Leptin:
The Best Weightloss Breakthrough Yet

Leptin is a hormone secreted by our fat cells. It was only discovered by researchers in the mid-90s, and they’ve only learned about its true role in the past 6-7 years…and they’re continuing to learn about it.

But what’s known about it now is that it’s the “king of hormones" because it's been found to have more importance than any other hormone in our body. It has a key impact on virtually everything that happens in your body.

When it—and how your body responds to its levels—is out of whack, there are huge negative effects on major body functions.

Those include:

...and last, but not least, your weight.

The whole diet is wrapped around “Five Rules”, which involve when to eat, and when not to eat. The biggest things that I took from the five rules are similar to what our mothers told us when we were kids…don’t snack between meals, and the kitchen is closed after dinner. There are, of course, finer points, but those were the biggest changes for me.

If you want to learn more about the Five Rules, click here.

I haven’t changed what I eat…I still watch my carbs (which is part of this diet), but I am by no means following a low-carb diet. I typically have bread, pasta, or potatoes with 2 of my 3 meals…just in portion sizes that don’t exceed my protein portion. And I still get my dessert in…I just make sure I eat it right after the meal (remember, no snacking) to keep my levels of the fat hormone in balance.

Those who know me know that I’m a huge stevia fan. I used to drink herbal or green tea (or sometimes decaf coffee) between meals, sweetened with stevia. But even non-caloric sweeteners (including natural ones like stevia) alter the balance of the fat hormone—the brain thinks it’s eating something sweet, so it sets biochemicals in motion that disrupt leptin balance. So drinking unsweetened tea is a change for me. But it’s ok. I don’t feel deprived. And when I do have my dessert (remember…only immediately after the meal), it’s a stevia-sweetened or very-low-sugar dessert.

So, with this way of eating, as with any goal-focused dietary plan, you need to be smart about what you’re putting into your body. But now we have a breakthrough in how we feed ourselves to let our body achieve a healthy weight.

I wish I had known about leptin back in 2006, when I started this site, as I would have made the entire site about how to manage this "fat hormone"—that’s how impressed I am with the science, as well as the results I’m seeing already.

If you’re into learning lots more about the fat hormone and why it’s so important to get it in balance, I highly recommend the book Mastering Leptin. This author also published The Leptin Diet, which looks like a briefer, to-the-point version with less of the scientific background.

Here's more info about how this hormone affects weight loss.

The author's (Richards) website is also a great resource. There are videos that explain the basics, as well as more details on the “Five Rules”, plus lots of supplements to help make your progress faster and easier. (And the supplements have VERY high quality ingredients…plus, they’re offering a 25% off sale right now. They have a starter pak that’s a great value.)

I’ll keep reporting on my progress with this new way of eating.

Return to the Home Page from The Fat Hormone.