There is a little known hormone in your body that heavily dictates your body composition and metabolism, only discovered in the last ten years and extremely anabolic.

We all know the big two: testosterone and estrogen, steroid users have taken advantage of testosterone’s anabolic effects for years now, but what if I was to tell you there is a hormone within you that is also very anabolic and you can effect it by as much as 50% within the space of a week?Interested?

The hormone is leptin and it was discovered just over ten years ago, think of it as a messenger – it tells your brain what your diet is like, if your eating enough calories and then your brain will act on this either by raising your metabolism or lowering it, just as a bear completely slows down it’s metabolism when it hibernates, your brain will tell your various systems to slow down when it realies your not giving it enough fuel!This is yet another reason why crash dieting doesn’t work….The other factor in how high your leptin levels are is your current bodyfat, this is perhaps one of the reason’s people seem to gain lean muscle so much easier when they start off from an already lean level.

don't let your body slow down to a crawl!

Well i’m sure that you can see if we can control the amount of this stuff in our bloodstream there is great potential for fat loss and also a much higher chance of holding onto your muscle whilst doing so. This is what happens when you start dieting – your leptin levels drop very quickly, by as much as half in one week!Thus your brain gets the message and starts storing everything you give it, hormones are released which make you hungrier and all of a sudden your body is working against you!

What we need is a way of keeping leptin high whilst cutting calories……..supplementing is out of the question unless you are very, very rich, a months supply can run into the thousands.

The answer?

Cheat meals

Remember I said leptin levels drop by as much as 50% in one week of dieting?well that’s quick but not as quick as they rise!In fact they can rise back to normal levels in as little as 2 days, so the answer to the problem is high-calorie, high carbohydrate foods. Diet for the first week and let the leptin levels drop, once you get to the weekend stuff your face! for the next two days allow your leptin levels to rise back to normal. This means that for the next week you can continue on your low calorie diet whilst maintaining normal leptin levels and a high metabolism, simple!

For those in the know this dietary advice may sound very familiar to the ‘anabolic diet’ bodybuilders have sworn by for years, which advises your typical low carb diet but with a ‘loading’ stage on the weekend, and you’d be right, it is exactly like that, it turns out leptin levels may be one of the key reasons why they work so well.

Want to find out more?Check out this fantastic ebook going free for the next day!It utilises leptin as well as other new concepts within weight loss for maximum effect, get it before the price goes up!

For my research module at the university I will be studying the hormones leptin and adiponectin. Of course, that’s after I figure out the logistics of the elusive UPLC/MS that no one around me seems to know how to operate. See my previous posting about fucking shit up to read more about that rant.  Anyhow, these adipose derived hormones have a correlation to body mass index. Adiponectin is inversely proportional while leptin is directly proportional to body fat percentage. I’ve been doing some background research involving obesity in general and stumbled upon some interesting facts that make me think about the cultural factors that lead to this condition.

As you can imagine, those living in poverty in underdeveloped countries are not likely to be obese due to lack of food and engagement in heavy manual labor. Here in the U.S. we have government programs to assist lower income families in order to prevent hunger. Researchers conducted a study at Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research spanning 16 years, which compares 6,000 food stamp users to 4,000 non-food stamp users . The study found that the BMI of the food stamp group was 1.15 times higher than the non-food stamp group. The difference was even more apparent amongst women, with the female food stamp users having a BMI that was 1.24 greater. The gap is widest amongst Caucasian women, whose BMIs were 1.96 times greater than African American women.

The researchers conducting the study took into account that obesity is a condition that can be influenced by many factors, so they considered income levels, race, education, race, gender, and county of residence. They also determined the BMI increase before, during, and after receiving food stamps. Even after taking all these factors into account, they determined there to be a clear link between participation in the food stamp program and obesity. Furthermore, they concluded that people participating in the program for longer periods had even higher BMIs.

Unfortunately, good food is generally not affordable. Processed, prepackaged foods loaded with sodium, fat, and preservatives are fairly inexpensive. If I’m grocery shopping I can either buy one loaf of whole grain, natural bread or 4 loaves of white, Wonder bread. I can buy a jar of healthy pasta sauce and a box of whole grain pasta or 5 boxes of mac and cheese. For many needy families the decision is one of quantity and not quality of nutrition. Interestingly enough, there have been “food stamp diet” challenges to bring attention to how difficult it can be to eat healthy on a tight budget. It’s not impossible, but it’s even more problematic for individuals that are not educated regarding nutrition and healthy shopping habits (which many Americans seem to lack). I guess food stamps may be a double-edged sword.

Read the article about the food stamps study here.

Researchers believe that leptin, an appetite-regulating hormone, may play a role in osteoarthritis which attacks knee and arm joints, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases said. When leptin was removed from the diet of mice, the mice ballooned to four times their normal weight, but did not develop osteoarthritis, the scientists reported. (Posted Nov. 9)

EAT WHOLE, NATURAL FOODS AND AVOID PROCESSED, HIGH SATURATED FAT  FOODS ALL TOGETHER…AND EAT MEAT AND HIGH FAT DAIRY PRODUCTS IN MODERATION….

They found that after only three days on a diet high in saturated fat—a common ingredient in beef and cheese—the brains of rats and mice became resistant to leptin and insulin. In contrast, unsaturated fats, such as those found in olive oil, did not trigger resistance.

(From Scientific American article) Researchers have long known that the hormones leptin and insulin play key roles in appetite and food intake. In healthy people leptin, which is secreted by fat tissue, acts as a molecular measuring tape for our waistlines, quashing feelings of hunger. Insulin spikes when the pancreas gets a whiff of the blood sugar increase after a meal; once the brain detects the spike, it knows to tamp down the desire for  food. 

Certain foods and metabolic disorders, however, can disrupt our ability to respond appropriately to these hormonal signals. In a study published in the September issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, scientists report unraveling a central biochemical mechanism behind fat’s effect on the mammalian brain . They found that after only three days on a diet high in saturated fat—a common ingredient in beef and cheese—the brains of rats and mice became resistant to leptin and insulin. In contrast, unsaturated fats, such as those found in olive oil, did not trigger resistance. 

As a result of the hormone resistance, a meal high in saturated fat can crank up our appetite well after dessert. “Taking time off from a healthy diet to eat most fast foods may have consequences that last for some days, even after one resumes the healthy diet,” says University of Cincinnati behavioral neuroscientist Stephen Benoit, who led the study. He believes the findings are likely to apply to humans, too. 

Sensing leptin and insulin is like keeping an eye on the body’s nutrient status, says Gary Schwartz, a neuroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, who was not involved in the research. “If that eye starts to go blind because you keep giving it too much nutrient, then it can’t respond. It can’t tell you, ‘look, don’t eat.’” The result can spark a vicious cycle of metabolic problems and weight gain, he remarks.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lard-lesson-why-fat-lubri

BOSTON – Leptin, a molecule linked with obesity, may play a crucial role in predicting poor prognosis from thyroid cancer, at least in the Middle Eastern region of the world, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Basic Cancer Research Meeting.

“Leptin receptor expression may be a useful molecular marker in predicting the level of aggression of Middle Eastern thyroid cancer that can help guide treatment options and follow-up care,” said lead researcher Khawla S. Al-Kuraya, M.D., director of the research center at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Thyroid cancer is the eighth most common cancer among American women, but the second most common in Saudi Arabian women. This high prevalence is seen in all Gulf Council countries, according to Al-Kuraya.

Al-Kuraya said there is some evidence that thyroid tumors in the Middle East are unique on a molecular level, particularly an increased amplification of the PIK3CA gene.

For the current study, the researchers focused on measuring the level of leptin and its receptor in 536 human thyroid cancer samples. They found overexpression of the leptin receptor in 80 percent of the cases. This overexpression was significantly associated with poor disease survival. Similarly, increased leptin receptor expression was linked with older age, larger tumor size, advanced stage and metastasis. Furthermore, the researchers have conducted numerous in vitro experiments on thyroid cancer cells in the lab and demonstrated that leptin works on the life process of cancer cells by stimulating growth and preventing death.

Leptin is the product of the “obesity gene” and regulates food intake and energy expenditure. Although this is the first study in which researchers have observed its role in thyroid cancer patients, it has previously been implicated in poor prognosis among patients with gastric, endometrial and breast cancer.

Leptin receptor status can be easily assessed with a fine needle biopsy, according to Al-Kuraya.

