I’ve had a few messages telling me how negative one of my previous posts sounded.
I have no issue acknowledging that I did see some improvement in certain areas like sleep and concentration but was that down to the Leptin Reset or simply that I was no longer overtraining and I was taking in plenty of calories? Continue reading
It’s not quite 8 weeks but curiosity got the better of me so I did another DXA scan which seems an appropriate time for a quick review. Continue reading
An essential part of the Leptin Rx is the BAB (Big Ass Breakfast). After months of intermittent fasting on Leangains, I must admit that I struggled for the first few days eating 50g–70g of protein as soon as I woke up.
Dual-emission X-ray absorptiometry or DXA to his friends is a medical device used to measure bone density. It’s main use is to diagnose and assess osteoporosis. What interested me was that it can also be used to measure total body composition including fat content.
There seems to be some debate about it’s accuracy in calculating fat mass. I don’t have access to hydrostatic weighing, callipers are too fiddly and the consumer
scales and handheld devices are far from accurate. So I’m very happy to rely on the DXA.
The scan took a total of 12 minutes and the machine doesn’t make any horrific noises and despite my feet being strapped together I found it fairly easy to relax but perhaps that says something about me?
In my last diet post I went through what leptin is, how it works and the effect it has on body composition. My reading and experimentation have now brought me to leptin resistance and how to restore leptin sensitivity. Very simply, leptin resistance is when the hormone isn’t working properly, causing the leptin receptors in the hypothalamus to down regulate or when something is blocking it from reaching the receptors.
There is a lot of information on Leptin written for a scientific or medical background but I wanted to find articles and posts from credible
sources that I could get through without making my head spin but at the same time not so dumbed down that other potentially important and interesting threads were lost.
What is Leptin?
Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells that maintains the energy balance in the body, regulates hunger by acting on receptors in the brain, specifically the hypothalamus, where it counteracts the effects of feeding stimulants from the gut and the brain and produces an appetite suppressant. I have seen it described as the King of hormones because of its effects on metabolism, the immune system, reproduction and bone mass. Now for some unexplained reason, whenever I think of Leptin I see Yul Brynner in my head. Funny how the mind works…
I still don’t get it
Essentially, Leptin tells the brain that the body has had enough to eat and has adequate stores of fat. So at this level it’s a fairly simple process to understand. You eat, Leptin levels go up and you feel full so you stop eating. If you’re overweight or obese then you will generally have higher leptin levels, if you’re leaner then your levels will be lower.
