How to Reduce Your Appetite With Leptin

Leptin has been called the "I'm full" hormone. When working correctly, leptin sends a message to your hypothalamus signaling your brain that you are full, and it is time to stop eating. This hormone does not work effectively in an obese body. The more fat in your body, the more leptin resists doing its job of suppressing your appetite.

There are actually two hunger hormones: leptin and gherlin. Leptin is the most important of the two hormones; researchers think that leptin regulates ghrelin.

Instructions

Improve Your Leptin Resistance

1

Get more sleep. Sleep is essential to weight loss. Seven hours is required for most people, and eight hours is mandatory for weight loss. Stanford scientists found that those who had five hours or fewer of sleep a night had leptin levels 15 percent lower than those who slept eight hours a night. The less leptin, the greater the appetite. This can result in weight gain.

2

Eat more often. Scott Isaacs, in "Hormonal Balance: Understanding Hormones, Weight, and Your Metabolism," recommends that you eat to balance your hormones and lose weight. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and should never be skipped. Eat three regular meals and one snack between. A 15g carbohydrate snack at bedtime fuels metabolism for the night. Eating smaller portions more often will level your blood sugar.

3

Eat unlimited amounts of most fruits, vegetables and egg whites. You should eat until you are full, and keep yourself full using these foods. Bananas and grapes should be limited, but all of the others are filling foods that will trigger your leptin hormone to work properly through appetite suppression.

4

Limit your consumption of starches, protein, milk and fats. Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Carbohydrates in fruit and vegetables are the good carbohydrates. Other carbohydrates, like starches, cause your blood sugar to soar and disrupt your hormonal balance. Limit starches, protein, milk and fat each day. These foods are not bad for you, but people tend to eat too much of them, which throws their hormones out of balance and makes leptin ineffective as an appetite suppressant.

5

Exercise as if your life depends upon it, because it does. Find ways to add activity to your normal routine. Vacuum an extra area, take the farthest parking spot, take the stairs and wash your own car to add precious minutes of activity to your day. Find an activity you love or buy an mp3 player and catch up on your reading by listening to a book while you exercise. Find creative ways to get in a few extra minutes of activity every day. Exercise is known to suppress appetite.

6

Keep a food and exercise diary. Keeping a food diary will help you see your patterns of behavior and food choices you make each day. Record how you handle stress and food. Observe if exercise helps you lower your stress levels and eat less.