“This information will be useful in predicting disease aggressiveness and making subsequent treatment decisions about type of surgery, follow-up and iodine dosage,” said Al-Kuraya.

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The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, the AACR is the world’s oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes 30,000 basic, translational and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and nearly 90 other countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants, research fellowship and career development awards. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 16,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment and patient care. The AACR publishes six major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention; and Cancer Prevention Research. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors and their families, patient advocates, physicians and scientists. CR provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship and advocacy.

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In Boston, October 8-11:
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The Athlete’s Kitchen

Copyright: Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD    October 2009

Reforming Your Healthcare Policy: Food for Thought

Healthcare reform is a hot topic these days, not only in the news but also (hopefully) in your personal life. You likely already know that by eating well, exercising at least 150 minutes a week, and not smoking, you can reduce the risk of an early death by 80%. (That’s a lot, eh?!) But your friends and family may not fully appreciate how much slacking off, underexercising, and gaining undesired body fat too easily leads to negative health consequences that cost us millions of dollars.

Losing excess body fat is important because fat is an active tissue, not just a bank account of extra calories. Fat cells create an inflammatory response that contributes to heart disease, cancer, amd diabetes. Fat also produces a hormone, leptin, that affects appetite. Leptin sends signals to the brain to stop eating. Hence, the brain and the intestinal tract are highly connected. Unfortunately, the brain developed in ancient times when food was scarce and unpredictable. This might explain why the body stores fat easily, yet sheds fat with greater difficulty.

To address nutrition, obesity, and health concerns, experts discussed the latest research at the 4th Annual Symposium of Tuft’s University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (Boston, Sept.’09). Perhaps this information will inspire you and your loved ones to take an active role in preserving your good health for a robust and lengthy lifespan.

Food shopping reform

Good nutrition starts in the supermarket. Unfortunately, you almost have to have a PhD in nutrition to know which groceries to buy. But this is changing. For example, the Smart Choices food ranking system (www.SmartChoicesProgram.com) is now is on the front of many food packages. This program gives a check mark to foods that meet certain criteria (rich in vitamins, fiber; low in sodium, added sugar, trans fat, etc.). Participation in Smart Choices is voluntary, yet many of the major food companies are participating.

Hannaford Supermarket has created a Guiding Star system that ranks foods according to the nutrients we want to eat more of (calcium, iron, fiber) and those we should eat less of (saturated fat, trans fat, sodium). Signs in the marketplace indicate if a food has one, two or three stars. Would you believe 77% of the foods in grocery stores do not qualify for even one Hannaford Guiding Star? This indicates how health-eroding our food supply is! Let’s hope that companies whose products fail to earn even one star might quietly start tweaking their recipes to create healthier products…

As a result of the Guiding Stars food ranking system, Hannaford customers are actually shifting their shopping patterns. They are now buying more of the best foods (nutrient-dense and locally grown) and less of the rest. The hope is better food labeling, along with consumer education, will help Hannaford shoppers shave off 100 to 200 calories a day. This small change can lead to losing 10 to 20 pounds fat in a year. This is a sure way to chip away at the obesity epidemic.

Obesity: a huge problem

A simple look around the mall confirms this fact: Obesity is rising to epidemic proportions. Despite years of advice from health professionals to add on exercise and eat fewer calories, obesity rates continue to increase. Reducing the prevalence of obesity will take years, because we need to change many systems. That is, restaurants need to serve smaller portions; kids need to be able to walk safely to school; food manufactures need to make products with less fat and calories; housing developments need to be designed so people can walk to stores, as opposed to drive to the mall. All of this takes time, coordination, planning, and policy.

In the meantime, what can you do? You can implement small but sustainable changes that you can happily maintain for the rest of your life. The changes might have more to do with lifestyle than food—and what you choose to do with your feet, not just your fork. Here’s a little of what we know:

• We need to live in neighborhoods that encourage walking, biking, and public transportation. As you have undoubtedly noticed, walkability has been engineered out of your life. Busy streets and highways now divide neighborhoods that used to be vibrant communities. We have created lifestyles that focus on the automobile. No longer can most of us walk to stores, the post office, and to work; instead, we need to drive cars. To shop, we drive to malls; this takes people out of cities and dissolves the communities that get created when neighbors interact while walking outside.

Even schools are being built away from the center of town because there is more land (the required 40 acres). This ties kids to school busses. Some schools have started parking the busses farther away from the classrooms, so the kids at least get a little more exercise before and after school.

Preventing health problems

Preventing obesity and the diseases of aging (which are really diseases of inactivity and overeating) is far easier than fixing health problems. The standard recommendations to exercise more and eat  less are seemingly ineffective. To our detriment, (over)eating is pleasing. In comparison, food deprivation is less attractive. We need to find ways to lose undesired body fat without feeling deprived or punished.

Preventing weight gain needs to start early. Given that 25% of today’s’ kids ages two to five years old are overfat or obese (as are 33% of school-age kids), waiting until kids enter the school system is too late to deal with the problem. Prevention offers an opportunity to improve the child’s health, reduce disease, save money. An obese child with at least one obese parent is very likely to become an obese adult…

Prevention of undesired fat gain can start as early as infancy. For example, sleep deprivation is a known contributor to weight gain—even in infants. Research indicates infants who routinely sleep less than 11 hours a night are more likely to be overweight than those who sleep more than 13 hours. This means, if you are a working parent, don’t keep your kids up too late, just so you can enjoy a little bit more family time!

The bottom line

Health care reform needs to start on the personal level. While you may live an active lifestyle, others need encouragement to take responsibility and be more active, eat wisely, sleep well, and stay well!

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) counsels casual and serious exercisers in her private practice at Healthworks, the premier fitness center in Chestnut Hill MA (617-383-6100). Her Sports Nutrition Guidebook, and food guides for new runners, marathoners, or cyclists are available via www.nancyclarkrd.com. See also sportsnutritionworkshop.com.

We all know we’re supposed to eat healthy portions. So why is it that a rough day at the office or even just the smell of chocolate-chip cookies can cause us to throw our best intentions out the window?
If you overeat, think about what triggered your overindulgence so you can do better next time.

If you overeat, think about what triggered your overindulgence so you can do better next time.

We tapped the nation’s leading experts for the unexpected reasons why so many of us overdo it — so you can break the cycle and prevent an unwanted pile-on of pounds.

You’re not getting enough sleep

Missing out on your zzz’s not only puts you in a mental fog, it also triggers a constellation of actual metabolic changes that may lead to weight gain. A lack of shut-eye harms your waistline because it affects two important hormones that control appetite and satiety–leptin and ghrelin–says Kristen L. Knutson, Ph.D., a research associate specializing in sleep and health at the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine. According to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, people who slept only four hours a night for two nights had an 18 percent decrease in leptin (a hormone that signals the brain that the body has had enough to eat) and a 28 percent increase in ghrelin (a hormone that triggers hunger), compared with those who got more rest. The result: Sleep-deprived study volunteers reported a 24 percent boost in appetite. Short sleep can also impair glucose metabolism and over time set the stage for type 2 diabetes, Knutson notes.
(For me I can get by with as little as 4-6 hours of rest a day and still make it through.I do get cravings once in a while but again I limit them no matter how appetizing it is unless it is something that I eat once a year will I then allow myself to eat more than usual.Otherwise it’s all about resisitng temptation with food.Just like with other things don’t let anyone tempt you to do anything you don’t want to do.Remember it’s your body and your life.The way you eat and live your life is up to you.)
How to get control:

When we’re exhausted, we hunger for just about everything in sight, especially if it’s sugary or high in carbs. That may be because these foods give us both an energy boost and comfort (since lack of sleep is a stressor), Knutson says. To quell the urge for fattening foods and still get the energy kick you need, reach for a combination of complex carbs and protein.
(Still keep in mind even if you may be exhausted from work,school or whatever remember what you eat also reflects on your health.You can always get something like a salad plus something fattening but don’t over do it.Make accommodations and plan your meals.Count your calories.Helped me a lot when I used to do that)

“If you’re feeling tired, you want carbs. But go for high-fiber carbs for long-lasting energy,” says Keri Gans, R.D., a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). “Fiber burns slower than simple sugars, and adding in some protein keeps you satisfied longer.”
(Be careful on the carbs.try not too eat too much white rice,white bread,pasta..As for me I hardly eat white rice,bread or pasta.When I do it’s very rare.)

