Have you ever heard someone say that you need to eat to lose weight? Sounds counter-intuitive but there is scientific reason for this. One of those reasons is Leptin, a hormone that is important for body weight regulation and appetite and most importantly, acts as an “anti-starvation” hormone by letting the brain know how much energy it has available.
For a long time, it was assumed that fat cells were dumb. There was no evidence to suggest that fat cells did anything more than store fat. In the mid-90′s however, it was discovered that fat cells are actually quite active and are in constant communication with the brain through a hormone messaging system. The main role of these hormones, the most important being Leptin, is to regulate the body’s response to caloric restriction and weight loss. Unfortunately for those trying to lose weight, Leptin is much more concerned with keeping you alive than helping you achieve your aesthetic goal, it’ll slow down weight loss until you start eating again.
Why would your body be so cruel to you? The more you study the human body and its complexity, the more you must keep in mind human evolution. That way, when you learn something that seems completely random or something that makes you say “why the hell does that happen?”, you realize that human survival has probably necessitated this inconvenience. In Leptins case, slowing down your weight and fat loss was beneficial millions of years ago when humans were hunters and gatherers. There was no guarantee when you’d get your next meal, and starvation was a real possibility. Hopping in the car and picking up a beef burrito from Chipotle Grill (so good) wasn’t an option.
When you diet, Leptin levels drop and the signals to your brain get weaker. The body responds by taking anti-starvation measures, primarily slowing down metabolism and increasing appetite. In addition, the leaner you get, the lower your Leptin levels get, making it very difficult to lose fat the longer you diet. At that point, you are introduced to the Law of Diminishing Returns. Most dieters reaction would be to eat less and exercise more, and that would seem to make sense until you realize that what you really need to do is eat more, especially of the crappy variety kind. Has your interest been piqued?
The reason is simple. Your Letpin levels have gone down, making your brain think it’s starving. The body responds by shutting down your metabolism and increasing appetite. It needs to know that your not going to die. Your brain couldn’t care less that you want to look good in a bikini, it wants to maintain survival. Thus, you need to reset your Leptin levels. Luckily for just about everyone, Leptin levels are best reset through eating-get this- HIGH CARB meals! This is the idea behind “cheat meals” or “diet breaks”, scheduled times where you can eat whatever the hell you want so that your body gets out of starvation mode. After Leptin resets, which is quite quickly, you can resume your fat loss adventure.
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