Fat Burning Hormone: Leptin & Cheat Meal Science: Thomas DeLauer

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How Does it Work?

Fat Burning Hormone: Leptin & Cheat Meal Science: Thomas DeLauer

Leptin is actually a hormone – meaning that once it is released it will travel to another area of your body to make things happen

Once leptin is released from your fat it enters your blood and travels up to your brain, delivering a message as to how much fat (fuel) you have on hand

*The hypothalamus in the brain is what controls leptin. The hypothalamus is comprised of an elaborate system of leptin receptors*

When your brain answers the leptin, it tells you how fast you can run your metabolism based on how much gas is in your gas tank

Your brain has no way to see how much stored fat you have on hand, it relies on the leptin to determine your state of overall nutrition and fuel reserves

If the leptin signals that it’s low, it means eat more. When you’ve eaten enough, leptin levels rise, and the leptin in your brain now says you’re full – resulting in a full signal

Simply put, it lets your brain know how much fat is in your body. As leptin levels rise, your appetite diminishes. As leptin levels fall, your appetite increases (1)


Leptin and Metabolism

Once you do get a leptin-related full signal then permission is given for your body’s metabolism to get in gear and go

When leptin levels are adequate your metabolism begins to run faster

When leptin levels are too low your brain thinks there is a famine and your metabolic rate is set to hibernation mode – metabolism slows down

Simply put, it regulates the rate of fat breakdown. As leptin levels rise, your metabolic rate increases. As leptin levels fall, your metabolism slows (1,2)

Leptin Resistance

The body doesn’t always listen to the leptin message and leptin resistance occurs

The leptin signal isn’t being heard, so it cannot stimulate your metabolism or suppress your appetite

Because fat cells produce leptin in proportion to their size, obese people have very high levels of leptin

Given the way leptin is supposed to work, these people’s brains should realize they have a sufficient amount of fat

The problem is that the leptin signal isn’t working. There’s excess leptin floating around that the brain doesn’t see

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

Causes the brain to think that we need to eat more and conserve energy – makes us
overeat and feel lazy (2,3)

Physical activity and enough sleep may help to reverse leptin resistance

Having high blood triglycerides can prevent the transport of leptin from blood and into the brain - the best way to lower triglycerides is to reduce carbohydrate intake

Bottom line: what we consider necessary for good health and weight loss is what’s necessary to keep leptin levels in check

A re-feed day is a day where you increase your calories up to maintenance calories or slightly above by increasing your carbohydrate intake

The purpose of a re-feed day is to help boost your metabolism and help restore your Leptin levels - way of telling your body that you aren’t starving, and that there’s food available

Leptin is highly responsive to glucose metabolism

So when doing a re-feed, you will benefit much more if the majority of your additional calories are coming from good sources of carbohydrates that will turn into glucose (potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, oats and grains)

When done this way, leptin levels will show a significant rise over if you had eaten a surplus of calories coming from more protein, fat, or fructose

More simply, by having a re-feed day you will spike your leptin levels back up and kick start your metabolism to burn more fat – 1 step back, 2 steps forward (4)

References

[ed]

Show us a video of the meals you would eat on a re-feed or cheat meal day that's best for increasing leptin. Like if you agree

[DestinyOfficial]

I love how detailed you are about every topic. You are so well spoken and informative. Love it

[DaniG._.German]

My college wellness teacher taught us this. Thank for the review DeLauer.

[chsica]

Would love to see a video or series of videos showing what a day in the life, a week in the life and a month in the life (or long-term) would be for an average man or woman on keto 1. just starting keto, 2. a long-term keto lifestyle and 3. a keto athlete or at least a person living a highly active keto lifestyle such as your self. It would be very helpful to see them organized into beginner, intermediate and advanced so we don't jump into too deep or get overwhelmed trying to implement all of your great advice all at once. Love the videos regardless and very grateful for you taking the time to share without overtly selling. Maybe a course?

[ms.lavoie]

Love this one! Maybe show a perfect cheat meal for female vs. Male, how many macros are we aiming for on keto or traditional dieting?

[yogeorgia]

Hi Thomas, how does this work with intermittent fasting and keto? 🙏🏼

[sophias_safespace]

Hey Thomas, I just saw this video and it is amazing! Did you already do a video about meals you would eat on a refeed day? Couldn't find any! Thank you for helping! Your impact is huge!