At breakfast, have whole-wheat toast with egg whites or a high-fiber cereal with fruit and a yogurt. And for a food-free way to perk up during the day, take a 10-minute walk outside. You also can prevent uncontrollable cravings in the first place by prioritizing a good night’s sleep — get seven to nine hours a night in a slumber-friendly bedroom (one that’s as dark and quiet as possible and reserved for shut-eye and sex only).

A final tip: If you’re plagued by sleep problems, ask your doctor for a referral to a sleep specialist. You’re sabotaged by stress

Constant stress causes your body to pump out high doses of hormones, like cortisol, that over time can boost your appetite and lead you to overeat. “Cortisol and insulin shift our preferences toward comfort foods–high-fat, high-sugar, or high-salt foods,” says Elissa Epel, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Department of Psychiatry and a leader of the UCSF Center on Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment Fat cells also produce cortisol, so if you’re overweight and stressed, you’re getting a double-whammy in terms of exposure. Overweight women gained weight when faced with common stressors such as job demands, having a tough time paying bills, and family-relationship strains, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Cortisol, together with insulin, also causes your body to store more visceral fat, which is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke, Epel notes. What’s more, stress makes it harder to stick with a healthy eating plan. “It’s a reason why people go off diets,” notes Marci Gluck, Ph.D., a clinical research psychologist at the Obesity and Diabetes Clinical Research Section of the National Institutes of Health in Phoenix, Arizona. Folks who normally restrict their eating, tend to overeat in response to stress.

How to get control:

Sure, real-life pressures can put you in nonstop-nibble mode. But working stress-reduction techniques into your busy days can really help. Yoga, meditation, and deep-breathing exercises are powerful tools that keep tension in check. And spending 20 minutes doing progressive muscle relaxation–alternately tensing and relaxing muscle groups–significantly lessens stress, anxiety, and cortisol, according to a study published in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders Exercise will also do the trick. “Try dancing to your favorite tunes, running in place, playing a sport, or taking a simple walk,” says Elisa Zied, R.D., an ADA spokeswoman and author of “Nutrition at Your Fingertips.” When you’re feeling edgy, make a habit of turning to these activities rather than diving into your candy stash. If you’re feeling completely overwhelmed by stress, talk to a counselor who specializes in stress management.

You’ve got fatty foods (literally) on the brain

We’re hardwired to hunger for fatty, sugary, salty foods because, back when our ancestors were foraging for every meal, palatable eats meant extra energy and a leg-up on survival, says Dr. David A. Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and author of “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.”

So it’s not just a lack of willpower that’s tripping you up, but rather your outdated survival mode. In fact, when you eat fat-rich foods, your brain not only gets a signal that your body is satisfied but also forms long-term memories of the experience, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. What once helped early humans survive is now giving us ever-expanding waistlines.

Adding to the challenge to control overeating, the mere sight of food can cue up a craving. “[Cravings] are based on past learning and memories as well as the sight or smell of food, time of day, or location,” Kessler says. “You’ll walk down the street and start thinking about chocolate-covered pretzels because you’ve had them before on the same street.” How to get control:

Avoid eating your favorite treat if you’re in a particular mood, if it’s a certain time of day, or if you’re in a specific place; this will prevent you from creating a triggering link between those feelings or locations and that treat, Kessler says. And since the smell and sight of fatty, sugary foods is pure temptation, try to keep yourself from passing the bakery or ice cream shop you can’t resist.

Also, pay attention to what you’re thinking when temptation strikes. “Once the brain is activated [by a craving], having that inner dialogue of, ‘No, I shouldn’t have that,’ only increases the wanting,” Kessler notes. Instead, focus on something you want more than that slice of cheesecake–from being healthier for your kids to feeling less winded when you walk to work–to help override the urge If logic is out the window, indulge in healthier versions of your favorites such as low-fat frozen yogurt with almonds when you crave a sundae or a calcium-rich glass of nonfat chocolate milk when you need a chocolate fix.

You Pigged Out — Now What?

• Forgive yourself. “Having one overindulgent meal should not derail you from your healthful eating habits, while being too negative will make you more likely to throw up your hands in despair and overindulge at the next meal or several meals for days to come,” Elisa Zied, R.D., says.

• Give yourself a do-over. Immediately start with lean protein, veggies, whole grains, and fruit, and drink plenty of water, Zied suggests.

• Learn from it. Think about what triggered your overindulgence–not to punish yourself, but to choose smarter next time. “If you keep a food journal, you might see you ended up pigging out because you waited too long to eat,” Keri Gans, R.D., says.

• Add on exercise. To feel in control again, simply tack on a few extra minutes to your regular walk, gym routine, etc. At the same time, “try not to think of exercise as a punishment for overindulging,” Zied says. If you do, you’ll grow to dread the gym

In previous posts, Leptin: The Master Fat Switch, Leptin and Meal Timing, and Meal Timing and Intermittent Fasting, I told the story of how I first heard of leptin, and learned that addressing leptin resistance directly with my Low Carb nutritional approach combined with modified meal timing and Intermittent Fasting (IFing) may be able to reduce Insulin Resistance and return my high Blood Glucose Level (BGL) back to normal.

Just about the time I was enjoying some really great success lowering my BGL by IFing, the Six-Week Cure book was released, and I decided to try that, and stopped IFing for a bit to follow the 6-week program.

Today, I read a great post that explains how leptin regulates hunger, so I thought I’d take a break from my Six-Week Cure posts, to share this information about leptin.

More About Leptin
Quotes from: Leptin, Low Carb and Hunger (from the blog of Dr. Michael Eades)

So, What is leptin?

Leptin is a hormone made by fat cells. When there are a lot of fat cells they secrete a lot of leptin.

And, what does leptin do?

It seems that every day a new function for leptin is postulated, but for our purposes now, let’s stick with what most scientists consider the primary function of leptin: regulation of the fat mass by regulating hunger.

The big problem I see is that the default message seems to be YOU’RE HUNGRY, EAT, STORE FAT! As you eat and start storing fat, the fat secretes leptin to signal your brain to reduce your feeling of hunger.

So, if you fail to secrete leptin, or if your brain fails to receive the leptin, you will not stop feeling hungry and you will not stop storing fat.

So, if obese people have more leptin than thin people,
why aren’t our brains getting the message to burn fat?

Most obese people find themselves in this very situation: high blood levels of leptin but still hungry. And eating makes more fat, which makes more leptin, which should shut off the hunger response, but it doesn’t because the ever increasing levels of leptin telling the brain to tell the obese person to quit eating don’t get to the brain to do their job.

Obese people make a large amount of leptin, way more than non-obese people in fact, but they are resistant to the effects of their own leptin in much the same way they’re resistant to the effects of their own insulin.

Apparently, the reason that leptin cannot get through to the brain is because of triglycerides (fat) circulating in the blood. Triglycerides in the blood block the leptin from getting to the brain.

And guess what causes high triglyceride levels? Carbohydrates.

So, the clear advantage of the Low Carb diet in this scenario is that a drastically-reduced carbohydrate intake causes a drastic reduction of triglyceride levels. The reduction in triglycerides then allows the leptin that is already circulating get through to the brain where it can reduce hunger.

ABC News Story on the Effects of a Big Meal

Check out this video from ABC News, in which two reporters eat a super huge meal (over 5,000 calories), high in both carbs and saturated fat, have some medical tests done, and then blame all the negative results on the FAT they ate but not the CARBS.

Quoted from ABCs Big Meal Propaganda (from the blog of Dr. Michael Eades):

It’s pretty impressive when the lab tech holds up the tube of blood taken after the meal and compares it to the one taken before the meal. There is a lot of fat swimming in the serum, that’s for sure.

Problem is, that’s what blood samples look like after almost any meal, especially one that contains carbohydrates. The fat you see isn’t the fat the two reporters ate; it is the fat the liver has made from the carbohydrate. It’s the same picture a tube of blood would show after either of the two doctors had eaten a high-carb, low-fat lunch.

The blood samples were taken two hours after the meal. Dietary carbohydrate is absorbed directly into the blood and makes a pass through the liver where it stimulates the production of triglycerides, the fat you see in the blood. Fat, especially long-chain saturated fat digests very slowly, and doesn’t reach the blood until much later than the two hour mark.

So, does that sound like the final nail in the coffin, or what?

A high-carb snack or meal adds triglycerides to the bloodstream almost immediately, thereby blocking leptin from its normal ability to reduce your hunger.

