3. Scientists are increasingly pointing their fingers at a hormone called leptin.

People who are obese have a lot of body fat in their fat cells. Because fat cells produce leptin in proportion to their size, obese people also have very high levels of leptin. Given the way leptin is supposed to work, these people shouldn’t be eating… their brain should know that they have plenty of energy stored.

However… the problem is that the leptin signal isn’t working. There’s a whole ton of leptin floating around, but the brain doesn’t “see” that it is there.

This condition is known as leptin resistance. It is now believed to be the main biological abnormality in human obesity.

When the brain doesn’t receive the leptin signal, it erroneously thinks that the body is starving, even though it has more than enough energy stored.

• Eating More: The brain thinks that we MUST eat so that we don’t starve to death.
• Reduced Energy Expenditure: The brain thinks we need to conserve energy, so it makes us feel lazier and makes us burn fewer calories at rest.

In this way… eating more and exercising less is not the cause of weight gain, it is the consequence of leptin resistance, a hormonal defect.

For the great majority of people, trying to exert willpower over the leptin-driven starvation signal is next to impossible.

Losing weight reduces leptin, so the brain tries to regain the lost weight. The reduced leptin makes the brain think it is starving… so it initiates all sorts of powerful mechanisms to regain that lost body fat, erroneously thinking that it is protecting us from starvation.

This is the main reason so many people “yo-yo” diet… they lose a significant amount of weight, only to gain it back (and then some).

Leptin resistance can be caused by inflammation, and by high leptin levels themselves.
A key to reversing leptin resistance, is reducing diet-induced inflammation.

There are several things we can do:

• Avoid processed food: Highly processed foods may compromise the integrity of the gut and drive inflammation..
• Eat Soluble Fiber: Eating soluble fiber can help improve gut health and may protect against obesity.
• Exercise: Physical activity may help to reverse leptin resistance.
• Sleep: Poor sleep has been implicated in problems with leptin.
• Lower  triglycerides: The best way to lower triglycerides is to reduce carbohydrate intake.
• Eat Protein: Eating plenty of protein can cause  weight loss. There are many reasons for this, one of them may be an improvement in leptin sensitivity.
• AVOID SUGAR. Every time you want to add it into your drinks or buy packaged products (remember that most products, even if they taste salty, they still contain amounts of sugar), think – would you add heroin into your coffee or would you give it to your child or loved ones? Changing the way you see sugar and realizing the disastrous effects will help you in eliminating sugar from your meals.
• No more soda and other sweetened drinks
  Try to replace any type of bottled soda or juice with water. Soft drinks can cause untold damage. Replacing juices with water will help you stay hydrated, you will feel much more relaxed, your sleep will be more peaceful and your brain will also send you signals of good disposition. Don’t fool yourself with diet sodas… Even though they are advertised as no calories and no sugar,  they are synthetic products made in a lab, loaded with chemicals.
• Avoid packaged food.
• Stop being fooled by “healthy” foods.
  ‘Fat-free’, ‘sugar-free’ – are all poor choices. They usually contain sugar, artificial sweeteners or a ton of chemical additives to make them palatable.