[rachelmckitterick]

Yes!!! Porridge is my absolute favourite food so knowing this would be a good choice for the referees (high carb/low sugar) is the best! Thank you.

[JohnChatman]

Thomas, if you could develop a series of videos with you going through the process of developing different cheat meals that would be great. Thanks for the stellar content.

[LovingAtlanta]

👍These fat burning and hormone info video are super helpful. I'm amazed at how you properly pronounce all of those big mouthful words 😃. I love how you explain things and make it easy to understand. I know hear videos are hard work and I truly appreciate what you do! Thank you. 🤗💞🤗

[mzkids]

I just subscribed I enjoy your advice and ho wyou impart the understanding behind it . The swirl of information at times leaves me comfuse dor unsure how to proceed. If we had some sort of schedule of workouts meals for a weel or month it would be most helpful . Kudos on your work and much thanks

[brandonbest]

Thomas is definitely my favorite youtuber! Such a smart dude, saving lives one video at a time ! He needs to be more discovered

[ribosomeswitch]

Great video...I'm a huge advocate of a refeed day while implementing a targeted Keto diet. I will usually be on 2 to 3 days of 50 grams of carbs or lower preceding...which are strictly fasted cardio days. This refeed day will also start with faster cardio, I then set my calories to maintenance and almost completely eliminate my fats and replace those calories with starches from rice and sweet potatoes combined with very lean proteins. No weights on this day which allows glycogen to replenish. The following day's pump is amazing.

[virgiliaclarkson]

Hi. This may seem like a strange video topic, but here goes. I'm a 20 year old woman, my biggest weight loss struggle is around my midsection which is often a common issue for women. However I've been sick for many years amd have never been able to get my body and health where i want it to be, but after being on keto for almost a month i have seen some improvement in my health which is great. So i guess what I'm suggesting is a video based on how keto can help reduce hormonal problem areas in young women while improving health and how best to achieve those goals. Thank you! I really enjoy your videos, and how informative they are. 🖒

[deedee]

I feel like this video was heaven sent!!! I have been at a plateau for 3 weeks and begging for answers! I saw something about Leptin and just knew you’d have a video about this. I intermittent fast and eat low carb when I do eat twice a day. Been killing workouts, and working out a lot. Eating clean, no cheating at all in a couple of months, and absolutely nothing!!! All of a sudden and out of nowhere everything just stopped. Gonna carb load today then I guess. Complex carbs tho and keep the fat low. I really hope this is the answer to my fitness prayers! Thanks so much

[MONOBLACKMAGIC]

I really liked the video. Here are some suggestions for future videos (that you mentioned at the end of your video):

1. How much do i need to work out if i only want to maintain and not build muscle.
2. What would you need to eat in one day to get 100% of every recommended daily intake and still not brake your maintenance calories. Is it possible without supplements?
3. What is the ideal length of a fast (16 hours? 24 hours?) for spiking your growth hormone
4. Is the recovery time different on different muscles groups?
5. Which are the most healing foods: dna repair, anti-inflamation etc?
6. What can speed up the recovery time of muscle repair except for sleep?

Thank you so much for sharing!

[ShatteredEquilibrium]

Dear Thomas, I know it might not be necessarily within your realm expertise, but could you potentially do a video on food- and lifestyle-based treatments for depression? Despite taking SSRI's, exercising on a daily basis, healthy eating, meditation and sun exposure, I've been stuck in more or less the same place for the last 10 years (am 31, was diagnosed at 21, but my depression started much earlier). Since depression is so devastatingly prevalent these days, I'm certain even some of your health-conscious viewers struggle with it. That would be greatly appreciated.

[Jimmy-Chin]

Please make a video on the best workouts for muscle maintenance or gains while buring fat in ketosis!

[beckyshealthandwellnessjou]

All of your videos are great I like to hear about budget friendly healthy meals keep up the great work

[billyhunter]

Tom, make a workout video / series. I am all about overall health and wellness, i just want to be healthy with as much muscle as possible!! I find it is hard to gain strength and muscle size while going keto. So I add carbs here and there on my heavy lifting days. Please touch on this also!