Now add to that the common advice that eating more frequent meals and snacks per day is preferrable to eating 2-3 appropriately-sized (larger) meals, and it looks like we could all have a constant stream of triglycerides being deposited into our bloodstream dll day long!

Meal Timing and Intermittent Fasting

This is one way we can get such a drastic improvement in leptin sensitivity by making simple changes in meal timing or practicing intermittent fasting.

According to leptin experts, such as Dr. Rosedale and Byron Richards, it takes 4-6 hours for your body to fully recover from eating a meal, deal with these triglycerides, and reset its hormonal signals.

If you eat another meal before your body recovers from the last, new triglycerides will join the ones remaining from your last meal, further block your leptin signals from getting to your brain, and you will never stop being hungry and you will never stop storing fat.

By allowing at least 4-6 hours to pass between meals, you could be giving your body the chance it needs to open up the vital channel of communication that will enable your brain to hear leptin telling it: Hey, that’s enough food for now. We’ve got all the fat we need… uh, could you burn off a little, now?

Putting it All Together:
IFing, The Six-Week Cure, Blood Glucose Levels, and Weight Loss

The rapid loss of weight and inches that many people are enjoying as they do the new Six Week Cure program has not yet been my experience. However, my fasting Blood Glucose Level is going down quite steadily on this program. I think my lowered BGL is a good enough indication that the liver cleanse part of the program is really working.

Even though I am not seeing huge results on the scale and the measuring tape, I can tell that my body composition is changing! My skin is looser. My clothes are looser. Overall, I am feeling better than ever. More energetic. I am sleeping better. And breathing easier. My eyesight is improving. And probably other things I am just not thinking of at the moment.

If normalized blood sugar is the ONLY BENEFIT I get from doing the Six Week Cure, that would still feel like a miracle to me!! In the last few years, especially with the onset of menopause, blood sugar control and weight loss became things of the past. Distant Memories.

It looks like I am well on my way to restoring my insulin sensitivity and normal blood sugars, with no dangerous medical interventions or drugs. After these are closer to normal, I have every confidence that the scale and measuring tape will start cooperating too.

As soon as my brain really gets the message to burn fat… well, if you’ve read this far, you already know. I wouldn’t be able to stop the weight loss any more than I’ve been able to start it up, by mere willpower. (Though I guess I could by eating CARBS!) Leptin and Insulin have to do their part. Right now, my job is to open the door so they can!

I have the right tools in my box. A Low Carb diet, The Six Week Cure, IFing, some good nutritional supplements, a healthy supply of determination, and a nice dose of momentum. Let’s see how well I’ve learned to use them.

Stay tuned. You’ll be the second to know what happens next.

Lovin’ It Low Carb
Ramona Denton

Suggestions for Further Reading

The books and resources listed are suggestions. Their presence on this list is not necessarily an endorsement.

The Leptin Diet
The Leptin Diet Website

Mastering Leptin: Your Guide to Permanent Weight Loss
and Optimum Health (Third Edition)
by Byron J. Richards and Mary Guignon Richards

The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat?
by Byron J. Richards

Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting Archive of Dr. Michael Eades’ Blog
coauthor of The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle

Mark’s Daily Apple Blog, by Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint

Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease
by Joel Fuhrman M.D.

The Alternate-Day Diet
by James B. Johnson M.D.

The QOD Diet: Eating Well Every Other Day
by John T. Daugirdas

Fasting
This is one of my all-time favorite books about (traditional) fasting:
Fasting Can Save Your Life by Herbert Shelton. It seems to be out of print, but your local library may have a copy you can borrow if you’re interested. There are a few used copies available at Amazon, which I have linked to.

Always consult your doctor or healthcare professional
before intiating a program that involves fasting
or severe calorie restriction.

~ : o : ~

Interesting…

From The Economist July 24th, 2008 print edition:

Appetite control

A sweet result

Hormones influence how sensitive taste buds are to sugar

THAT sweetness is pleasant is no coincidence. Sweet food is at a premium in the wild because the sugars it contains provide valuable calories. But even with sugar there can be too much of a good thing, so it would be no surprise if the body were able to regulate the perception of sweetness as its nutritional needs vary. According to two studies presented to the International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste, held in San Francisco this week, that is exactly what happens. The studies, one on mice and one on people, have identified two hormones that seem to fine-tune the perception of sweetness, and thus regulate the intake of sugar independently of the previously known mechanism of satiation that is located in the brain.

The mouse study was done by Steven Munger, a neurobiologist at the University of Maryland, and his colleagues. They picked a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that is made by intestinal cells in response to sugar and fat. This hormone is already known to act in the pancreas and the brain, where it helps, respectively, to regulate blood-sugar levels and the feeling of satiation that tells you when to stop eating. Dr Munger, though, found that both GLP-1 and the receptor molecule that picks it up and thus allows it to act are found in taste buds too.

To investigate GLP-1’s role in taste, the team used a strain of mice that were genetically engineered to lack GLP-1 receptors. They found that such animals are much less sensitive to sweetness than their un-engineered confrères. Indeed, the mutants were no more interested in a dilute sugar solution (or, indeed, a solution of artificial sweetener) than they were in plain water—though they did respond to concentrated solutions of sweetness. The “wild-type” mice, by contrast, drank significantly more of the sweet solution than they did of the water, even when the sweet solution was dilute. Moreover, the effect was limited to sweetness. The animals’ responses to the other four fundamentals of taste—bitterness, sourness, saltiness and “umami” (the flavour of monosodium glutamate)—were unaffected. That suggests, though it does not yet prove, that there is feedback from the gut to regulate the desirability of eating sweet food.

The human study was done by Yuzo Ninomiya, a neuroscientist at Kyushu University, in Japan. He and his colleagues looked at leptin, another hormone that is known to regulate appetite and metabolism. Leptin levels are also known to fluctuate naturally over a 24-hour period, being lowest in the morning and highest at night, at least in people who eat three meals a day.

In their experiments, Dr Ninomiya and his colleagues found that their volunteers were more sensitive to sweetness when their leptin levels were low. As the level of the hormone increased over the course of a day, the threshold for detecting sweetness rose. And when the researchers shifted the pattern of leptin production by changing the number of meals their volunteers ate, the volunteers’ sensitivity to sweetness shifted as well, suggesting that it was the hormone rather than merely the time of day that was causing the effect. As in the case of the mice, the humans did not show any changes in their sensitivity to other tastes. However, individuals who had lower leptin levels, and thus more sweet-taste sensitivity before a meal, experienced sharper increases in blood-sugar levels when they had eaten.

Whether either of these results cast light on the perpetual search for pain-free ways of cutting calorie-intake in the modern world of abundant sweetness is not yet clear. But they may, at least, explain why so many people like lashings of sugar on their breakfast cereal.

By marie Dufour, RD – We used to think that cravings –and especially cravings for fat and sugar– were essentially tied to tour pleasure response centers. Eating any sweet-fat combo would release endorphins, and that high endorphin levels would call for more sweet-fat combo, therefore starting a never-ending and addictive cycle.

New research suggests that certain fats –but not all– hit the brain directly with a message: eat more fat! Such fat as palmitic acid have a specific ability to turn off the signal from the appetite-regulating hormone leptin.

Why does this matter? Leptin is the “STOP EATING” hormone. It is manufactured by our fat cells. The more fat cells we have, the more leptin we manufacture. “STOP” eating, says leptin, when we have enough fat stores or have ingested enough fat. But this new research shows that there is an override system to the leptin control.

The brain’s chemistry can change in a very short period of time. When you eat something high in fat, that fat goes straight to your brain, and your appetite center becomes deaf to the STOP signs it receives. Some fats are more sabotaging than others. Palmitic acid, the fat used for ice cream, cookies, chips, and most snack confections, as well as butter and beef fat, are particularly effective in turning off the brain’s response the leptin signals. Polyunsaturated fats such as olive oil, however, do not seem to have that effect.

Result? Not only does brain listen to the pleasure aspect of the experience, but it also ignores the “STOP EATING” signals, quickly sending us right to the bottom of the ice cream carton, bag of chips, box of chocolate… Fat asks for more fat.

How to resist? Do not launch those cravings. Stick to a low saturated fat diet. If you really want an ice cream, select a sherbet, granita, or shaved ice with fruit puree, and you’ll stay away from the fat trap.

