a message that your stomach is full and reduce hunger and appetite.

If the leptin hormone is too low in the body, it can cause a person to overeat.

Leptin resistance is a disorder that can lead to obesity

People who are obese have a lot of body fat in their fat cells. Because the leptin hormone is produced by fat cells, the amount of leptin present in a person's body is proportional to the amount of fat in the body. Therefore, obese people also have very high levels of leptin.

This level of leptin should be able to keep people from eating, because your brain should know that you already have a lot of calories stored in the body.

However, the problem is that these leptin signals don't work. There's a lot of leptin but your brain can't detect it. This condition is called leptin resistance. Leptin becomes resistant and does not function properly because too much fat enters. As a result, the levels of leptin in the body are too high.

Currently, leptin resistance is believed to be a major biological disorder in obese people.

When your brain doesn't receive the leptin signal, your brain will think your body is hungry and needs food, even though you actually have more than enough calories stored.

This causes your brain to change your physiology and behavior to regain fat that your brain thought was missing. Your brain mistakenly thinks that you have to eat in order not to starve to death, so you tend to eat more. In addition, your brain also thinks that you need to conserve energy, which makes you feel lazier and makes you burn fewer calories at rest.

So, eating too much and not exercising enough is not the cause of being overweight, but a result of leptin resistance.

What causes leptin resistance?

According to Dr. Guyenet, several cell mechanisms behind the occurrence of leptin resistance, among others.

• Inflammation in the hypothalamus brain is likely the cause of leptin resistance.
• Having free fatty acids high in the bloodstream can increase fat metabolism in the brain and interfere with leptin signaling.
• Has high leptin levels.

Nearly all of these factors increase in obese people. So these two conditions are related to each other. Where people get fatter and leptin levels will be higher.

How to prevent leptin resistance?

The best way to tell if you have leptin resistance is to look in the mirror. If you have a lot of body fat, especially in the abdominal area, then you almost certainly have leptin resistance.

To prevent leptin resistance, there are a number of things you can do:

• Avoid processed foods because they can harm the intestines and trigger inflammation.
• Eating soluble fiber can help improve gut health and may fight obesity.
• Adequate exercise and physical activity.
• Enough sleep.
• Lowering your triglycerides, having high blood triglycerides can prevent the transport of leptin from the blood and to the brain. The best way to lower triglycerides is to reduce carbohydrate intake.
• Eating lots of protein can lead to weight loss.

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