When a person diets, their body enters a constant state of negative energy balance. This means that you are burning fewer calories out of your body than you are taking into your body. This state of negative energy balance results in your body producing less and less leptin over time. The effects of leptin and dieting are explained below.
The process that is mentioned in the paragraph above can result in your brain not being able to receive a strong signal to burn fat. This means that your body becomes very reluctant to lose weight. This effect can be seen when a lot of people start to diet. Some people find that any initial weight that they have been carrying will drop off, but it becomes harder and harder to lose natural body fat.
Basically, leptin is a hormone in the brain that mainly communicates with your hypothalamus. The main purpose of leptin is to signal to your body that it is ok to burn fat to use as fuel. When food is easy to find then a person's leptin levels will be high to signal to the brain that there is not chance of starving. This means that it is alright for your body to burn its fat storage.
- How to avoid the effects of leptin.
The main way to avoid the effects caused by leptin that is mentioned above, is to follow a few simple steps. The first of these is not to diet for long periods of time, for example, if you diet for two or three months, then try eating a high calorie meal or diet for a few days to "reset" your leptin levels in the brain. The second tip works if you are following a low carb diet once a week, specify a day where you "carb up". This ups the production of leptin in your body, which means that your body can once again start burning the excess fat.