Source: http://www.swmed.edu/ ;  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/ 090914110533.htm

Research shows that unhealthy fats found in dairy products, burgers and milk shakes quickly make their way to the brain, where they shut off the alarm system that tells us when we’ve had enough to eat …

read more on

http://www.sevafrica.com/HealthWellness/BurgersTargetTheBrain.shtml

Perhaps this is really a pharmaceutical ad disguised as a news article.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/215115/page/1

 I’ve seen this many times before, keep an eye out for the new miracle drug that will produce or mimic LEPTIN, the hormone that regulates hunger. The “breaking news” on this should follow within a few months. All part of the game.

 Don’t be a sheep. Get off the couch and do some push ups!!!

Here’s a copy of the email I sent to the author of the article, Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, an esteemed researcher at Rockefeller University.

Dear Dr. Friedman,

As a wellness professional with more than 20 years in the trenches, fighting obesity, I read your article with much interest. And while I am duly impressed with your credentials, I must say that you missed the mark in a big way in asserting that obesity is genetic. Though it may be the case in a SMALL percentage, I have worked with thousands of men and women and saved them from killing themselves due to their LIFESTYLE choices, not their genetics. Almost everyone who has come to me has lost weight and those that didn’t, failed to do so either because they failed to discipline themselves or they were being controlled my prescription meds that made it impossible to lose weight. To question whether or not “normalizing” weight will reap health benefits, I urge you to watch a fat person climb a flight of stairs. or get out of a taxi for that matter. While your work takes place in a lab under highly controlled conditions, my work takes place in the park, on the ground, in the mud, where my clients are losing weight every day.

Your claim is letting millions of people around the world off the hook. Giving them yet another excuse to sit on the couch with their arms elbow-deep in a bag of chips. Your article was borderline irresponsible and I must admit, I question your agenda.

Ray Salomone   Personal Trainer and Wellness Activist

www.GrecoRomanWellness.wordpress.com

Life Extension Irvingia supplements are reducing appetite in two females, I know who have tried them.  One female reported losing 8 pounds,  in about a month,while the other reported no weight change.  Our patient who is losing weight with Irvingia is not experiencing any bloating or abdominal discomfort, which can occur, with amylase inhibitors.  She reports Irvingia is blocking carbohydrate craving.

What is Leptin? Leptin is a hormone that tells your brain to stop eating. It induces a feeling of fullness from eating, reduces sugar cravings, signs the thyroid glad to speed up the metabolic system, directs the liver to begin the process of burning fat, assists in losing belly fat.    

When you put on weight a hormone called leptin is supposed to suppress your appetite and accelerate metabolism, causing your body to burn the excess pounds. 

Leptin is a hormone manufactured in fat cells of the body. It affects food intake and energy expenditures by interacting with a receptor in the brain.

 Leptin helps regulate body weight and metabolism. Leptin levels fall as obese individuals lose weight. This process can easily falter and your fat regulating hormones do NOT work properly. This imbalance is called “leptin resistance”.

 Leptin’s role is to tell your brain how much body fat you have. When your body fat falls to alarmingly low levels, leptin signals your brain reverts to “emergency mode” and increases your hunger and slows down metabolism.

What the researchers at Rockefeller University found, is that obese people have leptin that isn’t functioning properly in their bodies and their cells cannot respond to the message the hormone is sending. This is why they find it so difficult to lose weight and stay thin.

 ”Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat cells that tells us to stop eating. In obese people, it doesn’t cross into the brain to help regulate appetite,” says Susan A. Farr, Ph.D., principal investigator and associate research professor in the division of geriatric medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

 With this discovery by Rockefeller University researchers we know eating foods that help your body respond to leptin means you can lose weight and maintain your new weight naturally – without willpower or effort.

It becomes an automatic process! And your body maintains its new health weight on its own.

In a study and report by Freidman J and Halaas J published in Nature researchers genetically altered a few rats and made them incapable of producing leptin. The rats remained hungry and their body mass increased three-fold. When they were administered leptin, their body weight decreased. There is a rare genetic disorder observed in humans, where inadequate leptin results in severe obesity. It can be effectively treated with leptin.

Silent inflammation stems from a number of causes. The fat cells are one way inflammation is promoted. Fat cells contain blood vessels and white blood cells and attract a certain variety of white blood cells known as macrophages. A high level of inflammatory mediators results in tissue damage and other auto-immune diseases.

The fat cells become bloated in people who are overweight and can eventually leak or break open. The macrophages enter these fat cells to clean up the mess. As they begin to spew inflammatory mediators the level of inflammation rises and thevicious cycle continues. And you wonder how you’re going to lose the belly fat?  If you are considering losing weight, losing belly fat, losing those excess pounds/kilos you have been carrying all those years the very first thing you may want to do is have you leptin checked.  This may just be the one element that is sabotaging your weight loss.

What is MaxGXL™?

Glutathione is a tri-peptide of the amino acids cysteine, glycine, and glutamic acid and is the master antioxidant of the body. Without glutathione, we die. The replenishment of the glutathione levels within the lymphocytes (also called white blood cells) increases the efficiency of the immune response. The increase in glutathione levels also results in the proliferation of lymphocytes that act as scavengers, and help to combat infections.  It is truly the body’s master antioxidant and its importance is critical to health and longevity.

What exactly is Glutathione and why is it important?

Glutathione is a tri-peptide of the amino acids cysteine, glycine, and glutamic acid and is the master antioxidant of the body. Without glutathione, we die. The replenishment of the glutathione levels within the lymphocytes (also called white blood cells) increases the efficiency of the immune response. The increase in glutathione levels also results in the proliferation of lymphocytes that act as scavengers, and help to combat infections.  It is truly the body’s master antioxidant and its importance is critical to health and longevity.

What are the ingredients of MaxGXL™ and what do they do?

Calcium Ascorbate- A mineral salt of Vitamin C. Calcium Ascorbate is 80% Vitamin C and 20% calcium. Ascorbates are less acidic than other types of vitamin C and provide better absorption than ascorbic acid alone. It protects the body from toxins and acts as an immune builder and as an antioxidant. It is essential for growth and repair of tissues. It helps your body to cope with physical and mental stress. Calcium Ascorbate produces the frequency necessary to activate protease so is a key component to proper protein digestion as well. Also maximizes NAC absorption and helps protect existing glutathione stores.

L-Glutamine- The most abundant of all of the amino acids found in the muscles of the body. It has the ability to penetrate the so-called blood-brain barrier and is readily transformed into Glutamic Acid, which is essential for cerebral function. In other words, this amino acid is used as brain fuel. L-glutamine is an essential dietary component which nourishes cells in the gastro-intestinal lining, liver and immune system. It also preserves liver glutathione after hepatic injury.

Milk Thistle- Contains some of the most potent liver protecting substances known. One of the active phytochemicals called Sylimarin prevents free radical damage in the liver and kidneys. It also stimulates new liver cells and is an excellent immune system builder.

N acetyl Cysteine (NAC) – N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is the best dietary source of glutathione. It is a main precursor for the manufacture of glutathione (GSH).

N-acetyl d-glucosamine - N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (NAG) is a key precursor in the biosynthesis of mucosal glycoproteins. It protects the underlying tissues from enzymes, acids and bacteria while providing a surface to absorb nutrients.

Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) – Alpha lipoic acid increases the body’s ability to use cysteine to manufacture glutathione. It also enables the key enzyme required for glutathione synthesis to work at optimal conditions, and induces an increase in intracellular GSH.

Quercitin – Quercitin plays a critical role in regenerating glutathione and helps to eliminate toxic compounds found in the liver.
Cordyceps – Cordyceps functions as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. It has also been shown to increase liver energy and glutathione synthesis. In MaxGXL, however, its primary function is to reduce inflammation and free radicals by decreasing the thermostat for inflammation called nuclear factor kappa beta.

How can I purchase MaxGXL?

Contact me today!

Ginger Galloway (Assoc./Sponsor #211436)

maxgxl.menifee@gmail.com

Learn about becoming an Independent MAX Associate. Ask me how

My last two posts, Leptin: The Master Fat Switch and Leptin and Meal Timing, explain how I recently heard about leptin for the first time and learned that insulin-resistant Type 2 Diabetics may be able to deal directly with leptin resistance in order to restore a level of insulin sensitivity adequate for significant weight loss and normalized blood sugars.

I tried the Leptin Diet for about four weeks, eating only 3 times per day with no between-meal snacks, while trying to allow at least four or five hours of non-eating time between meals. The result was significant: my fasting blood glucose level (BGL) dropped about 50 points (from a typical range of 250-300 mg/dL to something like 200-250 mg/dL).

As I was reading about leptin sensitivity and meal timing, I got to thinking about the increased time lapse between meals. The recommendation is to allow at least 5 hours between meals if you can manage it, and 10-12 hours or more between dinner and breakfast. I had to wonder if skipping a meal or two, or even plain old fasting would offer any added benefit in terms of improving leptin sensitivity.

About a week ago, I was reading Dr. Michael Eades blog, coauthor of Protein Power, and noticed a category in the right column called Intermittent Fasting. I had no idea if this Intermittent Fasting (IF) would have anything to do with improving insulin or leptin sensitivity, but I clicked on the link.

Dr. Eades’ blog has six posts in the Intermittent Fasting category. He introduces the topic like this:

How would you like it if I told you there was a way to eat pretty much anything and everything you wanted to eat and still maintain your health? Or better yet, what if I told you that you could eat pretty much anything and everything you wanted and even improve your health? Would you be interested? I figured as much.

There is a way to reduce blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce blood pressure, increase HDL levels, get rid of diabetes, live a lot longer, and still be able to lose a little weight. All without giving up the foods you love. And without having to eat those foods in tiny amounts. Sounds like a late-night infomercial gimmick, but it isn’t.

Before I get to the real nitty gritty of how such a thing can be done, let’s look at a method that has been proven in countless research institutions to bring about all the above-mentioned good things. It’s called caloric restriction.

Now, when he says caloric restriction he isn’t talking about a typical calorie-restricted diet that you or I might have followed before we learned about Low Carb. He means severe caloric restriction: like limiting daily caloric intake to what would normally be considered near-starvation. The benefits are great, but the practice is harsh. Exceedingly harsh.

Apparently, further studies indicate that alternating days between this severe caloric restriction and normal eating yields the same benefit to the dieter as continuous caloric restriction. It has also been observed that the total caloric intake over the alternating cycle doesn’t matter. The calorie-restricted day seems to gain the same benefits for the dieter, even if the entire calorie deficit is compensated for by overeating on the alternate unrestricted day. This practice of alternating eating days with days of fasting or severe caloric restriction is known as Intermittent Fasting.

Many people, myself included, prefer fasting to eating very limited amounts of food. When I was younger I used to practice regular fasting, primarily for religious reasons, but had stopped almost completely because I thought I couldn’t manage it with my blood sugar issues as they were. Boy was I wrong! Not only can I manage it, but it is making me healthier, faster than anything I have tried in a long time (Vitamin D also made big, huge, immediate difference in my health – I’ll have to post about that soon).

It was last Wednesday that I found Dr. Eades posts on intermittent fasting, and I gobbled them up in only a couple of hours. I googled IF and read more about it, and decided to try it right away. There seemed to be multiple options available that might yield improved leptin activity, weight loss and better overall health.

Some practice IF quite literally, planning their food schedule on alternate calendar days, taking food one day, and then fasting or eating little on the next. Some people eat as many as 700 calories on their down days and 5,000 on their up days, without any weight gain or negative health outcomes. Though I do not know how long this can be continued.

One guy has a 5/19 plan: he eats whatever he wants during a 5-hour window (I think he eats from 4-9 pm) and then fasts for the other 19 hours, taking only water and salt. Another plan is to eat breakfast and lunch one day, and then eat dinner the next. This way, you get to eat something every day, and you can plan social engagements for all the different meals on one day or another. Some people practice a more free form IF, and simply try to eat as infrequently as possible, without any restrictions when they do eat.

Dr. Eades has this to say:

Now, based on the IF research data, MD [i.e. his wife Dr. Mary Dan Eades] and I are of the opinion that a Protein Power style diet interspersed with a little fasting is probably the optimal diet. We ourselves follow this diet. We eat one meal a day sometimes, a couple of meals others, and sometimes three squares. If we’re not hungry we don’t eat. We try to fight off the culturally induced feelings of, Oh, it’s lunchtime, so we must be hungry: let’s eat.

When my blood sugar started to go wrong, the first thing I did was place myself on a regular feeding schedule that I thought would help normalize my blood sugar. I ate several times a day, whether I was hungry or not, because I was convinced I needed constant nutrition to avoid blood sugar surges. I’m sort of embarrassed now that I kept at it for so long when it was so clearly not working! Oh well! I’m not the first one to believe this apparent error, and unfortunately, I will not be the last either.

I decided to begin IF by skipping one or more meals per day, simply trying to eat as infrequently as possible, but eating at least one meal on every calendar day. I threw out the old admonition against skipping breakfast, and stopped eating breakfast. I also skipped lunch every other day or so. I had some social engagements on the weekend, so I ate when I was with others, and skipped meals that I would have eaten alone. I ended up eating breakfast and lunch on Saturday, and lunch and dinner on Sunday.

I want to eat as infrequently as I can for a while, until my blood sugar normalizes, which I truly believe it will now, and fairly quickly I think. Earlier in this blog, I told you my typical fasting BGL had dropped about 50 points over the last month. After only 7 days of IF, my fasting BGL has dropped another 50 points, falling somewhere in the range of 150-200 mg/dL.

This morning it was 143 mg/dL, which is the lowest I have seen it in about 5 years. For those of you who are not versed in normal ranges for fasting blood glucose levels, my goal is about 80-100 mg/dL. I’m only about 50 points too high!!! At this rate, I’ll be in the normal range within another week or so. I am really starting to LOVE Intermittent Fasting!

I am off to such a great start!!! For maybe the first time in my life, I feel like I have made a really significant difference in my health in only about 6 weeks. My clothes are loosening, even my three-years-ago black jeans that I have been unable to wear for, well, … a while. You know what I mean!? I expect to see some changes on the scale before too much longer as well. Oh Happy Day!!

This is the end of this miniseries on Leptin, Meal Timing and Intermittent Fasting. I’ll post updates to let you know how my blood sugar is doing. Have a great day!!

Lovin’ It Low Carb
Ramona Denton

Suggestions for Further Reading

The books and resources listed are suggestions. Their presence on this list is not necessarily an endorsement.

The Leptin Diet
The Leptin Diet Website

Mastering Leptin: Your Guide to Permanent Weight Loss
and Optimum Health (Third Edition)
by Byron J. Richards and Mary Guignon Richards

The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat?
by Byron J. Richards

Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting Archive of Dr. Michael Eades’ Blog
coauthor of The Protein Power Lifeplan

Mark’s Daily Apple Blog, by Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint

Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease
by Joel Fuhrman M.D.

The Alternate-Day Diet
by James B. Johnson M.D.

The QOD Diet: Eating Well Every Other Day
by John T. Daugirdas

Fasting
This is one of my all-time favorite books about fasting:
Fasting Can Save Your Life by Herbert Shelton. It seems to be out of print, but your local library may have a copy you can borrow if you’re interested. There are a few copies available at Amazon if you follow my link.

Protein Power
Coming in September: A new book by Dr. Michael R. Eades and by Dr. Mary Dan Eades, coauthors of Protein Power
The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle:
The Simple Plan to Flatten Your Belly Fast!

Always consult your doctor or healthcare professional
before intiating a program that involves fasting
or severe calorie restriction.

~ : o : ~

We Citizens of the Twenty-First Century have known for a long time that our circulating levels of the hormone insulin is an Adipose Signal (Fat Switch) which tells our bodies to store fat or burn fat. Low insulin levels in your bloodstream is your body’s way to turn your internal Fat Switch to burn mode. Likewise, high insulin levels puts you in fat storage mode. Although we talk about Type 2 Diabetes as a disease of sugar metabolism, and we typically monitor glucose levels more closely than insulin, controlling insulin and insulin resistance is one of the main goals of treatment.

In yesterday’s post, Leptin: The Master Fat Switch, I told you how I first heard of leptin and learned that leptin is like a Master Fat Switch that not only regulates fat, but exercises some control over the insulin switch as well. So, I started reading about Leptin and how to control this Master Fat Switch through nutrition and lifestyle. If leptin is new to you, I am glad to report that those of us who are suffering with insulin-resistant obesity may have another chance to reverse our insulin resistance by addressing leptin resistance directly!

From the first book I read, The Rosedale Diet, I learned a new method of meal timing. Specifically, that I should be waiting at least 4-5 hours between meals, and stop snacking — even so called “healthy snacking” — between meals. If you read yesterdays post, you know that I found noticable improvements in symptoms in only one week! I was really impressed.

Next, I wanted to read The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat?, by Byron J. Richards. But my library didn’t have this book, so I googled around a bit to see if Byron Richards had a website where I could learn the basics of his leptin program. His website is called Wellness Resources.

Richards’ program is radically uncomplicated. I love the simplicity of it. He has only 5 rules to follow, and all 5 of them are very straightforward. Everybody can clearly understand them. Furthermore followers of many different types of diets could follow these rules without completely violating their high/low fat/carb consciousness. Even the highest carb adherent could reduce their carb intake without becoming a whole-hog Low Carber, right?

Here are the five rules:
1. Do not eat after dinner
2. Eat three meals a day
3. Do not eat large meals
4. Eat a high protein breakfast
5. Reduce the amount of carbs eaten

As a Low Carber, I pretty much followed rules 4 and 5 already. When I started reading about leptin resistance I was eating 4-6 meals a day, following conventional wisdom that eating frequent small meals causes less drastic increases in blood sugar than eating fewer larger meals. I think I was probably following rule 3 about 80% of the time, but I was definitely not following rules 1 or 2.

Richards has another book, coauthored with his wife, which was first published in 2002 and is now in its third edition: Mastering Leptin: Your Guide to Permanent Weight Loss and Optimum Health (Third Edition) , by Byron J. Richards and Mary Guignon Richards. I haven’t seen this book, but judging by the Amazon blurb and reviews, it was one of the first books written for the public that explained the discovery of leptin and gave a thorough explanation of leptin and its functions and actions.

His newer book, The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat? is about one-third the length of his eariler work, and focuses on the diet he developed to deal with leptin problems.

Either of these books may be profitable for further reading. I have not read either one yet, so I cannot give a personal recommendation, but it seems to me that Byron Richards might be a guy who actually knows. Here is what I recommend: First try the website, and see if that is enough for you. If you want more, consider trying The Leptin Diet book (140 pages). It should have a more detailed explanation of the diet and how it works to improve your leptin activity. For more information or for an in-depth, scientific exploration of leptin and its functions, go for Mastering Leptin (400 pages).

I apologise again for not monitoring my glocuse more consistently. As it is I have to guess a little bit to share my great results with you. After four weeks eating 3 meals a day, my fasting blood glucose was down about 50 points. Instead of typically seeing a number between 250 and 300, I was seeing a number between 200 and 250. That is still too high, but it was moving in the right direction. And it was moving faster than I had seen it move in a couple of years.

I’d say that this leptin diet trial was a huge success! It is even a bigger success if you consider that I celebrated my 47th birthday during this month of experimentation, and indulged in more than one high-end dessert. And still my fasting glucose dropped to a better level than I had seen in at least 2 years. I consider this meal timing thing to be very successful!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Stay tuned… Next, my fasting blood glocose dropped another chunk of 50 points in only one week. Check out my next post to see how I did it.

Lovin’ It Low Carb
Ramona Denton

A topic that has really captured my interest lately is leptin and leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone that was discovered in 1994. If you have never heard of leptin, or don’t really know what it is, you’re in good company. I heard of leptin for the first time just recently, in July (2009).

When I googled leptin, I found a few books and websites that looked like good starting places. Bookwise, I started with The Rosedale Diet, by Ron Rosedale and Carol Colman. That’s the book my library hold returned first, so it is the first one I read.

Dr. Rosedale advocates a lower-fat diet than I do, but the information about leptin was informative. I felt it was a pretty good introduction to leptin. I could not tell from the book, if Dr. Rosedale’s admonitions against overconsumption of fat was just the normal dietary taboo, or if there was actually something specific he knew about saturated fat and coconut oil that should cause me to remove it from my diet in order to restore leptin sensitivity. One final dissappointment for me was when I went back to the internet to check out Dr. Rosedale’s website, and found it to be a disconnect.

As a nonscientist, the first thing to learn about leptin is that leptin, like insulin, is known to act as an adiposity signal. Isn’t that a great 50-cent word? I like it, but I’m going to use the more common version: FAT SWITCH. Leptin is the Master Fat Switch. Circulating leptin levels signal the brain to regulate appetite and metabolism. So: leptin levels turn our Master Fat Switch to STORE or BURN. If leptin levels remain elevated for a long time, your cells can become resistant, similar to the way a Type 2 Diabetic suffers from Insulin Resistance. Furthermore, leptin regulates insulin.

Significant weight loss for the obese is about controlling insulin and leptin. We have known for a long time that insulin senstivity is critical for weight loss. Now we know that leptin sensitivity is critical for improving insulin sensitivity. If you are obese, especially if you have significant abdominal or visceral fat, you are likely dealing with both insulin and leptin resistance. Your body will not give up the fat deposits as long as it cannot get the fat burning message from your leptin and insulin! Turn on the switch; burn off the fat!

Thus, the main goal of a Leptin Diet is to decrease your resistance to leptin, which in turn will turn your body’s Fat Switch from a position that makes you store fat, to a position that makes you burn fat.

The most relevant technique I learned to accomplish this from The Rosedale Diet, is a new rationale for meal timing. Common advice for people with insulin resistance is to eat more frequent, smaller meals to avoid the high blood sugar spikes that can be experienced after large meals, which I had been practicing for the past 3-5 years. I hated that program, for several reasons (which I might address in a future post…), but I kept it up in hopes of controlling my blood sugar, which – to tell the truth – was not cooperating at all!

Dr. Rosedale recommends only 3 meals a day, with no snacking in between. This flies in the face of everything I have heard, read or tried on a diet in the last 20 years! I haven’t heard any admonitions against “healthy snacking” for a long time. However, for the leptin resistant (and the insulin resistant, if I understood correctly), our bodies need 4-5 hours to digest a meal and then adjust hormonal secretions that “reset” our fat switch (your leptin and insulin levels). So, one of the main principles of the Rosedale diet is to allow this 4-5 hours to pass between meals. There is an additional requirement not to eat after dinner, and to try to get a good 10 hours or more between dinner and breakfast.

I rescheduled my meals immediately, and stopped all between-meal snacking. I increased my fat intake to keep my blood sugar stable throughout the increased time between meals. I do not cook or eat alone, so the best I could do was meals at 7 and 11 a.m. and after 5 p.m. I felt really lousy for the first few days, but my indigestion and headaches cleared up in only a few days. I’m not very good at gradual change. I’m a radical, so I just tough out the side effects of the sudden changes. I’m not suggesting this method for you. Numerous experts on change management recommend the opposite, but this works better for me. Usually.

I should probably also mention that Rosedale also addresses exercise as a means to improve leptin sensitivity. Exercise is well known to be one of the most effective means to improve insulin sensitivity. That’s not really where I’m headed with this post, so I’m not going to comment further on that right now. I’ll comment more about exercise after I read a book I just bought: The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution, by Frederick Hahn, Michael R. Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades, M.D.

While I continued my leptin research, I continued to eat my normal Low Carb diet, with plenty of fat, but limiting my meals to 3 per day, spaced as far apart as I could manage, while continuing in fellowship with my usual mealtime companions.

I regret now that I did not monitor my blood sugar more closely. It would have made this story much more exciting to know the actual levels! (sorry about that!!) But I hardly expected this to work so well or so quickly. I can say that my overt symptoms of high blood sugar all improved significantly by the end of the first week of spaced out meals. You know what I mean, right?? I wasn’t as thirsty, and didn’t have to get up as much to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I slept better and felt more rested in the morning. Stuff like that. So, I am certain that my blood sugar had started coming down a little. However, since I pay full price for my test strips, I didn’t want to use enough of them to really monitor my first week on this program.

Just how high was my blood sugar??? It was high. Too high. The last few times I had checked it, it was about 250-300. But I am unwilling to go on the terminal meds unless I absolutely have to, and I do not believe I have to!!

Studying leptin resistance and trying the 3 meal plan got me on the path I’m on now, and it’s really starting to work. Tune in for my next post, Leptin and Meal Timing, to see what happened next!

To be continued …

Lovin’ It Low Carb
Ramona Denton

Learning About Life Through Leptin Research

By Ron Rosedale, MD

“Leptin controls virtually everything. It controls your body temperature, insulin and every other hormone in your body.”

-Ron Rosedale, MD

What is life? Some of the best minds in the world have been mulling over this question for decades and nobody has an answer, Dr. Ron Rosedale said at Friday’s General Session. He went on to say that all we know for sure is that life is “not dead.” What is health? It certainly must be tied to life. If I want you healthy, I certainly want you alive. If you’re dead you’re not healthy. We know that. On that subject, what is death? If you examine the composition of the body before death and after, it is very similar. The cells of the body can be kept alive for a remarkably long time independent of the body. What dies is not the parts but the interaction of the parts.

Because there are not clear cut definitions for what sustains health, we make them up. Directions on how to be healthy are sometimes given, but no defined destination. You can give direction all you want and it will take you somewhere and if that somewhere is what you define as health then you are satisfied. For instance, there is no such thing as good and bad cholesterol. The body requires cholesterol to live. Yet we say that reducing cholesterol is a good thing.

A drug was developed that was proven to reduce cholesterol, yet it increased mortality and incidence of cancer. They finally had to stop testing the drug because too many people were dying. In fact, more people were killed than helped during testing. That drug is still on the market. Why? Because it effectively lowered cholesterol. So you died with lower cholesterol.

Another test showed that a drug dramatically reduced blood sugar in diabetics. But they had to stop the study because so many people in the treatment group were dying.  Yet we supposedly know lowering blood sugar is a good thing, so what is going on here? They’re not recognizing what a disease is. They don’t know what to treat.

If I’m lying there dead you can measure all of my parts. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorous, oxygen, and you’d find they’re virtually identical to life. Cells can live independent of the body and be kept alive for an indefinite period. Virtually every cancer institute in the world has cultures of Henrietta Lacks’ cells. Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951. A section of her tumor was placed into a petri dish, bathed in nutrients. The cells multiplied at a rate unlike anything witnessed outside the human body. It was a breakthrough in cell research. Researchers studied the cells of Henrietta Lacks to determine what dies in the event of a heart attack. Few cells die. What dies are not the parts but the interaction of the parts working as a collective republic. Each of us is a republic of cells, a society that works in harmony and remains healthy through effective communication between the cells. All disease, without exception, is due to failure in cells to communicate effectively.

People regularly get their cholesterol levels checked but how many have had their leptin levels tested? No life can exist without cholesterol, and leptin tells all the other cells what to do. Leptin is perhaps one of the most important structural agents we have in the body. You cannot have life without cholesterol. The chances of cholesterol causing heart disease are absolutely nil. Our liver creates cholesterol to keep us alive, not to kill us. There is no such thing as good and bad cholesterol, it’s just cholesterol.

You have to look at disease in a different way. Disease is never going to be due to the heart. If cholesterol doesn’t  know where to go it goes to the wrong place. Diabetes is not a disease of blood sugar, not at all. At the very least, you can say it is a disease of insulin communication. Either the signal is too much or too little, so your sugars go up. Even that is a kindergarten way of looking at it. We know that, just like leptin, insulin is controlled by other hormones.

We can learn a lot by knowing nature’s purpose for us. What does nature want from us? There are two biological imperatives that need to take place for life to take place. To eat and to reproduce. Nature wants the instructions to pass on from one generation to the next. Nature wants to keep us around long enough to accomplish those goals. That’s why the information has to survive. We have a complex system of turning genes on and off. Hormones work by telling the genes what to do. If genetic expression determines health, we have to determine which ones to turn on and which to turn off. Turn off the genes that give you disease and turn on the ones that protect you. That’s what nutrient sensors are all about, that’s what insulin and leptin are about. If you control leptin you control everything else.

Many labs are now measuring levels of leptin but most doctors don’t know what it is. Leptin is a hormone made by fat. People become diabetic the same way they become obese, through hormone resistance. People with type-2 diabetes, and 95 percent of all diabetics are this type, have too much insulin, but it’s not able to work because the cells have stopped listening. They are overexposed and start behaving as if insulin is too low and become diabetic. The same thing happens in leptin resistance. The cells that have to listen to leptin are really critical. Even though most cells have to listen there is a critical area of your brain, the hypothalamus that controls everything else. We now know that leptin, which is produced by fat, controls your hypothalamus.

A person may wonder why he gets fat in his forties when he eats the same thing he ate in his twenties, when he was skinny. Then the lines of communication were open but lines slowly close like an old telephone wire and we become leptin and insulin resistant. As the line of communication from your fat to your brain becomes corrupted, you start getting fat. The message doesn’t get to your brain, you start becoming leptin resistant and start making more leptin. The hypothalamus hears low leptin even though your fat is saying high leptin. The hypothalamus tells you to eat more, be hungry, make more fat and don’t burn the fat you’ve got, so you get even fatter. If the brain doesn’t hear the message you will not be able to burn fat and if you don’t burn fat the only other fuel you can burn is sugar. But you don’t store that much sugar and don’t have a lot to spare. You start craving sugar and carbohydrates.

When you get fat you put it in all the wrong places. If I had to condense everything I know about health into one sentence, it is this: Your health and your life span will be determined by the amount of fat and sugar you burn over a lifetime. If you burn fat you will be healthy unless you get run over by a truck. If you burn sugar you’re not going to be healthy. When you’re burning sugar your leptin and insulin levels are high. When burning fat, leptin and insulin stay low and you increase maintenance repair and tone down cellular reproduction. Why is that good? When you’re constantly revving up cellular reproduction what does that lead to? Cancer. That’s not hypothetical. We know that’s the case. Almost all cancers are associated with high levels of insulin and or leptin. When you keep those levels low, your risk of cancer goes way down—tenfold.

Leptin controls virtually everything. It controls your body temperature, insulin and every other hormone in your body. It controls not just whether you are fat but where you gain weight. Belly fat chokes off your liver so it can’t produce insulin, and therefore produces too much sugar. It chokes off your pancreas; it chokes off your heart. Belly fat is really bad. We know now that visceral fat and belly fat is controlled also by leptin. That’s extremely important.

Life is not in the parts. It is only in the instructions and communications between the parts. We’re all made of the same parts. Your heart cells and liver cells and kidney cells all have the same genetics. There is not a single difference in the genes. Genetic expression is affected by your hormones. If you change leptin and insulin, you will change five to ten thousand genes out of the 16,000 to 18,000 we’ve got. That’s huge. You change who you are, how you think, how you behave, how healthy you are by changing leptin. You change leptin by changing what you eat. Your fat controls your brain by way of leptin and then your brain controls everything else. That’s an important thing to know.

“Your health and your life span will be determined by the amount of fat and sugar you burn over a lifetime.”

-Ron Rosedale, MD

Regulate your LEPTIN Leveles with MAX WLX!

http://angela.mymaxsystem.com/products_wlx.php

 By Marie Dufour, RD – How do we store fat, and why do we store fat in abnormal ways? This is what scientists in Liverpool intend to explain.  They found that, when obesity is present, two hormones are increased:

- the appetite regulator Leptin, trying to limit fat storage; and

- the blood sugar regulator Insulin, in response to high demands for glucose metabolism.

While leptin and insulin work hard to deal with metabolic demands, they trigger an increase in SPARC protein.  This SPARC protein is responsible for a scarring of the fat tissue cells and prevents normal fat storage.  The excess fat can no longer be stored inside the cells, remains in the blood, and starts accumulating around organs.  In other words, Leptin says “Man, stop eating, and You, Fat, go somewhere else,” and SPARC says, “No, Fat, can’t park here!”

In their research about the effects of fast food, a Swedish group found that weight gain from excessive caloric intake (double the needs) caused a 33% increase in SPARC.  The good news is that they also found that a reduced calorie diet can decrease SPARC level and fat tissue scarring. 

What does it mean for us?  While this discovery is quite recent, we need to consider it seriously.  While the body can deal with occasional overweight, it responds in drastic ways to constant and habitual obesity.  It is one more reason why we need to avoid progressing from overweight to obesity and pre-diabetic condition.

ScienceDaily (2009-08-16) — http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090813142349.htm

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 7 (UPI) –

The weight-loss effect of leptin, a hormone produced by fat tissue, has been linked to higher levels of the brain chemical dopamine, U.S. researchers said.

The animal studies, published in Cell Metabolism, found neurons with receptors for the hormone leptin exist in many parts of the brain — not just the area controlling satiety.

Martin Myers Jr. of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor says rat studies suggest that in addition to the area controlling the feeling of fullness after eating, leptin also affects other brain sites of action for drugs of abuse — as well as for control of motivation for food or sex.

While higher dopamine release tends to be associated with wanting things — food or something else — he suspects in this case higher dopamine at baseline may work to dampen the response to food temptations, making food easier to resist.

Some people may over-eat rewarding food because of a perceived ‘reward deficit,’ …

See the full post at Brain circuitry linked to obesity